By Lilah Daniels
Love, Willow Street
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By Lilah Daniels
Fashion, painting, murals and sketchbooks by me
Hi, I’m Lilah. I'm an artist but also unsure of what defines that title? I love sewing, painting, fashion, drawing, product design, etc. It's hard due to my practice being primarily experimental. I am currently studying fashion design at The Parsons School of Design in New York City. Much of my inspiration comes from NYC. Similarly many materials woven into my work comes from finding them in my neighborhood.
From the sketchbook
Hi, I’m Lilah. I'm an artist but also unsure of what defines that title? I love sewing, painting, fashion, drawing, product design, etc. It's hard due to my practice being primarily experimental. I am currently studying fashion design at The Parsons School of Design in New York City. Much of my inspiration comes from NYC. Similarly many materials woven into my work comes from finding them in my neighborhood.
Love, Willow Street takes its name from a street in Brooklyn Heights where my family lived for generations. The brand is dedicated to my great aunt Molly, who grew up in New York during the '70s and remains a consistent creative inspiration.
Paintings, mixed media pieces, murals, clothing — from garments to wall art to custom objects. My background is in fine art and fashion design, but I work across mediums, so if you have an idea that doesn't fit neatly into one category, bring it to me.
We talk through what you're picturing — scale, materials, timeline, and budget. I also ask about specific objects, colors, or details that mean something to you, so I can work them into the piece — through color choices or by drawing the object itself. We can talk it through over call, text, email, or in person, whatever's easiest for you.
I sketch and share concepts for your feedback before any final materials are committed.
Once the design is approved, I get to work. Once the piece is finished, I'll send updated images so you can request changes until you're happy with it.
More work coming to this section soon.
More collections — coming soon
Concept
I formed five yarn panels to craft this belt. The bottom panel was created by merging grey and white yarn strands, and knitting them simultaneously for an intertwined result. I seam-ripped a zipper off of an old bag before attaching it to the garment. Once all of the panels were done, I aligned them in order and pinned each one to the zipper. This belt is intended to elevate an outfit rather than serve a purely functional purpose. However, it also works to cinch in the silhouette and hold it in place.
Construction
This belt is constructed out of two panels, with the bottom panel being six stitches longer than the top. I hand-stitched thirteen silver rings into the panels to mesh the separate pieces together. The end of the knit is squared and attaches to two small ties, which work as the belt's closure.
Concept
A hand-drawn, spray-painted dress — stuffed with pillows and drawn under tension before being cut apart and rebuilt. This set began as a dress created by meshing together a variety of patterns I had previously made. I felt inspired to draw on the fabric, so I stuffed the entire dress with pillows, almost making it its own mannequin. I diluted acrylic paint in water and sprayed both red and yellow around the piece, then cut a slit into the blouse to feed one of the belts through as a channel.
Construction
The skirt is made out of a plaid fabric with a navy silk lining, and the waistband is a stretch fabric to create a natural cinching look at the waist. I decided to layer the fabric to add bulk at the hip and distort the body — an illusion loosely inspired by Dior's New Look.
Styling
The finished circle skirt, paired with the drawn top and belt.
Construction
The mini dress was made primarily of shirt fabric, with the bottom tier in plaid cotton reused on the bustline. This pattern was first draped and then transferred onto draft paper — the most challenging step was creating the drop waist and aligning the darts. I lined all three fabrics together and added a built-in bra to make the garment more functional.
Concept
This trench coat was made using canvas and cotton white fabric accents. The lining is a red linen, with two inside snaps serving as the closure for the coat. The coat's construction began by making the outside shell and sewing the cotton into the lower block. I then added the sleeves and collar and constructed the lining separately before sewing it in. I designed this because I wanted a piece that felt basic and wearable every day but had a pop of uniqueness. The pin its styled with is my grandmother's, as a small homage to her style. This piece functions to ground the rest of the collection among the more chaotic pieces.
2026
This collection is named after my friend Anne, who filmed the project. I started with no plan other than to document the making of a dress. Using bedsheets as fabric, I gathered jewelry, ribbon, and pins, then filmed the process in my dorm room under LED lights. While editing the film, I kept coming back to the torn fabric, painted surfaces, and handmade details that appeared throughout it. I wanted to see what would happen if those ideas existed as clothing.
Every piece in ANNE. was built from that process. Hand-painted textiles, reconstructed materials, and interchangeable accessories are repeated throughout the collection so the garments can be layered and styled in different ways. The result is a collection that is an extension of the world built in the film.
Every piece in ANNE. was built from that process. Hand-painted textiles, reconstructed materials, and interchangeable accessories are repeated throughout the collection so the garments can be layered and styled in different ways. The result is a collection that is an extension of the world built in the film.
A hand-drawn, spray-painted dress — stuffed with pillows and drawn under tension before being cut apart and rebuilt. This set began as a dress created by meshing together a variety of patterns I had previously made. I felt inspired to draw on the fabric, so I stuffed the entire dress with pillows, almost making it its own mannequin. I diluted acrylic paint in water and sprayed both red and yellow around the piece, then cut a slit into the blouse to feed one of the belts through as a channel.
The skirt is made out of a plaid fabric with a navy silk lining, and the waistband is a stretch fabric to create a natural cinching look at the waist. I decided to layer the fabric to add bulk at the hip and distort the body — an illusion loosely inspired by Dior's New Look.
The mini dress was made primarily of shirt fabric, with the bottom tier in plaid cotton reused on the bustline. This pattern was first draped and then transferred onto draft paper — the most challenging step was creating the drop waist and aligning the darts. I lined all three fabrics together and added a built-in bra to make the garment more functional.
This trench coat was made using canvas and cotton white fabric accents. The lining is a red linen, with two inside snaps serving as the closure for the coat. The coat's construction began by making the outside shell and sewing the cotton into the lower block. I then added the sleeves and collar and constructed the lining separately before sewing it in. I designed this because I wanted a piece that felt basic and wearable every day but had a pop of uniqueness. The pin its styled with is my grandmother's, as a small homage to her style. This piece functions to ground the rest of the collection among the more chaotic pieces.
I formed five yarn panels to craft this belt. The bottom panel was created by merging grey and white yarn strands, and knitting them simultaneously for an intertwined result. I seam-ripped a zipper off of an old bag before attaching it to the garment. Once all of the panels were done, I aligned them in order and pinned each one to the zipper. This belt is intended to elevate an outfit rather than serve a purely functional purpose. However, it also works to cinch in the silhouette and hold it in place.
This belt is constructed out of two panels, with the bottom panel being six stitches longer than the top. I hand-stitched thirteen silver rings into the panels to mesh the separate pieces together. The end of the knit is squared and attaches to two small ties, which work as the belt's closure.
2025 · Painting · 3 × 2 ft
Concept
The first layer of this piece is pages from the book The Dyslexic Advantage. As a dyslexic myself, this work is meant to represent my reality. The piece focuses on disgruntled letters and numbers — scattered, out of place, refusing to sit still. Today it hangs in my elementary school, a school for dyslexic students, as a homage to how far it helped bring me.
Research: Back to School
I returned to my elementary school — built entirely around dyslexic learners — to interview the tutors who taught me, and to revisit the methods behind it: OG tutoring and TCI, both multisensory and repetition-based.
Around the school, that philosophy is everywhere: a CAPS checklist breaks editing into four steps, color-coded cards split words like bandit and capsize by syllable, and a phonological awareness poster teaches sound before spelling. Seeing it again as an adult, I recognized the same scattered letters and numbers this piece is about — being met head-on instead of around.
2026 · Painting · 2 × 2½ ft
Concept
Isolation is represented through the women portrayed in this work. I learned about solitude firsthand during the process of making it — I spent six hours in silence, painting alone. Making the piece wasn't part of my original research question or writing, but the two ended up working cooperatively.
While painting, I had a meaningful conversation with my roommate. She was deeply moved by the image, and said it captured the feeling of a woman endlessly tired, worn down, yet still needing to keep going. The piece asks to be looked at for a while before it gives up its meaning — but the time spent with it is worth it.
Research
For this piece, I sketched people on the subway — observing and drawing directly from life as I rode. I also photographed the subway itself, documenting how people behave in that space: the postures, the distances they keep, the ways they avoid or allow eye contact.
Riding as a viewer rather than just a passenger changed what I noticed. The subway is a place where strangers share close physical space while staying entirely closed off from one another — everyone alone together. That tension between proximity and isolation became the starting point for the piece.
2024 · Painting · 3 × 3 ft
Concept
This piece began as acrylic, layered with hand-dyed tissue paper, then built up with drawing, sketching, and oil pastel. It's a visual diary from a period of being completely alone — named after the first place I lived by myself. It hung above my bed for a long time, the first thing I saw most mornings.
The imagery holds both struggle and growth at once, and the fragments of text scattered across it trace a transition I was living through in real time.
Research
Unlike some of the other work in this portfolio, this piece wasn't built from outside research — it came out of a specific period of time, worked through drawing and paint rather than words. The process mirrored the apartment itself: solitary, unplanned, built one layer at a time without knowing what it would become.
2026 · Painting · 2 × 1 ft
Concept
I made this for my brother Alex for his move across the country for residency. It was perfect timing since summer had just started for me, so many aspects of the work involve items I found around my parents' homes. I wanted the painting to feel three-dimensional, so I rummaged around my mom's house and found old picture frames and old canvas works of mine. I stacked these around the painting to frame the women, eventually painting the frames in different colors to create a diagonal movement across the canvas.
The frames also reminded me of the pictures of my brothers and me that have always been around the house, which felt fitting for something I was making for Alex. Once it was finished, we packed the painting into his car, and it traveled across the country with him to his new home.
2026 · Painting · 9 × 5 ft
Concept
Painted directly onto the wall of my childhood bedroom during winter break. Rather than working around the slanted ceiling, I used the shape of the room as part of the composition, allowing it to determine how the figure stretched across the wall.
Made almost entirely with craft paint, the mural was built up layer by layer, leaving the drips and uneven surface visible. Along the right side, sketches, notes, and small works continue to collect over time, allowing the mural to slowly expand beyond the painted wall. Instead of existing as a finished image, it remains something that continues to grow with the space.
On the right side of this wall is a small painting I made when I first moved here at fourteen.
Mural · Commissioned
131 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009
About
One night out, I walked into No Fork and noticed the wall covered in names and small drawings. As I was admiring it, an employee offered me a marker to add my name. Instead, I drew something, and from that interaction the mural for No Fork was born.
I came back the next day and started drawing directly onto the wall, later adding a second painted layer. There was no sketch or plan going into it. My favorite part of the process was working while the restaurant was open. People would come in, stop, watch, and talk to me as I worked. Over time, the people observing the mural began to influence the way I continued building it.
On the far left of the wall is a name written by a friend of the restaurant who has since passed away. I kept it as part of the mural. In the same way that the people who watched me work became woven into its final state, his contribution remains part of the wall.
How it started
2026 · Mixed Media · 3 × 1½ ft
Concept
This piece is based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, centering on the home as a distorted reality where the main character is trapped in a disturbing state. Recurring motifs — the violin, the father's suit, the golden buttons — carry symbolic weight throughout the piece.
Everything here was made by hand: pen, cardboard, and a painted base, with the "watercolor" blue actually a watered-down acrylic. The unevenness is intentional — the piece needed to feel distorted and human-made, without any digital tools smoothing it out. Imperfection felt necessary, the same way the story itself is built entirely out of misunderstanding.
2026 · Digital Illustration
Concept
This piece centers on my relationship with my hair, shown cascading down the body in a repeating pattern, with the ends curling into separate, freestanding shapes.
The piece was built in Adobe Illustrator using shape duplication to construct the cascading structure, and the layering tool's lock/unlock function to manage multiple sections and build a sense of depth and movement. The final image moves away from an earlier concept that didn't carry enough symbolic weight, developed further through sketching and revision.
