Eleanor Ylvisaker

For Earnest Sewn founder Eleanor Ylvisaker, style is all about the classics. It shows in the no-frill, five-pocket jeans central to her on-fire denim brand and also in the traditional silhouettes she pairs with vintage pieces when out at parties.

Born into summers in the Hamptons, Eleanor was first brought here by her parents as an infant. After graduating from NYU, she started renting houses here with friends, continuing that tradition this year with her banker husband Jon Ylvisaker; the two currently live in Southampton just down the Street from her store, Ernest Sewn, on Jobs Lane. "We spend most of our time at the beach or by the pool at home," she says, "I'm not that great of a cook so we barbecue a lot." Eleanor would rather lounge around the grill with friends than go out, preferring sunbaths and swims to stiff drinks and dance clubs. Eleanor says that she and her husband have only one mantra they go by in the Hamptons, and that is to keep it "really mellow."

Eleanor's start in the fashion industry began after an initial foray into teaching kindergarten and first grade at public schools in New York. Her thick rolodex and natural style led to fashion stylist bylines at Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and finally Lucky, where she also worked as a market editor. Having witnessed the cream of the fashion crop during these stints, she decided to enroll herself at FIT to study design.

Commes des Garçons	Camilla and Mark	Valentino	Balenciaga, ES jeans
Photos by Patrick McMullan

It was there that she met Scott Morrison of Paper, Denim & Cloth, who hired her as a freelance stylist for the jean company and ultimately as public relations director. "We had such great energy working together so when he asked me to start a new denim brand with him, it was a no-brainer," Eleanor recalls. She and Scott formed Earnest Sewn in 2004, with the intention of creating luxurious, everyday-use denim.

The brand has now found acolytes in such actresses as Sienna Miller, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Anne Hathaway, as documented in People and Us Weekly. Eleanor explains why some stars naturally gravitate toward the brand, saying, "people just come into the store and fall in love with the lifestyle that the Earnest Sewn brand embodies." It's certainly marked by sophistication and simplicity, as the impeccably tailored jeans are void of all showy logos on the back pocket. Revealing the secret of her denim brand's superiority, she chalks it up to craft. "We import most of our denim from Japan," she says. "During World War II, the United States sold their small shuttle spools to Japan." Today, denim manufacturing in the US is all mass-produced. In order to get, as Eleanor says, "that special, small shuttle loom-feeling denim," Earnest Sewn must import their celeb-hunted wares from abroad.

Calvin Klein	Calvin Klein, ES jeans	Balenciaga	Zac Posen	Nina Ricci, Marni, ES jeans

For her busy evening social calendar in the city, Eleanor dons Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Zac Posen, whose designs fill her closet to overflowing. "I like wearing beautifully made, couture-styled clothing inspired by the street," she says. Eleanor herself hits the street every morning, walking to her office in Manhattan's Meatpacking District from her apartment in SoHo. She wears Earnest Sewn jeans nearly every day, insisting that this is possible because jeans are the one wardrobe essential that can be dressed up or down based on accessories and shoes. To Eleanor, this is the very definition of a classic.

Marchesa	Chanel	Obesity and Speed	Valentino	Richard Chai

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