William Eggleston, daughter Andra launch textile line in Nashville
A passion for storytelling stands at the heart of Andra Eggleston's new textile line, electra eggleston. The name has a story; the production process has a story; and by basing the first designs on her father's drawings, her debut collection tells the most important story of all: the complicated tale of a father and daughter who forged a connection through art.
Andra's father is William Eggleston, one of the most celebrated and influential American photographers alive today. Widely known as a straight-shooting, hard-drinking dandy from the Delta, her father's persona (fictional or not) is just as lionized as his artwork. For those familiar with his bacchanalian reputation, it comes as little surprise that the father-daughter duo had a rocky past.
"My dad and I had a very tumultuous relationship," she said. "We had a really hard time finding a common ground. I'm sure every family feels like this at some point, but it felt like we were speaking two different languages."
But when Andra Eggleston moved from New York to Nashville in 2013, she began making frequent trips to Memphis to visit her aging father in search of inspiration. "He's the most highly artistic person I've ever known," she said with a humble chuckle. "Obviously."
Insight, inspiration
Though she initially hoped the visits would inspire her to paint or him to draw again, their time together resulted in an unexpected new artistic direction: textiles. Through this playful and spontaneous collaboration, they began to speak the same language. "We found this magic sweet spot. I got an insight into how he sees the world in a way that I never had before. I'm so grateful for that."
The textile line is a serious enterprise, especially in the eyes of collectors and fans of Eggleston. The notion of anyone turning an artist's original art into commercially sold product raises eyebrows. However, in the case of electra eggleston, the product is a working collaboration between her and her father, and centers on family connection and artistic legacy. Still, she admits it was tricky to find the right approach.
"At one point, it felt like a massive undertaking to use a piece of my father's artwork and come up against the reputation he's already built for himself," she said. "It was a huge responsibility to honor the path he's taken, and to have a delicate respect for it."
Finding herself occasionally overwhelmed through the process of developing the line, she felt as long she kept the emotional connection with her father at the core of the project, "everything else would fall into place."
She is committed to eco-friendly operations and using high-quality, nonsynthetic materials. The luxury textiles are made of 100 percent Belgian linen or cotton/Belgian blend, and digitally printed in North Carolina on one of the world's best machines for color and precision.
Kindred spirits
Saturday night is the premiere of electra eggleston's first retail goods line at Wilder, a contemporary design boutique in Germantown, where a selection of throw pillows featuring prints from the first collection will be available for the first time. The event will also feature the five Eggleston drawings that inspired the collection and an assortment of upholstered furniture.
"This is exactly what we're about," said co-owner Ivy Elrod. She and her husband, Josh Elrod, both New York transplants, opened the store in November 2014 to provide a place in Nashville that bridged the gap between fine art and contemporary design.
Initially, Andra Eggleston and business partner Anja Lademann assumed they would launch the collection on the East or West coast, until they had an in-store meeting with the Elrods, who immediately connected with the story of electra eggleston. "We talked to them for hours," said Andra Eggleston, "and I ended up thinking 'These are the only people I can imagine launching this product with.' "
With an extensive background in the arts, the Elrods also have an interesting story to tell. Before moving to Nashville to open the store, Josh spent 10 years performing around the world with the Blue Man Group; Ivy is an actress, an academically trained playwright and a former Radio City Rockette.
The couple exude creative energy and a shared passion for interweaving various forms of art. The highly curated selection of products in the store showcases their love of the global, the gutsy and the aesthetically sophisticated.
"Art can be integrated with your life," said Ivy Elrod, who doesn't believe in a split between art and the "real world" — a critical notion that seems to perfectly echo Andra Eggleston's desire to bring the essence of her father's artwork into the everyday world of functional objects.
If you go
What: World premier of electra eggleston, a textile collaboration between William and Andra Eggleston
Where: Wilder, 1212 Fourth Ave. N. in Germantown
When: 6-9 p.m. Saturday
Admission: free
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