Sterlacci was born in Hoboken, and raised in and Union City. When she was ten, she used scraps from her mother's sewing machine and prepared Barbie doll costumes. Her mother did not allow her to use sewing machine, so she had to hand stitch the dresses that helped her improve her hand stitching skills. She kept some of these dresses while some were sold to neighbourhood friends. While studying at the Emerson High School in Union City, she collaborated with a friend on making mini and maxi skirts and selling them to boutiques in New York. After completing her high school, she joined Fashion Institute of Technology and received Associate of Applied Science degree in fashion design. Upon graduating, she joined Jersey City State College for a bachelor's degree in art.
Career
Sterlacci started her career in the late 70s with a job in a body suit company. Later, she joined a junior sportswear firm, Sunday's Workclothes. In this position she had to travel a lot to countries like India, Hong Kong, Italy, France and Taiwan. Later on she became a head merchandiser at Time and Place where she managed five divisions. Besides working a day job, Sterlacci was also working on developing her own label. She founded Francesca Sterlacci Ltd. in 1980 and the first collection consisted of 15 sportswear pieces. Her designs were greatly influenced by her travel while at Sunday's Workclothes. By 1981, she added leather to her collection. The top-selling clothes in her line were the leathers and the suedes. In 1981, after receiving feedback on her designs, she quit her day job and started working on her label full-time. Sterlacci started her business using savings and a few loans and did not have financial backers or factors. In 1983, she added a group of woven and knit sportswear to the line. After leaving her job, she opened her own showroom. Sterlacci kept producing clothes under her label until 1989. In 1990, Sterlacci opened a freelance design service called Design Instinct, designing clothes for other designers. In 1990, she started teaching at Fashion Institute of Technology and in 2001, she became the Chair of FIT's Fashion Design Department. She held that position until 2004, when she moved to San Francisco and started teaching at the Academy of Art University where she taught until 2010.
University of Fashion
Sterlacci launched University of Fashion, an online library of fashion design videos, in 2013. Sterlacci felt that fashion design was declining in the US due to companies manufacturing off-shore, and she wanted to promote fashion design education. She got the idea of launching University of Fashion while teaching at Fashion Institute of Technology and the Academy of Art University and felt that students "didn’t want to rely on books; they wanted videos."
During the 80s, her designs were featured in magazines such as Vogue, Elle and Glamour and her work has appeared on the covers of Women's Wear Daily and Harpers Bazaar, as well as in The New York Times and The Record. In 1982, Women's Wear Daily wrote about her leather collection that "in a year when leather clothing of all kinds and qualities is flooding the market, Francesca Sterlacci's Maderia-work leathers for Penthouse G stand out for the quality of their execution and the success with which they translate traditional techniques to modern sensibilities." In 1986, Women's Wear Daily called her a "shoestring entrepreneur" referring to the fact that she worked without financial backers or factors. She was featured in Chicago Voice in August 1988 that wrote about her "a young fashion designer who is fast becoming a fashion leader is Francesca Sterlacci. Her trendsetting spring collection is designed for now with one foot in the future."
