Elena Branker is a young fashion designer and owner of the Resort Wear clothing line Elie - Life's Clothing. Elena began working in the clothing retail industry in the US in 2006, “taking any position available,” regardless of low pay or insane working hours. "It was all about studying the retail business model and seeing how million-dollar clothing brands operated from the inside,” she explains. 

Elena found that she had the creativity and passion for the fashion industry, but soon realized that she needed to round out her education in order to create “a sound business model for my potential clothing line,” and while working at the US retail chain stores Wet Seal Inc. and Banana Republic specializing in visual marketing, she pursued her MBA. 

While studying, she also decided to hone the necessary skills to be a well-rounded designer. “I knew I had to focus on my technical skills to give myself a fighting chance. A fashion designer in these times trying to break into the clothing market has to be able to do it all - sew, drape, cut, draft patterns, and tailor - and all to a high degree of technical skill to even begin to compete in the global market against established brand power and/or celebrity status,” she says. 

Elena took sewing classes at the well-established G-Street Fabrics store in Virginia. "I was made to sew as a child and I hated it," she recalls, “but I'm beyond grateful that I enjoyed it the second time around!” She also took a pattern-drafting course, and eventually took a second job at G-Street in their sewing machine department, where she gained an extensive working knowledge of different fabrics.

After she earned her MBA in 2011, Elena moved back to Barbados and launched her line in 2012. She says she wanted "to be happy and fulfilled as an artist. In childhood I always dreamed of being a fashion designer and having my own line.” She says that one of her greatest challenges remains overcoming the difficulty of establishing and maintaining an art-related business, as the attitude toward artists in Barbados by both society and financial institutions is “one that does our country a disservice.” 

Elena is self-financed, which means that she exists “on next to nothing,” working second and third jobs, and sometimes even missing meals. She goes on to explain that “banks and investors just aren't wiling to take on the financial risk of the fashion industry. It depresses a whole industry in Barbados that has huge potential. We have some serious talent here in designers like Kesia Estwick, Rhaj Paul and Pink Lemonade, but we can't secure the banking confidence in order that the brands can be lifted to a higher level of world visibility.”

Currently Elena is the only full-time employee of her business, and she has a seamstress that comes in three days a week to help her sew production samples, a job she did on her own up until earlier this year, along with all her own pattern-making, cutting, and draping for her original designs. A classic Type-A personality, she says “I know I will have to delegate. I'm learning slowly.”

In March, she teamed up with a manufacturer which will begin to mass-produce her line from late 2013, and is aiming to launch her website in July, for which she is also currently working on a LookBook. For now, Elena relies heavily on commissions and word-of-mouth to promote her business. When the website is up, Elena has plans to jump into social media aggressively. “What sets Elie apart is my focus on quality and a clean, high-end design aesthetic,” she says. Elena's main focus is now to build the brand strength of the line, keep quality standards high, and keep pushing to differentiate the line.

“My objectives are still the same. The only difference is now I am very much conscious of balancing being an artist and a business woman. It’s a constant battle because as an artist you really just want to focus on the creative process, but if there is no business surrounding your art, you've basically got an expensive hobby. Facing that reality helps me to stay focused.”