Fashion Designer Paola Estefania Is Paving The Way For Minority Designers Through her Unique and Intricate Designs and Styles
Recognized by the likes of Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar, Maxim, GLAMOUR, and Sports Illustrated, Paola Estefania is an haute couture designer who creates custom pieces for VIP clients all over the world. With a background in both textiles and interior design, her eye for fashion and emerging trends is truly unique. She began her career in fashion by founding her own clothing brand, Humble Hustler, with collections for both men and women in form-fitting activewear, streetwear, and ready-to-wear lines. Four years later, Paola pursued her passion for haute couture design and created her Paola Estefania label.
Paola caters to the needs and desires of the modern international woman who enjoys distinctive and luxurious garments. With her sophisticated, bold, and feminine style, Paola handmakes custom pieces – including her new “Mommy & Me” Show Off Swimwear Collection. Her designs include ready-to-wear and evening wear couture pieces, bridal gowns, swimwear, maternity wear, and intricate costumes for world-famous singers and dancers, including Coi Leray and Lexy Panterra. She has also worked with a number of women in the WWE to design custom pieces for them to wear in the ring such as Mandy Rose, Leah Van Dale, and CJ Perry. Her clothing designs are incredibly special and cater to exactly what the client wants.
Every piece that Paola makes is custom and unique to the artists that request it. After discusses what the artist is looking for Paola starts her research and pulls more inspiration around what the client wants to convey in their garment. All along the way uncovering new elements that she can weave into the designs. As Paola is a visual person, she finds that mood boards are her best friends, so she likes to work closely with her clients to start pinning right away and watch the boards grow and evolve over the course of the design process. She makes sure that her clients are involved in the process just as much as she is! The design process from start to finish is very detailed and finding inspirations for new designs is key. Paola works closely with her clients to create a mood board that inspires them to create something special. After narrowing the focus, fabrics come first. Then, once she knows the fabric quality, she chooses the rest of the materials that she needs to create the garment. Paola takes down her client’s measurements and works closely with her pattern maker to create the blueprint of the garment. She walks her pattern makers through the details of her vision and lets them get to work. All completed in house, the patterns are meticulously measured and draped to match the design. Then once the first samples are ready it’s time for fitting and sampling. Each piece varies in intricacy so a sample could move directly into its final stages after the first fit or it could be worked on for more time until she gets the perfect fit.
Paola has worked with people such as Coi Leray and Lexy Panterra and when working with them she made a point to creatively brainstorm on those projects and help style the artists in ways that felt authentic to them. She says “It’s so much easier to work with an artist who knows exactly what they want. I have been fortunate to work with both artists and they love my clothing brands, they go well with their personal and music styles. So, when working together I know we have similar tastes and it makes it easier to bring their ideas to life.” Paola has designed some amazing pieces for Lexy Panterra recently. To achieve these looks she and her team work hard to find ways to perfect each aspect of the garment to make it something truly special. Paola has been in the garment industry for four years now and has built herself up every step of the way. She works with a cut and sewer and a pattern maker to ensure her garments are constructed with the finest craftsmanship. Paola does all of the product sourcing and challenges herself to make the most intricate, complex designs come to life.
When it comes to working with WWE stars Paola knows that each wrestler’s character and personalities are very unique. She loves to challenge herself so working WWE stars is an absolute treat for her! Depending on the storyline of each wrestling match, they narrow down the themes she will be using for the designs. The wrestlers she’s worked with have similar styles and she says that “the girls are very glamorous, and sexy so it’s the perfect fit for me.”
Most importantly, Paola is paving the way for other minority designers. She understands the insurmountable obstacles that one faces as a minority trying to make it in such a competitive industry, but I embraced what makes me special and become a master at her craft. She worked very hard to build her own business from the ground up, and went on to start her own fashion label. Paola says “I’m very proud of the challenges and accomplishments I’ve faced as a Latina designer. I want to continue to show what Latina women can do. I created something huge out of nothing at all, I hope this inspires other people that came to this country with nothing to pursue and follow their dreams.”
Paola is an incredibly unique designer and we can’t wait to see what new and innovative designs she comes up with next.
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