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14 November 12 - 18, 2008 l Planet Jackson Hole l www.PlanetJH.com updated daily
the fashion files
Soldiers of Valley style
Meet the faces of Jackson fashion, designers who diverge from one another
in medium and style, each of them battling the doldrums of the mainstream.
Like Calla Grimes – a Seattle city girl turned small-town boutique store manager
who sews elegance, femininity and comfort into her own line, Calla;
Meagan Schwartz – a Fresno transplant who set up shop inside her father’s
carpenter studio to silkscreen scientific and organic drawings onto hoodies,
Mike Parillo paints culture onto bros brahs
Mike Parillo paints what he sees. And eventually, he sees
people wearing what he paints. Here in the valley, his
Volcom featured artist line is currently sold at the Boardroom
and Jackson Treehouse.
“It’s constantly changing,” Parillo said of his art that has
also spanned the height of Lib Tech and Burton snowboards,
including the signature Travis Rice boards, which Parillo can
be spotted creating in That’s It, That’s All.
Parillo’s paintings have been dispatched onto Volcom
threads since the company’s beginnings in 1991 when Parillo
was building some of the country’s first snowboard parks.
His love for powder slashing sparked a lasting kinship with
Calla Grimes: twisting the mountain-town mode
the skate and snowboard company.
The freshman Volcom movie The Garden used a Parillo
painting - a sweeping purple swell set against a tribal sun -
for the cover.
Now, Parillo has plans to take the new body of work he
will complete in the next two months and turn it into his own
line of clothing.
While a gig with Volcom helped Parillo realize his vocation,
a friend aided in his relocation.
In 1995, the soft-spoken L.A. native was designing outerwear
for the Volcom team when he paid a visit to his longtime
buddy, pro-snowboarder Brian Iguchi, who had recently
moved to Jackson.
“I went back to L.A. and my head was in the clouds,”
Parillo said.
Shortly after his visit, Parillo was shredding in the Tetons
as a bona fide valley resident.
Years before, when he was 16 and “living in a tent in the
woods” Parillo met The Guch, who was not in the woods, but
living the dream shacked up in a mail truck.
“It was the beginning of everything,” Parillo said from his
garage-turned-art-studio, adjacent to the home he now
shares with Iguchi.
The Guch, somewhat accidentally, bought Parillo his first
If Jackson needs a little dressing up, Calla Grimes will expedite the makeover. Daughter of a
seamstress and self-proclaimed “fabric snob,” Grimes responded to a lack of clothing choices
with the boutique line, Calla.
“I started making clothing for myself, not necessarily thinking I would make clothes for other
people,” the 30-something fashionista admitted. “At the time, it was more because I couldn’t
find anything I liked and I didn’t have a lot of money.”
From conception to production, Grimes does it all. Once she settles on an idea, she threads a
sewing machine, set upon a wooden desk inside Grimes’ East Jackson home, and begins the
laborious process of transferring blueprints into wearable designs.
A Spokane, Wash. native, Grimes ended a 10-year stint in Seattle for Jackson in February.
Back in the birthplace of grunge (a nickname the city might never shake, as flannel shirts start
creeping their way back into style), Grimes managed a fabric store and designed custom clothing
for clients and boutiques.
Although it was her husband Matt’s new graphic design gig at the Art Association and some
Jackson-based relatives that instigated the couple’s relocation, Grimes said city life was losing
its appeal.
“For years, we had been feeling like Seattle was changing,” Grimes recalled. “Matt and I
were both in this place where we weren’t really committed to the city anymore.”
And so, like many valley transplants, one city’s loss became Jackson’s gain. Although her
heart may not rest in a hectic metropolis now, Grimes’ clothing style is centered on chic, urbanbirthed
fashion. Her designs – suitable for a 1940s femme fatale – are coupled with an air of
urban sensibility, comfort and versatility.
From tops and sweaters to skirts and dresses, Grimes’ wears are designed with a woman’s
shapely figure in mind.
“I love the woman’s body; I love big hips. I love a curvy, beautiful woman and I love dressing
that.”
One of her flattering, vintage-style, knee-length skirts sells in the boutique she manages –
Luca V – which opened its doors in June.
Nestled on South Glenwood between the D.O.G.’s tiny burrito haven and Trio, Luca V’s racks
COURTESY VOLCOM
and soon hats, t-shirts and accessories; Michelle Julene – a custom designer
with a small store nestled on Broadway Avenue whose fashions have been
embraced all over the world, yet her business couldn’t have a more fitting
Jackson location; the boys of Anomaly Farm whose styles are deeply intertwined
with Jackson’s snow and skate culture; and Mike Parillo, a painter
designing custom patterns that color the facades of Volcom apparel. - RV
set of acrylic paints when he was 21 because he
“probably didn’t know what to get me for Christmas,”
Parillo laughed.
In the last five years, Parillo has created new pieces,
specifically designed for his Volcom featured artist line.
His bright abstract designs gloss the surface of jackets,
hoodies, t-shirts, pants, board bags and accessories.
“It was during a drawing session for Volcom,” Parillo
recalled, “I sketched a bunch of stuff and it sat in the
archives until one outerwear designer saw a sketch, and it
was turned into a whole line.”
Parillo has been living in Prague for the past 10 years
where he “painted and just lived a different life.” In May, he
had his homecoming in Jackson.
The surroundings are what inspire Parillo along with his
crew – he also paints portraits. Recently, Parillo painted the
late snowboarder Jeff Anderson which will morph into an
outerwear line for Volcom, winter of 2009.
Parillo said whatever is transpiring in his life at the time
is translated into his work.
“When I was in L.A. I was doing a completely different thing.
A lot of people didn’t like it, it was a lot darker,” he said.
“The people here are way more inspiring than anywhere
I’ve been.”
are adorned with diverse
clothing choices that are
typically affordable and
mainly chic and trendy. It’s
the kind of shop where
you’ll spot a bright emerald
green Nikita snowboard
jacket facing a beautiful
charcoal cowl-neck tunic; a
short cocktail dress staring
down a knit, big-buttoned
sweater.
The back wall of the
store is lined with shelves,
housing mammoth wool
hats, arm warmers, scarves
and shoes that beckon to
curious customers with the promise of style and warmth.
With boutique owner Michele Esperti based out of Bozeman, Mont., Grimes is frequently stationed
inside the store’s clothing oasis, trusted to oversee the majority of its operations. Esperti
checks in about once a month and together, they carefully sift through a gamut of styles and
trends to select clothing for the shop, jet setting to Ney York and then L.A.
Esperti - a former manager of the now-defunct Jackson shop, The Root, and former owner of
a few Bozeman boutiques - bases her buying on what she thinks will be a hit, while Grimes
relies on her style prerogative to decide. “I tend to buy what I like,” Grimes admitted.
As she feels out her new Cowboy State dwellings, Grimes has grown attune with the casual
Jackson facade. But she vows to hold onto the foundations that define her style.
“The clothing that I make I want to be sophisticated, pretty and comfortable all at the same
time … and I think that is what I do best.”
ANDREW WYATT