A local fashion designer and educator talks about what inspires her

“No matter what’s happening, [I] find the beauty in it. Allow that chaos to be art and keep going,” says Olivia Rae Davis.

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St. Louis native Olivia Rae Davis has been sewing since she was 12. She remembers spending countless hours on YouTube, attending after-school classes, and learning from seamstresses in her community. “There was so much trial and error,” she says. “I tell my students they can’t make a mistake that I haven’t already made.” In high school, the now-25-year-old co-founded the fashion club, organizing shows and working closely with local boutiques. Those experiences formed the foundation of her love of fashion, she says. Davis went on to Howard University, in Washington, D.C., and majored in fashion design and entrepreneurship. Eventually, her journey led her back to St. Louis, where she founded Craft Academy, an online sewing class platform, and Olivia Rae Design Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of improving access to education in the fields of sewing and textiles.

Before founding the Olivia Rae Design Academy, Davis designed a line of special occasion dresses under the label Olivia Rae Designs that she created at the City Sewing Room, a sewing center in South St. Louis founded in 2020. The organization, says Davis, is a “generous place that allows people to use their materials to create.” City Sewing Room’s founder, Anne Stirnemann, suggested that Davis teach others to sew. “I have the skills, so I might as well share them,” Davis says.

On display at the Saint Louis Art Museum, this Roberto Matta painting, “To Cover the Earth with a New Dew,” reminds Davis of herself: chaotic and beautiful. “No matter what’s happening, [I] find the beauty in it. Allow that chaos to be art and keep going,” she says.

Davis is inspired by journalist Dana Thomas’ books Deluxe and Fashionopolis: “Her books are unique because they take a global, economic, anthropological, and even a public health approach. She does investigative journalism in fashion.” Thomas’ work influenced not only the way Davis thinks about fashion but also her career. This spring, Davis taught sewing at a small school in Iringa, Tanzania. “I wanted to see the impact of fashion globally, how it affects other people and their cultures, and how it can create opportunities.”

Davis is studying Spanish and Swahili at Webster University. She hopes to travel to Latin America and Africa to help people “sew their way to the top,” she says, focusing on learning what those communities need to preserve their traditional textile practices and encourage entrepreneurship. “My goal is to help young people and women have access to an arts education [so that they can] provide for themselves and their families. The best way is to speak their language,” she says. Next year, the Olivia Rae Design Academy will send a small group of volunteers to Tanzania to help teach at Turnbull Tech, a training college in Iringa. “I want to fill in the gaps in places where fashion is forgotten,” Davis says.

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