All About Atelierdolzi – Bold – Empowering – Unique

Hi Dolzi, we love your brand it’s so powerful and striking! Welcome to Mess magazine community!

What inspired the start of ATELIERDOLZI?

ATELIERDOLZI is a non seasonal brand that offers a collection of bold blazers. I was living between Paris and Milan when I started my brand. I don’t think there is any better place than the two World Fashion Capitals to find inspiration. You get to see so many different fashion styles on a daily basis. You definitely get your daily doses of inspiration and creativity in these cities. This has really helped shape my vision for the brand.
Also growing up, I used to always look into my mother’s closet and watch her wear all of these gorgeous vintage Blazers from Iconic designers. It really started from there but the first time I ever wore a Blazer was when I started university in Switzerland at Glion Institute of Higher Education back in 2014. Wearing a formal suit was mandatory to attend classes. I was a bit of a rebel because formal suits were not my usual style. So what I would do was dress up very casually and I would just throw on a Blazer and they would allow me to go to class. That is wear I understood the power of a Blazer and where I started to look more into it, which led me to designing my own collection of Blazers.

What does the brand ‘ATELIERDOLZI’ stand for?

Atelier is the French word for a small workshop or studio that is usually used by artists and designers for their creations and Dolzi is a nickname I often go by. I decided to combine both words into a single one so that’s how the name was born. People often write it as two different words, but it really is just one single word: ATELIERDOLZI. The reason why I chose Atelier is because we work with a very small team, in a small space, we produce on a pre-ordering basis only and we support local craftsmanship. All of these elements are ones that you usually find while working with an Atelier.

Introducing Made in Kuwait to the World was and still is one of my goals for ATELIERDOLZI. It is important for the World to understand that Kuwait has always been at the forefront of the fashion industry: from menswear with the dishdasha and bisht to womenswear with abayas, caftans, evening wear and now ready-to-wear. We have a lot of talented ateliers and tailors. Kuwait’s potential has been underrated for a while. I strongly believe that the rise of amazing local designers to the World will contribute to positive changes.

How does creating ‘empowereing’ designs influence your brands creations?

Creating ‘empowering’ designs definitely influences my brand creations. Every collection we think of new creative ways for you to wear a piece that will stand out without being too out there. We want he ‘out there’ to be subtle, we want the attention to come to you naturally and not like you’re trying so hard. At ATELIERDOLZI,we take a classic blazer or a coat and think of ways to keep the elegant/classic side of it but add this little extra vibe to it. This is something you can definitely feel while watching our video and photo campaigns.

We love your November 2020 collection, what were the beautiful designs inspired by?

When designing the Blazers, I just had one thing in mind: for you to be the center of attention. The fabrics, the colors and the designs that we use are definitely eye-catching. I promise you walk into a place wearing any of our Blazers and I am sure that you will not go unnoticed.
When designing the Blazers, I did not include any side pockets for the very simple reason that I want you to feel confident while wearing it. Stand tall, own it and let the Blazer do the work while having all eyes on you.

With a focus on ethical fashion within your brand how do your designs still ensure an amazing sense of luxury without compromising being sustainablility focused?

Every collection has limited quantities with no restock. We minimize wastages by purchasing limited quantities of fabrics and taking orders on a pre-order basis. We only produce a Blazer once an order has been placed. In this way we support local craftsmanship.

ATELIERDOLZI believes in slow sustainable fashion. All of our fabrics are REACH Certified which results in healthier and safer conditions for everyone working with our fabrics, and especially final customers. Our fabrics are continuously and diligently tested in an independent laboratory. Each Blazer is a unique piece of garment produced locally.

We want to educate consumer’s about the importance of the clothes that they are purchasing. The issue is that today, consumers are so used to fast fashion and they have normalized it. They don’t want to miss out on trends, they want to be able to get affordable pieces in different colors and cuts to show off on a social media post regardless of how a product has been made. As a result, they don’t understand very often why a product has a higher price when purchasing from a small ethical business.
I am hopeful for the future, this is something that will change. After all it’s for the good of our future generations and our planet.

How does creating a powerful brand reflect through your collections/ brand ethos?

It is something you will see and feel right from the start. The person wearing ATELIERDOLZI is daring, bold, confident and embraces their uniqueness. Everybody is different and this is what makes the World beautiful. All of these elements are ones that we took into consideration when working on our brand’s identity.

Atelier Dolzi is all about being an ‘empowering’ brand, how do you aim to make your consumers feel in your clothes?

Confident, Unique & Bold. There is something about our designs, fabrics and textures that we use that a ‘low-key’ person would not want to wear by fear of having all eyes on them. I remember when we were shooting the Chanceuse Blazer (lime green) in Paris, the public’s eyes were all on the model, their reactions were priceless. I had a pretty similar experience when I wore my Blazer for the first time in Paris in a restaurant. As soon as I opened the door, I had all eyes on me. You will not go unnoticed with our Blazers, that is something I can assure you. So be ready for your 15 seconds of fame !

Who is your fashion icon? Did they influence your designs as a brand?

I don’t have a specific fashion icon, I get inspired by a lot of different designers from Alexandre Vauthier, Yves Saint Laurent to Stand studio and Jacquemus. Every designer has a unique vision and ideas and I get inspired by all of it. I usually find inspiration during the most random moments such as conversations, reading books, my travel experiences, crossing the streets and sometimes even food !
What I think influences the most my brand is my personal background. I think it is already very well reflected in my brand’s identity. As I was born and raised in Paris, I designed my blazers while I was living there (we shot all of our promotional materials in Paris) but then I moved back to Kuwait my home country. That is where I thought there was a great opportunity to introduce Made in Kuwait to the World. Regarding the fabrics we use, for our first collection they were sourced from Italy where I was living for a year during my master’s degree. Everything that you see in my brand is a personal piece of my private life. That is what I love about it, this mix of culture and in the future you will see a lot more of it, it is very important for me to incorporate my own identity into my brand. I also have Algerian origins from my mother’s side so I look forward to share with you our future collections that will be very rich culturally speaking.

Describe Atelier Dolzi in three words?

Bold – Empowering – Unique
Our brand ‘s slogan is: We design. We collaborate. We empower.

What are your plans for the future of Atelier Dolzi?

When I started ATELIERDOLZI, I always had a bigger picture for it than to be just a fashion brand.

Helping and empowering others are two concepts that are very important to me.

We started during the beginning of the pandemic our Dolzipreneurs Series, where we would feature women from all around the world and share their stories, promote their businesses and their passions on our platforms. During our shooting campaigns, we also welcome other brands to collaborate with us to show off their products and services.

Helping others building their own e-commerce businesses was always on of my goals. Through the example of how I built my brand, I want to help others do so as well. As easy and obvious as it might seem to some, it takes a lot of energy, knowledge and discipline to do so. It’s definitely not for everyone, but once you put your heart and soul to it and that you are truly passionate about it, it’s definitely worth it. We want to ease the whole process for you by offering you guidance and support so that you won’t waste time and get started with your brand as soon as possible.

We actually started working on offering online services and are working on opening soon our ATELIERDOLZI Studio where we would provide you with all marketing/promotional services you would need for your online brand such as photoshoots, promotional videos, e-commerce product shoots, packshot ghosts shoots, 360 degrees products shoots etc.