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- Julia, a 27-year-old TikToker, made dresses designed by her grandmother in the 1940s.
- She said her grandmother was an aspiring fashion designer who dropped out of fashion school as a teenager.
- She told Insider that she wanted to surprise her grandmother and share her designs with the world.
TikTok viewers have been engrossed in the story of a Chicago woman who made dresses her grandmother designed in fashion school — and filmed her grandmother’s grateful reaction to share on the platform.
Julia, a 27-year-old TikTok user, who asked that Insider withhold her last name to protect her privacy, said she was visiting her grandmother, Georgie, one day in January 2021, looking through sketches of old dresses that Georgie had designed when she was a teenager.
Georgie declined to comment for this article, but according to Julia, she went to fashion school in the 1940s and dreamed of becoming a designer, but dropped out before completing her studies because she needed to take care of several family members. that were not good.
When Julia saw the sketches she thought they were beautiful, she told Insider.
“I knew Grandma was talented, but I was like, wow, these are really so much better than I imagined in my head. And she mentioned that when she died, she wanted them to be sent to magazines or featured in her funeral,” she said.
“But,” Julia added, “I just thought, why wait until he’s dead?”
In January 2021, Julia posted a video featuring some of her grandmother’s sketches on TikTok, and it became her first post on the platform to go viral, receiving 2.7 million views.
Julia said she had very little sewing experience at the time, but decided to make the sketches into real dresses as a way to “bring them to life”, watching YouTube tutorials to teach herself the basic skills of sewing.
Using mostly old scraps of material left over from her grandmother’s vintage fabric collection, Julia has now made four of her grandmother’s designs, trying to stick to a budget of under $300 per dress. Videos of her unveiling Georgie’s finished products continue to go viral, often receiving hundreds of thousands of views per video.
“This is absolutely stunning. And I thank you because it’s just beautiful and it feels so good to see something that I drew so many, many years ago,” Georgie is heard saying in a leaked video of the latest dress which has 1.8 million views on Julia’s TikTok account.
Julia thinks viewers are captivated by her intergenerational story
Julia told Insider that she thinks her TikTok series has gotten so much attention from viewers because of the strong relationship between her and her grandmother, which viewers have enjoyed seeing play on camera.
“It’s a beautiful experience of bonding between us that has made grandma happy,” she said.
“A lot of people who are older and watch my videos say they like to see someone younger who appreciates something from their generation,” she said, adding, “And then younger people see it and they maybe they don’t have the best relationship with their grandparents. or maybe they lost their grandparents and they say watching my videos reminds them of their grandparents.”
One of the main points Julia said she hopes people get from watching her series is that “the older generation is so similar to us in so many ways. They all had dreams and hopes that weren’t so different from ours. “.
Julia described the TikTok series as a “bonding experience” between her and her grandmother.
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According to Julia, her grandmother Georgie has enjoyed learning that many people on TikTok have now seen her patterns, adding that she sometimes prints positive comments for her to read, as Georgie is no longer adept at using of social media.
As someone who grew up “idolizing” her grandmother, Julia said she is delighted that people online have fallen in love with Georgie’s story and designs.
“I love anyone who shows appreciation for someone they love. So to be able to share that appreciation for my grandmother with other people is amazing. I love that feeling,” she said.
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here.
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