E.L.A(lice) and Ela (Queen of Roses)

Mentioned in the New York Times article, “Lisbon Comes Alive” (July 13, 2008), clothing store “Storytailors isn’t so much a retail outlet as a cabinet of wonders where the ghosts of Lewis Carroll and the Brothers Grimm haunt the racks. The 18th-century warehouse brims with hoopskirts, corsets and elaborate lace getups adorned with richly patterned fabrics and kaleidoscopic colors. …each year’s line of clothes began with a classic fairy tale, myth or legend, either Portuguese or international. The [designers] then hire writers to transform it into ‘twisted stories,’ whose characters and experiences form the basis of various collections. These literary-sartorial mash-ups, [include]… ‘E.L.A(lice) and Ela (Queen of Roses)’ (the tale of a schizophrenic girl that mixes elements of Alice in Wonderland and a Portuguese myth about a queen that transforms roses into bread for the poor).”

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