A Return to Our Roots: The Story of Our First Spring Florals

About ten years ago, I created our very first Easter piece from a small roll of cream floral cotton gauze. 
It was a beautiful ditsy cream floral, tucked away inside a gigantic deadstock fabric warehouse deep in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. It was the kind of place where designers’ overstock lived piled up on industrial shelves. Wading through all the rolls of fabric required patience, endurance, no fear of heights (lol), and a really good pair of scissors.
At the time, we were living in San Francisco. Whenever we would go visit my in-laws in Los Angeles with little June (our oldest), my husband would drop me off at the warehouse and head out for tacos while he waited. Armed with scissors for swatching, tape to label fabrics, a pen and paper to scribble notes about stock and yardage, and a bag to hold it all, I would disappear into the stacks. A couple of hours later, I'd emerge, text him to pick me up, and start daydreaming - sketching out designs inspired by my new findings.

That day, as soon as my eyes landed on that cream floral gauze, I knew. I didn’t know what it would become yet, but I knew I needed it. I needed to create something beautiful with it.

Just around the corner, I spotted the most beautiful lavender linen chambray. Soft, timeless - the lavender color was so understated and gentle. The two fabrics felt like a match made in heaven. I bought the only roll of the cream floral gauze I could find and at least one roll of the lavender linen and went home ready to sketch. 

A few weeks later, a design finally clicked—and our very first Easter-centric design was born: a Lavender Linen Flutter Dress for girls. I remember returning to downtown LA once more, searching for hours until I found the perfect yoke lace trim tucked away in one of the shops.

The response was unexpected, overwhelming! The dresses sold out faster than we could restock, sending me back to the warehouse again and again, asking the staff if they could help me find just one more roll of that creamy, beautiful floral gauze.
From an IG post I posted in March 2016, showing a stack of freshly stocked Lavender Linen Flutter Dresses. 

At the time, we were just beginning to explore coordinated mommy-n-me pieces, though it took another 2 years for me to land on a women's Spring design using the cream floral gauze that I truly loved. Before then, I tried different ideas with a few variations of the Flutter Dress, and continued refining what coordination could look like.

I've always loved the design challenge of creating pieces for mothers and daughters that aren't perfectly matchy-matchy, but instead felt connected -- thoughtful, intentional and cohesive without being identical. That philosophy has always felt deeply EleStory.

In Spring of 2017, we launched an off-the-shoulder women's linen blouse:

And finally, in the Spring of 2018, I designed the piece that completed the vision: our bestselling Cream Floral Wrap Dress.
Our bestselling Cream Floral Wrap Dress in 2018 @Alisonmoorephotography

I loved that cream floral fabric so much that when the warehouse eventually ran out completely, I decided to see if we could create our own version—with just a few subtle tweaks. After many strike-offs and attempts, we found a vendor who could emulate the original feel of the floral…only better. That print became a signature for EleStory for many years, reimagined in different silhouettes, including the beloved prairie dresses for moms and daughters a few years later.


Girl's Prairie Dress paired with our classic Wrap Dress, 2020 @ashleyhobelphotography

And now—fast forward all these years later—I felt a pull to return to our roots.

To revisit one of my favorite prints ever.
To create something new while honoring where we began.

And—for the first time in many years—to finally say yes to all the boy moms who have been patiently asking for a boys’ piece, too (and no, I don’t mean just a bow tie 😉).

I’m so excited to introduce our  Spring Florals Collection, featuring two girls’ styles, a coordinating women’s piece, and—for the very first time—a boy’s button-front shirt in a matching floral. (These are not the final product photos—more soon!)

This collection was a long time in the making, especially as we worked to perfect the cream floral cotton gauze once again—but it was worth every step.

Each piece feels deeply personal—like a love letter to our past, refreshed for a new generation.

If you’d like to be the first to shop, I invite you to join the waitlist HERE. Only a small batch will be ready to ship when we launch on February 19th.

Thank you for being here—and for supporting our small business, then and now. 

With so much gratitude and love,
Judy