Rarely in life does a person's talent and passion find each other at a very early age. For those that do, we call them prodigies, the gifted or even the chosen.

Perhaps it was the fact that Mona Thalheimer has always lived in a visual world that helped her to develop a unique visual sense and talent for design and fashion. Profoundly deaf since 9 months, it was clear form Mona's first design of an apron at the age of 4 that she possessed a tremendous flair for fashion, fabric and color.

Recognizing this, Mona's parents Max and Leisel Thalheimer, stressed and nurtured her studies in the visual arts in the early years. Max and Leisel's clothing label business brought Mona in touch with the leading Los Angeles based designers who would later influence her- James Galonas and Rudi Gernreich.

As a young teen she was introduced to the legendary designer Rudi Gernreich. Mona's wonderfully infectious personality quickly brought Rudi into her camp of admirers. The world-renowned designer saw in her a unique sense of style and a mentor friendship quickly developed which would later prove to be invaluable to her development as a designer.

When it came time for her senior prom at Fairfax High, Rudi and Mona simply designed a dress together from scratch. It is fair to say that it was not a contest that year when she captured Best Dressed at the prom.

Through that relationship, her training in the visual arts, Mona was already well poised for a career in fashion upon her graduation from high school. Recognizing this, the highly competitive Chounaird Art College, CAL ARTS, accepted her for admission.

Upon graduation from Chounaird in 1971 with honors, Mona received employment offers from Givenchy in Paris, Valentino in Rome and the House of Brown in London.
Suddenly, little more than a week after her graduation, her father died. Mona having a firm loyalty and belief in family chose to stay in Los Angeles.

Mona went to work as a designer for Fred Rothschild, Inc. Her designs elicited so much attention from media and buyers alike that she was quickly recruited by Lanz Original as their Sportswear Dress Designer.

In 1981, Abrizzi, Inc, a new company, hired Mona and in their first three months, they achieved a four million-dollar volume. Recognizing Mona's talents, she soon became a partner in this new venture. Mona's responsibilities included design, marketing, fabric selection and merchandising a line of better Missy Dresses.

In 1987, Mona decided to open her own business, called Mona & Co. It was here that her creative talents truly blossomed. Drawing upon classic, European and especially Italian influences, Mona preserved and characterized the originality of her creations by the elegant shapes, fabrics and detailing which soon became the Mona trademark.

National recognition quickly followed from the fashion editors of Mademoiselle, Vogue, Women's Wear Daily, Harper's Bazaar, The New York and Los Angeles Times. The California Apparel News praised her for " originality in contemporary designs" and stated that" you can look to Mona to consistently provide you with original ideas". The Mona logo was soon found in Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom's, Fred Segal's, and Sak's Fifth Ave.