ABOUT

Hi everyone! I'm Ela, a fashion & sewing addict with a passion for all things vintage-looking, classy and generally nice. I live in Milan, Italy, where I make each item of clothing while secretly hoping to take over the world with Elochka, the fashion brand I have been developing since September 2012.

The story of Elochka starts back when I was a little girl who had just discovered her grandma's treadle sewing machine... a magic and beautiful instrument that had one power that was fascinating me: the power to join pieces of fabric into a unique and beautiful object that someone was able to use.

Back home at her parents' place, this little girl used to spend endless hours just making dolls' clothes and dreaming of owning a sewing machine one day.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2010. In the 18 years that had passed, I gave up making dolls’ clothes and embraced a more pragmatic course of life, with lots of maths, some writing, a bachelor degree (and a career) in marketing, a master degree in advertising, and an ongoing PhD in communication (which I finished in September 2012). So, one day, I borrowed my cousin's sewing machine, and just started to learn to sew.

I discovered Etsy at the end of 2011 and the idea of opening a shop there became my goal, because it would have perfectly merged everything I loved to do: creating and sewing beautiful, vintage inspired clothes, writing, talking to people and getting in touch with the whole world through this wonderful invention called Internet.

Elochka was born as an Etsy shop in October 2012, after I had moved to Milan to be with my boyfriend and had finished my PhD. It is a home based little business, a "one-man show", because I do everything myself: from managing the shop and marketing, to designing and sewing, from purchasing fabric to shipping.

I get my inspiration mainly from the beautiful fabrics that I find while wandering the fabric stores in Milan. I am an avid fabric collector and I'm mad about floral prints, can't get enough of them! I can spend hours looking at vintage photos and vintage fashion drawings, like the ones on old sewing patterns, and imagining how I can re-interpret the looks in a modern key.

My vision of fashion is that it's supposed to allow us express who we are, but most of all, to make us simply look beautiful. The woman I see wearing an Elochka piece is secure, powerful, but also girly, feminine, and nostalgic for a time when things used to be generally prettier than now.

Growing Elochka as a business is my mission, and I hope you'll join me in this journey!

Love,

Ela