fashion unWINEd: interview with diana antonijevic and isabella katan

Image courtesy of Freya Rogers-Fauske

If you’re looking for something to do that combines fashion, beauty, food, wine AND fundraising for charity, look no further than Fashion unWINEd. This event, created by Diana Antonijevic and Isabella Katan, the two coaches behind event business Style & Beautify Me, will take you on a journey of  the gifted up and coming talents of the industry.

I got the chance to chat to Diana and Isabella about their business and the Fashion unWINEd event.

Can you tell me first how both of you got started in the fashion industry? What has the journey been like so far and what do you enjoy most about it?

D: Fashion was part of my life since early childhood. It led me to fashion design Degree, to modelling around the world, to styling to the very latest venture with my amazing partner Isabella. Creativity has many faces and I love every moment of it. Our event business ‘Style & Beautify Me’ shows our desires, enthusiasms and passions to create an amazing platform for all creative souls out there.

I: Since I can remember I was interested in Fashion. I remember my mum taking me to the markets to buy fabrics we chose together for the dresses she’d make for me. I really appreciate fine fabrics and this is how it all began. I finished school and studied fashion design in a prestigious school in East Sydney called The School of Visual Arts. After completing my Diploma I went on to designing my first collection and supplied it to fashion boutiques around the eastern suburbs. I took so much pride and commitment in my work from the exclusive European imported materials to the design and cut of the pieces which I manufactured on a small scale. I enjoyed 10 great years of being a designer, manufacturer and wholesaler of my brand ‘Isabella Katan Sydney’. After having two children I decided to give up fashion and when they were older I went to Tafe and studied Marketing. I had a plan to change my career into my new passion ‘The Beauty industry’ and I was always interested in preserving one’s beauty through skincare and beauty treatments so I studied Beauty Therapy at Australian National College of Beauty. After attaining my Beauty Diploma I have been working from a home based business and at Sydney’s renowned brow and lash salon ‘The Brow Bar’. I love what I do because it makes people feel great about themselves and gives them an opportunity to relax from their daily pressures. I met my business partner Diana about a year ago and we have many common interests. Diana and I both love fashion and understand how competitive and difficult it is to create a brand and make a difference in one’s fashion career. We have worked on the idea of creating events where designer’s can collaborate on a mentoring level giving them the opportunity to shine. Some of the designers are up and coming and others are recently established. We believe our events are about bringing creative’s together i.e. artists, DJ’s, musicians, entertainers, life coaches as guest speakers in order to have a creative demonstration of talent and to share an evening that everyone can thoroughly enjoy. We want our guests to walk away feeling inspired, looked after wanting to come to another one of our events. We are also about giving and that’s very important to us. For our Fashion unWINEd event we’ll be donating proceeds to Bobby Goldsmith Foundation. This foundation is helping people who are living with HIV, by giving people practical, emotional and financial support. 

When and why did you create Style & Beautify Me? What is this project all about?

D: SABME is 7 months ‘young’ and was born out of two people’s desire to express creativity of other talents across many creative industries. It is all about an ‘experience’! Our guests are to walk out after our events, with the feeling of being inspired, happy, stylish, entertained and wanting to see more of it.

I: Style & Beautify Me stands for fashion and beauty. We believe these 2 elements are the core of our events and our website which we are currently working on. We’d like to be a source of information through articles on trends in fashion and beauty in Australia and globally. Our upcoming events, about people whom are involved in our events etc.

Tell me about the Fashion unWINEd event, how did this come about?

D: What do you like to do after a working week? To unwind, right? So why not combine it with the latest fashion, beauty, artworks, canapés and selected wines while getting entertained and surprised by live acts, guest speakers and life coaches. And all that for another great cause- supporting Bobby Goldsmith Foundation for people living with HIV in NSW. We are more than thrilled to have Fashion UnWINEd comprising more than 5 elements for the evening.

I: We were meeting up at the library and were focusing on an idea we could create together in fashion and beauty and that’s how Style & Beautify Me was born. The fashion unWINEd event was the byproduct. We wanted to get all the creative people we knew and people that inspired us from other events we attended to showcase their talents at our own event. Unwined stands for relax and unwind because our event starts after work from 6pm on a Friday night. It also suggests WINE will be served to which we decided should be matched to fine finger foods carefully selected and served by waiter staff.

What are you looking forward to showcasing at Fashion unWINEd? What can we expect from the evening?

D: Fashion UnWINEd has a broad itinerary, an MC’d evening from a fashion parade of up & coming talented designers, through indulging in 3 courses of canapés and selected matched wines, to entertainment, DJ, surprise performer, life coach mini session and a guest speaker to lucky door prizes and an auction of designers items to support our chosen charity- Bobby Goldsmith Foundation.

I: You will expect to see a showcase of fine designers with their current winter/summer 2015- 2016 collections. We have Leatheron, Jess Catherine, Wild Pony, Nadz & Sabs Magnifi. A surprise performer and a well known life coach with over 10 years experience Alina Berdichevsky presenting a talk on “feel sexier in 10 minutes”. An exhibition of paintings by artists: Niki McDonald and Amanda Stopa. You’ll be entertained by DJ’s and a Jazz singer from Nesr & The Avenue. At the 9.30pm we’ll be giving away lucky door prizes including a lux package from ‘The Brow Bar’ and all you can eat ‘yum cha’ voucher for two people at LL Wine and Dine in Potts Point.

What does fashion mean to you?

D: Balance and composition of colours and patterns, strokes of paint brushes, steady hands of scissors’ cutting, range of artists’ vocals, graphics mania, food plating. It is all ART -FASHION, EXPRESSION of CREATIVITY!

I: Fashion is culture and art mixed together with every shade in between. Fashion is how you see the world and how you express yourself to the world. Fashion comprises of how we see beauty and it allows us to express it without words.

Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

D: I am just so grateful for meeting my partner Isabella who shares the same vision and a belief and I am so proud of ourselves that we got this far from just chatting about it at the library in such a short period of time and putting together our 5th and biggest event so far. So come along and share this moment with us at FashionUnWINEd!

I: Book now to avoid disappointment – this event will sell out fast.