Exploring the lives and legacies of fascinating women which history has dismissed, undervalued and silenced…
This newsletter is for you if…
you believe you may have been a victim of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in a previous life.
after 10 years you still regret giving away your American Girl Doll to your little cousin.
yellow wallpaper means more to you than just a weekend D.I.Y. project.
John Proctor is your villain.
there is nothing grey about your gardens.
you don’t understand any of these references, but you want to!
Who are you?
Hi! I’m Ella! I’m the founder and designer of The Series NY. The Series is a brand centered around the exploration of mediums and materials that have historically been tied to traditional craft and domesticity. I am not a writer or a historian. I am a scorpio.
What is happening here?
For years I have been reconstructing vintage crochet blankets, quilt remnants, and embroidered textiles into one-of-a-kind garments. While working on these pieces, I would wonder who their original makers were? How many hours were spent hovered over the material, fingers creating intricate stitches and pristine knots. For who and what were their intended purposes and how many hands touched them before I was lucky enough to find them. While these specific questions were rarely (if ever) answered I seemed to satiate my curiosity through other women’s stories— stories centered around or guided by women who were curious and strong, who struggled and dreamed, who fought to be heard and listened to, who were often dismissed or deemed “crazy”. Women who refused to submit to a specific or singular notion of what their lives would look like and instead allowed themselves to be and do what they wanted.
This Substack is the product of the hundreds of biographies, audiobooks, podcasts, interviews, articles and documentaries I have consumed.
Every week we will explore one of these stories. Each serendipitously connected to the next through either ancestry, place, chronology or theme. All patched together into one beautiful yet incomplete tapestry or quilt, our hands busily working to piece it all together.
