Erika is obsessed with all things beautiful. Designer of Angel Atelier, Erika Denman has “always had a vivid imagination and an everlasting vision”. She recently graduated from San Francisco State in Apparel Design. Based in the preceding city, she's taking us behind the scene of this chapter of hers.
What is your viewpoint as a designer?
I am addicted to crafting my environment and world to be as embellished with beauty and customization as much as possible. My room is littered with personalization and textures of all kind and my body is adorned with cohesive designs of various inks. I bring this essence into everything and it’s what has created my passion of design. I pay attention and plan accordingly when making garments and collections that align with the lens I project onto my world. I am eternally dedicated to fulfilling the desires to please my eye and bring my vision to life, leaving behind a captivating mark that I and others can enjoy. I guess that is my viewpoint.
You called this collection a playground for your fantasy pieces. If you could step inside it, what would you see, hear, and feel — what's the aura of this place?
I absolutely love this question! What I imagine is an intimate dressing room belonging to the women who embody the garments. This room would be lit in a soft pink light and warm with the smell of sweet skin and perfume. It would be full of delicate furniture and soft, ruffled pillows and clothing on the floor. I’d like to imagine there are bits of each girl’s personality scattered throughout the room, each’s own color and style that mixes together in a beautiful hot mess.
What is one detail in this collection that people might not notice at first?
People don’t notice the hats and the fluffy skirts, both absolutely essential to show appreciation of the ridiculousness we see in the history of fashion and my own style. Centuries of absolute creativity and playing with fashion resulted in endless possibilities, a mess of a mental roulette of outcomes to create.
Was there a technique or material that guided you throughout the collection, or was each piece guiding each other?
I was incredibly inspired by ruffles, corsetry and detail and knew this would be the main theme of the collection years ago. I fell in love with the craft during the process of creating the collection as well and found peace and flow in the everlasting hours of ruffling and gathering each piece, hand sewing each detail, and the layers and layers of corsets and skirts. I gained incredible appreciation for those who have dedicated their time to create using techniques like these. Couture is truly an expertise.
All of your girls looked dreamy and whimsical but still c*nty. Is this the type of girl you plan to keep designing for?
Exactly. Thank you. These are all my friends! some with modeling experience, some without. I am very lucky to have the prettiest and baddest friends and peers in the world and my admiration and excitement for them was a huge part of envisioning the project. Their confidence created the aura of the look, I wanted them to feel strong and sexy and to own the soft and delicateness of the designs.
I specifically wanted to design for strong women to rewrite the cliche of softness and femininity aligning with weakness and passivity, often a theme in history and fantasy. Each girl suited their look incredibly well and it wouldn’t be the same if I was designing for anyone else. I’ve never felt so proud as I did watching them walk down the runway and I am eternally grateful for their dedication and loyalty going through the process with me.
I want to design for all angels and make every girl feel as special. In the future, I plan on continuing with my vision to create for anyone who would appreciate it.
What were your styling notes for this collection?
I wanted each look to be complete and well done, with every decision and detail to show the garment’s fantastical personalities and colors.
You added a crafted accessory piece to each look in this collection. Do you intend to continue that in your next collection?
Absolutely. I have way too many ideas not to. I want to immerse the look into it’s full potential and once I have a vision I need to complete it.
What is the inspiration for your next couture line?
I have recently been incredibly inspired by true historical costume. This collection was a mix of modernized inspiration from 19th century European womenswear through combined elements of adornment and techniques from that time, but I want to incorporate other times as well such as the cloaks from medieval times and suits from edwardian womenswear.
