Interview by Robert Joseph Sheckler
Writeup by Leah Whalen
Eleanor Anne Cox of Pritlove is a life-long sewist, complete with photographic proof of her early textile adventures. Eleanor comes from a long line of artists and makers, including her great-grandmother Winifred Pritlove, an avid seamstress, and her company’s namesake. After picking up the sewing machine at age 6, Eleanor was working for Maine fashion designer and 2025 STITCH keynote speaker Jill McGowan by age 15, before decamping for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After F.IT., Eleanor worked for several start-up brands, made it to Paris fashion week, and worked on costuming for films. Having seen so much of the fashion industry, including its many challenges with sustainability, Eleanor is excited to return to her hometown of Portland and build her slow fashion business in a community of artists and makers.
Though Eleanor has been drafting patterns, sewing clothes, and even working for other fashion brands for quite a few years now, her own business is just a year old. Several months after launching Pritlove, Eleanor realized that working for herself was more solo than social, which encouraged her to start offering classes. With workshops including figure drawing, introductory draping, and pant-making, she has started to build a community of like-minded makers and sewists. Outside of the classroom, Eleanor is selling her handmade garments through pop-ups and on-line, while reinvesting the proceeds to grow Pritlove.
With a maker’s get-it-done spirit, Eleanor recently found herself on the bus to NYC with multiple rolls of deadstock fabric, garment samples, and her patterns in hand. A small manufacturing company there will produce a size run of some of Eleanor’s most well-received patterns to supplement her one-of-a-kind handmade pieces. On the STITCH runway, Pritlove will debut a collection inspired by armor and dedicated to the timely fight against AI in the art world. As an artist from a family of artists, Eleanor is well-placed to see the dangers of a technology that can appropriate artists’ work and even take business away from human creatives. The work offered in the Pritlove Style Market booth will be an extension of the runway line with a focus on everyday wearability.
After STITCH, Eleanor plans to further grow Pritlove in Portland. She is seeking a storefront and studio space where Pritlove and a small collective of like-minded artists could sell their goods, teach workshops, and host community events. In addition to small production runs of favorite patterns, Eleanor plans to create more custom prints and to indulge her true passion of creating entirely new garments through draping and pattern drafting.
Please join Eleanor Anne Pritlove on the STITCH runway and in the Style Market on Thursday, June 4th!