Keep it white: a talk with the designer of #Romanian shirt brand, demiur

The perfect white shirt doesn’t exi… Wait! I just saw a dozen of white shirts that look lovely. And I found them on the shelves of one Romanian brand called demiur. Of course, as a #whiteshirtaddict, I wanted to find out more. 

From Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics to the fashion world is not such a big step to take when you have the inspiration, the desire and the will of doing something that you really love. I talked, over a coffee and a shooting full of smiles (see below the pictures) with Daniela Olaru, the designer behind the new and lovely demiur brand, about dreams, about fashion, challenges and… the perfect white shirt. 

#FashionTrend #Interview #RomanianDesigner #English

Demiur pieces are available…
… for online shopping at www.demiur.com and for in-store shopping at: Arc Maison Social Hub (69 Alexandru Constantinescu street, Bucharest), Check Vintage & more (1 Mihai Vodă street, Bucharest). 

Why shirts? Why just white shirts? How did the story if the brand started?

I love the shirt as a garment, I find it elegant and feminine and I believe it gives you a certain confidence wearing it. Before founding demiur I used to have an office job, where I always wanted to wear a suitable outfit, but at the same time an outfit that made me feel different and, of course, fashionable. This is what I had in mind when I created the first demiur collection. “Light” is a collection of 8 shirts all in shades of white. The shirts stand out by cut and fabrics so I chose white to complement and best highlight the design of the shirts.   

Tell me a bit more about fabrics and cuts – what is the thing you are thinking about when you imagine a new model or choose a certain fabric? 

The Victorian fashion era is for sure inspiring to me. I realised after I saw all the prototypes together that they create an atmosphere that reminds us of that period but at the same time they can be worn nowadays. For many of the designs I just woke up with a model in my mind and I had to sketch it, while for others I wanted to use a certain style of collar or type of sleeve and then I let the design unfold. 

I usually choose the fabric based on the sketch, trying to figure out which type of fabric would best represent what I drew. But it can also happen the other way around, to find a fabric that I just love and create a model based on it. 

Your first fashion crush story was related to…

I remember being in maths class in high school and drawing sketches thinking what if I had the courage to be a clothes designer. The dream seemed so big to me back then that I didn’t think it would be possible one day.

The favourite season/city/music for inspiration are now… 

Autumn. London. Music inspiration is very hard to pick, I just love too many different music genres.

The biggest challenge for a designer nowadays is… 

For me personally, the biggest challenge was to be in both roles at the same time: the fashion designer and the CEO of the brand.

The designer you would like to ask for a coffee and a piece of advice would be…

There are many, but if I were to pick only one I would go for Alexander McQueen.

We need fashion in our life because…

I have always loved and respected style and clothes. Every day you can be a different character and highlight interesting sides of your personality and state of mind. I believe that by choosing the clothes you wear, you actually wear your story. So we do need fashion in our lives. 🙂

What’s next for the brand? 

Launching a new collection. Me and my partner, Cristian M. Dumitru, are already working on the concept and prototypes.

About Daniela Olaru we should know… 

Fashion design was not my first education or job. I actually graduated from a faculty very different from the creative field – the Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics. I started to learn fashion design at Art & Style School in Bucharest in my late 20’s as a hobby, while I had an office job. After designing my first collection for the fashion school graduation I was inspired to follow my true passion and create a premium Romanian clothing brand. I just love to see how an idea sketched on paper comes to life into a garment through each stitch and seam.

Photography: Felicia Simion – https://feliciasimionphotography.com/ 

Thank you, Arc Maison! – @arc.maison

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