Sailing into Fashion
Where my love of creating and sailing came together and I found my love for making clothes.
Growing up Sailing was a form of freedom from my landlocked home in the mountains and everything going on in my head.
One summer I wrecked a sail in a storm. I thought it a shame to just throw it away, so I took it home and cut it up. I was able to combine my love for art, my family history of sewing, handwork, creativity, sailing and a variety of found materials to create clothing, and I fell in love with the process of it all.
These pieces did not come to life through planning or sketching, but rather from looking at what I had and wondering what I might be able to make them into. Following the seam lines of the sails, or cutting around holes and stains. I was finding fabrics wherever I could, and working in a process of trial and error, teaching myself as I went. They are not technical or even “well made”. But I truly enjoyed seeing what I could create with what I had, and to me, that is what matters.
Green is the New Black Fashion Show
I was lucky to grow up in a very tight knit and creative community. Every year the Arts Council put on a fashion show to raise money for local arts programs. They highlight small sustainable designers from all over the country and use local volunteer models. It was a beautiful introduction to the world of a fashion, and a rare piece of the fashion world to be able to start out in.
Throughout high school I was able to show my own collections, and volunteer as a model. I got to make real things for real people, with real bodies and share my pieces with the whole community. It taught me to love the flurry of fashion shows inside and out.
I was one of the youngest designers to be featured in the show, and each year I learned new things.
2016 was my last year of high school and I had a concept: creating our own labels. I put a call out to my community: if you could choose a label for yourself - what would that be? I got many responses like Strong, Tough, Beautiful, Intelligent, Confident, Kind, Loved, Unique, Powerful and more. Some of them happened to be from the very models I would work with for the show.
So I created a look for each word and each model who would be wearing it.
Confident modeled by Drake Timroth and Strong modeled by myself. Photographed by Riley Ames.
