Establishing her own couture brand, Esselia Atelier when she was just 19, Elisabet is rising up to the surface of the Indonesian high fashion industry by debuting her first collection on the upcoming Jakarta Fashion Week 2018. She put college behind to pursue her success by livening her vision of her brand and her love for fashion. She talks about her inspirations, her journey in fashion, and most importantly how she had the courage to start her own high fashion brand this early.
Hello there Elis! Before we start can you please introduce yourself?
Hi guys! I am Sesilia Elisabet and I am the founder, creative director, and head of designer at my couture brand, Esselia Atelier.
Why did you choose to start your own couture brand this early?
It is quite simple actually, I love making custom-made gowns and to create exposure of my love for designing dresses, I decided to establish my own brand solely for promotional purposes. Hence, I started by making logo, then asked my some of my friends to help me conceptualizing the brand.
If you ask me why couture instead of ready-to-wear, Once again, my passion is making bespoke dresses and I am a strong believer that every dress has its own mystique. Whether anyone else tries to copy it, there are always details that cannot be replicated. I want my dresses to translate messages to the wearers about how authentic and irreplaceable the dresses are.
Who are your biggest inspirations?
I was starstrucked by Alexander McQueen when I saw one of his 2010 collections on Fashion TV and I was thinking, Damn! He has such an astounding and exceptional designs. It was also one of those moments when I realized that I want to do fashion. Aside from McQueen, I favour John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood for their eccentricity on their designs. For Indonesian designers, right now I like Tex Saverio and Sebastian Gunawan also because of their capriciousness in designing a dress.
Since when did you realize you love designing dresses and want to explore fashion?
My earliest designing experiences were drawing Manga during my elementary years. This is because of I like Japanese cultures even up till now. When I was drawing Manga, I somehow put much more efforts in designing the characters’ costumes. My friends usually complimented me about how adorable my designs were. That was probably my starting point, but I hadn’t realized yet about my passion in designing clothes, it was pure Manga.
Then during high school, I enrolled to art and design major on 11th grade. During that moment, I discovered my passion for fashion and determined to dive into the industry. My designs are continuously developing. During high school, there were a lot of drawing and designing tasks. I stayed up all night and only had like four hours of sleep almost everyday.
I think from those sleepless nights, my ability to draw and design clothes started to improve significantly. This is because I didn’t only draw, I needed to distinguish the primary resources of my designs, translating the inspirations of my designs, and other designing processes.
Do you join fashion courses?
Right now, I am doing several fashion courses, or should I say workshops for my fashion education. I have been the student of Abineri Ang Couture for one and a half years. I took basic design workshop and bridal workshop at the same time.
How do you describe your signature style?
I am not sure why or how, but I really like the aphotic and twisted concepts when I am designing. I also combine it with a touch of fantastical and gothic Victorian impressions. I can do lighter designs but I feel like my full potential translates clearly when I am creating dark dresses such as black, maroon, or navy blue. It is probably my signature style.
I also don’t like excess embellishments on the dresses. I do use embellishments on my works, but I prefer it if they form a certain assembly of patterns or motifs, not like just scattered on the dress like someone spill a box full of crystals.
How did you manage to be featured on Jakarta Fashion Week 2018?
I am representing Abineri Ang on my show but I teamed up with four other designer friends, collected funds, and applied to the Jakarta Fashion Week committee. Our designs obviously will be featured individually, but as new designers our budgets are limited and we decided to throw a collective show. First and foremost trying to make our dreams come true as accomplished fashion designers.
What is the concept of your Jakarta Fashion Week collection?
This is my debut collection and the concept is a combination of my childhood memories, Greek mythological influences, and my favourite game. My school assigned the theme ‘Dara’, which is very vast and universal. Nevertheless, it means that I can explore as many things as possible.
As a woman, I put my feminine interpretations of my childhood periods. I recalled many cherished moments and thoughts, which can be applied well on this particular collection.
I also have changed the title of the collection from previously Dawn of Thea to Hecate. The reason behind this is because my dark mood kind of intervened during the designing and production processes and turned the tone darker than I thought before.
Hecate herself is a Greek mythological goddess. She is known as the goddess of witchcraft but she is also a necromancy, goddess of the night, moon, and ghosts.Then, the mythical influence is elevated by adding some of my inspirations from my current favourite game, Persona 5. It is a fantasy game full of mythical creatures and storyline, so it does strengthen the mythical concept of the collection.
How is the preparation so far?
There will be eight dresses and as I hate to procrastinate, me and my team have started preparing this collection since it was first announced, February 2017. We worked hard to get everything ready before the deadline and now the progress is around 80% where I just need to finish some of the details. It is probably the most time-consuming part due to large amount of crystals on some of the designs.
My team consists of one seamstress and two decorators where I act as the creative director and designer. As a new brand, I need to make sure that everything goes well by directly putting myself into the process. I am supervising them while doing other works such as drawing the patterns and cut the garments by myself.
Last but not least, what is your message to all the young and aspiring designers who want to start their own fashion brands?
The real reason why I started this early and didn’t go to college because I am very concern with my parents since I graduated high school. Obviously, they are not young anymore and I don’t want to burden them much more.
If I go to college, they sure have high expectations as they want me to study abroad, like Japan or Paris. However, to be very honest I am not good at learning new languages and it will take a long period of time (probably four or five years) and money, since the living cost will be much more expensive than in Indonesia and studying fashion requires a lot of tools and equipments.
Besides my parents, I just really want to jump into the actual professional industry and start on my own, building it from scratch. At first, my parents doubted my decision not go to college but eventually by proving that I am capable, they keep supporting me thoroughly. Like, if they don’t support me right now I probably won’t able to showcase my debut collection at Jakarta Fashion Week.
Some people will say that I am gambling my future and I lost some of my teenage years on being a college student, but I need to be success and this is my way to reach that success. I need to toughen myself and challenging myself to do my best. Just one simple message, for those of you who want to start your own fashion brand, being a designer, just do it. If you are sure that it is your passion, just go for it.
Make sure to witness it by yourselves as Elis will showcase her collection on the Abineri Ang Atelier et Createur de Mode presents “DARA” segment at Fashion Tent Jakarta Fashion Week 2018, Senayan City, Sunday 22nd October 2017. Full report on the show and collection will be posted really soon, stay tune!