Photo: Kathy Wilson

Fashion, believe it or not, was Kathy Wilson’s Plan B. At the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps sent her husband, Erik, to a military base in Japan.  Wilson was relieved he wasn’t going to the heart of the war and the two moved onto the American Army base. At 33, she had a degree in fashion and had worked for the Australian designer Richard Tyler, but was afraid of losing her skills—and possibly her husband— while on the base, so she started to plant the seeds for what would become Kathy Wilson Atelier, the business Joe Zee tackles on tonight’s episode of All On the Line. “You never know what’s going to happen, what if I came back and there’s nothing for me?” she now says, with her soft-spoken husband (and business partner) safely by her side in New York City.

Inspired by their time on the last samurai island in Japan, Kathy designs pieces for both men and women that focus on ornate silk linings. The outsides are basic and the insides, she says, “are like butter.” While on the base, she made evening dresses for the other wives to wear to their annual ball—and a special silk gown for a colonel’s wife—which eventually evolved into her wool and cashmere jackets. The “Military-Inspired Coat with Chinese Closures” combines her military experience with her Asian one. (She still flies to Beijing for fabric.) On the business side, Wilson got a boost when Stevie Wonder wore one of her jackets to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner in 2009, but that only carried her so far. She was making conservative clothing for older men and women even though she’s a spunky, youthful woman. Taking Joe’s advice, she’s been toying with designs that are androgynous—combining her men’s and women’s lines in a sense—and just last week, she was working on a pair of wool-knit leggings. But the Wilsons aren’t in the clear. Find out if Scoop buys the line, or whether the couple will have to close up shop and start over, tonight on the Sundance Channel, at 9:30.