Here I would continue from where I finished last time – what the experience has offered me:

I have definitely learned a lot with the fitting sessions for collection and the fittings with private customers. The latter is where a designer often has to compromise on the design according to customers’ opinions and demands to please the client. The fittings give technical knowledge of how to alter the construction and finish the seams. I have also learnt a lot as to fabrics, for instance, how one has to be careful with expensive silk qualities, as they tend to tear off with wear.

Furthermore, it is a hands-on method at Xenia Joost: a lot of draping on a mannequin and calculating the consumption of fabric in the studio. Working together with the tailor to reach the best result both construction- and design-wise, nothing is accidental at Xenia Joost. Besides, believing in a sustainable approach also saves a lot of nerves not having to wait for prototypes from a developing country without knowing what is left of the initial design and the quality level.

I definitely support this kind of responsible production. Although it is expensive, it lasts and I believe that sooner or later, people will understand that wasting the planet is wrong and will start valuing long-lasting designs with character. I wonder how many throw old garments to garbage bins without having a single thought of how wrong it is to get rid of them only because one is simply fed up with them. This is where I do not understand why we have no containers for clothing which are common, for example, in Denmark and Italy. In Denmark they sort out the clothes, selling some of them in second hands, and using some money from every purchase for sending others to Africa. Every purchase supports sending the clothes to the ones in need.

There is not a single day, I do not want to change the world for better. At least designing helps to relieve the hurtful truth, that I cannot do it alone. But when one day my design would reach the approval of some people, perhaps this is where we can get started. Xenia once said that some interns get scared away when they experience how things work in the fashion business and for some the shock makes them change their career plans. On the surface, fashion is glamorous and entertaining. Who doesn’t want to look beautiful? And clothes can definitely make ones beauty shine. However, on the inside, the industry is far from glamour. Being a designer is definitely not easy and it is not a way to easy prosperity either, far from that. Often, for years designers and others involved with fashion have to work for free and do it out of passion. In fact, it proves how passion is a huge motivator and therefore superior of money.

I was also working on a unisex jersey project. With androgyny dominating fashion photo shoots and being a huge hit on catwalks , unisex clothing is still a realtively new ground worth exploring. We will see what future brings in that field.

I cannot help but mention the menswear designer Kalle Aasamäe who has been a frequent guest in the studio, since his is right across the hallway. He has helped me as well with his experience, and tips as to sketches and sewing. He feels like part of the team alread, while he and Xenia Joost will unite their studios next week in a new and beautiful old town location in Suur-Karja street.

Big Thanks to the whole brand of Xenia Joost and to Xenia herself.  She has played a huge role in making me believe in what I am doing, and given me more guts for the future.

Kadri

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Xenia!

I knew Xenia before starting my internship at her brand, as I had had my previous work experience at the design department of Ivo Nikkolo, so this eased me blending in and getting started. As much as I valued the previous experience, which gave me an overview of a giant company with many brands, operating in many countries with most of the production being outsourced, I feel like I can actually do more at Xenia Joost. In a big company, I did not feel I have any influence what so ever. Of course, I could help making working sketches and mood boards but more than that I was a listener at the meetings, which as well taught me a lot at that time when I had completed just a bit over a year of my studies.

sketching process

However, at Xenia Joost, daily work is so much different. In a big company, the designers have to follow certain rules and compromise on designs and use of fabric to fit in to the big machinery of the fashion house which might end up designers losing a great deal of their signature work, making them feel lost. In a small brand, the designer has much more freedom, so this is why as an intern, I also have freedom as to my design process and then afterwards I ask for Xenia’s feedback. According to her comments and suggestions, I make my own conclusions and adjustments, and try to come up with an improved version of a mood board, design and/or a construction.

In between the creative process I get to do a whole lot of other things that sometimes have nothing to do with design, for example, calculating value added tax and retail prices but this is something that one has to be able to do once working for one’s own brand.  I have communicated with clients, agents, and visited our display in retail, exchanging the garments displayed with some other ones and making necessary documentation. In addition, I have repaired and altered some dresses. I reckon that these days, designers have to be hybrids. And the more communication with various people, the more experience – life experience, in fact. It is exciting to discover a little bit of something new every day, it opens my eyes, and perhaps makes me a wiser designer. Besides, I believe that one has to take breaks from the creative process in order to be sufficient and make progress towards coming up with a good idea and design. I need breaks to digest and look at my work critically. Anyway, it is often that towards the end of the project, I am already fed up with what I have made, and not quite pleased with it, but I hope it is a sign of development.

To be continued…

Kadri

What is takes to have your own brand, is something I learn during my internship at Xenia Joost. I should rephrase it to ‘How much does it take to have your own brand?’

Part 1: School vs Work

Fitting at school

Once I work on projects at school, I research, brainstorm and through a long process, develop designs. However, this process has a great deal of assumption, as the result only reflects my own world. Mostly, it is only the guidance teacher(s) and an external evaluator who make me look at my work with some criticism. And even then, the design student has the privilege to stand firm on one’s opinion and think that perhaps, they did not quite get me and my target group. But who is the target customer? While studying, the customer is only someone in you own head and I cannot be sure he/she actually exists.

I am yearning for the real life situation, where I cannot hide behind my illusions.

In a company, having actual customers is what changes it all. In case of having internship in a small company like Xenia Joost, which is a niche brand, is where I have seen how close relations can Xenia have with the customers. Often, the customers share their views on life and their philosophy with the designer. In addition, the whole team has to believe in the same things and passionately work together. This is exactly how from the very first day, when Xenia gave me an overview of the brand, the current projects and difficulties, I felt like I have an understanding of how things are in the real world of fashion. However, making it all work, is another thing. But being in the middle of something so real: brand values, designer’s signature, customers, tailor, patterns, production, wholesale clients, foreign markets, agents and so on so forth; it suddenly felt so exciting, so involving, and motivating.

To be continued…

Kadri Kirss,

Design student at TEKO, Denmark

Aurora Fashion Week is one of the key system events of both regional and federal politics of Russia in culture and fashion industry. It is based in St Petersburg and held during one calendar week twice a year- in November and April. This year’s event was already fifth in a row bringing together professionals with really strong design signatures from all over the world: Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, China, France, Italy, Spain, Georgia, England, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Korea, Denmark, Syria, Lebanon, Estonia and the USA. Among many others, it would be nice to bring out names like Anne Sofie Madsen, Kukso Koo, Vyacheslav Zaitsev and of course Thom Browne.

And on 14th of April it was also my chance to show what I’ve got and bring out my Autumn-Winter 2012 Collections in the Black Hall at Manege Arena. But without any further ado I’ll just let the pictures do the rest of the talk :)

Photos: Roman Stetskov

But if something interests you then life has often tendency to offer the chance to experience it yourself. Two months ago I got an invitation to take part in popular reality-show “Õhtusöök viiele” (“Dinner for Five”) with other Estonian fashion designers. It’s a well-known format where 5 more or less famous people each prepare a dinner in one of the evenings during the week and gets points from the other four quests. In the end of the week the one who gets the highest score becomes the winner. Simple, isn’t it?? The reality.. well, a little different ..countless hours of filming, re-shooting and numerous interviews resulting in the perfect half-an-hour outcome…

As tonight is the night when the episode hosted by me will be aired in TV3 at 19.30  I thought about giving you a little sneak peek behind the scenes … let the pictures speak for themselves..

 And who will be the winner and what’s the prize?? Well, you’ll see on Friday!!! :)

Without a question, the true match made in heaven.. just see it yourself!

Photos: Virge Viertek

Make-up & Hair: Mammu

Style: Britta Laumets

Xenia Joost powder pink silk gown from Autumn-Winter 2012 Collection

Xenia Joost white tuxedo jacket from Spring-Summer 2012 Collection

On Estonian fashion market there are approximately 200 women who are interested and capable of buying local quality design and almost the same amount of designers who are rivaling with each other in order to dress these ladies. Therefore considering the limits of purse strings, the size of the market and poverty of local resources Estonian designers often turn their heads towards export, towards the possibility of finding success and surmounting higher peaks. Hereby I still emphasize the importance of asking whether this is the one and only egress and road the designer wishes to take. And this is not a warning or a chance to frighten anybody, but building an international fashion brand needs much more than just talent. In creative industries, talent is just the ground sill where it’s necessary to build the base and walls and roof on top of that. Counting only on talent is comparable to a situation on the job market where a person writes to his or her CV that he/she is a human being and assumes to get a job with only that fact. Talent here is self-explanatory, to survive in today’s world full of combined offerings is indispensable to offer  a perfect combination with strong competitive advantage.

This however leads to another important aspect- designer’s personality. From the very first moment when the brand is born, it’s all about that combo. Many designer have complained that clients seems to think that they own the designer, but in a way that’s the way it is. Fashion brands are not about buying clothes but consuming the stories behind the trademarks. In case of designer brands the story is about the person behind the scenes-the designer. Every season people wish to take a part of designer to live in their closets. This is also the reason why so many pop-stars have sold their name to different fashion collection series. Who would say no to a piece of Victoria Beckham and imagine if it could also bring along the figure transformation a la Victoria?! It is all about the story!

Fashion business is a lot more than just sewing one dress, it is the methodical development and movement of luxury goods in time. Historically fashion has been the demesne of courtiers and grantors, whether we like it or not. The evening gown that Marie Antoinette wore one evening was craved after by royal ladies in the next morning, in the following day by their chambermaids and in couple of weeks by the whole Europe. The same thing happens also in today’s world, though this time it is possible to analyze, channel and direct this movement with different methods. The genius favored by the court creates the masterpieces which are carried on into pret-a-porter collections and after that on the supermarket shelves.

Marie Antoinette

Of course most of the designers dream of the genius’s role, often not noticing the other side of the story: if you’re favored by the court, then the court also orders the music and makes you dance according to those sounds.

However in Estonia, we haven’t had this kind of thing at all, our farm-yard has played the part of  the court that has been funded by the Kratt who tried to bring in money by stealing behind the neighbors. However the wealth never came, and because of that the actual court was never born and without the court there was no real fashion industry.

Creative industry needs money and sponsors for development. Older societies had the historical background that supported the incipience of sponsors who have been funding creative endeavors feeling the responsibility for cultural development. Sponsorship, however, is not that popular in Estonia. Lately, the country has taken the responsibility of funding the creative industry. However, what makes the whole process difficult is the bureaucracy..it’s one thing how money arrives from private sponsor’s  pocket to the artist’s canvas, but absolutely other thing how it travels through the bureaucrats’ corridors. As well as the philosophy as the destination of the journey are different.

The lack of sponsorship tradition has also influenced our ability to estimate the real value and quality of creations. If we are not sure what is actually good, we also don’t want to take the responsibility of making any decisions about it. But let’s be honest, where should we take that courage after all? It’s like high-level tailor’s job that is learned from father and taught to son. Fosterage of creative business is in the blood and can be developed only by time and until the time when we actually have that generation, the state institutions try to come up with new mechanism which could prevent them from giving out money “in a wrong way”.

But what would help the designer who has decided upon export?

Firstly and most importantly, the designer has to have the dream and determination to go til the end, but also the capability of letting go of the personal ego cause the co-operation with the team around is vital and in the end the customer still wants to “own” the designer. Secondly we need the financial system, whether private or public, and a person behind it who would have the know-how and “balls” to play God in this sector. Cause that is the person who is responsible of the development of Estonian fashion culture inside the country but by being aware of my own as well as my colleagues’  ambitions then also behind the state boarders. Furthermore we need to keep and develop the production systems who would be ready to work with young designers and their crazy ideas and we need to educate producers who would actually believe in designers’ ideas and would start their work with an attitude “how to make it work” instead of  ”it’s not possible”.

But on the whole we need to build a whole system that would bring together all these different people and let each of them do their “own” thing at their best.

Must say incredibly big thank you’s to the whole organisational team for their great managing skills and to the audience and contributors for the heartwarming support! However, I believe that more words are just unnecessary, just letting the pictures and the video do the rest.. You’ll understand;) !

Getting the Collection ready..

Casting for the models..

Picking out the right ones...

And of course the fitting..

And achieving the perfect result…

Xenia Joost\’s SS2012 at Riga Fashion Week

As this kind of pop-up exhibition idea is not that common in here yet, then the news hit many media channels.. One of them you can also see here… Enjoy! :)

Xenia Joost story starts from the 23:30 minute.

However, decorating 250 square-meters of empty room is not that easy task at all, especially when you have only one and a half day to do it.. The adrenaline level rises, phone seems to be clued to the ear, the brain starts to work at accelerated speed and at one moment you find yourself wondering whether everything is still okey or has mentally something gone really wrong..? But then you move on, push the limits even more and things start to work out .. Of course, you can never underestimate the will-power and nevertheless the help from the people around you. This time I can never say enough thanks to my colleagues from Baltika and Loomeinkubaator for necessary equipment, to Estonian Art Academy for borrowing the dummies, to Eero from VanaTool (www.vanatool.ee) for accoutering the place with stylish furniture and last but not least to all the helpers who put all their effort into finishing the room, even before time, sparing us a little more sleeping hours!

So now me, my collection and the gorgeous exhibition are waiting for you during the next three weeks at Baltika Kvartal, Veerenni 24 in Tallinn!

See you here!