The Art And Integrity of Eve Styles

Portland is teeming with talent. I know I’ve said this before, but if you slow down and take the time to get to know the people around you, you can’t help but discover talent. Eve Styles, the creative director behind the independent fashion label Eve Skywalker, is one of those amazing discoveries.

She is a talented and creative fashion designer, who is bringing integrity back to fashion through the clothing she designs. Portland is teeming with talent. I know I’ve said this before, but if you slow down and take the time to get to know the people around you, you can’t help but discover talent.

Eve Styles, the creative director behind the independent fashion label Eve Skywalker, is one of those amazing discoveries. She is a talented and creative fashion designer, who is bringing integrity back to fashion through the clothing she designs.

The discovery

I discovered Eve at the office. She is part of our agent services staff at Living Room Realty, and we both work out of our SE office. I quickly noticed something special about Eve and how she carries herself. Eve is one of those people who is just true to herself, true to her style, and true to her art. I find that admirable.

One day I noticed some fabulous tights she was wearing. When I learned that she made them, my curiosity was piqued. Eve was preparing to sell the tights at a pop up market at our office, and she showed me a bit of her collection. Wow! She showed me tights with vibrant colors and tights with flowers on them – literally. Eve had hammered flowers onto pre-washed tights and leggings, using the tights and leggings as a canvas. I had never seen anything like it before.

I wasn’t surprised when I learned Eve was also getting ready to showcase her clothing line at FashioNXT in Portland. It turns out, Eve is really an artist whose medium is fashion design. She is not just designing beautiful clothing to wear, but she’s also making a statement and expressing herself.

Eve is not new to fashion design. It’s been part of her life and who she is for a long time. She started sewing as a young girl with her grandmother, and hasn’t stopped. Her grandmother taught her to sew and was her idol. I believe Eve learned at an early age how to express herself through sewing and to treat sewing as a form of art.

The artist

Eve explains she envisions a garment when looking at the fabric, and then she just figures out how to make it. Eve also seems to have an innate ability to create patterns and just make them work for the person for whom the garment is intended. Eve can see someone and just know what size the person wears and how to get the fit right. As Eve was explaining this process to me, it sounded remarkably similar to the process of other artists. Yes, Eve is an artist.

Take for example, her lingerie line. Eve shared how she wanted the line to be beautiful and sexy, yet comfortable to wear and nice to the skin. She wanted to create something women enjoy wearing while looking beautiful. I believe she wanted to design lingerie that allows the women who wear the pieces to express themselves too. In this way, Eve’s designs are a form of living art.

Integrity with design

Eve Styles also has a deep-seated desire to bring integrity to design and to all she does. Not only does she believe clothing should be well made from high quality fabrics, but that the garments should last. She believes clothing should survive more than one season or a couple of washings.

But maybe there’s more to this idea than simple durability. The garment should be in a sense honest. The style should also last. The garment should not only serve its purpose and survive, it should also be worth wearing. It should say something.

In fact, her tights with the flowers on them did on some level speak to me when I first saw them. First, I’d never seen anything quite like them before. Second, I was drawn to the combination of nature with utility and fashion. I also felt a sense of freedom. I do believe the tights might send a different message to someone else, and therein I think lies the genius, the art, and the integrity.

Natural talent

I did ask Eve why she began working with flowers. Eve says she’s always loved flowers and their happy pigments, their delicate beauty, and their relationship with birds. She explained how you can use a magnolia bulb before it blooms to create color. Eve hammers the flowers onto tights to use nature to create color and design. Eve is also collaborating with another artist from Alabama, Celeste Pfau, to put flowers on fabric.

It’s nearly impossible to share Eve’s art and story in one small blog. I think to really understand her story, her art, and what she’s doing, you’ve just got to see her designs and experience her work., and spend some time talking with her. She has such depth to her spirit, my words may not do it justice. I am lucky enough to get the chance to visit with her often, and each time I learn something new about her and what she’s doing. Each time I am amazed at the talent that lies within her and the beauty with which she expresses it.