Designing an entire potato sack clothing collection, this is a full-circle moment for a small-town designer who never stopped carrying home with her.
AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho — 75 years ago, Marilyn Monroe famously posed in a burlap potato sack, turning a critic’s insult into an iconic, empowering moment.
Allegedly, there was a party at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and she showed up in a revealing red dress that a columnist declared “cheap and vulgar,” adding she would have been better off wearing “a potato sack.”
Well, that’s when the Twentieth Century Fox Public Relations Department capitalized on the moment by putting her in one.
It also helped Idaho capitalize on the moment. Twin Falls was in bold letters across her dress.
Fast forward to now, because that potato sack is back.
This time, it’s not a punchline, but rather high fashion.
It’s also a full-circle moment for a small-town Idaho designer, named Cartier Dior Eliasen, who never stopped carrying home with her.
Before New York Fashion Week, Paris, and Project Runway Junior, Cartier Dior Eliasen was a little girl in rural Idaho making dresses out of whatever she could find.
“I started doing fashion design when I was nine years old,” Eliasen said. “I started just making dresses out of literally anything I could get my hands on. I lived in like, the middle of nowhere in Idaho, like I did not have money for fabric, but my grandpa hooked me up with a whole bunch of phone books from our town’s recycling program, and that’s kind of how I started. I made dresses out of phone books, out of like, tax like forms, like things like that, just anything I can get my hands on.”
That creativity was cut for more than just the small town seams of Pocatello. It landed her on Project Runway Junior in New York City when she was 16.
“I absolutely loved Project Runway growing up,” she said. “I grew up watching that, so it’s just perfect, and I auditioned for the first season and didn’t get on, and then on the second season, that was when I got it.”
After threading that needle, she stitched together a bigger dream by taking her talent across the world to a fashion school in Paris. But even there, Idaho was always in the fabric.
“I was in Paris making collections about things like, I was making fabrics that were inspired by, like, the colors of the sunset over the Rocky Mountains,” she said. “I was making like collections inspired by Napoleon Dynamite. I just always showed my love for Idaho. And I was like, I need to get back to my roots.”
Back to her roots she went, returning back to American Falls, Idaho.
Which is why this next moment in her life felt inevitable.
Six months ago, the Idaho Potato Commission reached out to her with a simple idea: Bring back the iconic moment from Marilyn Monroe, where a potato sack gets reimagined.
“The fact that they selected me, like just some girl from like, the middle of nowhere in American Falls, Idaho, like potato country, it’s just really special to me, and it’s been a really special process with them to be able to create this collection,” she said.
At first, the plan was to make one to two dresses and do a small pop-up in a grocery store during New York Fashion Week.
But then it grew into a full collection, showcased in the heart of New York City at Grand Central Station.
“This honestly has been a dream since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to go to New York Fashion Week,” she said. “Ask my parents, from the time I was like, seven, eight years old, I was like, I’m going to fashion week. I’m going to go to New York, so this has been really special to see this kind of come together and in such a perfect way. Like, I feel like the stars really align on this collection.”
The collection is filled with short dresses, a wedding dress, and even an iconic pant suit.
Her hand-painted, custom designs were shown on the Today Show and have been recognized by national media groups.
The Idaho Potato Commission started this project as a way to honor the hard work of Idaho’s potato farmers and celebrate Idaho’s farming heritage.
But it’s also grown into more than that.
Several pieces from the collection are now being auctioned off, with every dollar earned going to No Kid Hungry, a non-profit to help fight childhood hunger across the country.
“Bidding ends on Tuesday,” she said. “I know that some of the pieces, people are kind of fighting over them, so if you want to get in there, like, get in there.”
For Cartier, the spotlight isn’t about leaving Idaho behind.
It’s about bringing it with her and never forgetting where she came from.
“It’s really special to me that this project came up and just like the perfect time, and in a way, that I could really be able to represent Idaho on such a grand stage,” she said.
The auction is live on the Idaho Potato website, which you can find here.
