Once upon a time in Adelaide
ETHEREAL GOWNS THAT CAPTURE ROMANCE BY AUSTRALIAN DESIGNER PAUL VASILEFF
AS presenter of the E! Red Carpet show, Giuliana Rancic gets a lot of attention. The show is broadcast live around the globe on the E! channel and any dress she wears receives an audience of millions. At the 2014 Academy Awards, Rancic wore a gown by fashion newcomer Paolo Sebastian. It was a princess dress with an embroidered floral bodice and a tulle skirt, and she gushed about the design. But halfway through the show, the zipper broke while she was live on air.
Paolo Sebastian founder Paul Vasileff, 27, was horrified.
“The Oscars is something I had always dreamt of. As a child you look up to Hollywood and I never, ever thought I would have one of my dresses on the carpet. It was the highlight, and then the lowlight.”
Speaking to Asian journalists in his hometown of Adelaide, under a programme by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Vasileff explains that Rancic’s battery pack for her microphone had gone flat and needed to be replaced. The pack was under the dress and she also had a lot of wires taped around her. So with a fresh battery in place, the tech person zipped her up but one of the wires got caught in the zipper.
My aim was to take everyone back to their childhood. I don’t want it to be a princess collection. I want it to have more depth than that.
Paul Vasileff
There was no way of hiding the wardrobe malfunction in front of the camera.
“But she was wonderful about it and explained on air that it wasn’t because of our dress. We got a lot out of that zipper break. It was the most searched dress at the Oscars that year. It’s funny how things work out but at the time I was devastated,” says Vasileff.
MILAN STATE OF MIND
Apart from a one-year programme at the Instituto Europeo di Design in Milan, Italy, when he was 19, Vasileff is a largely selftaught couture designer. He made his first dress when he was 11 with the help of his grandmother. He staged his first fashion show as part of a school project when he was 17, creating some 60 looks that received full page coverage in the newspaper the next day.
“We had my friends’ parents, my mum’s friends, everyone, at home around the kitchen table sewing buttons and hems. I was halfway in Year 12, working until 3am and waking up at 7am to catch the bus to school, and doing it all over again the next day.”
After he finished school, Vasileff interned with a local tailor from Italy, who suggested that he apply for the programme in Milan. He applied to keep his mentor and parents happy, but didn’t think that he would be picked.
Never having lived away from home and overwhelmed by his new surroundings, Vasileff hated Milan. But as the months went by, he warmed up to his new school and its instructors.
“My pattern-making teacher was the pattern maker for Dolce and Gabbana. My illustration teacher was the illustrator for Gucci and my knitwear design teacher was the knitwear designer for Prada. So I was in good company, and they were such wonderful support and I learnt so much.
“They put my name in all sorts of programmes and my work was chosen to be shown at Milan Fashion Week. But at the same time, I really missed home, so the second I finished my last exam, I said ‘thank you’. I didn’t even wait for my diploma!”
HAUTE COUTURE HOPES
Upon his return to Adelaide, Vasileff went to work relaunching Paolo Sebastian. The resulting collection was a big hit, and he was asked to present it in Sydney. Photos from the Sydney show went online, and one dress in particular became a massive hit on image bookmarking website Pinterest.
“I started getting all these calls from as far as New York, and I wondered how they heard of me,” says Vasileff. “So one of my friends showed me and I quickly opened a Pinterest and Instagram account. Now we sell to the world. We’re stocked in Harvey Nichols in Kuwait City and Doha, as well as Singapore, Shanghai and New York.
Vasileff initially worked from his parents’ living room, but as his business grew he moved to a studio. Paolo Sebastian now operates from a two-storey building in Gouger Street in the Adelaide Central Business District, with a staff of 18.