Elizabeth St. John is the founder & designer for the Little Flowers by Odyssey Collections. 

Born into a family of artisans, Liz, like many fashion designers, began designing as a child.  The daughter of a master tailor, and fourth generation designer, Liz spent countless hours in her mother's workshop fashioning doll dresses from fabric scraps and wrapping herself and her friends in fabrics....

Growing up in the Washington, DC area, her mother's workshop was always full of beautiful evening and ball gowns that would be seen at the black tie affairs around town.  Surrounded by all these lovely dresses, Liz began to develop her own sense of style.

Having apprenticed in her mother's workshop since the age of 5, Liz decided to pursue her other passions in college, Science & Nature.  She graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Environmental Studies, and after graduation, began a decade of working for conservation projects that allowed her to visit some of the most remote places on Earth.

When work brought her to New York City, by chance, her office was a few blocks from the world famous Fashion District.  She would frequent the many fabric shops in the area, and hand select fabrics she would fashion into dresses for the children of friends in her spare time.

"All little girls love to place dress up," says Liz, who in 1999, decided to return to the fashion world by launching Little Flowers first collection, founded on the dresses she was making for friends.  It was an immediate success.  The growing demand for her collection let her add bridesmaids dresses in 2004, and eventually destination bridal in 2006. 

Her newest collection of more refined bridal and eveningwear, Elizabeth St. John Couture, is now available.  It combines her flirty and feminine sense of style with classic elegance and contemporary glamour. 

Although her natural talents are focused on fashion, her passion remains with poverty alleviation issues and the environment.  Because of this, all of her collections are environmentally friendly, using natural or sustainable materials; vegetable dyes; hand cutting and small batch production techniques; hand sewing and detailing and fair trade labor.  Her office and production studio are committed to recycling and hope to be completely powered by clean (solar/wind) power by 2012.

In order to remain active in her conservation & charity work, in 2009, Liz co-founded the Universal Strategic Services Foundation.  The Foundation works at the crossroads of human needs and the environment.  Her first initiative was the launch of the Inclusive Solar Power (ISP) project, its focus: providing long-term, clean and sustainable energy to the poorest regions of the world in order to foster economic growth, improve overall living conditions and protect local environments.

"Fashion not only makes us beautiful, but it allows each of us to express our confidence and our uniqueness," says Liz, who strives to beautify women on their wedding day through her collections -- and empower them every day through the work of her Foundation.

Currently, in addition to her Silver Spring, MD Studio, her collections are available for purchase through authorized boutiques throughout the United States, Canada, Denmark & Sweden.