In August 1988, Alexandria Textiles, Inc. was born as the engine for Jane Porter's creative textile design. Jane's paternal grandfather, Joseph Najarian, a 1912 Olympian Gymnast from Alexandria, Egypt, came to the United States in the 1920's to start a silk ribbon mill in Greene, NY. Today, the Najarian family still runs one of the two ribbon mills left in the USA:
Najarian Manufacturing Company.
Jane Porter's passion for textiles began at an early age. Growing up near New York City, her grandmother, Ardemis Bedrosian, a fashion designer in her own right, taught Jane about excellent fabrics. Together they designed and sewed all of Jane's dance and party dresses in the 1950's and 60's. Jane always dreamed of becoming a fashion designer and launched her first commercial line of clothing in 1968, making and selling dresses in egyptian cotton.
A member of Colgate University's first coed class in 1970, she pursued costume design for the University Theatre. After careers in Nursing and Investment Management, she returned to her true love--textile design. Studying at Philadelphia Guild for Handweavers, she learned to spin, weave and dye with natural dyes, and then opened a school for the fiber arts in Chadds Ford, PA.
Mentor and Master Dyer Michele Wiplinger of Earthues, helped Jane focus her passion on printing fabric with natural dyes in the summer of 2000 during a master class in Michele's Seattle studio. Loving to dress up for work, she returned to her first love of fashion design. Her lines for the professional urban woman reflected a comfortable elegance in fabrics that travelled well. She is a member of Atelier Designers and One of a Kind Show.
On the following pages you can see the Jane's different collections that were sold in boutiques in the USA. Currently Jane is creating "Wild Feminine Fiber" fashion accessories at Porter Studios and Fine Arts Gallery, a wonderful space to create, teach and share ideas with creative souls.
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| Fashion Accessories with Sculpture by Gretchen Ewart |
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