Growing up in Los Angeles, Lilli Elias wasn’t interested in the usual teenage pastimes, like going to the beach with friends. Instead, she went to vintage fairs to browse through antique clothing and connect with old relics. “People being the relics,” Elias, 28, clarifies while laughing. Clothes from the 1890s, 1910s, 1920s, and 1940s usually caught her eye. It wasn’t the garments—it was the fabrics.
Now Elias lives between Los Angeles, New York, and Amsterdam, and runs her own homeware brand, Autumn Sonata, which she started in 2022. Right now, she’s focused on textiles. To create her towels and bath mats, she sources antique and vintage fabrics from online and physical archives, antique books, and trade fairs. Elias re-prints the pattern, altering the dimensions and colors to her liking. Her approach is a hit. In just two years, she’s landed her wares in more than 40 specialty boutiques around the world, from John Derian, in New York, to Everyday Needs, in New Zealand.
