Photography by Diane Harvey
Name: Emily Dawn Long, Senior
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
I am inspired by tactile things. I love the idea of making my own fabric from scratch. I can get inspired by almost anything. I just recently made a fabric sample entirely from dangly fringes from children’s squishy stress balls.
My favorite style decade is the late 1950s-early 1960s Mad Men era.
The designers I most admire are Kenzo, Missoni, Dries Van Noten and Chris Benz.
The best advice I ever received came from my professor Anthony Miller, who told me, “To be creative, you have to be able to open your mind enough to allow the world to come in.”
Tell us about your collection.
I recently visited my brother in Amsterdam, and I immediately became enthralled with the vertical architecture. While visiting the city, we were constantly moving from one place to the next, and there was almost always a climate change within everything we did. My collection is made up of interchangeable outerwear; each piece can be transformed into almost 10 different ways to accommodate said climate change: inside out, backward, forward, upside-down. I am a double major in fashion and fibers, and I’m interested in hand weaving, and the geometric cross between the threads reminded me of the Amsterdam architecture. Due to the time given, I didn’t have the time or resources to hand-weave 70-plus yards of fabric, so I decided to digitally print a scanned version of the fabric samples I made, playing with scale and allowing you to see each woven structure.
What’s next?
Once I wrap up the double major, I would love to create textiles for one of my favorite designers. My first love is Europe, so I hope to travel there and retain a job.
