Elena Kanagy-Loux

Elena Kanagy-Loux is a descendent of the Amish and grew up between the US and Japan, where she was immersed in both traditional Mennonite crafts and the DIY fashion scene in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood. She moved to NYC in 2007 to work in fashion, and worked as the costume designer for rocker Courtney Love as well as for the indie brand Electric Feathers. After receiving her BFA in Textile Design from FIT, she won a grant which funded a four-month trip to study lacemaking across Europe in 2015. Upon returning to NYC, she co-founded Brooklyn Lace Guild, an organization devoted to the preservation of lacemaking, and began teaching bobbin lace classes at the Textile Arts Center. In 2018 she completed her MA in Costume Studies at NYU where she based her thesis on interviews with lacemakers that she conducted on her European travels, and began working as the Collections Specialist at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.