At the age of 9, LaLa designer Teri Slaven asked her mother to teach her how to knit—and it's been a passion ever since.

Growing up in the heart of Manhattan, couture was her backyard.

Always adept at color and style, Teri had a retail yarn shop for several years where clients from all over the east coast came to have her style their sweaters, coats and scarves.

In Jan. 2004, she launched LaLa, and it's taken off like wildfire. The name LaLa came about because as a youngster, her son Erik couldn't pronounce his sister Samantha's name—it came out "LaLa".

In its first year of business, LaLa has been seen wrapped around celebrities Amy Smart, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Tilly and Mena Suvari at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and in "Cosmopolitan Style", "Us Weekly", "Zink" and "Lucire" magazines.