subscribe to Style Like UEliza Starbuck | co-founder of The Uniform Project and designer
"Being pregnant, I've had to sort of adjust the way I dress. I think the pregnant form is beautiful, but also sort of comical, so I don't try and hide it much." Eliza Starbuck
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minded me of something from Where the Wild Things Are, like monster shoes. They made me laugh. They're made by an Argentinean family." -
Eliza was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and moved to New York ten years ago to study fashion design at Parsons. Vintage Jersey Dress, Paraiba Stone Necklace made by Eliza by wrapping gold wire around the stone and stringing it on a chain, Knit Hat from Union Square -
"Crystals are cleansing. I started collecting crystals about three or four years ago and just really was into the energy of them and how they made me feel. I can tell differences when I wear certain crystals. I feel differently. I just started learning about them and reading about them and collecting them in an obsessive amount." -
When we shot Eliza, she was nine months pregnant. Earlier this month, she delivered a beautiful baby girl named Sachi. Vintage Jersey Dress, Slippers from Union Square, Tights from The Sock Man on St. Mark's -
"A lot of my personal style comes from old fairy tales, maybe because of my family's Old English influence." -
Eliza considers her cape maternity outerwear. "This was my other solution to being pregnant. This was something that my aunt had made in the '70s, and I was born on my aunt's birthday. We are both Pisces, and we are both kind of into [magic and fairytales.]" Cape from her aunt, Vintage Jersey Dress, Slippers from Union Square, Tights from The Sock Man on St. Mark's -
The Uniform Project is the website that Eliza co-founded with Sheena Matheiken. The blog features Sheena wearing the same dress every day for one year. The project is about educating people on sustainable fashion, and through donations, raises money to send impoverished children to school in India. So far, Sheena and Eliza have raised over $55,000, enough money to send 153 children to school. -
The Uniform Project was born when Eliza met Sheena on a train. Eliza walked up to her and said, "Your socks are amazing, I think we should be friends, and you should check out my blog. I'd like to write about you if you're interested." Two weeks later, the two were discussing the the initial concept of The Uniform Project. Eliza's Wedding Ring, Large Bracelet from Peru, Red "Super Friends" Bracelet for protection -
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"If you're going to be pregnant, I don't see why you should hide it." Embroided Vintage Dress and Cape Wrap, Travelling Boots, Knit Cap -
"As a teenager in Cincinnati, I wore all things from the thrift store. Back then, thrift stores were amazing. I wore 1960's dresses to school. I was obsessed with old Hollywood movies. I had this obsession with vintage, and I would scour the thrift stores for it." -
"It all starts with the feet." Slippers from an antique shop in Boulder, CO -
Eliza says she is inspired by geometry, love, quantum physics, the ocean, and her husband Toshi. -
"[This dress] is very ethnic looking, tied with a ribbon to accentuate the belly." Earrings that Eliza made with feathers from her own birds, Dress from a thirft store in Queens -
"If anything, I would probably lust over a really fabulous vintage hat before it was a piece of Prada." -
"I have a slipper fetish. If I could wear nothing but slippers, I would. I don't think shoes should ever be uncomfortable. That is one of my few rules in style - shoes should always be comfortable. No more heels, ever again." Necklace made by Eliza's friend Michelle Lane, Dress handed down from a friend, Slippers from an antique shop in Boulder, CO -
Eliza's favorite person on StyleLikeU is Adia Trischler. "She has the most regal, multi-dimensional sense of style. It has a timeless sense of history and she has an otherworldliness about her that offers a sincere sense of self." -
"Turbans are another favorite of mine. I really like Mata Hari, this sort of 1940's movie star." Necklace made by Eliza's friend Michelle Lane, Dress handed down from a friend -
Eliza's favorite activities include "crystal gazing, organizing things, moon ceremonies, dancing, energy reading, and meeting unusual people." -
On moving to New York: "I had an uncle who lived here. He was an architect. I would come and visit him as a teenager, and he had this fabulous lifestyle of going to parties full of cultures people, academics, artists, and creative people. New York CIty was an amazing place, and every time I came here, I just loved it. There was so much going on and it was so different than what I thought of Cincinnati." Vintage Jersey Dress, Slippers from Union Square, Tights from The Sock Man on St. Mark's -
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Eliza is inspired by Joan of Arc. "She's an amazing woman. There was something really pure about her and beautiful about this short, cropped hair that nobody else was doing at the time. She was extremely chic and attractive if you think from a modern point of view." Embroided Vintage Dress and Cape Wrap, Travelling Boots, Knit Cap from Union Square, Earrings that Eliza made with feathers from her own birds -
"[These slippers] are classic, comfortable, warm, and they won't fall apart. They're something you buy and you'll have for your entire life." L.L.Bean Moccasin Slippers. -
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Eliza's birds, Rali and Petey -
"This dress is one of my more revealing pregnancy dresses." Eliza inherited her maternity clothes from a former roommate. She handed Eliza six bags of clothes she had never worn, and luckily, they all fit for maternity. -
"These stories are so rich...The tales are so unbelievable, but so uncannily reflective of life, so they're not really that far off." The Firebird and other Russian Fairy Tales -
On her favorite thing about fashion: "It allows one to transform from one being to another with the application of imagination. It can render one invisible or can leave rooms full of people speechless. It is truly magical." -
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"My style is always evolving. It evolves naturally. I have a general rule of not buying anything unless I'm in dire straits where something's worn out or fallen apart and it's time to replace it." Vintage Jersey Dress, Slippers from Union Square, Tights from The Sock Man on St. Mark's, Paraiba Stone Necklace made by Eliza by wrapping gold wire around the stone and stringing it on a chain, Large Bracelet from Peru, Red "Super Friends" Bracelet for protection
Good style often goes along with being ahead of one’s time and thinking individually, and can be seen in historical icons on the level of a Joan of Arc, whom Eliza champions as someone who had such a modern point of view in her bravery and fashion statements. “The short cropped hair that no one else was doing at the time,” and of course the capes and armor – Eliza has reinterpreted both aspects of the heroine’s style with such accuracy that the similarity between the two is eerie. Her fanciful imagery with dressing doesn’t stop there – “Where the Things Are” can be seen in her slipper fetish and the Russian folklore of Firebird in her embroidered dresses and feathered earrings. Eliza’s eye for the ethereal led her to approach Sheena, her partner on The Uniform Project (the feature previous to this one) on the subway, because she was dressed like a “vintage elf.” That meeting led to a genius “fashion meeting of the minds” that says everything about the future in their use of personal style to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Indian school children to have uniforms to go to school. Eliza is our first pregnant woman on SLU, and like her role models, stands out as a fearless innovator in the way that she is the architect of her life.
If you like Eliza, you might also enjoy Donna Harrison, Telfar Clemens, or Ellen Fisher.
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