Meuleners, who flew into Nepal from San Francisco after graduating from the Academy of Arts in double Fashion Design and Knitwear Design, said she was always interested in designing, and there wasn’t any “defining moment” for pursuing her designer dream.
“What drew me into fashion is that it’s an accessible art form,” said the designer who looks up to designers like Alexander McQueen, Zac Posen, and Chado Ralph Rucci. “It’s a way to have your art visible to the crowd without it hanging on one person’s wall.”
Meuleners has been in Nepal for six months now, and for her, being able to see the mountains from Kathmandu still shocks her. She also profusely shared her adoration for the hospitable and welcoming Nepali culture and her love for momos.
In this conversation, the American designer talks about her collection at the New York Fashion Week in February 2010, research experience in Nepal, and her future in the fashion world. Here are the excerpts:
Let’s talk about the New York Fashion Week: your first collection, the concept behind it, and the experience.
It was nine months of work leading up to five minutes on the runway. [Laughs].
As for the concept, when I design, I like to have a story in mind about a girl who I’m designing for, the inspiration. So my main overall theme was envisioning a little girl playing dress-up in her mom’s closet. I also like to use art for inspiration, and photography. There was a futuristic photograph version of Duchamp’s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase. I wanted to go with dark, rich colors because it was fall, and I was using knitwear and chiffon, which are very different categories. So [with the colors] they seem like one piece rather than being one layer on another. I tried to lighten it by having some sparkles.
As for the experience, it was grueling. The production involved a lot of hard work, and in the actual Fashion Week, the show went by in a blur. But if I had to pick up one word: Amazing.
From the runway of New York to the one at Soaltee Crowne Plaza: You were also there for the Nepal Fashion Week. What were your impressions?
I didn’t know what to expect. Production-wise, I think it was produced very well—the runway was good, and I was pleasantly surprised about how well the entire show went. There were definitely a few collections that were well-made and well-designed and had an international appeal.
When they stuck more to Asian and Nepali designing, it was beautiful. I think younger designers didn’t always fully understand what international designing is, so when they tried that, they missed it a little. But overall, people did a good job. It was a great experience to see what Nepal was putting out to the world as fashion here.
The main problem with fashion here is to the outside world, people see Thamel fashion as Nepali fashion because that’s what tourists take back and that there’s so much to offer here and there’s so much that the world is missing. Also a lot of people here see Western fashion as what they see in some Hollywood movies and music videos. I think there’s some miscommunication about fashion on both highways.
So how did you end up in Nepal?
While in college, I did a winter session in Peru. It was on sustainability and social responsibility in business. We spent some time with the weaving community, and I got interested in traditional textile techniques outside of the US. Then a couple of years ago, a friend had told me about Fulbright Program, and one of the programs was open to arts people. So I wanted to study traditional textiles in fashion, and how in a developing country, the fashion industry could be more sustainable and economically viable for that country. The reason I chose Nepal instead of Peru was because Nepal had been on the top of my list of places to go to for the last six years. So when I was looking at countries, I wanted to go to one that was rich in textiles and in fashion without being a large powerhouse in the fashion world, like India, China and even Bangladesh, which has a huge fashion industry as far as production and textiles are concerned. I wanted to go somewhere where there was still a lot of room to grow.
You’ve been here for sometime now. What’s been your experience so far?
This is my first experience in Asia. So I didn’t know what to expect. I’m sticking to what my plan was. For the first three months or so, I wanted to get an overall scene of what the fashion industry was like here and see different textiles and visit factories. In the next couple of months, I’ll be going and working with artisans and seeing up close the techniques so I can get a better understanding of it.
So far, the hardship part for the fashion industry here is that production is more expensive than it is in India and China. So the idea of bringing people to get things produced in Nepal is a little more difficult.
Factories and companies here should try to focus on higher quality fair trade that people want to spend money on so that price of the product is standardized. This could higher the price of traditionally produced fashion clothing. It would also set Nepal apart from other countries. You get patterns like the dhaka, which in modern fashion, people would think that they can only get produced in Nepal. So such patterns and textiles need to be represented more internationally.
You mentioned fashion and economic viability and sustainability. Do you think this industry could also help in the economic development of the community and country at large?
I think so. Recently, the UN published a special report on how fashion industries could economically benefit the developing world. The overall feeling was that fashion, design and creativity could boost economically because most of the times people think of business or technology for bringing money in but the thing about fashion is that when you have the creativity, it’s something that sets you apart. It’s going to bring attention and also bring people who want to buy that product from that country. Because the textile and handicraft industry is so large here, more export and production would happen here if they can become globally recognized; it’ll automatically bring more business and help the economy.
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