As Dreft Fashion Week Zagreb is coming closer (22-24.11.), I got the chance to interview British designer - Ada Zanditon. This is the second time Ada is showing at DFWZ, last time she did an interview for Croatian press she said that she absolutely loves Zagreb and would love to come back, so she is coming again this year.
I first met Ada at DFWZ after party, we were coming out of the cars at the same time in front of one club and she said "Girl, you look fierce in that dress!" - I was wearing Lei Lou multifunctional fitted dress with long bat sleeves and later wrote a post called 'Ada the Fierce'. Ada was all smiles that night after she showed her rather impressive collection called Poseisus.
My favorite thing about Ada is not only her amazing designer talent but also her passion for creating sustainable fashion pieces in this time of crises when most designers are focused on how to increase the income and not much thinking about how damaging their product creation might be for environment or where are they sourcing their materials. Also - Ada worked for the house of McQueen - my absolute favorite brand in the world. :)
What was your inspiration for SS 2013 season which you will show this week in Zagreb?
My inspiration for spring summer 2013 is tigers, Particularly the way that the female tiger is both majestic elegant and beautiful and I made a narrative based around the tigress As if she was a woman in a Quentin Tarantino film. Here is the short preview.
How much effort does your brand put into sourcing and producing eco-sustainable fashion pieces? Why is this important to you?
We make a great deal of effort to source our fabrics sustainability and from transparent sources it is important to me to do this because I want to show that it is possible to create products which are desirable, innovative and interesting. I want to create a narrative that can be engaged with because it is a creative story or because it is analogy about our relationship to our environment, Whatever someone chooses to take from the collection as long as it's inspiring, then that's what's important.
Either someone will choose my brands because it is sustainable and they like the product or they will choose it simply just because they like the product.
Do you feel the impact of economic crises on your creative work? How much did the economic crises affect the sales of your collections if any?
It has been a very big challenge to grow a business during the recession however it has also given me resilience and strength that I have Milans how to grow a business on the download economic climate, make it flourish and continue to grow.
Alexander McQueen is my all time favorite fashion designer. How would you describe the experience of working for the house of McQueen?
I am very lucky to have had some good work experience before setting up my brand. All the work experience that I did helped me to understand how tough the fashion industry is and what level of dedication and perfectionism would be required in order to create a brand.
Do you think that in today’s day and age fashion designer needs to be equally a creative genius and a business person in order to build profitable brand?
In today's climate if you are a new designer and you are independent and you cannot afford to pay someone else to do the business side entirely for you, then absolutely you must be good at the business as well.
I have to spend at least as much of my time answering emails and working on the business strategy as I do spend being able to design and make things.
