Seattle’s vintage clothing and boutique stores are some of the best places to find pieces done by local artists.

We stumbled upon these slips while browsing the racks of the fifties-femme shop Pretty Parlor on Capitol Hill, and brought one up to the counter along with a simple question: "Who made this?"

The color richness and quality of design led us to assume the slips were printed, so we were startled to learn that the flowery prints were drawn by hand, and therefore each slip was a unique piece, that they were completely wearable and washable and would not fade.

Along with the fact that each slip itself is already a vintage piece, the whole concept comes together to solidly promote the former underthings to a more prominent clothing status. Yes, yes, we like these very much indeed.

Let’s hear from the artist, Julia, on the process of putting Sharpie tip to slip.

Tell me a little about yourself.

I was born in Seattle, in the Madrona area. Both my parents are artists and teachers, and I started drawing all the time when I was really young, pretty much as soon as I could hold a crayon. I went to the Seattle Waldorf School in North Seattle/Lake City for K-8 and the curriculum there is VERY art-based. Then I went to The Northwest School, did a lot of art there, and started to kinda figure out what types I liked better then others. I graduated from NWS spring 2009 and I'm going to Western Washington University for now, and I really like it so far. I'll be trying to get into the art program as soon as I can so I can figure out where to go next!

What gave you the idea to start drawing on slips?

I first got the idea because I had this kinda weird slip lying around at my house that had gotten nail polish spilled on it, and I was trying to figure out how to wear it/fix it. I just got out the Sharpies and started turning the nail polish dots into flowers and it just kept going until the whole bottom was covered in Sharpie flowers and designs. I think like a year and a half ago or so, my sister and mom went into Pretty Parlor and my sister was wearing it, and they decided that they wanted to carry them, which was great.

How long does it take you to complete a single slip? What is your process? Where do you find the items that you draw on?

It takes about 5-6 hours to do the regular full slips and anywhere from 3-5 hours for the shorter half slips or tops. Pretty much the process is: sit down with a huge box of sharpies and start drawing. I don’t sketch or anything, because a lot of the time the style of a particular slip will change as I work on it. I just put flowers of vines or whatever in the places I think it will look interesting and flattering. It’s basically a process that makes slips wearable as more then slips which I think is fun and interesting.

I get the slips or tops or whatever from pretty much anywhere. I get a lot from Value Village and Goodwill. Anna, the owner of Pretty Parlor, sometimes gives me plain slips from the store; I draw on them and then give then back. They can pretty much come from anywhere, which is cool because that makes them all different and it allows me to price them differently.

Do you take custom orders?

I have never done a custom order except for friends. I would be totally interested in doing that though; it would be fun if someone had something in mind that they were looking for, or had something they wanted the drawings on. The only problem for me is that it is sometimes hard to find slips.

Can your slips be seen anywhere else besides Pretty Parlor?

I have had them sold at another store in Madrona called Jaywalk for about 2 years or so before they went to Pretty Parlor, but they didn't sell as much there because there isn't enough of a sorta high-end client base and not enough young people. So right now the slips are only at Pretty Parlor.

For more information or to place an order, you can contact Julia at cylenceisavirtue@aol.com

Filed in Miscellaneous and tagged fashion, interview, Made in Seattle, Pretty Parlor, shopping, slips