Episode 20: Rachel Doriss

Send us Fan MailRachel has a designer’s moxie. Her creativity and observation skills serve her in life and in her career in textiles. A college class field trip allowed her to imagine a professional path working with fabric and weaving, a craft she lovingly pursued as a child with her grandmother. She finds inspiration in the smallest places and sets her moxie sights always higher, one ladder rung at a time, building on what she has created for herself and her family. Rachel, the Design Director for Pollack, has textile design in her DNA. She created her first official textile pattern in third grade–splatter-painted curtains made from old sheets. Her high school graduation present—a new sewing machine—offers another clue to her early textile passions, as did the uniquely personal clothing it helped her create.She studied printmaking and painting and even taught batik workshops when she first entered college at Umass Amherst. In the Textile Design department at the Rhode Island School of Design, she realized the practical application of her beloved woven and printed textile techniques. Rachel first worked in the fashion industry, including designing printed silk scarves at Echo before joining the Pollack Studio in 2000. In 2007, she was appointed Vice President, Associate Design Director. She took the helm as Pollack’s Design Director in 2012, overseeing the Studio and guiding the creative vision for each textile collection.In the Studio, she and her team always begin a pattern by first creating artwork by hand. The studio’s designers are, first and foremost, weavers. They have degrees in textile design, having learned the architecture of cloth and how to build a fabric from the ground up. Rachel works with weavers worldwide to bring Pollack’s designs to life.Rachel’s designs for Pollack have been featured in national magazines, including Architectural Digest, Interior Design, and Elle Décor. She has been profiled on such sites as Apartment Therapy and House and Home TV. Two of her creations, “Mod” and “Curlycue,” are in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.This episode of Main Street Moxie is sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and North East Ford. For more information about Rachel, check out the episode’s show notes on our website.Support the show