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40 F ort Worth native Sterling McDavid has made good use of her 29 years. She was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs; worked as an interior architect with the Paris firm Projectiles; formed a successful real estate development firm; founded a charitable luxury candle company, The Starling Project, which provides solar energy to hospitals and neonatal centers in communities in need; was awarded the President's Volunteer Service Award by President Barack Obama; served on the board of directors of UNICEF; and, most recently, partnered to launch a fashion line, Burnett New York. "It was an experimental path, to say the least," McDavid says. "But I ended up right where I needed to be." While she never envisioned herself a professional designer, McDavid grew up accompanying her chic mother to fashion week and was entranced by the industry's artistry. When she and her husband, Carey Dorman, got engaged in 2015, McDavid and her mother set out on a tour across Paris and New York, visiting all the top fashion houses in search of the perfect designer to make her dream wedding dress. Much to McDavid's surprise, after more than 20 appointments, she still hadn't found a designer who could fulfill her vision. Then, she made one last visit — to American fashion house Dennis Basso, where she met with its creative director, Emily Burnett. "I left that day shocked. This was the incredible experience I had been looking for," says McDavid, who was blown away by Burnett's talent. She asked the designer how it was possible that she didn't have a label of her own. "She told me it was her dream, but that she really didn't know how to start her own business. I said, 'Well, I do. Call me after the wedding.'" McDavid had no expectations about what would become of her spontaneous offer to Burnett. "I'm opportunistic in that I have open arms to any opportunity that comes my way," she says. "A lot of people aren't like that." A new business venture wasn't far away. Just weeks after her 2017 wedding, McDavid and Burnett had worked out a business plan and were preparing pitches to investors. By June 2018, they had verbal commitments for all the funding they needed to launch, primarily from female investors. "As two female founders of a womenswear brand, we think it's a shame the industry is still so male-dominated on the investment side as well as the creative side," McDavid says. Enter Burnett New York. The collection that seeks to define power dressing for the modern woman debuted its first collection with a by- appointment presentation at New York Fashion Week last September. Net-a- Porter quickly signed on as the brand's first online retailer, with others soon to follow. Next comes Burnett New York's debut runway show, slated for this month during New York Fashion Week. For McDavid and Burnett, whose atelier is in New York, it's been a whirlwind that has them pinching themselves. "It's been like fulfilling a dream I didn't even know I had," says McDavid, who for the first time has found what she really wants to be doing. Most of all, she hopes her circuitous path inspires others. "I still have all three of my businesses, and all three have been successful so far," she says. "I hope I'm here to let other women know they can do anything they really want to do." GEN NEXT: STERLING McDAVID GEN NEXT BY LISA COLLINS SHADDOCK. PHOTOGRAPHY SHANNEL RESTO. Emily Burnett and Sterling McDavid at the launch of Burnett New York, 2017