OUR STORY
Founder and CEO of Eva & Paul, Julia Kastner, gives credit to her grandparents for their enduring inspiration.
Their travels, style, and charming anecdotes gave Julia the basis for a brand that embodies the values, qualities, and strengths of their lives. Julia stated, while wearing the beloved locket:
My grandfather, Harry Paul, proposed to my grandmother Marion just before he left to become a soldier in World War II. He gave my grandmother this locket when she said yes, and she wore it throughout the war.As a soldier, he served through the war as a tank mechanic. He used to tell my uncle stories of all the places he'd traveled and how much he'd appreciated seeing the world.When he returned from the war, he married my grandmother and my mother was born (very quickly thereafter). My grandfather worked two jobs for most of his life to support his family, which included many years as a liquor salesman, always on the road where, I imagine, he had more adventures.
Julia was always close with her paternal grandmother, Ida Kastner, whom she called her Bubbie.
Her Bubbie is a part of the inspiration for the brand. According to Julia’s aunt Barbara, Ida had the best taste in art, music, theater, literature, and of course fashion.
We have pictures of her that look just like Katharine Hepburn - not bad for the wife of a pudgy physicist.
Most of Julia’s Bubbie’s favorite things were handmade.
She loved silver and stone from reservations in Colorado, pottery from Mexico, bone china, lace from Greece, and above all, handmade quilts and sweaters. She taught Julia to knit and sew as well as cook and bake, while teaching her the value of artisanal craftsmanship.
Nothing will ever replace her challah bread. I've tried to make it - nowhere near the same.
Julia's Bubbie also loved to travel.
She went to China to see the Great Wall, to Alaska, to Israel, to Rome. Even in her 80s, she made her way to Scandinavia to see all the places she'd only read about, which were a lot of places, because she was always reading something.
She and I talked a lot about books as well as people. She'd studied psychology and worked as a counselor - she was pretty progressively feminist for her time. We'd get so caught up while chatting we'd forget about everything else, like the time we forgot to put flour in our chocolate chip cookies and ended up with a layer of buttery chocolaty caramel stuck to the pan. When I moved to Mexico, I taught her how to use Skype so we could keep chatting about microfinance and how tortillas are made. I know she would have loved to learn how jeans are made, too.
Julia took these great influences from her life and melded them into her denim collection. Eva & Paul embraces fair trade practices, organic elements, and unparalleled quality and comfort, sewn in the USA. Whether you’re hiking Machu Picchu, flying to Paris, or running errands around your hometown, our denim allows you the ease, style, and freedom to “Journey On.”