Latvia, fashion, design, nature and culture: Discover new talent

Meet the designer Aline Skarule

So, maybe you are wondering who's hiding behind this brand? One of the people is me, Aline. I'm a designer and while the brand is still in its early stage, currently my responsibility is to design not only clothes, but also everything else related to visuals. Recently I turned 29, and I feel the best I've ever felt. It's also because I finally realise how much I can do and how much more I can achieve.This is the beginning of a new, beautiful adventure. The reasoning behind me being into fashion design can be traced back to my childhood. When I was little, my family and I lived in the suburbs. It was a nice Latvian country living and we didn't have many neighbours around and every free moment I had, I spent drawing. Considering I didn't have the chance to flip through fashion magazines and watch TV channels, my inspiration mostly came from inner feeling, everything that appeared in my mind and what I had around. Mostly it was beautiful Latvian nature, smells, sounds, textures, colours.

Facts about Latvia:

Latvia is not only known as a place with beautiful nature, but also as land of song, and musical events are very popular – concerts, seasonal festivals, etc. One of the most important musical events in Latvia is the Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which brings together the country’s best folk dance groups, choirs and musicians.

A very important tradition in Latvia is the Summer Solstice. Latvians are still very much pagans at heart. People gather together in the countryside and spend the entire night in song and celebration. They worship nature by jumping over bonfires on Midsummer Eve. Latvians are a people to look up to (literally), Latvia has one of the tallest women in the world, and the average lady is an impressive 170 cm tall.

The capital of Latvia is Riga. The city has a fast rhythm, but at the same time people love a leisurely lifestyle. Latvia is a Wifi paradise, and considering that, we can work from a nice cafe terrace while enjoying coffee and brioche. We work a lot, but we also like to party a lot. Good music, company, cold brew on a summer's evening in some of the stylish places in the centre of Riga. It's a good way to end the evening.

Challenges of starting a fashion brand

Building your own business in Latvia is quite hard. The beginning of something new usually is messy and incomprehensible. You want to express yourself, but It's hard to do that. Mostly it's because of public pressure. Considering that our population is just around 2 million people, It's hard to take risks and become more recognizable. You have to find a way to show that you're good enough to give the best quality to people. And you ask yourself how can I be myself without others' Judgement.

Where did your Inspiration come from?

Despite these difficulties, this is always my place to feel at home and find inner peace. I think mostly it's Latvia's beautiful nature that keeps me here. As much as I love to be here, I was always eager to see and explore more of the world. Being away for a month in Spain it turned out to be an unexpected inspiration for the latest collection and also for the brand name.

Creation of collection & fabric (product, material, design, look & feel, techniques, colours)

Travelling along the coast of Spain for a month and visiting small towns, it turned out to be a great opportunity to get inspiration for my first collection. Feelings and things I experienced along the way - Spain's beautiful nature, colourful meadows, fresh, foggy mornings in the mountains, rocky coasts, and evenings in the company of interesting, happy people. Returning from this journey, taking with me everything I felt and experienced, it was a good way to convey a message to other people through designs.

When I started working on the collection, I knew from the beginning that I would make most of the designs from denim. The difficult thing was that I had never ordered raw denim before and in such a large quantity. In order to make the jeans soft and light, it had to be sent for several tests and washings. It was a long and time-consuming process until I got closer to the desired result.

The reason why I like working with denim, is because I have worked with this material before and it was already familiar to me. I like that it is thick and you can experiment with it in various ways, creating many interesting effects on it.

This time to make the denim more eye-catching on some of the designs I wanted to make embroidery, it gives the designs a more playful and more colourful look. On the way in Spain, I took many different pictures of what was around me and delved into various details. The photos I took, I used as a basis for the embroidery. I initially created them as sketches and later converted them into digital drawings.

The other details that are visible in the designs, such as fringes, decorative threads, ribbons and the choice of colours, came naturally as a part of the process to visually create a unified overall image of the collection.

Using imagination, memories of experiences and felt emotions , my first small collection was launched into production and sales.

Conclusion

Right now one thing is clear - when you start with one idea, in the end it turns out to be with a completely different outcome.There are moments when you're not sure about anything. That's mainly because there are a lot of difficulties on the way, and you can't just stick with plan A. You just have to be focused and do everything step by step, that's why there's no wrong answer or wrong business plan - everything is a part of a bigger process and changes are inevitable.