BlueSmith Studio: Contemporary Fashion Made The Old-Fashioned Way
Lisa Smith has daily conversations with fabric.
“It’s the fabric that gives me the idea of what to do,” she says. It always has. The Sheffield, Mass.-based designer and shop owner started sewing when she was 12 or 13, and it was the fabrics that drew her to the fashion industry. Now at BlueSmith Studio, after a career on the west coast and senior positions at textile companies, she is free to source fabrics she loves, create her own patterns and sew every single garment.
Lisa Smith opened her shop and studio at the end of November, and word of mouth delivered her a good December. She's got quite a following already, and it's easy to see why. Walk in and you’re immediately drawn to the racks of contemporary, easy-to-wear garments in washed linen, drapey knits and light merino wools. The colors are soft and frequently neutral, the patters range from geometric to tie dye. The details are feminine: an organza ribbon belts a pant, a lace tab or some mesh embellishes the back of a top. They’re pieces that look as comfortable as flannel pajamas, but will never be mistaken for anything but polished.
Although the garments are sized, they’re designed to be oversized. “Sometimes you just want some camouflage,” Smith says. “As we get older, we need things that make us feel good.”
The fabrics are her design inspiration.
“I love linen and knits — they’re comfy and flattering to most women,” she says. “I create at my whim, but everything ends up working together.” Best sellers include the “Yin” pant ($115) in a flowing, soft jersey with seaming detail at the sides; the swing top ($110-$125) and the Mata Hari top ($99), a long-sleeved boatneck knit. All hand sewn by Smith.
BlueSmith Studio also carries accessories Smith picks up at shows in New York — chunky, handcrafted necklaces and bracelets, and vegan handbags with clean lines and roomy insides.
A sewer since she was 12, Smith was always immersed in fabric. Growing up in West Hurley, New York, she reveled in the fabrics her uncle, who was in the fashion industry, brought back from his trips to Paris. (She always had beautiful clothes growing up.) Her first job, at 16, was in a fabric store, where she spent her earnings on roll end cuts. She earned a degree in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, and worked in the design and garment industry, including the companies Jessica McClintock and Gunne Saks. She started Lisa Smith Designs in the mid-eighties while still on the west coast, selling to small boutiques in the Bay Area and New York City.
Family brought Smith and her husband back to the east coast; they eventually settled in Hillsdale. After working at Traditions Linens in Claverack, New York and Hudson Home, she felt the urge to do something different. She was selling her designs online, but when she saw the Sheffield Main Street space for rent, she knew it was time to open her own shop.
It’s also her workroom. Barely hidden from the racks, it’s Smith’s haven, where she lets the fabrics speak to her, where she creates patterns and cuts and sews in fabric-centered bliss.
“I’m just happy to sewing in the back,” she says.
BlueSmith Studio
755 No. Main Street, Sheffield, MA
(518) 929-3807
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