VASSIA KOSTARA
Meet the designer behind the inspiration
Your passion for travelling is known to your followers. Do all these images and experiences that you acquire play an important role in creating each collection, and if so, in which way?
Journeys are an important part of my work as they identify my design philosophy and my inspiration. Fashion is a deeply human-centered art, therefore the contact with the diversity of different people and different cultures activates our senses in a unique way. Being a traveler makes you suddenly feel the need to be "present" at any time. You observe, process and assimilate elements that help you develop your expressive means.
Nowadays, social media is one of the primary means that a designer chooses to communicate his creations to the public and, if anything else, you have really succeeded in this part. How easy or difficult it is to communicate directly with the public and how demanding is the social media presence?
I would compare social media to a speed two-way road. Communication is fast, direct and intensely interactive. In addition to viewing and advertising the product, they provide a personal channel, through which the public can express its opinion, remarks and preferences unhindered. Negative and positive criticism are just the two sides of the same coin and, therefore, are equally useful and constructive. Praise is a vindication of effort, while a negative comment, especially when it is well-intentioned and polite, can awaken and mark a significant change in the way the business operates, in order for us to provide better products and services. In this sense, I feel that communication can be as easy and pleasurable as difficult and demanding, but in any case indispensable.
Which are the three key features that make your brand stand out?
The brand's philosophy was based on the uniqueness of individuality, realised with the use of special prints. This factor is constantly being boosted by investing in knowledge and technology, allowing us to deliver with quality and accuracy our own unique patterns on the fabrics we choose, through a proper management of the raw material.
At the same time, a very important thing is that behind every garment in our collection you can find a complete idea. Before a sketch finds its way to the production, I have previously visualised where it can be worn and what are the elements that will frame and show off the final look. Therefore, every woman can automatically link the garment with moments of her own everyday life, picturing herself within it and identifying her "history".
Finally, what I really think differentiates us is that we have managed to create a very specific style that receives influences from the trends, without being undermined by them.
In which city does the woman you are designing for lives? Ideally, how would you describe her in one sentence?
The woman I'm designing for might be living in a vibrant city with intense and sometimes chaotic rhythms, she might live in a "retreat" place, or she can be just a perpetual traveler! I would better describe her in one word: free!
When the oestrus of creation stops for a while, what are the things that Vassia Kostara loves to do?
I really love dancing! It is something that fully discharges me and increases the levels and the quality of my energy.
Journeys are an important part of my work as they identify my design philosophy and my inspiration. Fashion is a deeply human-centered art, therefore the contact with the diversity of different people and different cultures activates our senses in a unique way. Being a traveler makes you suddenly feel the need to be "present" at any time. You observe, process and assimilate elements that help you develop your expressive means.
Nowadays, social media is one of the primary means that a designer chooses to communicate his creations to the public and, if anything else, you have really succeeded in this part. How easy or difficult it is to communicate directly with the public and how demanding is the social media presence?
I would compare social media to a speed two-way road. Communication is fast, direct and intensely interactive. In addition to viewing and advertising the product, they provide a personal channel, through which the public can express its opinion, remarks and preferences unhindered. Negative and positive criticism are just the two sides of the same coin and, therefore, are equally useful and constructive. Praise is a vindication of effort, while a negative comment, especially when it is well-intentioned and polite, can awaken and mark a significant change in the way the business operates, in order for us to provide better products and services. In this sense, I feel that communication can be as easy and pleasurable as difficult and demanding, but in any case indispensable.
Which are the three key features that make your brand stand out?
The brand's philosophy was based on the uniqueness of individuality, realised with the use of special prints. This factor is constantly being boosted by investing in knowledge and technology, allowing us to deliver with quality and accuracy our own unique patterns on the fabrics we choose, through a proper management of the raw material.
At the same time, a very important thing is that behind every garment in our collection you can find a complete idea. Before a sketch finds its way to the production, I have previously visualised where it can be worn and what are the elements that will frame and show off the final look. Therefore, every woman can automatically link the garment with moments of her own everyday life, picturing herself within it and identifying her "history".
Finally, what I really think differentiates us is that we have managed to create a very specific style that receives influences from the trends, without being undermined by them.
In which city does the woman you are designing for lives? Ideally, how would you describe her in one sentence?
The woman I'm designing for might be living in a vibrant city with intense and sometimes chaotic rhythms, she might live in a "retreat" place, or she can be just a perpetual traveler! I would better describe her in one word: free!
When the oestrus of creation stops for a while, what are the things that Vassia Kostara loves to do?
I really love dancing! It is something that fully discharges me and increases the levels and the quality of my energy.
