Exerpt from article by Moffly Media/ Westport Teens to Watch 2023
Wilton’s Olivia Olvia Rodrigues has received the King Scholar twice and has a passion for fashion. She attends fashion, design and drawing classes at the New England Fashion Design Association in Norwalk, where she will be focusing this year on creating a college portfolio.
What are the three things you are most proud of?
Three things I am currently most proud of are pushing myself to travel as much as I can to places that bring interest to me, finding something (fashion) that I feel deeply connected to and want to pursue in college, and finally, I’m proud of myself for making jumps out of my comfort zone to grab opportunities that I want instead of being afraid of the outcomes.
Who do you most admire and why?
I admire my fashion teacher Irina for always pushing me to look at things differently and constantly pushing me to do more than I thought I could.
https://06880danwoog.com/tag/eliza-bowens/
Eliza Bowens-Her path to designer stardom began in 7th grade, at the New England Fashion and Design Association. Over the years she designed clothes for herself and friends.
As a Players actor she performed onstage in “Legally Blonde” and “Back to the 80s.” But Eliza’s true love is “The Costume Shoppe.” There, she lent her excellent eye and skills to help create looks for characters in shows like “Mamma Mia!,” “Seussical” and “Grease.”
When costume designer Christie Stanger was pulling together ideas for “Descendants,” she knew Mal’s dress for the big coronation scene needed to be extra special. She also knew Eliza could make it happen.
The young designer repaid the trust Christie, and directors David Roth and Kerry Long, showed in her.
She submitted 3 designs. When one was chosen, Eliza created a pattern, built a dress from muslin, chose fabric and sewed the actual dress.
It took a month. With minor tweaks, it was show-ready for Mal (Quinn Mulvey).
Eliza did not stop there. Using leftover fabric, she covered shoes to complete the look.
This fall, Eliza heads to Polimoda in Florence, Italy. She’ll continue studying fashion design there.
