12 | Embracing The Unfamiliar with Evie Lucas

In this episode, Alexis welcomes the multi-talented Evie Lucas. Evie, a musician and creator of a wearable art brand Seams Nice, chats about her glittery jackets, travel, plants, fabrics, and music career. From capturing vocals on an iPhone and singing in a Latvian choir to building a brand that clothed pop star Bebe Rexha, Evie advocates for embracing experimentation. She emphasises that stepping into the unknown can yield delightful results, encouraging everyone to explore uncharted creative territories.

 

If you’d like to see more of, you can follow Evie on instagram; 

 

Music @ evielucasmusic 

Wearable Art @ seams.nice

DJ @ djevielucas

 

This episode was recorded on 7 December 2023 on the lands of the Kaurna Peoples. We hope that this episode inspires you as a creative person and as a human being.

Thanks for listening, catch you on the next episode.

Psst! We are always on the lookout for creative people to share their story and inspire others. Have you got someone in mind who would love to have a chat? Get in contact with us via Instagram @throughthecreativedoor

 

Creative references from Evie:

Let’s get social:

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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ttcdpodcast

CREDITS

Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor

Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel

Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel

00:08 - Alexis (Host)

Hi, my name is Alexis Naylor and I am your host here at Through the Creative Door. On behalf of myself and my guests, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on which this podcast is recorded and produced. We pay our respects to all First Nations people and acknowledge Elders, past and present. On this podcast, I will be chatting to an array of creative guests, getting a glimpse into their worlds and having some honest and inspiring conversations along the way. Welcome to Through the Creative Door.

 

00:49 - Alexis (Host)

Hello, how are you going? 

 

00:52 - Evie (Guest)

I’m good thank you

 

00:55 - Alexis (Host)

Evie, I am so chuffed to be in your space. Thank you so much for coming on to Through The Creative Door. We're through your creative door. 

 

01:02 - Evie (Guest)

You're welcome. Yeah, it's a bit squishy. 

 

01:04 - Alexis (Host)

Oh, my God, it's not squishy, it's fucking amazing. So I'm looking around a beautiful room with beautiful plants and beautiful glittery jackets and lots of fabric and a keyboard and I don't know, just like all the things that just make me smile. 

 

01:23 - Evie (Guest)

Oh, that's good, that's good. You're found your way around there. You're in this, the sewing zone section yeah. 

 

01:31 - Alexis (Host)

I love it. Um, so a bit about you. I mean, you are such a clever, talented bear. You have so many creative ventures yeah,

 

01:43 - Evie (Guest)

 I can't help myself a little bit. I'm busy. 

 

01:48 - Alexis (Host)

No, in all of the best possible ways. I mean I have fanned girled you from afar. You are such a talented musician, um, and I also. You know you work with one of my dear friends. Sophie Head as well, which I'm very jealous of some of the creative stuff that you guys have done. 

 

02:11 - Evie (Guest)

Come join Tipsy Twain. 

 

02:17 - Alexis (Host)

Oh my God, it'd be so good, I know. Every time I was like what else are you doing for fringe? What? else are you doing? But you, you apart from, obviously, music being one of your major loves um you have a wearable art brand? 

 

02:33 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah I'd say, for seems nice, yeah, so that was the idea um to try and fund music, because music doesn't necessarily fund life. 

 

02:44 - Alexis (Host)

Don't I know it. 

 

02:46 - Evie (Guest)

So the idea was to make my own merch or make things that I could sell as merch and like why not have it be wearable art? I've started with tinsel jackets, but I want it to get a whole lot weirder. I've got like like lots of Pinterest boards and lots of um ideas that in the middle of the night you wake up to go yeah and then you wake up and go no, no, no, how?  

 

03:15

So um, like, there's tinsel jackets, but the next sort of thing is going to be like raincoats with the tops of the tinsel. You know it comes in a strip at the top, like to chop that up into different patterns and put that in a raincoat so it's glittery but bits don't fall off and go into you know your world, or a festival or whatever. Yeah, like I want to do things that are glittery and outrageous, but that the pieces don't come off, because if you shimmy hard enough in this, you'll get some casualties. 

 

03:39 - Alexis (Host)

So, um, I mean, you want to encourage the shimminess? 

 

03:51 - Evie (Guest)

Well, you can't help it when you wear one. I guess yeah, yeah, the shimmy movement, it's just, it's yeah Part of it, yeah, so. But um, yeah, I wanted to have something, um something else. But yeah, there's lots of other ideas and like I want to do beading things and, um, yeah, like sequins and beaded stuff. But I think the idea is too that I need to do something with my hands. I'm very busy. I can't kind of help it, so if I'm watching tv I can't really sit still, I've never been. I've always been like drawing or painting or something while watching tv to chill out. So sewing actually feels like that's why there's a tv in here too. It'll be like Will and Grace or Kath & Kim or like some kind of something on like my partner's. 

 

04:28

Like, can you? That's a Kath & Kim quote, isn't it? So like, um, I'll be watching tv and sewing. So, um, it was to. Yeah, it's all like inclusive, all part of it. So it fuels multiple kind of parts of life and people have been super stoked when they've gotten a jacket so far. So I've been really, really happy with that. Um, and like just all of the clients that I've had that have gotten jackets have just been so awesome and lovely people. Yeah, like I had two brides in Perth, actually two brides from WA both wear jackets for their wedding when they got married. That's sick, yeah, it was so good and like just their colour choices. And they sent me a little video. 

 

05:10

Someone else was in it wearing dancing, and it just looked like such a good time. So, yeah, I don't know, it just all feels a bit more like joyful. Like I did lots of paper art and stuff and it was something to look at but something to wear. Um, where someone else feels that stagecraft. 

 

05:29

So I, yeah, started this thing to fund music releases because if I can sell some jackets then I could make a song and release that and then that could sort of be like a roll-on sort of effect, bit of give me some momentum, um, and it definitely has kind of done that. All of these jackets this year have helped me get to um, go to Latvia and be part of that choir, so it did fund things towards music totally, and that was like music, family heritage, like grabbing back with both hands, like heritage and stuff that I haven't been able to have access to. So that's been really really cool. Um, yeah and um a friend um helped me design um, all of that, because I was just like I just can't do the branding stuff, like help me um with that. So she, she did that and it sort of really helped kind of like elevate it and um, working with someone else when you know you can't do a hundred percent of everything.

 

06:27

Because I would always try and do that. Like I started doing singing lessons and then I was like, okay, I want to do like, be singing and do a gig. Okay, I need to be able to play guitar too. Okay, um, I have to learn how to play guitar. And then I want to write some songs. Okay, well, I got to try and practice writing songs and then I want to try and release them. So I got to learn Ableton and then I got to record everything and try and do that and try mixing, and then that's kind of quite hard too, and then releasing and do social media and just like making the merch, and then so it was too many things, so just taking like a piece of it off was quite nice. 

 

07:01 - Alexis (Host)

It is nice to share the hats. It is definitely nice to share, yeah. 

 

07:05 - Evie (Guest)

I like wearing lots of them, but um, taking some off is nice too. 

 

07:10 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, it is nice yeah, since we are in this beautiful creative space of yours and I know we've spoken a little bit about you know some of the items in here but what does a creative space mean to you and why? 

 

07:26 - Evie (Guest)

um, I think I was always of this sort of opinion that the space has to feel right before you can do something creative, which that might be like me being really particular or something, but having, um, it's like part of the vibe or something that it has. The vibe has to be right to then feel relaxed enough to go do stuff. That, yeah, it was sort of about that. So I've got like I mean, there's kind of stuff everywhere but I know where everything is like this yeah, reeds of fabric everywhere, but organized chaos. 

 

08:02

If you were like, oh, have you got any wire? I'm like, yeah, it's down deep in that drawer there like I can pin to the left. 

 

08:07

Yeah, literally like where things are where everything is. I know where things are, so, um, but it's just to get the vibe right and I'll still like, maybe, be in the lounge room and sprawl fabric out everywhere if I need more, more space or whatever. But, um, yeah, this was meant to be, this was our dining room, but, like I am always eating on the go anyway, or uh, why do I feel so angry? 

 

08:35 - Alexis (Host)

oh right, I haven't eaten in 10 hours because I've been sewing like I just I don't do that too way, like I'm not sewing. I am not a sewer. YIi to anyone listening, do not ask me to sew anything, um, but yeah, I do that too. We're like not sewing. I am not a sewer. If I are to anyone listening, do not ask me to sew anything, um, but yeah, I do that too. I'm like so immersed, yeah, that I forget to eat and suddenly I'm like shaking. 

 

08:52 - Evie (Guest)

I'm like yeah, like oh my god, what do I need to? Yeah, so, um, yeah, having the space used as like a bit of an office or creative space was more like suited us better than having a dining room to sit and sit still, we like yeah, so yeah, just to have the space feel like the right vibe, pretty much. 

 

09:16 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, yeah, so true, it's nice to have a designated space. 

 

09:21 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah

 

09:23 - Alexis (Host)

Just to be in. I know we've touched on all of well, not all of, but quite a lot of your creative ventures, but is there a body of work or one particular project that you're most proud of creating, and how'd it come about? 

 

09:40 - Evie (Guest)

um, I guess probably I feel most proud at the moment of where all of this has kind of led me currently. Like it feels like I was going from thing to thing to thing for a long time in lots of different directions and then just going, oh right, why don't I just bring it all together? Then it all kind of made sense, because then I could make something and then make 20 other versions of it and then wear that thing in a film clip and then suddenly you've got something that does all go together. Um, and then I got this message on Instagram and it was like this person going oh, I'm, I'm a, I'm a stylist and I work in the entertainment industry and all this kind of stuff, and I was like, oh sure like me too, I was like I don't know who this person is, um, and just give like all the same info like, no worries, thanks for your message and just try and give, like you know, your good customer service and and 

 

10:36

chat to them and, um, I said they had some kind of project and if I wanted to um, know more details, what's a good email and whatever else. And I just said I've got what I've got available online at the moment, like some trench coats and jackets, but I'm totally happy to discuss with you and try and like. It's mostly about meeting deadlines. 

 

10:55

Someone will be like oh can I have this in LA by next Wednesday? And I go, oh my God, probably not. Like with the post, like the like with the post, um. But then I looked at their profile and they had like dressed like Gwen Stefani and Paris Hilton and people like this, and I was like what? Like sure, okay, um. And they said, oh, yeah, no, we, we really want, um, the pink trench coat, um, and the sizing works well. 

 

11:24

So I've gone ahead and purchased that on Shopify and, um, I was like okay. And then like I need it ASAP, though can you take it down to FedEx and use here's my like login, whatever, no worries, um, and I just need it ASAP. And I was like okay, uh, all right. And so I took it down and shipped it off and everything matched up the name and everything matched up and I was like okay. And then, like it arrived and they'd said they'd got it. And then I was like who's this gonna end up on? But it was, um, Bebe Rexha. She sings that I'm blue, yeah, um, and it was part of her tour, um, and I know she wore it in her shows for being like going across the US. I was like what the? 

 

12:05 - Alexis (Host)

That's amazing. 

 

12:07 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, I was just like what? Um, it was just so cool to see something that I had made with my hands on stage with somebody like that um, and I didn't have to do any of the performing sort of side of it, like, giving that thing away, that here, like, and if, like, that's the point of the clothes that I want to make is that it's meant to enhance how you feel about yourself, how you perform on stage, whether it's part of a performance or not. 

 

12:34

Um, like, recently I had, um a drag queen wear that as part of their performance too which was awesome, um, and so, just like that level of confidence that it seems that drag requires too, like you need um more um I don't know like the performance, wear and stuff has to be that elevated sort of thing. So I'd love to make more kind of pieces that are in that kind of realm. It seems like wearable art and I'm inspired by all of that kind of stuff, like these couture designers that do things for um drag runways and part of the or the drag shows. It's really cool. But, um, yeah, that kind of wearable art thing, um has been this kind of thing that I guess I feel more proud of. 

 

13:18 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, yeah, amazing, so so cool. Yeah, now, on the flip side of something that you're proud of, has there been a challenge to your creativity, and what do you think that major lesson was or is? 

 

13:40 - Evie (Guest)

I think the biggest one is trying to balance real life. Whether it's like you know, your just your life. You have to afford and live like a real adult and pay your bills and all that kind of stuff. That, and for a lot of my friends I noticed that can really stifle your creativity, just like

 

14:02 - Alexis (Host)

For those listening off off. Uh, mic, we, yeah, we talked about the housing crisis. Yeah, good times good times. 

 

14:08 - Evie (Guest)

But I think I had like seven grand put on my HECS just out of interest, like just interest, this this year, like uh, it's just wild, like how like people used to be paid for, paid to go to uni or the uni was free and stuff like um, it's just wild, like so trying to, yeah, just keep your head above water and and because I am, I think someone that's going to be doing gig life, like gig economy, like teaching, singing lessons is like a gig if, um, which is dependent on that student's health, like if kids are sick or whatever, you have to make up the lesson later and if you don't get to, or you, you have to make it work, yeah, um, so that kind of stress to make things work and make things happen is probably a bit stifling. 

 

15:01

Like I said, I haven't released anything like this year. There's a lot of like um half finished things or, like you know, you get into the zone of writing, maybe, and then you have a bank of songs that you need to then go record and, um, I think just life happens and then you have to try and prioritize it and I probably this year, differently, I haven't been good at prioritizing that side of things, I think. I think I'm in a bit of a writing chunk, but not a production chunk. 

 

15:33 - Alexis (Host)

I mean it's all seasons right. I know for me. Yeah, definitely go through a season where it's like yeah, I don't feel like gigging, I just want to write and just be in that space and and then yeah, the recording side of things and just want to be with others and creating, or, yeah, I don't know, I feel like it's seasons you're just in a different season. 

 

15:53 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, and I haven't really, because when I finished uni and I took off to Bali and I'd saved a bunch of money and I was like I just need to get out of Melbourne and I had that time. I was there for like a year and a bit and it was a chunk of creative time like that, because there wasn't, or there was still, like you know, bills and whatever money things to try and sort out, but I worked my butt off to save that chunk, so that I was. 

 

16:19

I was right for a while, um, and then I could write and practice and all that stuff. So trying to collect or save some time for yourself seems like really hard to do because you're sacrificing something, whether it's like time with family or having some kind of like stability, stable job, whatever that is. I don't know if I could actually do that.  I tried it and I failed and I'm sorry because my friend got me that job. 

 

16:45 - Alexis (Host)

I, you didn’t fail. It just wasn't. It wasn't the right thing for you, it wasn't on your path. 

 

16:50 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah and I just kind of expected that after the 40-hour week I would have a ton of energy to go use on creative stuff. I was depleted and so unhappy Like. I remember doing a Zoom call with someone and they were like are you okay. 

 

17:09

Like I just just evaporated out of myself. I thought I looked so unhappy so I can't, can't do that. But I guess, yeah, just managing the, the gig life, can take it out of you a bit. So I think, yeah, trying to take enough of a chunk of time out of a week, or just I don't know whether to spread that out over time, or like buy yourself time, have like a month off where you just do go somewhere and write and produce, or whatever. I don't know what the right thing is to do, necessarily, but I'm sure that's something that I haven't been so great at, especially this year. Or I've just said yes to too many things, like the Latvian choir. 

 

17:53 - Alexis (Host)

But it's so nice being able to say yes to things, but it's like we've got to have the art of saying no, right. Yeah, is there an object or a thing that you can't live without when you're creating? And I suppose that would probably be different questions for the different streams of creation. 

 

18:09 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, you do like I have to have a sewing machine to get anywhere um, but um, I guess not so much an object like I like having precious things in here, like this plant was from a cutting from um my auntie like friend, family friend, auntie auntie's house and that was from a cutting that my mum had given her. 

 

18:37

So like yeah, and like she passed away when I was 18. So it's literally it feels very special. I'm surprised it's growing because I can keep these, like Monstera, but other ones, like I, kill quite easily, so I think it's hanging on. But it feels really special to have like things like that in here and like it's mum sewing machines and it's mum some of like some of the jackets that have been sold have like mum's cotton in them from when she had because. 

 

19:06

I've just inherited all this kind of stuff, so all of that's felt pretty special. But I think, coming from this like eastern European family, it was sort of like, um, whatever skills you can build up within yourself is something that no one can really take away from you. When they really had to, like, hide who they were and change their names and run away to Germany or go into a different camp and have these different languages so that you could look after yourself and not speak the wrong one in the wrong place and stuff like that, because you'd just be sent off to Siberia or whatever. Like like all of you don't really hear of many Latvians because they were either um, you know, the land was taken over by either Russians or Germans at any point in time up until like 1991. 

 

19:54

So like you really had to, um, yeah, there was not a lot of independence there, so my family was probably quite um kind of scarred in that way. Like you had to build your own skills and stay quiet about who you were and and what you were doing, but no one could take those skills away from you because they were yours, sort of so, um, yeah, I guess that's sort of like yeah, your hands and, yeah, your voice and your, your things, are the things I have to try and keep. Keep with me and, like not you know, sew my hands over, so if I bust,

 

20:28 - Alexis (Host)

I mean they'd be pretty, they’d have lots of glitter and stuff yeah, yeah so not very good for the rest of any activities. 

 

20:46 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, so um yeah, I guess, not necessarily anything I can't live without, 

 

20:50 - Alexis (Host)

But I think I think, your object being that plant, I think that's a very beautiful thing. 

20:53 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, it's been doing pretty well, surprisingly, even like cutting, making more cuttings and shoving them in. They've taken, so it's doing all right. 

 

21:00 - Alexis (Host)

It's very lush yeah it's very lush. If you could give one piece of advice or nugget of advice to another creative, what would it be? 

 

21:15 - Evie (Guest)

I'll still be learning this, but taking the time to to be a bit shit, like I'm going to release stuff that people are going to think is shit, and it probably is shit, and that's fine, because you just want to not get stuck on the perfectionism of something because a painter or whatever doesn't sit there and go, oh, this one has to be perfect. You churn them out and like just get better at making things. Like my first jacket is not for sale because it was so average. But then you improve on everything that you're doing and just not being afraid to make stuff to, to have gone through that process to make it, because it's all worthwhile and and even if you don't do it quite right, like I, when I go to these piano lessons and I haven't done enough work and I'm like pretty mortified at my progress and I'm like a five-year-old with this, trying to read this sheet music but I know that I'm getting better at it because I'm going there and sight reading everything because I haven't done homework. 

 

22:10

So I'm like, oh, my skills are legit. They're small, but they're legit because I'm reading right now. 

 

22:16 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, you're flexing that muscle. 

 

22:17 - Evie (Guest)

Because I didn’t do the homework. Yeah, yeah, so like just letting yourself sort of sit in this uncomfortable space, like it will get better, and maybe it takes some people longer than others and that's still okay. Like it won't. You're never at square one more than once. Like, yeah, you know, um, and I think I sit in that place with like all the singing students that I've got that they feel so frustrated and and whatever else, but it doesn't last forever. So, just to try and let yourself have that time because you will get better at it, yeah, we all probably feel like what we're making is a bit rubbish sometimes? 

 

22:54 - Alexis (Host)

For sure, but we have to. What does Ed Sheeran says you've got to run the tap. You've got to run the tap bad songs to get to the good ones yeah. 

 

23:07 - Evie (Guest)

And you can write 100 and release seven. Yeah, that's fine, yeah, that's totally fine. And then, like because I've got this quote up on my wall, I watch this TED Talk. Her name's Sue Austin, she's in a wheelchair and she goes underwater and it's this like jet sort of thing and she just said that she would, um, be so outrageous in her wheelchair and what she would do with it and make art out of it because no one could go. Oh my god, you're in a wheelchair. Like, give her any kind of. She felt that it was. It was a restrictive kind of view on being in a wheelchair and she's like fuck, no, I'm like she's in scuba gear and like got this jet thing behind her and she said um, I'll read. 

 

23:47

“An arts practice can remake one's identity by transforming preconception” and this is by like doing re-envisioning the familiar, so like you've got some kind of familiar object but you're doing something completely out of the box with it that people don't have any kind of thing to relate it back to. 

 

24:07 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, they don't have anything a benchmark for it. 

 

24:09 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, so that's what I really liked with this like whole wearable art thing. If you're doing something so kind of strange or a bit out of the box, then you're kind of like making this new-ish thing, um, and I mean, so far it's only tinsel jackets, but it's just getting a bit more, um, permission for yourself to do something a bit more outrageous than you normally would. Yeah, which is what also feels like an important thing to do. 

 

24:38 - Alexis (Host)

100% is an important thing to do, so good yeah so good, yeah, if someone wanted to do what you do, any of the things that you do, all of the things that you do. Uh, have you got any resources that you would recommend for someone to develop their creative process? 

 

25:01 - Evie (Guest)

Um, resources, I, I, I really struggled to sit and watch things online but like I would probably say to be looking at things like I don't know, even like YouTube and stuff for things to do with Ableton or because I went down like expensive routes and like doing like actual study and taking chunks of time out to do that which, um, feels like a bit of a luxury. 

 

25:34

It is a stressor, but it feels like a bit of a luxury thing that maybe people can't go and do that, but just like anywhere you can collect it from. I remember just having to watch a video because I couldn't ask mum how to rethread this sewing machine when I got it out, like I just needed to find just one little piece. And then now I do that completely without thinking. But even to find that in a video somewhere ages ago, even if it's three minutes and it took me like re-watching it a few times and stuff, just that one day it all does build and compound and stuff too, so there might be like a little free course or like for sewing, there's an amazing woman in Norwood who like it's it was very, um, it wasn't very expensive lessons and she's like such a humongous wealth of knowledge, like and so lovely um helped me to learn how to attach a zip properly, or like do darts properly, and I was like oh god. 

 

26:31

I've been, yeah, like I might not do some things properly because I'm not formally trained in certain things, but it kind of doesn't matter. So any bits of wisdom you get from people I feel like is really valuable, even if it feels like a bit of a mishmash by the time you put it together. 

 

26:50 - Alexis (Host)

But we're all just, we're compiling all of it for our own good yeah

 

26:58 - Evie (Guest)

And I don't think you have to be like, lots of people are self-taught in lots of different ways anyway, yes, so, um, I think that's totally valid and and a great way to do things anyway now. Like all of the sewing stuff is is self-taught. I'm surprised that I listened to my mum. So I think I think just anywhere you can find it like there's so much online and and so many people you could ask, even if you find someone that you love, like even on any social media and stuff, and just watching what they do yeah. Yeah, I don't know, and like anything that I do is still all like muscles and stuff. Like one of the songs I did God, I can't even think of it now. But one of the songs I released, the vocals are on a phone and it's not the greatest piece of music ever, but all the vocals were recorded on a phone, all the film clip was done with a projector and it was all like from Pexels, like free to download video and stuff. 

 

27:55

So it was like meant to be a thing that literally anyone could do or make. I think I used um AI to master it and stuff like just I just chucked it as up as like an experiment sort of thing, yeah. So, um, yeah, I think anything that I'm doing, anyone could definitely do so I think,

 

28:15 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, I love it. One last question if you could pick anyone to come on this podcast and answer these questions, who would it be and why? 

 

28:26 - Evie (Guest)

I'm gonna say Sophie Head, because I love her um. 

 

28:32 - Alexis (Host)

Yes, I love her too. She's amazing. 

 

28:34 - Evie (Guest)

Yeah, she's just got a really passionate vibe and I think she's got a lot to share. I feel like she would be very modest but she'll kind of like turn her hand to anything and like totally pull it off. Like Tipsy Twain won, like fringe awards and sold out shows. It was like something they come up with on a New Years Eve together. So yeah, I would say Sophie 

 

29:04 - Alexis (Host)

Beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. 

 

29:08 - Evie (Guest)

My pleasure

 

29:10 - Alexis (Host)

So lovely chatting with you.