Custard Boutique presses art’s edge with dresses by a father-daughter duo.
Bright colors peek out from Custard Boutique’s big front window, casting a vibrant glow upon South Main Street. Owner Tara Kirkland is coming down from the store’s 10-year-anniversary high. For more than a decade, she’s carefully curated every item in the store, including custom-made art dresses. “We’ve sold more than 1,000 of them since 2018,” the business fashionista reveals. “They’re really cool and cross generational, body type, and age lines. I love stuff like that. Everyone has found a way to make it work in their own wardrobe.”
She discovered the buoyant shifts while strolling Artisphere, Greenville’s premier art festival. She spotted the wife of visiting artist Trés Taylor wearing a dress featuring his modern, primitive images. “He does these large-scale paintings,” Kirkland explains. “But his daughter takes his paintings and digitizes them, arranges the aesthetic, and prints them on fabric. We loved it.”
The comfortable A-frame dresses flatter all figures, with splashy flowers, fish, and mammals spilling across the material. He’s a self-taught artist who left a career in biochemistry 20 years ago to pick up a paint brush, saying it saved his life. “I am closest to God when I am painting,” he admits. “He uses my hands to show my brothers and sisters what He has shown me, which is, when our hearts are free to love, then we will see and experience the world.”
Art meets Fashion at Custard Boutique
Taylor’s world is bright and colorful. Kirkland describes his use of shapes and hues as exemplary. “It’s all very fluid,” she expounds. “There aren’t a lot of sharp edges, and even when there’s a house or boat, you’re not stuck to an angular shape. His use of colors is very unexpected. When you see something like this, it’s very cheerful.”
The father-daughter genesis of the dresses also makes Kirkland happy. Taylor’s daughter Lillis is an industrial designer. Together, they’ve transported his artwork to leggings, pillows, and seat covers, in addition to the dresses.
As with traditional pieces of art, the dresses are limited, but for a different reason. The US manufacturer who produced the uniquely styled fabric recently shuttered operations, and Kirkland is committed to American-made materials. She’s working with the Taylors on new suppliers and future lines that will push more boundaries of wearable art. “We’re talking about doing a knit, or maybe multiple paintings in one ensemble. The bodice is one piece and the base another,” she explains.
There’s no rushing the creative process. “We’re still in the process to find the next thing. Wearable art is so appealing. You get enjoyment out of it, and other people who see it on you get enjoyment out of it.” A beautiful view, in every direction.
Custard Boutique Westend, 718 S. Main St., 864.271.0927, custardboutique.com
