(Image: @lisa_marie_couture)

By Caroline Carr

Thirteen years ago, Election Night revelers filled E Pike to celebrate victory. Obama won his second term. Gay marriage was on its way to becoming legalized in Washington.

More than a decade later, there are still threats but the institution of marriage is part of everyday life in the neighborhood. Of course Capitol Hill should be home to a couture bridal gown shop.

Against a jewel-toned backdrop of evening wear contrasted with pillowy, porcelain wedding gowns, Lisa Marie has made a home for her Art of the Cloth bridal creations on E Pike.

After years establishing herself as a designer, the owner is leading her business in a more public facing direction, hoping to use the 2,500-square-foot studio and storefront to hold community events and connect brides with the city’s most thoughtful wedding fashion creators.

She recently hosted five local jewelers in a pop-up over President’s Day weekend that drew in customers and rejuvenated the space. “Some of them sold everything they brought,” said Marie. “I was so renewed and revitalized by their experience.”

(Image: CHS)

With twenty years of experience as a couture designer, Marie takes an individualized approach to her creative process and aims to inspire confidence in her brides, who make up the majority of her clientele. Though it comes with a demanding schedule, Marie felt that recently downsizing to a staff of one helped her improve her art and allow her clients to feel more personally taken care of. Each dress is made by Marie herself, with the values of intentionality and sustainability informing every bead, stitch, and lace trim.

She aims to create thoughtful, gorgeous, slow-fashion gowns that will last alongside the memories they adorn. “Even if you move on from that garment, you’re going to pass it on to someone; you’re not going to throw it in a landfill,” said Marie. “There’s an element of sacredness to the whole process.” As a special occasion designer, Marie takes on the gravity of each milestone to craft pieces that reflect the taste of clients while maintaining her stylistic essence.

The store itself is arranged aesthetically, as opposed to being categorized by collection, and everything that is displayed is for sale. Brides can walk out with a gown that day or defer to the sometimes months-long process of a unique, custom garment made by the “dress doctor” as Marie has been called.

Beyond the gowns, Marie hopes that fashion can take up more space in Seattle’s creative sphere, serving as an avenue for connection and self-expression. Even in a young, vibrant neighborhood, Seattle’s reputation for casual dress still permeates.

“I hope that fashion becomes much more of a connective tissue,” said Marie. “I’ve always seen fashion as a language, it’s an unspoken language that speaks for you as you walk down the street. There’s so much joy and power in it before you ever have to touch vanity.”

Marie’s time as a fashion designer, tailor, and seamstress has provided her with a reverence for fashion and its power to build bridges. After four years as a one-woman show, Marie speaks highly of her peers in an industry that is thriving but admittedly competitive.

(Image: CHS)

“The women that I’m working with, we check in with each other, we go to coffee with each other, we congratulate each other on milestones,” said Marie. Along with camaraderie, she spoke of a harmonious network of endorsement and delegating amongst local designers with different specialties. Marie praised her former colleague and designer Angeline Brunk, a fellow evening wear designer operating out of Queen Anne.

Around Capitol Hill, Marie says she is sourcing imported fabrics from nearby neighborhood fabric shop Stitches and often encourages out-of-town clients to explore the area after their appointments by patronizing one of the many nearby shops.

Pike and Pine have grown a healthy collection of fashion shops with a mix of larger brands looking to be part of the neighborhood’s culture and independent designers like Marie. The latest bigger brand to join Capitol Hill will be San Francisco-based men’s rugged fashion retailer Taylor Stitch. Smaller ventures like streetwear fashion player Mediums Collective are also making their mark here. Vintage and thrift also remains a major part of the area’s fashion culture. A major new thrift project is being lined up to replace Lifelong Thrift on Broadway.

As a resident of Capitol Hill, Marie says she is dedicated to the vitality of the neighborhood and hopes to use her storefront as a gathering space in 2025. Alongside the runways, fashion weeks, and balls of the past, Marie plans to invite the community into the store for open houses where the public can dress up, explore the shop, and witness Lisa Marie Couture complete its metamorphosis into Art of the Cloth.

Art of the Cloth is located at 1205 E Pike. Follow @lisa_marie_couture for updates.

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