Designer Profile 2022: Ella Anderson
Friday afternoon at our very own Pret A Manger, I had the pleasure of getting to know MODA Nouveau designer, Ella Anderson, discuss her designer background, featured collection, its inspirations, and bond over our shared anticipations for the upcoming runway.
Our conversation, which consisted of mostly me asking a ton of questions, interjecting with a few adlibs here and there, and Ella trying her best to collect and articulate her thoughts (she killed it!), went a bit like this:
Tell me about yourself.
So, I’m a fourth year and I've been designing since my second year so it's my third time designing. I’m an Art History major, pre-med—— although who knows if I’ll actually end up in Med school… um…and I was also the Co-editor in Chief of MODA Magazine. I just ended my term in the Winter. But yeah, I'm super excited to be doing this for the third and last time.
So, I guess I have to ask you about your last few collections and how you think this one is going to be different?
Yeah—so my first year designing was my second year and that time I applied to design on a total whim. It was a late-night decision like ten minutes before the application was due and I had always kind of known how to sew, but not that well. I didn't do DBC or anything so I was kind of just on my own.
Oh my gosh!
Um.. and it was okay. It definitely—(she takes a breath) there was lots of room for improvement. And so that was kind of just the first dive into making clothing cause I had never really done that before. And so last year I feel like I had a better idea of what I wanted to do and how to construct clothes.
In my first year, I had made two looks and I was just kind of really experimenting. Honestly it was kind of a disaster since I didn't really know what I was doing; but, it turned out fine in the end. So my second year, I kind of experimented more with going beyond my comfort zone and making things that were maybe more colorful, challenging technically, and trying to make them look more finished and well constructed. This year I feel like I have a firm grasp on the elements you actually need to put into making something wearable and I'm doing four looks vs. the past two years I just did two. I'm really excited about totally expanding and doing something way more ambitious. Just seeing the difference in how I feel—like I know how to approach something now, and construct it, it's kind of amazing to see the huge learning curve and overall confidence in my knowledge. This year, I would say my collection really reflects that confidence in my ability to make something.
I guess you kind of just answered how you grew to be a designer; but, was there a distinct moment where you were like “I'm just gonna start making clothes now?”
I feel like that's a really hard thing to answer because it honestly was…(pauses) when I first applied two years ago it was a moment of wanting to have a physical project to do because I used to be very into visual arts. But, I haven't done any of that in college and I just really like to have some kind of project I can escape through. I don't know just something to constantly go back to. So I applied just thinking that it would be good to have a consistent thing to work on — and then I ended up totally just loving it more than I thought I would because I found that I loved the construction process. I think it's so much fun to make a pattern, test it out, and put it together, which I wasn't anticipating. I honestly just thought I'd make something, be super excited, and kind of just fizzle out my excitement; but that didn't happen at all. So it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.
Ella’s Mood Board
In what ways would you say your surroundings contribute to your work inspirationally, creatively, and innovatively.
I would say I take a lot of inspiration from the colors of random things, like a lot of my inspiration mostly came from my camera roll (about half of the photos on it just came from the “favorites” album on my phone) because I’m constantly taking photos of whatever I find pretty. Even just mundane things like the colors of buildings. Or, I love to cook and this is going to sound kind of weird but the color of food— I don't know... I just find it fascinating to see how everything looks on a plate. I think being able to find inspiration in non-clothing things is important because just trying to get inspiration from just clothing is almost limiting in a way. From my personal experience looking at other things has led to different approaches and different colors that I wouldn't have thought of before.
A big part of this year too is just the fact that it's going back to an actual show; so that was a big inspiration for this collection. That it's going to be a big sensory experience as a show again, which I think is important for considering clothing. So I wanted to incorporate the idea of a sensory experience in my collection, focusing on textures and smells is very inspiring to me in this one.
Smells? Oooooh.
This is also kind of weird, but I’ve been wearing a specific perfume that I’ve become obsessed with and its notes are tuberose, jasmine, and orange blossom. So I took all of those and all the colors I'm using in my collection come from those three plants. In my mind, it was nice to have a unifying thing that was a seed for what I was coming up with, and I like the idea that scent is your most powerful sense in terms of memory and how evocative that is. The clothing is not scented obviously, but I like the idea that even if it's not apparent to anyone looking, just for me— myself— it’s tied into scent and memory.
Ella’s current go-to fragrance
I love that! So what's the process like for you to sketch something out on paper and have to bring that to life and make it tangible?
Okay, so I'm incredibly indecisive. I go through so many different variations of sketches. It took me such a long time to decide what I wanted to make because I'll sketch something, sit on it for like a day, and decide “I hate this.” So it takes a long time to decide on a sketch I want to pursue, but once that happens I generally—(interrupts herself) I make all my patterns myself— so I just have a giant roll of tracing paper and I'll just free-hand sketch some shapes I think will work. Cut it out. Measure some things. Just look at the paper, visualize to see if this will work as a piece of clothing, look at images online, to see how to do seams or something. I was doing a lot of research on sleeves this quarter. So it's a lot of comparing other garments not for their aesthetic value but more for trying to figure out how things are put together and then drawing pieces myself. I'm pretty good at visualizing how things will fit together once I have a piece of paper in whatever shape of the item I need. So, then I just cut it out into fabric, start sewing, and wish for the best.
There's always a lot of tweaking after cause it never turns out how you want it the first time.
How do you want your clothes to make people feel?
I’ve been designing stuff I would want for myself. Like I like designing for myself it's really fun, so in a way, I'm fully cognizant of the fact that what I make isn't necessarily following whatever trend is going on. So it's not necessarily about that for me, it's more about having something that fits well and feels great.
I think it just is about (takes a moment to think)… this is cliche, but kind of just feeling confident. Wearing something that reflects confidence rather than just providing it. I think it very much is a symbiotic relationship between the person and the clothing so I do think it's important to have a matching personality because you'll never look good if you don't feel comfortable in it.
Ella in her signature style
Who do you envision wearing your clothes?
The general idea of this collection was a summer dinner party, which I think is reflected in the mood board. So that is who I envision wearing everything. I mentioned I love cooking, but the main part of that is that I love hosting dinner parties - I love all of the steps that go into planning all of the courses of a meal and then cooking it all - and that was very much at the front of my mind when thinking about what I wanted to make this year.
I also absolutely love Agatha Christie's books. Like murder mysteries. So I would say that my collection is also what I would hope everyone would be wearing at the end scene when the murder is resolved— not in terms of like the grim scenes. It's almost kind of evening-ish, going for elegance, but very effortless. I was watching so many of those movies during Winter quarter when I was thinking of what I wanted to make. I guess it's kind of just a symptom of the time period of when they were making those movies like the 60s, 70s. The effortless glamor of it. It's never exactly perfect. So imperfectly elegant is what I've been going for.
If you were to choose some words to summarize your collection what would they be?
The color palette is very Springy and I’d say hopefully this comes across as like as was saying—effortlessly elegant. But also fluid in terms of movement.
Fluid? Should I be expecting gowns or dresses?
Yes! I'm making four dresses, which is partly because pants are so hard to make. But also I think dresses are so fun to wear and make. Like if I could I’d wear a ball gown every day I would. Currently— and this may change cause I might decide to chop off a few lengths tomorrow— it's three long dresses and one short one. Evening-ish feel, but not super formal.
Ella’s pre-finalized sketches
When you were thinking about your collection did you think about your models first or did you think about your models in reference to your collection?
Two of my models I've used for the past few years. I like working with them and we’ve become friends through them modeling for me. So I knew I was going to use them. The other two that I chose, at that point I had no idea what I was going to do so it was seeing a little bit of myself in them. Not exactly. But the confidence and general vibe I want to give off.
I chose models that I could see matching my style a little bit, even if that's not how they actually are in real life.
So like cohesion?
Definitely, cohesion, because I like to think of the cohesion of a collection as the cohesion of a family. When I was designing this, I was thinking about my mom and my sister a lot. The three of us are so different, we have such different styles, but there's definitely an overlap. So I was going for the same vibe. Each look goes together but they don't feel like the same thing. So I wanted models where each of them is different and has their own look and vibe, but fit together.
What do you think will be the most fulfilling part about seeing your clothes moving down the runway again?
I think just the whole event is so fulfilling. I mentioned how I was taking the whole experience of the show as inspiration this time and kind of just the whole sensory experience of it all. Last year it was fun to watch the video put together, but it was not the same as just watching a youtube clip. So it's really fun not only to see the clothes and see them move in the entire environment of the show, but also it's so much fun to see everyone's reactions in the audience. A lot of the fun of the show is how everyone who attends takes it as an excuse to wear whatever they want and just dress up and have fun. I think the most fulfilling thing is seeing that everyone who goes is in their own world and having fun with their clothing and I'm able to show my version of having fun with clothing to them. It’ll be very fulfilling to see how much work I put in; but, the whole experience with everyone seeing it as well.
All photos provided by Ella Anderson
