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" Charles Elliot Harbison at his New York City studio When on-the-rise fashion designer Charles Elliot Harbison (he earned his stripes at Michael Kors) sources inspiration for his year-old label Harbison, he innately starts with fabric. &amp;quot;I have a strong internal gravitation to textiles,&amp;quot; the North Carolina-raised designer says. &amp;quot;When I was a little boy, I can remember picking the lint out of my grandmother&amp;#039;s hair when she would come home from the knitting factory. Growing up around the industry, I saw beautiful fabrics. Then, when I went to a school (he studied fine arts, painting, and textiles at North Carolina State University and later fashion at Parsons) I saw the possibilities in fabric as art.&amp;quot;   Harbison, Fall 2014 For Harbison&amp;#039;s Fall 2014 womenswear collection, he was fascinated by fine silks. In particular, Jim Thompson&amp;#039;s Thai silks. Long a favorite of interior designers (famed interior and set designer Tony Duquette&amp;#039;s maximalist malachite and star studded prints are produced by Jim Thompson) and fashion designers (Pierre Balmain tapped Thompson&amp;#039;s silks for many a gown in the &amp;#039;50s), Harbison found their handwoven exoticism enhanced his vision to craft clothes for a woman who &amp;quot;takes certain masculine codes and applies them to herself in a very feminine way.&amp;quot;  Harbison, Fall 2014 His collaboration with Jim Thompson, silks that today are mostly considered for interiors not clothing, is just another example of how designers are increasingly blurring the lines between decor and fashion. He admits this was intentional, &amp;quot;I felt like there was a nice bit of irony and intellect with wearing a fabric that is generally relegated to the home.&amp;quot; More from ELLEDECOR.com Reed Krakoff&amp;#039;s Fashion-y Take On Furniture The Fashion Brand Making Quilts Cool  The Met Celebrates A Couturier With Serious Interior Design Cred It&amp;#039;s Cheaper To Rent A French Chateau Than To Stay At Disney World "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/a5921/harbison-jim-thompson-silk/>