Munjoy Hill fashion designer Jen Miller, 30, describes her design aesthetic simply: “Unique pieces for individuals.” Indeed, when you sew each garment by hand, and cut the fabric without using a pattern, each piece is destined to be one-of-a-kind.Miller, who will display 13 outfits at her second-ever Portland fashion show on Saturday night, has been doing alterations since she was in high school, but began sewing in earnest about six years ago, after a snowboarding accident in Colorado. Teaching herself to sew by hand was her version of physical therapy.
Now, the Woolwich native creates ensembles like the ones she showed me in a sneak-peek last week: a simple sleeveless dress with a navy blue panel in front, paisley panel in back, and sea-green pockets; a cream-colored pencil skirt, a black top, and an embroidered orange corduroy cape-ish jacket; an eggplant-hued shift dress with small pockets at the small of the wearer’s back (Miller loves pockets). You can tell that they’re hand-sewn — the stitches don’t have the precise uniformity of machine-sewn clothes — but the craftsmanship is just as evident. And Miller (a part-time bartender at Awful Annie’s) purposely makes each piece to mix and match with other things — “the outfit doesn’t have to go together.”
Not all of her designs are so demure. “I can’t wait to see my mom turn a couple shades of red,” Miller says of some of her garments, which will be modeled on women ages 19 to 39, of “various shapes and sizes,” this Saturday. She also will display an “original piece of clothing” — one that she believes hasn’t been produced before. She won’t spill the beans on what it is, or where you’d wear it — for that, we’ll have to attend the show.
Who Gives A Stitch? fashion show | 8 pm June 21 | at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St, Portland | 207.775.5568 | $7
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