ELFREDA Studios is a fashion brand founded by Rachel Victoria Powell with the purpose of using fashion to tell stories that instigate change.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Rachel has always had a love for art and design. Her grandmother taught her how to sew when she was 10-years-old, and she has been designing ever since.
Rachel studied apparel design at Cornell University and Central Saint Martins, and has always dreamt of turning her love of fashion into a career.
PURPOSE
Fashion – to me – is storytelling. It's refusing to be silent and daring to raise awareness of issues that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. I design with the intention of narrating my own experiences as well as those of friends, family, and those who open up to me. The world is too vast to even begin to comprehend. Each collection that I design is a book – it tells a story. Through these "books," I aim to tell the stories that don't get told – those that are overlooked and those that are suppressed – with the hope of shedding light on the unknown. I design with the hope of learning more about the people who inhabit the world – their past, our past. It's all intertwined. In order to forge a better future, we must first uncover our story.
What is ELFREDA?
My mother told me that growing up she always hated her middle name – she thought it was ugly, but I told her that I believe there’s beauty in everything – it’s all about perspective.
It was then that I promised her that if I ever started my own brand, I would name it after her, so she could see the beauty in her name.
