Julie Michel thought she knew something about fashion when she started a clothing line three years ago. But the Lakewood resident, whose fashion is based on her own abstract paintings, had to learn the hard way. Early on, she relied on fashion vendors — pattern makers, graders, cutters, sewers — to guide her through the process of getting her pieces made in Dallas.
“I was bringing people baked goods because I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says. Her competitors in the fashion game often have more expertise. But when Julie Michel decides to do something, it happens.
Michel has a background in advertising, marketing and event planning, but her personal interests are more creative. She was a singer in a local band called Nod. And about eight years ago, she decided she wanted to be a painter. So she took a continuing education course at SMU, and then studied under Janet Reynolds of Lakewood Arts Academy (now Studio Arts Dallas). Her paintings are big and colorful, and she shows them regularly. Most recently, she had an exhibit at Legal Grounds.
About three years ago, she started hand-painting skirts with French and Italian love poems, and she decided it would be fun to make a clothing line based on her paintings. She found that creating the simple dresses, skirts and tops wouldn’t be cheap. First, she hires a photographer to take pictures of the painting she wants to use. Then she sends the pictures to fabric printers, who use a process called dye sublimation to print the fabric. Michel then inspects the fabric to make sure the artwork is placed just how she wants it — and that’s all before the actual dressmaking process.
“I don’t go out and buy printed fabric from a mill,” she says. “No one else will ever have this fabric.” When the dresses are finished, they retail in the neighborhood of $300 each at boutiques including Pome in Preston Center and the Women’s Museum gift shop in Fair Park. “It’s my two favorite things — painting and art, and then fashion,” she says. “I could eat clothes. It’s my passion, so I’m thrilled to be able to do the two together.”
• Also online: See more pictures of Michel’s artwork and clothes at juliemicheldesigns.com.
