What’s In Your Closet? with Eleanor Leftwich
I am so excited to relaunch What’s In Your Closet? with one of my favorite Instagram follows: Eleanor Leftwich! Eleanor is the founder of Eleanor Leftwich Collection, a brand that puts craft and heritage back into clothing (read more here). I loved getting to know Eleanor better, and I’m so excited to share our interview with you!
Tell us a little about yourself!
I probably first and foremost think of myself as a mother. I have 4 children – ages 12, 10, 8, and 7 – that keep me very much on my toes. I’ve been married for almost 17 years and manage our 5th generation family farm with my husband and his family. We’ve continued to diversify over the last 2 decades into a variety of other ag-related businesses, but my passion has always been dressing as an art form. In 2018, a year after the birth of my youngest child, I needed a creative outlet outside of motherhood and life on the farm and my Instagram page, @eleanorleftwich, was born. During the pandemic, I put it on pause for a variety of reasons, but picked it back up in early 2022. Shortly after an epic row with my husband on my avid shopping habit (he calls me a hoarder, I like to say collector!), @things.i.bought.and.liked tagged my account and overnight, I went from 600 to 8,000 followers. Even my husband will admit that it was likely a sign that I should continue down this path even though I had no idea what that path was or where it would lead.
I love how you keep a low personal profile online–the anonymity is extremely intriguing! What prompted that decision?
Being 41, I didn’t grow up with social media (thankfully!). To be honest, I never really considered my life interesting enough that people would want to see it online. Furthermore, my account’s focus was highlighting other people and businesses. I’m the person that when I’m complimented on something I’m wearing, a simple “thank you” doesn’t suffice. I want to tell you where I got it, who the designer is, his/her backstory, if I got it on sale or via resale – you may get a 10 minute monologue whether you wanted it or not! I’ve even had people snap photos of the tag of a dress when it’s a designer whose name is hard to spell. I genuinely love sharing people and businesses that are doing incredible work, and I don’t expect to get paid to do so, hence why I didn’t go the traditional influencer route. Not to knock it – influencer marketing is compelling and the industry continues to skyrocket, but my preference is generally only to answer to myself. Plus, you can’t buy word of mouth marketing and it’s by far the most powerful in my opinion, so when I can genuinely support a brand or designer, I really love doing so. Lastly, I also simply like privacy for both myself and my family.
I first discovered your Instagram through our mutual friend Heather / Priss & Vinegar, and I felt an immediate kinship. I love your style and how you incorporate special pieces into everyday life. What is your trick to actually wearing your clothes, instead of saving them for a special occasion?
My mindset is life is short, so wear the clothes. Pile on the jewelry. Use the china (heck, even put it in the dishwasher!). My life is not fancy – I’m either working on the farm or chasing children – so if I waited for the perfect occasion, it would rarely, if ever, arrive. Plus, what I wear definitely impacts my mood. When I have a big meeting, I dress in something that exudes confidence. On the flip side, when I am feeling less than motivated, I wear a bold color and some great jewelry. Fake it ‘til you make it, right?
Wear the clothes!
–Eleanor Leftwich
What period of your life has had the most impact on your personal style?
Motherhood by far. My grandmother and mother always were chic. In fact, all the women in my family made the transition to motherhood look fairly easy when I was younger. I think largely in part because my extended family was very close and supported one another. They didn’t have lactation consultants and mommy bloggers giving them tips; they had each other. The majority of them were stay at home mothers that raised their children, especially their daughters, to also be career driven, so we now have a generation of women who grew up seeing traditional gender roles but also want to kick ass in the workplace. So many of the women close to me feel like they need to be everything to everyone, which isn’t only challenging, but also exhausting. I think that sentiment has influenced my style (not to mention my parenting style but that’s another topic!) a lot in the sense that I want to be able to wear pieces that take me from school drop off to work to soccer practice and back home for family dinner. Frankly, I don’t want to make time for my style to be anything but versatile.
What places have had the most impact on your personal style?
I am sure so many answer this with a beautiful or exotic location, but for me, it’s home. It’s my lifestyle. It’s my every day. With how casual the world has become, I’m sure most strangers look at me and think I’m overdressed, but I’ll make the argument that a shirt dress is more comfortable than athleisure any day! (Editor’s note: I completely agree!)
Who are your style icons?
My mom definitely encouraged me to foster my own style. I wore ties in the second grade with khaki shorts and white collared shirts (still so chic!), pant suits in middle school, and leather pencil skirts in high school. Other women that consistently knock it out of the park in my opinion (both past and present) are Carolina Herrera, Lauren Santo Domingo, Lee Radziwill, Marella Agnelli, and Lupita Nyong’o.
You put your money where your mouth was and started your own clothing line! I am truly obsessed with the care and attention that goes into each piece. What was the moment where your clothing line turned from a thought into something concrete?
The businesswoman in me knew that I had an opportunity being part of such an incredible community on Instagram. This coupled with a growing frustration of rising prices with decreasing quality standards gave me the push I needed to launch Eleanor Leftwich Collection. After years of developing close relationships with other small designers and then subsequently supporting them on Instagram, many of them were more than willing to guide me on and connect me with the best partners. Moreover, collecting vintage and high end designer via consignment all of my adult life gave me first hand knowledge on how a garment should be made. I am very solution driven, so when I have an idea or see a problem that I could fix, I prefer to take action versus talking about it. Efficiency is my love language! It’s somewhat ironic because qualities that I’ve long viewed as less than positive when part of a proverbial group project—i.e. a family business—(being particular, result-driven, overly independent) are what has made the collection resonate with so many other people in a relatively short amount of time. I am incredibly grateful to my customers, many of whom I consider friends despite never meeting in real life, and realize that I’d never be able to do any of this without their trust and support.
The Eleanor Shirt Dress as seen on Eleanor.
What was the first piece you designed? What piece do you still want to create? The Eleanor Shirt and Shirt Dress were the first pieces that I designed. These are styles that I have loved and worn for decades and that I think look good on every age and stage. In the future, I’d love to create outerwear. Being from Minnesota, a great coat is crucial to a winter wardrobe. I’d also like to add shoes and accessories to the line up. I am definitely shoe obsessed and always have been!
What’s next for Eleanor Leftwich Collection?
I am making a significant investment to hire a small creative team to direct the FW24 and Holiday photo shoots. We are shooting on our farm for FW24 which I love as it’s such a true intersection of my life and I’m confident that will come through in the images. I’m also increasing the cashmere assortment for both FW24 and Holiday. Cashmere knits were a major leap of faith last year. I had a close friend who is a senior buyer at a major department store warn me that cashmere can be hard to sell via DTC. She said it needs to be felt to truly understand the quality and to quantify the price tag, especially for a new brand. She was right initially – pre-orders weren’t as strong as I’d hoped when I launched knits in Fall 2023. I still went ahead and ordered the minimum which felt more like a maximum financially! Being from the frigid north, I knew these knits were great and said a small prayer I’d eventually sell them once they were in people’s hands. My intuition was validated when I more or less sold out every single one once they were fully in stock in January, which is traditionally one of the slowest retail months. Now, I have people emailing and messaging me daily—even in July—asking when the cashmere will be available for pre-order!
Eleanor Leftwich in custom Jennifer Klein Couture pants
Besides your own label, where do you like to shop? What are you on the hunt for currently?
To be honest, it’s getting harder and harder to find pieces made in Europe or the USA, which is primarily what I look for when shopping, at affordable prices (affordable being relative I realize). In addition, now that I better understand industry costs like fabric, manufacturing, shipping, etc., it’s hard for me to invest in a piece when I know it’s marked up 6x, if not more. I will wait for those pieces to be marked down, which they generally always are, or I prefer to shop small from designers like Patricia Voto of One Of or work with Jennifer Klein Couture on something bespoke. In these instances, you’re supporting a single designer vs a conglomerate and you end up with something really special. Otherwise, I’m investing in vintage pieces that are timeless and can easily be paired with my current pieces. Classified Vintage out of the UK is one of my all time favorites and they’re wonderful about sourcing pieces they know I’ll love.
What are the five most special pieces in your closet (e.g. the ones with the most sentimental value, or the ones that you would never get rid of)?
Eleanor’s 1962 Chanel coat, a model also worn by Jackie Kennedy. Sourced from @classifiedvintage.
It’s so hard to choose only 5! If I must, I’d say a charm bracelet of my grandmother’s, a vintage black dress with ostrich feathers of my mom’s, my dad’s Movado watch, a Zuhair Murad custom skirt from June Resale in Minneapolis, a Chanel coat from the 1960s that Jackie Kennedy also wore, and an epic 1983 YSL black sequin gown (from the year I was born!).
I think that is 6. 🙂 The last two pieces were sourced from Classified Vintage. One of my dreams is to have a museum exhibit showcasing my vintage collection as I do view it very much as art!
Thank you so much, Eleanor! You can find her on Instagram and shop her incredible line here.
Photos used courtesy of Eleanor Leftwich.
