Get To Know: Leslie Miller

Click on the photo to see Leslie's beautiful website.

Local artist and SCAD alum, Leslie Miller, is shaking up the art and fashion worlds with her beautiful fiber-based creations. You can find her in stores on both coasts and in collaboration with Project Runway alum, April Johnston.  If you don't know Leslie yet, it's about time you got on board. Get to know a little about her below!

LESLIE MILLER
Owner, Leslie Miller Design
Artist, Designer, Creator
 
CLUTTER FURNISHINGS AND INTERIORS: What drew you to fashion and jewelry?
LESLIE MILLER:  Definitely the people that I met in my last weeks of college and the Summer following. I had planned on going into print design somewhere, and doing small beading projects on the side, but once I met April Johnston of Mangled Courtesan, we realized that something about our styles worked perfectly together...and it stuck.

CF&I: As an artist, what is your favorite medium to work with?
LM:  Beads and sequins! As far as materials to embellish, I would say anything with a little bit of structure. Leather is high on my list and recently, taffeta. I also have a great love for wood burning.

CF&I: What advice do you have for aspiring artists?
LM:  I think the best thing we can all do as aspiring and/or established artists is to stay true to what we love. It is very easy to lose your voice in our field trying to please everyone, but someone somewhere is inspired and in awe by what you do.
         I also think spending time working or visiting with other artists and designers is very important. It allows us to get a glimpse of their styles, inspirations and techniques and they gain all the same experiences with you.

CF&I: Where can we find Leslie Miller Designs?
LM: Right now, I have my beaded accessories in a boutique in Los Angeles called Orphic and in shopSCAD here in Savannah. The most recent collection by Mangled Courtesan is also in both of these locations as well. It is so awesome to find places that are so helpful and supportive to young designers and artists. It is all available via email as well and can be seen at www.lesliemillerdesign.com.

CF&I: What’s next for Mangled Courtesan, your collaboration with April Johnston?
LM: April and I are currently working on our next collection for Spring/Summer14, Purgatoire. We plan on showing in September and so far it is beyond exciting and beautiful. As April prepares to make a move up north, we will continue to work together, just with a few hundred miles between us. Look out east coast!

CF&I: What celebrity would you just die if you saw them wearing your work?
LM: Whew! This is good. Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine and Ellie Goulding. So much talent and style...yep I would die!

CF&I: What music is on your design playlist right now while you’re creating?
LM: A little bit of everything. Some days I love country and other days, Ellie Goulding and Lana del Rey. We are so lucky Pandora exists!

CF&I: What is your guilty pleasure?
LM: French fries! All of them.

CF&I: Describe Leslie Miller Design in five words.
LM: Intricate. Delicate. Sparkle. OOAK. (I know only 5 words! One of a kind)

Store Philosophy 04

That is all.

Clutter Top Ten: Designers (Furniture)

We love trashy reality TV and other nonsense, but design is our lifeblood.  We thrive off a good piece of furniture, a great chair, a rockin' sofa, a killer chandelier.  So...we compiled our list of Top Ten Furniture Designers of all time to give a little thanks to those bright minds that brought us some great looks. Ch-ch-ch-check it out below:

1. Ray and Charles Eames. The Brad and Angelina of the design world, Ray and Charles pioneered wood, fiberglass, plastic and resin technologies in the 1950s. While Plycraft produced some Eames-like loungers (an example, above, from Clutter), Ray and Charles mastered  a look that revolutionized American design...and they were so cute doing it!

2. Kem Weber. German import whose name "Kem" came from the initials of his given name (the uber-German, Karl Emanuel Martin Weber), mixed metals and leather like Don Draper mixed a drink on a sunny morning Manhattan ("Mad Men" shout out).  Check out this BEAUTIFUL Weber vintage chair at Clutter...stunning. 

3. Thomas C. Molesworth. Molesworth rode the Arts and Crafts revolution of the early 1900s into a furniture design business that focused on hides, horns, and natural woods...he is our reason for living basically.  Check out some awesome originals (like an antler chair!!!) in the vein of Molesworth on Marc Taggart and Company.

4. Florence Knoll. Florence's sleek minimalist look defines midcentury modern. She considered herself an interior designer first, possibly an artist second, and, far down the list, a furniture designer, but her designs, furniture and otherwise, shocked a post-war America into a design-centric bunch of Knoll lovers. We dig her.

5. Milo Baughman. California Modern designer, Baughman, designed for everyone from Drexel to Murray Furniture and was even featured at the Whitney for his designs. His pieces reflect a casual elegance that reads, full on, Los Angeles, baby. Sick Baughman trolley table, below, at Clutter.

6. Thomas Chippendale. Old school now...Chippendale is the picture of traditionalism. A cabinet maker in England in the 1700s, his works in rococo and neoclassical styles are in museums worldwide.

7. Hans Wegner. A modernist from the Danish school, Wegner and his crew focused on functionality first.  He was a major contributor to the Danish Modern popularity of the mid-twentieth century and is famous for saying, ""I have always wanted to make unexceptional things of an exceptionally high quality."

8. Eileen Gray. Eileen's ultra modern vibe revolutionized the late twentieth century design aesthetic.  Imagine what a 1980's yuppie, bachelor pad looks like...lots of metals and glass, rounded chairs (the Bibendum), super slick modern lines...Eileen, an Irish woman (!), is to blame thank. Like everything in design, the modern look is back in (and not with the d-bags)...

9. Achille Castiglioni. Castiglioni, a modern minimalist (and the Italian representative of this list), is probably most famous for his lamp, "Arco".  Google it...you've seen it, and now you know who to thank/appreciate for it! And what a cool name!!

10. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Ludwig, all we can say is thanks, my dear man, for creating the Barcelona Chair...the single slickest piece of furniture around. You (and Lily Reich) rock!