Fashion Design
Glade Spring, VA
Stephen Curd’s Lavelle Boutique takes its namesake from Stephen’s grandmother, Eva Lavelle, a skilled seamstress whom Stephen recalls accompanying to fabric stores to pick out patterns and designs for his school clothes. When he was in school for nursing, Eva Lavelle would send Stephen letters encouraging him to take classes in art to give him opportunities to express himself. Through her support and encouragement, Stephen decided to study men’s fashion instead of nursing. For Stephen, Eva Lavelle is the very reason why Lavelle Boutique exists.
Stephen has spent the last ten years living in Southwest Virginia, where he has changed from a high-end single function street style to an accessible multipurpose clothing style. You can see this change in the clothes Steven designed for his Fall 2020 portfolio, “Dance, Magic, Dance,” which features a blend of fashionable earth tones and folksy symbols and patterns. His style also aims to reduce fabric waste through an upcycling framework that incorporates leftover fabrics in new designs.
Stephen uses this recycle and upcycle design philosophy to help members of his community take old clothing and fabrics and turn them into something new. Folks bring Stephen clothing of recently deceased family members or kids’ outgrown jackets and backpacks and help them transform these articles of clothing into something that carries a story and memory of a loved one. Stephen received a Tradition Bearers Fellowship in April 2023 from the Greater Bristol Folk Arts & Culture Team, supported by Mid Atlantic Arts’ Central Appalachia Traditions initiative. Stephen will be in the Appalachian Traditions tent in the Virginia Folklife Area on Sunday, October 15.