Austrian Princess Turned Fashion Designer Holds Court in Houston – The Story Behind Ava von Auersperg’s Dream Looks

P.Hilanthropist, environmentalist and Austrian princess Ala von Auersperg Isham holds court in the main salon of Houston’s Elizabeth Anthony store in Uptown Park. He reigns not as one might imagine over European royalty from a previous century, but as the artist and designer behind the dream fashions AvA von Auersperg. (She does not use the title princess.)

There’s not much pretentious about this sophisticated woman who divides her time between homes in Newport, Rhode Island and the island of Antigua and apartments in Palm Beach and New York. Isham is here in Houston to meet customers, welcome new ones, and personally sell her effortless clothing designed for women of all ages and sizes.

Isham inadvertently got into fashion design more than a decade ago after a designer friend saw one of her watercolors and suggested she use the illustration for the fabric of a kaftan . Inspired, she began creating fabric paintings for floaty organza kaftans for her friends.

Eventually, a company was born, focused on women 35 and older.

“At a certain age, women have purchasing power,” says Isham. “They want to look good. They don’t lie down and play dead. They deserve to look good, go out and have a good time.

“I like the idea of ​​being able to dress a very wide range of women. I think every woman deserves to look beautiful in her clothes. We are therefore going from double XS to Double XL which is unusual for a small company. I love the idea of ​​women looking beautiful and having a good time.

The fabric palette of sunny images, palm greens and ocean blues is inspired by nature, all painted by Isham whose works vary between watercolor, tempera on panel and pencil on paper depending on His schedule. In addition to caftans, the AvA von Auersperg collection includes dresses, shirts, pants, swimsuits, skirts and scarves all embracing a botanical theme.

“I have to take inspiration from something in nature. I have to be able to look at something and I have to say, “I like the shape.” I like geometry. I like color. And do something with it,” Isham says. “It’s the colors that really attract me. I tend to gravitate toward things I love.

As she points out, AvA von Auersperg clothing is designed for vacations, for travel “which is an important part of what I do,” and is perfect for beach life, yachting and much more. Think Newport, Palm Beach, Cabo and Lyford Cay. More Slim Aarons lifestyle photos.

Discussion of the inspiration for Isham’s designs leads to the influence of his mother Sunny von Bülow of The reverse of fortune fame and his grandmother Annie Laurie Aitken. Isham’s mother, Martha “Sunny” Crawford, was first married to Austrian Prince Alfred von Auersperg, Isham’s father.

“I’m more influenced by my mother, my grandmother and my aunt’s style,” she says. “My mother and grandmother were incredibly classic women. Some of my mother’s clothes are from the Met Costume Institute’s very first collection. They were greeted by Diana Vreeland.

“So I’m classic in the way I think about clothes.”

Speaking of her mother, the discussion turns to Christie’s stunning jewelry auction, which features a number of pieces from Sunny von Bülow’s famous collection. The auction is set for June 11.

“I have a lot of my mother’s jewelry and there are certain pieces that I don’t wear, especially emeralds,” says Isham. “So I sell them as part of the gorgeous jewelry sale, which is really fun because I want them to be on someone gorgeous. I’m not going to wear them.

“My daughters aren’t going to wear them and I’m sick of them being in the safe.” But I keep the things I love.

Isham goes beyond fashion

In response to the death of his mother after 28 years in a coma, Isham and his brother Alexander von Auersperg founded the National Center for Victims of Crime and the Brain Injury Foundation (originally the Sunny von Bülow Coma and Head Trauma Research Institute).

Today, however, Ala von Auersperg Isham’s interests turn to historic conservation and coral reef restoration. Isham serves on the board of directors of the Newport Mansions Preservation Society. Her husband Ralph Isham is president of the members-only Mill Reef Club on Antigua, the island where research is being done into growing coral and then rebuilding it into healthy coral reefs. The goal is to build resilient reefs that can survive changing seawater conditions.