Today we’d like to introduce you to Orelie Varnier.
Orelie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Born into a modest family, I had a dream: make women look as beautiful and elegant as Sisi (Empress Elisabeth of Austria). And because adults didn’t recognize my potential outside school, I swore to focus on this dream and to make it real and I began to draw. Because I believed that success could be reached by following life principles from people I admired, I was only 16 (in 2001) when I decided to come to Paris to show my drawings to some couture houses and, because I had no money to stay, I had to convince people within one day only. Pierre Cardin’s assistant bumped into me by chance, saw my work and hired me right away during school breaks. Pierre Cardin himself took me under his wing and taught me everything about Couture.
To learn more, I’ve decided to work for the best (Lanvin, Vuitton, Dior Haute Couture and Chanel Haute Couture …). In 2019, confident in being ready, I founded my own fashion house OV Paris and came to Los Angeles to develop my brand and fulfill my lifetime dream. Little by little I gained notoriety and thanks to my social media presence and the help of influencers, I’ve reached more and more interesting clients and potential partners.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My strength is that I knew from the start exactly what I wanted to do and where I wanted to live but It hasn’t been a smooth road at all. And it’s still not a smooth road by the way 😉 but I’m very close to thrive 🤗
I may have had some luck at some points like being mentored by Mr. Cardin and meeting my husband but I did everything I could to make other things happen.
Before I founded my company, the two main challenges was to convince my parents (without success) and to “fight” against the fierce jealousy at work to make my mark but I learned a lot.
Since I founded OV Paris, it has been a succession of challenges:
* It took us 2 ½ years to obtain the Visa E2 (usually, you can have it in half a year) because of a dishonest Immigration attorney.
* My husband and I struggled to have a baby.
* We tried different partnerships with French manufacturers (to provide the best quality to our clients): we faced dishonesty or incompetence and lost a lot of money.
* It took us three years to sell our house in France (2 sales canceled). We needed the money for our project and had to borrow from our family.
* In 2020, after six months in the USA, we started to be settled and have good clients and nice projects with some partners when Covid hit and canceled everything.
* In 2021, a stylist ruined half of my collection. More than $10k lost + 6 weeks of work to redo the collection.
* End 2022, desperate, we hired a guy for our marketing and strategy. He made so great promises we totally believed, made us change a lot of things … he was an amazing talker. We placed our trust in him. We realized just recently that he conned us. Once again a big amount of money lost.
* Despite our engagement on social media and some interesting partnerships with some famous influencers, my brand wasn’t thriving.
It took us three years to understand why, thanks to good clients: many people (even their friends) think I’m fake! 😳 Seriously ??? Yes 😩. Come to my Studio/showroom!
We realized that many people don’t understand why I quit Chanel (the “Graal”), why we left Paris (“Amazing charming city”…) for California, and above all how can I live in a simple house in the far east suburb of Los Angeles (San Gabriel) and produce Luxury goods when I should live in a Mansion in Beverly Hills and have a showroom on Rodeo Drive (since I worked for “””Chanel”””).
I suppose they don’t know that, despite my 15 years of experience, I was earning less than $2,500 per month while working on the most beautiful dresses that was worth prices you can’t imagine: I worked on 2 wedding dresses worth $1M dollars each!
* To find competent seamstress here in Los Angeles is a nightmare. I will have to hire some friends who will come from France.
* To reach people who could be interested in my work it’s an ordeal: influencers, celebrities and VIP don’t answer, stylists have agents…
But I know my place is here. I know the quality of my work is irreproachable and the potential is huge. So I keep going. Very fortunately, thanks to some people I’ve met, little by little I finally reach the ones I wanted to reach.🤗
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a French fashion designer now based in Los Angeles In all my creations, I strive to combine French elegance with the excellence of Haute Couture — which I learned while a seamstress at Chanel and Dior — as well as an absolute degree of comfort.
Thanks to Pierre Cardin himself who taught me everything, my experience in Haute Couture studios and a team of the most skilled craftsmen, I can make anything my clients (mostly women but also more recently men) desire: from beach outfits (in lace for example) to the most spectacular wedding dress with precious fabrics, personalized embroidery, custom jewelry…
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
When I was a kid, I was very shy and a dreamer, constantly dreaming of escaping, going far, very far from where I was living.
I’m born in a modest family. My father is a carpenter and a kitchen installer. My mother is a social worker. I’m more like my father: I’m passionate about my work, I work with my hand and have been working hard even for a small wage.
Since I’m 6, I wanted to live in California 😳 … I’m not sure why … probably because it’s where the people I was fan of lived. I hated school. I had difficulties in school and nobody at home helped me. On the contrary, my parents used to remind me that I was a bummer and useless. Despite this, I still love my parents 😇.
I tried to escape (mentally) from this society that didn’t understand me by drawing. I’ve always loved to draw. I never took drawing class. However, I suppose I’m pretty good at it: the director of the “Art College” told me that I have nothing to learn in his school because I know perfectly how to draw!
All my schooling was an ordeal. On top of that, I was an only child for 11 years and when my sister is born, my mother asked me to take care of her because she was “tired”. I didn’t have to time to play with my friends: I had to take care (totally) of my sister all the time. My mother wanted me to be a hairdresser 😕 and used to told me that drawers/designers don’t earn money and are drug addicts. No need to tell that I wanted to leave my parent’s home as fast as possible.
Pricing:
- $200-300 for tweed or silk skirts, shorts or croc-tops from my collection
- $500-1,000 for dresses from my collection
- Around $1,000 for jackets from my collection
- $1,000 – 2,500 for gowns from my collection
- > $2,500 for any Couture item (exclusive)
Contact Info:
- Website: ovparis.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ovpariscouture/
Image Credits
Profile picture has been shot by Julia Baker
