Dress for Success – Michaela Jedinak
10-11-2014
Jenny Holloway: “I met Michaela Jedinak and her husband David Lethbridge approximately three years ago at our Fashion Studio. We had our first mentoring meeting and I was immediately impressed by Michaela’s tenacity, her drive and passion for a new concept in clothing for women.
Fashion Enter has mentored more than a 1000 designers over the last 13 years and I have learnt to never ever prejudge anyone or any idea. The innovation that is within the industry is staggering. The ideas, the concepts and the business behind these ideas reflect to me that we are almost awash with real entrepreneurs in fashion that have a drive to succeed – sometimes against all odds.
When I used to be a senior buyer for the Arcadia Group I would have goosebumps when I found a print that I thought was commercial. As stupid as this sounds this reaction to something exciting and positive has never let me down and that’s exactly what I had when I had my first meeting with Michaela and David. My goosebumps popped up and again and again.
The first occurrence of the goosebumps was when Michaela showed me her illustrations of her female form. They were not the most innovative or creative illustrations that I have ever seen but it was the concept that one dress does not fit all shapes but, in the world according to Joy of Clothes, one style should fit all silhouettes. And that’s exactly what Michaela had defined over a two-year period of her life. Two years of following a dream and passion. Two years of working alone on a concept that was ground breaking and something I had never seen in 35 years of being in the business. I was personally overwhelmed. I remember saying that I was so impressed with the amount of work, market research and sheet dedication Michaela had shown with the illustrations and the work on her website which, at this stage, had not been launched.
Michaela had joined us as a member because she didn’t know what to do next – she had the concept, the website, the sheer business acumen especially as she had no previous fashion production experience but it was now putting that expertise together into creating the garments. For Fashion Enter that was the easy part!
We helped with the creation of the blocks, the toiles, the fits and the grades. The first collection was absolutely amazing and sold and then sold and sold.”
Michaela adds: “Jenny Holloway has been my first “professional” believer when starting my fashion label Michaela Jedinak. She gave me a chance to turn my passion into reality by offering me the needed support and help to create my dresses at Fashion Capital. Her team are giving my dresses their best craftsmanship and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Michaela’s dresses are regularly featured on TV including Fiona Bruce on BBC News, Sky News, ITV and CNBC and has been worn by business leaders such as Arianna Huffington, Cilla Snowball CBE, Jennifer Fox, Nathalie Seiler – Hayez, Vanessa Vallely, Tania Bryer, Collette O’Shea, Michelle Emmerson and Rachel Allen. Her dresses have been worn by European Royalty, visitors to Downing Street and will soon be worn by the First Lady on the US TV Series Scandal.
As seen on Fiona Bruce BBC News
White Bernadette dress worn by anchor news reader Judith Rakers on “TAGESSCHAU” on the German channel ARD
