About

Our journey to slow fashion at Cornelia Lively began in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico years ago, when a short-term sabbatical became a long term love of all things uniquely rendered in both metal and textiles. Collaboration with master metalsmith artisans allowed for a business to be born, one that connected a family of creative Texas women: my mother, sister, and grandmother - Cornelia Lively.

That business, founded with a purely creative focus, today is reimagined with the startling knowledge that the fashion industry is second only to the petrochemical industry in environmental impact. This reality informs our commitment to artisans using natural dyes, pedal and backstrap looms, recycled metals, and renewable or organic fabrics. Most of all, we commit ourselves to empowering the artisans with whom we partner, and giving back to the communities in which we do business.

So, we are not here to clutter your closet, make you feel you need anything (you are already beautiful), or tell you that our product is going to solve the environmental challenges of mass production. We are here, however, to offer you something you’ve never seen before, something handmade and imbued with the spirit of the artisan who created it, and something that says “I care” about questions we face as a global society. My grandmother, a master seamstress in her own right, understood the value – and necessity – of creating with the long term in sight.

Welcome.

Emily Greer Henderson
Founder, Cornelia Lively