Uncommon Thread: Emily Riché

The fourth edition of Culture Candy’s Uncommon Thread Wearable Art Show included a People’s Choice award sponsored by Country Roads. The annual, juried art competition invites submissions in response to a common theme culminating in a live presentation of the accepted pieces. Much of the event’s prestige is generated by well-established experts who jury the submissions each year. Past jurors include art historian Susan Ryan and Fiber Arts Magazine editor Liz Good. This year the pieces were judged by Manhattan designer Jon Coffelt.

What is truly exceptional about Uncommon Thread is its inherent collaboration. It is that rare event that privileges each of the varied constituents participating. Artist, model, venue, and audience are equally elevated. The inclusion of a people’s choice award, and the story of the artist the people chose, only underscores this truth.

The theme for the 2011 Uncommon Thread show was “Transmogrify,” meaning to transform in a surprising or magical way. The People’s Choice Award was won by “The Ultimate Cinderella Story” designed by Emily Riché, a two-time participant in the competition. The intent of the piece beautifully mirrors the artist’s own journey. We are culturally enamored with the belief that a lump of drab, dusty coal will react to extreme heat and pressure and transform into a diamond. Riché mimicked this metamorphosis in her design, as well as in her life.

“The goal was for the piece to not only represent transformation but to physically change, and I wanted the transformation to be spectacular,” explains Riché. Her final design featured two layers, an elaborate jeweled-bodice beneath a rubberized metallic cape. “Coal is so plain, dull.  Diamonds are glamorous and refined. I needed to bring those words and ideas out in the piece.  I wanted the wow factor. When my model came out during the show and removed the coal cape, I heard a room full of ‘ooohhs’ and ‘ahhhs’ and I knew I did what I set out to accomplish.”

Emily Riché participated in the last Uncommon Thread show in December of 2009, an event which marks a distinctive moment in her own kind of Cinderella story. While Riché had been sewing regularly for a decade, she had yet to think of herself as a designer. “My mom taught me how to sew ten years ago when I was pregnant with my first son Connor. My mom is an amazing seamstress. I suppose the passion for clothes runs in the family. I was terrible in the beginning. I made a pair of cargo pants for my husband and he said I couldn’t pay him to wear them.” Riché dedicated herself to the craft for years, making clothes for herself and her kids, sewing gifts for friends and family, but still feeling like it was a hobby and not a vocation.

This self-perception was due in large part to her long-term status as a stay at home mom, a situation born of circumstance and necessity. “Being a stay at home mom was not my dream. I had a brief career as an insurance agent and realized that cubicle life was not for me. I hated it with a passion.” Riché decided to return to school in search of a career she would love. While she was pursuing a creative writing degree at LSU, her husband, Kevin, was accepted to LSU Law School. The financial strain of two full-time students in the household was not sustainable for the family. “I had to sit out of school and bartend full time to pay for living expenses, his tuition, and our son’s tuition. During his last year of school I was preparing to return to LSU and finish my degree when we got a surprise... another baby was on the way. So I put off school again.”

Through all of this, she kept sewing, and her friends started paying. “At first I had a hard time even charging people. I would say ‘oh, just take it.’ My husband said I was getting so good at sewing—I needed to start thinking of it as a business, but I didn’t have a lot of confidence that the things I made were worth my friends’ hard earned money.”

Her husband kept pushing her and eventually Riché began to recognize herself as a seamstress. Then one day the Uncommon Thread ad came on the radio, and oldest-son Connor insisted his mother participate. The show’s theme was “Cryptozoology,” and Riché’s creation was inspired by the Greek Sirens, half bird-half woman. “Evil, yet beautiful creatures. I started with a black silk gown and covered it in feathers, thousands of feathers applied by hand.”

Riché didn’t win, but she credits the experience and exposure with her subsequent success. “I think people saw this crazy, amazing piece and thought I could easily make their cocktail dress or prom dress. Custom orders came in left and right. It was incredible. I became a designer almost overnight.”

“Uncommon Thread gave me confidence and a voice as a designer. I have achieved more than I ever dreamed in the past two years.” She now has three businesses: Sew Southern, a custom clothing and costume business; Matilda B., a fashion line sold on-line and in stores; and Sea Pony, a swimwear line created by Riché and Kourtney Koehl, available in stores next season. Starting this August, she will be designing for a new bridal shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans, Old New Blue. Her reputation has been solidified in the fashion community, including an invitation to participate in the Top Designer Competition during Fashion Week New Orleans in March. “I had to create fourteen outfits for a project runway style competition. I’m still glowing from my first walk down the runway as a legit designer.”

Despite her skyrocketing career, Riché is committed to Culture Candy’s Uncommon Thread competition. “I hope to participate in every Uncommon Thread show in the future. It’s a blast and you can’t buy this kind of publicity. And I don’t know of any other show that promotes such creative freedom.”

More than just this year’s theme, transmogrification captures the collective conceit of the Wearable Art series. Historical landmarks morph into art houses. Everyday people become canvases. Hundreds of spectators unite into a single critical voice. A hobbyist is transformed into an award-winning designer.

Colleen H. Fava is a creative spirit and social advocate currently disguised as a corporate drone. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from LSU and lives in Baton Rouge with her two cats: Mr. Smartypants (19 lbs) and Elisabeth “Lizzie Tish” Sisterpants (13 lbs). Freelancing pays for cat food.