ultra | fashion. design. culture.

Liza Rietz. photo: Abraham King

ultra chats with one of Portland’s truly directional designers. Rietz’ designs playing with shape in distinctive ways, but as the self-taught designer notes below, when not making art for the runway, her focus is on making elegant, individual pieces that work with the body.

You’ve been playing with volume and sculptural shapes for some time. In this collection, there is a puff short over long sleeve. In the past you’ve done long gauchos that flared out just above the knee, rusched and gathered skirts.
Shape has always led my design. I’ll be sketching circles. Big circles, and I think, “How can I make this fit onto the body in a way that works with the body.” If I were going to do an art piece, I’d do it huge. But I want to do it with elegance, in a way that complements the human body so that it’s interesting, but it’s functional.

As for the sleeves that balloon, you’ll find those all over work from the Victorian era. I like to take vintage inspiration and make it modern. So I take away the fluff and the lace, make it more sleek for a more modern look.

Can you talk about the pencil skirt you are doing with the cummerbund that drops down to a partial overskirt in the back?
I call it an “elongated cummerbund.” I’ve always been fascinated with a bustle. One of the first pieces I ever made seven years ago was a skirt with a bustle of bunched up fabric. I like to put volume in one area of the garment, leaving the rest of it sleek. And a skirt is constant challenge for me, how can you make it interesting and functional. The elongated cummerbund I made can wrap around the pencil skirt, it makes a high waist because it sits on the natural waist, and the back dips down. One girl said she was going to wear the cummerbund over jeans, that she thought it looked like a beetle.

Yes, like a beetle’s wings folded back. But it’s subtle. Your work is never costumey.
Any time I start to go off on a tangent, doing something crazy. I think “Would I wear this?” And I might scale it down so that its wearable, so that I would wear it. There’s always a fine line between making it artistic and functional.

That’s why in our last fashion show [with Anti Domestic and Emily Ryan], we did it at Rake Gallery and were able to lean more toward making pieces of art. They weren’t going to be on a runway, and they didn’t have to be functional.

Liza Rietz for the Little White Dress Show, 2006. photo: Pete Springer

What is your design background?
I am completely self-taught. Designing is something I’d always wanted to do.

How did you get started designing?
I went to Lewis and Clark and studied anthropology and sociology. I graduated and did social work for a year and hated it. I was in Bellingham taking care of my mom who had cancer, and I had all this time in the evenings and just focused and taught myself to sew. This is seven years ago.

I was coming down every two weeks to Portland for band practice and stopped in at Seaplane, which was just opening at that time. Holly [Stalder] said, “You should bring something in.”

I went home and worked my ass off. I made this modern, grey skirt that was bunched up, and a woman from adidas bought it! I was blown away.

I did my first runway show with Seaplane in 2002 at B Complex. I did very minimal, modern pieces. We were all just starting to sew then. And there was this great openness in Portland, everyone encouraging each other.

Did your mom sew?
No. Well, she made nightgowns. I was infatuated with the idea of making something from scratch and making it have a function. I made sort-of shoddy doll clothes out of old socks. I used staples and tape.

Like Ramona, sewing with a stapler. Before you were making clothes, were you into fashion imagery?
Oh yes, always. The one relevant class I got to take in college was a costume history and design class. I’ve always been a big drawer. I sketch constantly. People, garments.

Does your practice still start in the sketch?
Absolutely. I got these really cool books in December. They are about 1920’s and 30’s costume design. I got really inspired by the shapes. The 20s, especially in this book, were over the top, crazy shapes. I’m going to be doing looser fits, more dropped waists for my spring stuff. I feel like I�m usually doing work that is so tailored to the body. It’s a good challenge to make something off the body. I’m also doing little vests, lower cut ruffled vests, with kind of a t-strap in the back that I think people will wear over longer tops.

Do you get to talk much with your clients? Do you know who is buying your work?
No. I don’t. I think a lot of my friends end up buying it. I’ll see people I know wearing it. Or people will tell me they bought something of mine. And of course I love that. But now I’m selling in Seattle at Velouria, and in an online store based in Washington, D.C., Unsung Designers (unsungdesigners.com). They came to me over a year ago. So I don’t know who’s buying online. I’ll never see them.

Are you still sewing everything?
Yes. I work a lot. I have an employee that I call to come in when I’m really under a deadline. I’m having a hard time giving up that kind of control because it just seems like everything comes into fruition because my hands are on it, that I need to have that. But it’s getting to the point where it’s getting kind of exhausting. Especially when I’m getting larger orders and having to do production, sewing the same dress over and over.

So the Swords had just recently broken up last year.
I’d been in the Swords Project for 6-1/2 years. I started when I was starting to sew. We toured twice a year for months at a time. I was gone a lot. But it was great because I got to go everywhere. We broke up last May. And it freed me up. I wouldn’t have been able to do what I�m doing now in my design business if I was still doing that.

But I’m touring Europe in two weeks, so obviously music is still important to me. I’m going with a local singer/songwriter Corrina Repp. She’d needed someone to play violin and piano with her. So we did shows at Doug Fir, Holocene and then she was going to Europe. Now half the Swords are going which is great. I love my old band members. We’re just like family.

Do your design/visual practice and your music practice overlap or inform each other?
I never really thought about it very much. Each fulfill a part of my brain. There are similarities and differences. In designing, the first step when I’m drawing, its very much like playing music or thinking about a sound that I want to make or creating a mood. Then it gets down to the specifics, making patterns, writing down the notes.

Find Liza Rietz’ work at Seaplane, Velouria (Seattle) and at unsungdesigners.com.

See also:
The Trickle Up Theory
Hoods, Trains, Pockets, and Crowns