Photo: Clement Pascal
Designer: Elena Velez
In the photo with: Lars Johan Andreas Emenius, artist and partner; their children, Atlas (18 months) and Freja Lucía (3 weeks)
Last season, Elena Velez presented one of the most talked about shows of New York Fashion Week, presenting a collection of deconstructed dresses and bodices using materials such as sails, military canvas and parachutes, inspired by her mother, a pilot boat on Lake Michigan. Motherhood is an outlet for her work, much of which she does in the Brooklyn studio she shares with her partner, the painter Lars Johan Andreas Emenius, with whom she has two children. “Sometimes the work conflicts because he has a different aesthetic. He works a lot with colors and his shapes are a bit freer, while my work is very detailed, molecular and tactile. We have a hard time commenting on each other’s work when he needs advice or when I need advice, but the energy we’re able to create in a space keeps us both going,” says Velez. She started designing clothes in earnest in 2018 and got investors in 2020. “An uncertain time to start a business,” she says. The business side is the most challenging part. “The biggest obstacle to entering fashion is finances as well as connections. If I didn’t have the tenacity for entrepreneurship and all the business components that go into running a brand, I wouldn’t be where I am. So it’s kind of disappointing to see how little talent matters,” she says. “I don’t have as much time as I’d like to be able to focus on creativity, which is a shame, but that’s what it takes to get to the level I’ve reached.”
