One To Watch: Designer Nessa Apostol
BACKSTORY
Name: Nessa Apostol ~ Age: 27 ~ Company Name: napostollabel.com ~ Type of Business: Couture Apparel
NApostol Couture is a couture gown fashion design brand based out of San Diego, California, specializing in red carpet and bridal evening wear. NApostol Couture was founded in late 2014 by the 27-year old Nessa Apostol, who hand-makes every single piece in her collection. NApostol’s one-of-a-kind gowns are the perfect marriage between formal evening wear and athletic dance art, while keeping with the integrity of the high-fashion industry. The gowns are designed for the “social fashionista” who enjoys dancing, inspired by Nessa’s background in ballroom dance. Each dress is created to allow its owner the ability to move freely and comfortably without having to constantly adjust.
Nessa started sewing her own gowns when competing as a professional ballroom dancer in her teens. All of her costume pieces were infused with styles by her favorite designers including Michael Costello, who Nessa interned under at the start of her career, Roberto Cavalli, Versace, Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, and the ever so glamourous Zuhair Murad. Since the birth of NApostol Couture last year, many celebrities have worn NApostol original gowns, including Dancing with the Stars’ Karina Smirnoff, Miss Guam Universe 2015 Brittany Bell during the Miss Universe Pageant, Basketball Wives LA Draya Michele, and Amanda Kouretas, just to name a few. Nessa has taken her rapidly growing collection to several fashion shows around the country, most recently attending Atlanta Fashion Week, where NApostol’s Bridal Collection debuted. That’s not the last runway that the NApostol Couture collection will be seen on as Nessa has landed the coveted closing designer spot with the 2015 San Diego Fashion Week. The NApostol Couture collection grows daily. In preparation for the launch of the NApostol Bridal Collection, Nessa fashioned 10 wedding gowns in a time frame of two weeks, in addition to six other couture gowns to fulfill her incoming orders. She’s a maniac on a mission!
Giving back is one of the pillars of the NApostol Couture brand. In August 2015, Nessa launched a project very near and dear to her heart called “Broken and Beautiful.” The project is produced to support and empower women with heartbreaking stories of poverty, violence, and abuse through photography and Nessa’s fashion gowns. The goal of the project is to connect these women to their own beauty and power.
AHA! MOMENT:
To be honest, I don’t feel like I’ve made it to the point where I really want to be yet. However, the moment I realized I’m at the level I’m at today was when I went to a fashion event recently and several people I didn’t know introduced themselves to me and asked me if I could work with them. On top of that, I had models asking when we could shoot and fellow designers asking if they can learn from me. I’ve always aspired to inspire others with my gowns and at that moment I realized that my work was igniting a fire in people’s hearts and stimulating them to further pursue their passion in some way. When that happened, I realized I am doing things right.
TWO CENTS:
If you know with all your being that pursuing this work burns deep in your heart, don’t ever stop and do whatever it takes to get to where you want to be. There will always be bumps in the road and you’ll probably run out of money in the beginning. Sometimes, you might not have any clients. Other times, you might not know how to do something. But keep going and keep learning. In my case, I started out by interning in LA’s Fashion District for a well-known fashion designer and I got paid crap money. With that said, I got a much greater understanding of how to better sew and also learned a lot about owning a fashion business. I learned how to build great, mutually beneficial relationships. I turned $8 dollars of material into an $800 dress with simply trial and error of vendors. I made connections with celebrities—by being nice! All along, my mindset was, “Success is the only option for me.” That doesn’t mean hard times won’t happen. It simply means that I acknowledge the fact that they will, but I’ve already decided that I am overcoming them!
DIGITAL:
Facebook: /napostolgowns
Instagram: @napostol_couture
Twitter: @napostolcouture
Website: napostollabel.com
