MEMBER FEATURE:

Our monthly Member Feature aims to showcase the talent that occupies our buildings and celebrate their work.

This month, we are excited to feature Rockella Space Member Steven Zorrilla, who has a studio at One Eyed Studios. Steven is a fashion designer and founder of EILIEN, a New York–based label whose genderless garments combine industrial materials, sculptural forms, and science-fiction aesthetics to explore identity and alternative beauty. Born in Colombia and raised in Miami, he studied at Parsons Paris before moving to New York, where he worked with brands including Telfar, Hood By Air, and Pyer Moss. After six years working as Director of Product Design and Development at Telfar,  he launched EILIEN to pursue a creative language of his own.

Through EILIEN, Zorrilla brings together fashion, futurism, and experimental construction, transforming materials such as keyrings, zip ties, stainless steel, and paracord into intricate wearable pieces. His recent Collection 002, presented in the label’s first runway show, moves between dramatic sculptural silhouettes and everyday ready-to-wear, exploring the tension between hardness and vulnerability. Developed in collaboration with makers working across knitting, crochet, leather, and other materials, the collection reflects his belief that fashion’s most powerful fantasies are those we can reach out and touch, try on, and bring into our lives.

Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, what brought you to New York, and how would you describe your practice today?

I was born in Colombia and immigrated to the US when I was quite young. I was raised in Miami where I attended an art and design magnet school called DASH (Design & Architecture Senior High), which was foundational for my design education. I attended Parsons Paris from 2013–2017 and after graduating I moved to New York in hopes of starting my career.

Not too long after arriving I found work as a freelance pattern maker and product developer, working with a range of brands from department store brands to designer labels. Over the years, one of my freelance clients, Telfar, continued to grow and became the focus of my work until I was full time Director of Product Design and Development.

After six years working with Telfar I left to return to freelance work, refocusing my career on design work with smaller brands rather than technical production for larger brands. In my desire to work on more creative projects, I launched my own label: EILIEN.

How long have you been at Rockella Space, and what do you value most about having a studio at One Eyed Studios—particularly in terms of community and connection with other artists in the building?

I’ve had my studio at Rockella since 2022, so it’s been about 4 years now. When I moved in, I was surprised to learn that other designers I knew and respected were also working in the building, and it was nice to know that we could rely on each other, both as creative collaborators as well as for the occasional favor or helping hand from a neighbor.

Before founding EILIEN, you spent a decade working with brands including Telfar, Hood By Air, and Pyer Moss. What did those experiences teach you about fashion, and at what point did you realize you needed to create a label with a language entirely your own?

What all of those brands have in common is that they were cultural agents, well-known authorities of fashion in New York at the time. Their work was well known and loved in the city, so it was really interesting working on the inside of brands with  such an established presence. A lot of people thought that these brands had “blown up overnight,” but only because they became aware of them after they blew up.

My experience working with them gave me a real understanding of how the communities around each brand were painstakingly built over many years, how relationships were nourished, and opportunities were hard-won, if not created from nothing by sheer will alone. Once I felt like I had done everything I could do working for other brands, I felt like I had to take a leap of faith and see if I could do it on my own.

EILIEN uses science fiction as a framework for exploring identity, queerness, and the immigrant experience. What does science fiction allow you to communicate through fashion that a more literal or autobiographical approach might not?

I think fantasy, of any kind, is important. At its core fantasy is escapism, usually from some bleak reality that is too difficult or painful to address directly. Both fashion and science-fiction are forms of escapism and futurism. Fashion is usually presented 6 months ahead of time, when you see a runway show you’re usually looking at clothes that don’t exist yet, they are just prototypes. Science fiction is a great genre for stories about queerness and immigration because it has the range, both narrative and aesthetic, to depict the beauty as well as the hardships of being different, unwanted and by yourself in a strange new world, working and fighting for a better life.

You describe EILIEN’s clothing as a “modular, genderless uniform.” What does the idea of a uniform mean to you, particularly when fashion is so often used as a way of asserting individuality?

One could argue the effect of wearing a uniform in either way: Intuitively, uniforms create uniformity. But conversely, when everyone looks the same, our individuality is communicated through other means: our words, our actions, our presence. I think it all depends on the uniform in question. I don’t believe in uniforms in the institutional sense, with strict rules and punishments for the slightest deviation.

When I speak of uniforms, I’m referring more to the fashion concept of uniform-dressing: the idea of a self-designed, self-prescribed uniform. I admire the type of person who only wears one color, or only a certain shape or length garment, who knows themselves, what they like, want, and how they want to be and be seen, and they do not compromise. It takes a lot of individuality, confidence, and willpower to design your image against the grain of the rest of the world.

Collection 002 transforms keyrings, zip ties, stainless steel plates, and paracord into intricate wearable textiles. What draws you to materials that aren’t traditionally associated with clothing, and how do you know when an industrial object has the potential to become something worn on the body?

I worked for brands that were focused on ready-to-wear products for so long–nearly a decade–it became all I could think about. My first collection under EILIEN was a reflection of that, everything was ready-to-wear denim, t-shirts, hoodies, etc. After that first collection I became bored with thinking about “products”.

It just didn’t excite me anymore, my imagination was more captivated by textures and materials that I would see walking in the street past parking lots and construction sites: metal, plastic, chainlink fences, sewer grates, chains and pad locks. So I started ordering materials and testing how they could be manipulated. I invited friends who knew how to knit, crochet, work with leather and other rigid materials to come and experiment and we slowly started testing different combinations of materials and techniques and slowly the collection emerged.

All of them became the design team behind the second collection, you can find all their names in the credits!

There’s an interesting contradiction throughout EILIEN between hardness and vulnerability. Spikes, chains, metal, and intimidating silhouettes operate almost as protective armor, yet you’ve described the person underneath as potentially deeply sensitive. How important is that tension to the way you think about queer identity and dress?

I think tension is crucial in creating interesting work. When something is too simple or easy to understand we digest it quickly, or worse, ignore it all together because it doesn’t engage anything in us, it doesn’t demand that we keep looking, try to understand, question our interpretation or acquire the taste needed to truly appreciate it. Tension adds drama, suspense.

Whether it’s visual or conceptual, the tension of juxtaposition makes for a  more interesting read: counterintuitive, paradoxical, torn between two seemingly opposed things… When we can’t be totally sure of what we’re seeing or of what it means, we keep staring and thinking about it. Queer identity and style is full of this kind of tension. It confuses and mesmerizes, unsettling some and seducing others. I always strive to capture that feeling in my work.

Collection 002 moves through darkness, restraint, armor, and bondage before ending with monolithic silver silhouettes that you describe as offering a glimmer of hope. Now that you’ve presented EILIEN on the runway for the first time, what do you hope audiences understood—or felt—by the time the final look left the space?

I hope that the audience walked away with two things: First, the technical prowess of all of the collaborators: the range of skills and craftsmanship required to make all the pieces in the collection is truly impressive. And second, that it is possible to have both the escapism and fantasy of the impossible looks with the practicality of everyday, ready-to-wear items that you can actually imagine wearing and wanting.

I think it’s important to have both. Fantasy is so much more powerful if there is some part of it, no matter how small, that you can reach out and touch, try on, and bring into your life. I ended the collection with all the silver pieces because I wanted to end on a high note, the brightness and dazzling reflections of the silver are hope, optimism, celebration.

What advice would you give to other creatives with backgrounds similar to yours who are thinking about moving to New York City and building a creative life here?

You have to start somewhere, so just start. Your first job is likely not going to be your dream job, so don’t be so quick to judge or dismiss an opportunity early on. You have to have job #1 in order to move onto job #2, and so on… and at the risk of oversimplifying, a career is just a series of jobs. Hopefully, every time you start a new project, you’re able to nudge yourself further and further in the right direction, until one day you find that you’re right where you’re supposed to be. Be patient, and work like hell while you wait. Opportunities will come along but they have to find you working!

What projects, exhibitions, performances, collaborations, or other work do you have coming up?

During the show we shot a lot of photography and film backstage and we’re in the process of editing it all down to the most impactful moments. We are publishing a lot of it through instagram, we’re posting new photos from the show almost every day! We’re most excited about the ideal of screening the full-length runway video and campaign film at a local theater, but that is still in the works! more on that to come!

Where can people see more of your work, both in person and online, and how can they follow or get in touch with you?

You can follow EILIEN on instagram where we always post first and share more behind-the-scenes and in-progress work in stories and you can check out all of our pieces that are ready to buy and wear on our website.

And finally, what are you hoping to make that you haven’t made yet?

Firstly, I’m hoping to make some of the designs from this second collection available to purchase and wear so that they can truly exist in the world and be enjoyed by the people that love them. After that, I truly have no idea! Maybe I’ll explore sculpture or installation work using all of these materials and techniques. Maybe I’ll start a whole new collection! I’ll know when I get there.