Designer and small business owner Lexie Griffith, co-organizer of the SOS 2025 Fashion Show. — Photos courtesy of @carliefeboart on Instagram

Chatting with the mind behind the 2025 Artwear: SOS Fashion Show
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By Suraya Whynott 

In anticipation of the Somerville Open Studios Artwear: The SOS 2025 Fashion Show, I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with one of the main organizers of the event, designer and small business owner Lexie Griffith.

Lexie is a vintage fashion enthusiast, constantly working to repurpose 60s and 70s fabrics into stunning pieces with three goals: sustainability, inclusivity, and creativity. She is dedicated to providing Somerville with special, eco-friendly pieces that are designed intentionally for the wearer.

Lexie Butterfly Vintage’s main mission is to encourage physical self-expression, creating clothing for all body types and genders. She strongly advocates for the inclusion of all bodies within vintage fashion. Lexie began to explore her love for fashion at a young age, playing dress up in her mother’s clothing, but feeling excluded from the vintage clothing world due to the pieces not best suiting her height. This sparked her passion for altering clothing and repurposing vintage fabrics for her unique pieces. Using sourced psychedelic prints and other period-correct fabrics, Lexie creates classic 60s and 70s silhouettes, which are customizable for all sizes.

When Lexie moved to Somerville, she fell in love with the “artsy, queer, and funky” inclusivity of the town. “You get to be who you want to be, and I think that’s really inspiring.” Just as Lexi loves Somerville, Somerville has fallen in love with Lexie. Lexie Butterfly Vintage has become more than just a store but has transformed into a safe space for the queer community in Somerville to self-express – her pieces becoming beloved and highly sought out – and this is not something she takes for granted.

“I’m really honored by that – I think it’s a really great honor,” she told me. “I have major gratitude for that community to entrust me. I think it’s more of my duty to them to find a way to include everybody.” Lexie’s work prioritizes the inclusion of all genders, bodies, and price points so that there is something for everybody.

Lexie is greatly inspired by the innovation of a vintage garment, as well as the intentionality behind every quirky detail of the vintage items she sources. By focusing on inclusivity and sustainability within her designs, Lexie can curate beautifully unique pieces that stay authentic to her brand. I decided to ask her what she thinks about the current trend of minimalist clothing that contrasts her personal work and style preferences.

She commented by saying that, although she respects minimalist clothing and those who choose to wear them, the simplistic and tailored look in trendy minimalism is inherently upper class and alienates middle and lower-class individuals. Her mission is to include all clothing lovers regardless of financial privileges. Additionally, she believes that her approach to design that starkly contrasts minimalism is a form of rebellion against the societal assimilation expected in fashion and design.

“My idea of fashion is not fashion at all – it’s style. It’s about what you like and what sparks joy for you.” Lexie encourages everyone to wear clothing that represents the individual rather than encouraging shoppers to blend in. “Everyone was born to stand out, and they should own that.”

So, I think it’s time to address the elephant in the room … the clown. If you are familiar with Lexie Butterfly Vintage, you know that Lexie is very loyal to her business persona who dresses as a clown – bright red nose and all. Lexie’s company has entirely embraced her clown aesthetic, including clowns in her logos, pieces, and fashion show collections. I asked Lexi what inspired the adoption of clowns into her brand’s aesthetic, and she answered that it was a “crime of opportunity.” She happened to find a clown suit from the 1930s and, having never considered clown-themed items before, she fell in love with the piece. The clown suit felt right, and she decided to embrace it and incorporate details into her work. Not only does it match the playfulness of her design, but also perfectly captures Lexi’s natural whimsy, of course, making sure to include her iconic purple hair.

In this year’s SOS Show, Lexie is working with her best friend Victoria to curate a collection of pieces inspired by the Free Speech Movement of the 60s. Using her love for 60s political prints and silhouettes, the two are designing pieces that spotlight the political activism of the Free Speech Movement and other relevant displays of political activism. Of course, Lexie had to include her clown branding somehow, but with a “morbid spin”.

This year, her “Clowns in the White House” theme works to connect the past with the present through the repurposing of vintage fabrics to emphasize the repetition of history and not learning from our mistakes. She is making a statement to remind her audience of the political activism we saw in the ‘60s to inspire current forms of rebellion. Lexie and Victoria are including incredible pieces that I am personally so excited to see in action at the upcoming show.

Lexi herself is one of the main organizers of the upcoming Artwear: The SOS 2025 Fashion Show and is excited to show off her collection as well as spotlight numerous other local Somerville artists. The show is intentionally titled “Artwear” in reference to any clothing or wearable designs that push the boundaries of fashion, and the artists participating fully embraced this term within their pieces. The show is entirely free and open to all, held at the Crystal Ballroom in Davis Square on Friday, May 2. Doors open at 6 p.m. for cocktail hour, and the show begins at 7 p.m. I am ecstatic and cannot wait to attend and see Somerville’s textile artists in action.

If you want to learn more about Lexie and her work, feel free to pop by her two locations: Bow Market Suite 36 and Chartreuse Microbus Collective inside Cafe Zing.

Somerville Open Studios, Saturday and Sunday, May 3 – 4, 12 – 6 p.m. Explore artists’ studios and meet visual artists living and working in Somerville during our annual open studio weekend and other events. https://www.somervilleopenstudios.org.