The Fashion Factor: Emily Factor Creates Her Own Line and Legacy
I am really sensitive to textures on the skin. I obsess, so they feel amazing to wear.
The youngest of seven great grandchildren to the iconic Max Factor is a start to a fashion line, but that’s just the beginning for this hippy chick. Its heir apparent that Emily Factor may have come from a long line of beauty as her whimsical line is forever feminine and certainly celebrates beauty, but more often than not it is the natural boundless beauty that inspires her and her line.
Splitting her time, growing up between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Carmel, CA, Emily found them to be “Two places with a very deep connection to the land and creativity. In Santa Fe it’s hard not to feel creative. Then places like Esalen and Big Sur in the north coast of California offer a spiritual sanctuary. There is endless inspiration. I search each season first for a concept by meditating and turning to nature to find my direction.”
Her current line, which is just hitting stores now, was inspired from what she calls, “The sacred spiral patterns in nature. I studied plants and minerals that grow in circular formations like flowering cabbages, succulents, and ammonite stones.”
In her flowing feminine pieces in a mix of soft pastels and earth tones or in what she calls “wearable art,” you’ll find boho chic pieces that create a line that almost seems designed with Nicole Richie in mind or any one of Zoe’s hip Hollywood chicks.
Factor develops her prints out of her sketchbooks, fine art and photography. The prints are made and silhouettes are then developed based on how they would fall on the body. Not just fall as she is obsessed with how a fabric feels. Working with a range of natural fibers from cotton to silk, she claims, “I am really sensitive to textures on the skin. I obsess, so they feel amazing to wear."
Factor is far from calling it in, keeping her hands in all aspect of production and design in order to truly learn the business before expanding. She studied for four years in the UK at Central Saint Martins in London.
Her ideal muse would be Florence and the Machine. She would love to dress the impassioned raven, who is a definitive fit style wise. Barbra Streisand, another singing icon, was taken by Factor’s hand dyed velvet fashion last fall.
Factor is also focusing on scarves and accessories and will be launching a full collection again next spring 2013 when the natural beauty and her creativity are in full bloom…naturally.
