Recently, SHEI attended Dorothy Elizabeth’s fashion show at the Michigan Union. Amazed by her Street Couture looks and urban-inspired pieces, SHEI decided to talk to Dorothy one-on-one to better understand her obvious love for fashion and how she’s inspired to create such remarkable pieces.

SHEI: So, before I ask you to tell us about your line, how about you tell us a little about yourself:

D.E: My name is Dorothy Elizabeth and I grew up in a very creative family. My parents always let our imaginations roam. We always had access to just about anything artistic. Growing up, we were allowed to construct our own forts, redesign our clothes, and create elaborate collages on our bedroom walls. For that reason, I’ve probably been designing clothes since elementary school. I have thousands upon thousands of pages of sketches of clothes, but I was always “too smart” to go into an artistic field. I started my University of Michigan career as a Chemical Engineer (gag me), but soon switched to a degree in Actuarial Mathematics. I am good at math and picked up another degree in Statistics, but it wasn’t until my junior year that I really decided to dabble and take a few art classes here and there. For the first time I had access to what I would need in order to make my own clothing—I used all my spare time teaching myself how to use the sewing machines in the art school. Through my many late nights in the sewing studio, I realized that I had found my calling and that I was actually good at it. So from there, I have begun to use my free time to create and I have had a lot of success without any major or formal training.

One of the many urban-inspired pieces created by Dorothy Elizabeth

SHEI: Tell me all about this new line? We’ve heard so many great things about it from some of our photographers that were at the fashion show from SHEI:

D.E: I don’t think I would actually call it a “line” because none of the pieces were made with any preconceived theme or cohesion.  I typically custom make clothes upon request for pageants, formals, and anything/everything ranging from haute couture to tailoring jeans.  Typically for my art classes I focus on textile work and make clothing for my different class projects. This October we were given a free choice final project and we needed to spend an entire month working on. I knew I wanted to make six complete pieces. I thought that I would do a photo shoot or even put them in another fashion show that takes place in early December; however, my plans fell through and my professor told me to put on my own show.  So it was after I have constructed half of the pieces that I thought about cohesion.  For my sanity’s sake I chose to focus on ready-to-wear and chose clothing that reflected my style and my urban lifestyle.  It was through that juxtaposition of high quality silks to denim to hand dyed to hand painted fabrics that allowed for the final theme.

SHEI: So, why did you decide to pick clothing with vibrant colors and a fun, urban-inspired look? Have you always been interested in that?

D.E: I love color. I’ve seen millions of fashion shows and the one thing I know is that black does not show up well on the runway. Since I was doing ready-to-wear I knew I wanted it to reflect youth.  I’ve always loved grunge, but also an infatuation with color and finer fabrics. So this collection is a combination of the things I love as a young 20-something broke ass college student. It’s got gaudy black pleather, bleached out denim, almost every color in the rainbow, spandex, and that sleazy silky sheen that I love. The trick wasn’t creating the things I love, but turning them into a cohesive collection. So I used my passion for “not-matching” and just splashed as much color and vibrancy as I could into each outfit and focused on having little details connecting each piece (similar ribbons, pleats, denim, bandannas, head scarf’s, etc), which helped create a unified collection.

SHEI: Have you always loved fashion?

D.E: I couldn’t live my life without it. I have to say– I live it. The best part is, for me, it isn’t forced. I am subconsciously always thinking about clothing and styling every time I see a person on the street, television, or in a magazine. I can’t help it. I’m sort of like Janice Dickenson from ANTM—in my head, I’m always tearing apart or praising what the people around me wear—so watch out!

SHEI: Where do you find inspiration for your pieces?

D.E: I love movement and I love anything that’s fun. At the end of the day I want something that I, or my friends, can go out and party in and look absolutely fabulous. I get inspirations from the people I want to dress and a lot of the little details from the 1920’s and 1950’s (ex: fringing and headbands).  At the end of the day I want to make something that people haven’t seen before. So I chose to spice up my materials used and weave my own fabric, put pleats in places you wouldn’t think, and just work with the unorthodox.  I love it when people ask me “How the hell did you do this?”

A total success at Dorothy Elizabeth's fashion show!

SHEI: Were you always interested in fashion?

D.E: I’ve been obsessed with clothes ever since I could dress myself. I would spend hours picking out outfits when I could barely walk. It was for that reason that my mother sent me to a private school so I wouldn’t freak out very morning trying to figure out what to wear.

SHEI: What is your favorite piece of clothing that you’ve designed?

D.E: I love my two menswear vests I made simply because they took a serious investment of my time. For one, I used nearly 400 yards of black satin ribbon and wove it together to create the fabric for a vest (with a badass hood).  The other one was a purple satin and I spent two days perfecting the pleats on the back of the hood. It was just a lot of meticulous details to pleat the pockets, the front of the hood, and the racer back. I love them because they took the most time and I feel like it was time well spent.

SHEI: How are you able to maintain going to a prestigious university and having your own fashion line?

D.E: It’s simply called not sleeping.

SHEI: What are other hobbies that you enjoy doing in your spare time?

D.E: I have to say 99% of my life is fashion or fashion related, but I am really athletic. I used to be on the Varsity Track & Field Team for Michigan and I threw javelin.  Otherwise I spend my time working on different fashion shows and traveling to intern for different Fashion Weeks. I’ve done Toronto, New York, and Detroit, I’m heading to London in February! Getting to Paris would be my dream.

If anyone would like to order a custom made piece (price negotiable), feel free to contact Dorothy at doughty@umich.edu.

Check out this Photo-shoot from Dorothy’s Street Couture show, courtesy of the SHEI Photography & Fashion teams.