While at first Saeed complied, studying science and business at two other universities, she did not find her true calling there. “I thought, ‘I know what I know, and I’m going to prove him wrong,’ and I did,” she says.
It was her mother who gave her the impetus to alter her path and permission to follow her dream. “My mom is my unsung hero,” she says. “She was the one who said to me, ‘Do what you want to do.’” Saeed finally transferred to the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, which became Philadelphia University the year that she graduated. Having already completed a number of business courses, she majored in fashion merchandising at the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce.
Following graduation, Saeed joined the fashion world in New York City, where she was able to utilize all the facets and skill sets of her degree while furthering her business and design skills. “I was a buyer, product developer, and merchandiser,” she says. “In my last full-time role, I was the vice president of global licensing for golfer Greg Norman. It was an amazing opportunity.”
After 15 years, when travel became difficult with three small children at home, Saeed and her family moved back to New Jersey. “I pivoted to what I always wanted to do and was meant to do, interior design,” she shares. “All of these skills and experiences led me here, and my degree is a big part of that.”
“My mom was always redecorating,” she shares. “She was a meticulous, particular person. I don’t think you can be an interior designer unless you grow up around somebody like that. And I loved helping my dad with DIY projects. He influenced my love of midcentury modern design and architecture. He took me to the Gateway Arch when I was six years old, and to his mod, midcentury retro office building. I remember it all with such fondness.”
Saeed loved math and art from an early age. “I always had the idea of spatial recognition in my mind and a design eye,” she says. “I graduated from high school and told my dad, ‘I want to put a portfolio together and try to get a degree in interior design.’ He laughed and said, ‘That’s not a job, that’s a hobby. You have to do something else.’”
