Emily Christensen

I dropped out of law school when I was twenty-four and returned to my hometown of Santa Cruz, California. I did not have a plan but I did have a promise: no more “shoulds”. I was determined to follow my heart wherever it wanted to go. In the following years I worked as a bicycle messenger, learned to garden, fell in love, sold my car and for the first time felt truly competent and at home in my own skin. I began to notice and be taken with my own physicality: the crook of my arm holding the shovel, my thighs tightening as I pedaled, my hands strong and stained by the day. These were common moments when function was unexpectedly beautiful. This, I determined, was a form of beauty I needed to capture and express. So I began to make things, with metal, with wood, and eventually with fabric. And here, where the practical and the precious come together, was where my heart led me. I enrolled at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco for clothing design. Two years later I started Filly.

Filly is a clothing company and living concept based in Portland, Oregon. We present three collections a year ranging from ten to twenty styles. I choose American-milled and sustainable fabric whenever possible, pattern and sew each prototype, draw the spring print and pick out the dye colors offered each season. All Filly garments are made to order in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is clothing ethically made and carefully constructed in small-batch runs.

These days I find myself lifting bolts of fabric rather than shovels of dirt but I still notice and admire how I move through the day. I hope Filly expresses my love for the unexpected moments when life is happening and you are in it. And you are amazing. Simply living and simply beautiful.

xoxo

Emily