Gelila Assefa

interview by Douglas Eby

Couture clothing designer Gelila can recall being drawn to designing clothing as a girl. "I was just born to it," she says. "I was drawing, and designing clothes for my dolls from an early age. I must have been twelve years old when I made my first outfit."

In her early teens, she was suspended for embellishing her Catholic school uniform. A business major in college, she transferred to a fashion design college, and after graduating worked with two clothing manufacturers.

But she discovered she was not cut out for the ready-to-wear industry, especially with her employers being more interested in copying fashion than in original design. "They hired me to run a division of the company, for merchandising and designing," Gelila explains.

"I discovered that was not what I wanted to do. At the time, just graduating from college, the security meant so much to me, and the company offered me a lot of money to start designing for them. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. It had nothing to do with designing. I didn't want to compromise my passion for creativity," she says about the experience. She left to take a job as an evening hostess at an upscale restaurant, while also picking up some consulting assignments for fashion merchandisers.

But design was her passion, and still is. "I think the career chose me. I didn't have any other choice," she says with a laugh. "I completely pursued designing, doing what I loved to do at home. I cleaned out my entire living room, and put my designing room there." Starting with a few clients, her custom clothing business started picking up, from one of the best kinds of marketing, word of mouth.

"One client would give me an order, and then tell someone else," Gelila says. "In the meantime, I had the security of the night job. About seven months ago, I took the chance to do things on my own, and opened my own shop."

Gelila notes that when she first went into the business a few years ago, "pashmina was a backbone. A friend of mine gave me a pashmina shawl about five years ago. It's just a beautiful material. I loved it, and made a trip to India to get more, and started showing to my clients.

"At that time, Barneys and Neiman were the only places that sold them, but nobody really knew what it was. Then I started doing a private label for a couple of designers. And I incorporated pashmina shawls with my evening gowns or other designs of mine." She still uses the shawls as an accessory, though not as much as before, and also does some pieces such as embroidered pajama sets.

Her association with designer James Galanos helped form her concern for detail and quality, Gelila says. She saw examples of his work in a store at about age twelve Later, when she was in school, a Nancy Reagan gown he had donated was used in her draping class as an example.

"I remember being very struck by it," Gelila says. "I went home thinking about how beautiful it was." Some time later, she was shopping and struck up a conversation with an assistant of his, who introduced her. "I started hanging out with Galanos a lot, and he invited me to do an internship one summer at his workshop," she notes. "He is my idol and mentor."

Gelila characterizes her designs as "very delicate, very feminine. I focus on detailing and cut." A recent Los Angeles Times article referred to her "couture collection of hand-sewn skirts and bustiers that are at once edgy and sophisticated, reflecting distinctively African influences played out in geometric patterns on hand-woven silks."

Gelila says she is finding increasing satisfaction in her life as an entrepreneur and designer, and feels "There's nothing like seeing someone wearing your creation, something that was in your head. That's the best satisfaction."

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 [originally published on website: ShesGotItTogether.com]

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