This Adelaide-based designer is celebrating 15 years of his haute couture label, Paolo Sebastian – and what a journey it has been.
By Viki Ntafillis | @viki_ntaf
A young boy, aged three, sits with his nonna, watching her sew. His eyes carefully follow her deft fingers as she confidently passes the needle through the fabric, back and forth. From that moment on, he is enraptured.
At 17, he peeks through the heavy curtains, eyeing the masses gathered before him in The Grand Ballroom. The studio lights shine down on the girls, his closest friends, as they strut down the runway, dressed in his visions come to life. Applause cascades down on them all. Vasileff’s nausea subsides. This is “The Moment”.
For Paul Vasileff, founder and designer of haute couture label Paolo Sebastian, fashion has always been his calling. Anyone who has laid eyes on the Bulgarian-Italian designer’s works knows they are beyond majestic. He crafts them all in his Gouger Street atelier, located in the heart of our sleepy city, and the average Adelaidean wouldn’t even know it.
This year marks the label’s 15-year anniversary. “Paolo” is Italian for Paul and “Sebastian” is his middle name. Vasileff is essentially a man veiled by the guise of himself, remastered and enhanced. All the tulle, satin, lace – they don’t hide him, they embolden him. The label itself is an ode to Vasileff and his life-long passion.
“It’s giving people the sense of the dream, and the opportunity to give them that Cinderella moment,” he says.
“It’s the ability to transform, and you really see it when they put on their outfit for the first time, how they swish around, and move and stand taller. Nothing beats that feeling, knowing that you created that for someone.”
Although his life may seem like a fairy tale now, it wasn’t quite as magical to begin with. Vasileff began practising his designs on wrapping paper and newspaper, then scraps of fabric from his nonna, fashioning the garments on a mannequin he made from scrap wood in his dad’s shed.
Vasileff made his first dress at age 11: “a purple lavender bias cut dress with a chiffon skirt” for a close friend. This quickly evolved into making formal dresses for other friends.
“I was in year 8, but I had a lot of friends that were older than me. The girls started winning ‘Best Dressed’. Then their friends wanted a dress, then their friends wanted a dress, and it just grew from there.”
Around this time, Vasileff began undertaking private sewing classes. His ultimate dream? To create his own label and host his own fashion show.
Chanel Capaldo, manager of operations at Paolo Sebastian, befriended Vasileff in year 11 during a VET course in textiles. She discovered very quickly that his talents were unique.
“The first time I met Paul in class, he brought in a giant portfolio of all his sketches, design work and mood boards. That was so inspiring to see. Even the teachers were very impressed – they hadn’t seen anything on that level before. He was already working to such a professional standard at the age of 16.”
In year 12, a teacher suggested to Vasileff that he host a fashion show by taking the topic Extension Studies, which let students study any area of interest. This was enough to spark Vasileff’s plan.
Calling the venture “a labour of love” would have been an understatement.
“It was myself, my neighbours, my friends’ mums, and my mum helping me sew. My dad and brothers made the set. I’d sew until three in the morning, then get up the next morning to catch the bus to school. I’d then do my homework during recess and lunch, so I could go home and sew, or go to sewing class.
“Now when we do a collection, its 15 to 20 pieces at most. For that first collection I had 64 pieces. It was called ‘The Moment’.”
Leading up to the show, Vasileff didn’t know if it would be successful, but its significance was not lost on him.
“I felt sick … you’re showcasing something that is so much a part of you, and you’re really vulnerable in putting yourself out there and up for critique,” he says.
“I was a 17-year-old that had no idea what I was doing, no contacts in the industry … so I thought ‘if I do something wrong … I could potentially be sabotaging my whole future’.”
To his surprise, the night was a sell-out. 660 people attended, with lines down the block.
The next day, there was a newspaper spread about the show, and he became inundated with wedding dress orders.
After high school, Vasileff worked from his parents’ lounge room and undertook work experience in menswear tailoring at Di Fabio Brothers Tailoring.
At 19, he won a year’s scholarship at Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design. This was only the beginning.
Today, the designer has created more milestones than garments. These include winning Young Australian of the Year in 2017, collaborating with Disney, and showcasing in Paris Fashion Week (the first time he achieved this, his label was only nine years old).
When asked how inspiration strikes exactly, Vasileff says “it’s different every time”.
“For the Disney collection, I had to see the back of the model walking away with the veil, the set and the music. For the Swan Lake collection, I was at a concert and I heard the music … and in my mind all I could see was this set. It was like watching a movie. All the details were there.
“Storytelling is such an important part of couture … it adds another dimension. I think if you’re creating a dress for the sake of [it], it can feel a bit empty or hollow.
“I think as humans we are constantly seeking connection to things. We can always relate to a story, or a hero, a villain, a period of time, or a location. It’s about being able to find something special in that story, draw it out and use it to create something beautiful.”
Vasileff now has ateliers in six different locations worldwide and has made a household name for himself. However, he can still empathise with young people shooting for the stars.
“In early interviews … I would talk about wanting to be a couture designer and showcasing my collection in Paris, and people would say ‘you’re going to have to move away from Adelaide’ or ‘you better settle for working for someone else’. Basically, ‘wake up, kid’,” he says.
“I would say to any young person, whether in fashion or not: as hard as it can be, each and every day strive to be the very best version of yourself, and always stay true to who you are. When you do something, do it for the right reasons, and remember the people who helped you. The journey is just as important, if not more, than the destination.”
The designer said it’s his love for sewing that has fuelled him; his degree of success is a bonus.
“The goal was never to be famous, [it was] to do the work I wanted to do. It didn’t matter whether I did that on an international stage or in my parents’ lounge room, I was just happy to be doing it.”
As the man himself put it, a dress with a story is a dress with a soul. And when it comes to the stories behind Vasileff’s garments, the most important story is his own. His passion lends his dresses an undeniable beauty, but also a perceptible, unwavering spirit.
Vasileff demonstrates that striving for our dreams is not unreasonable when we are hardworking and authentic. After all, we are nothing if not our values, connections and stories, woven into the fabrics of our very existence.
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