Interview conducted on February 20, 2023
By Ryan Lowe, edited by Ben Pigott
Ryan: Who are you, where are you from, and what is your role in the fashion industry?
Priscilla: My name is Priscilla Von Sorella, I’m from Houston, Texas–though I do feel that I’ve never been tied to one place. I always grew up wanting to travel and that resonates a lot with what I do, my brand, and in my life now. I currently live in New York and I’m a fashion designer and creative director. All of our clothing is made in London and I would say the biggest thing we do in fashion is create an experience–we create emotions, not apparel. We really want to curate an experience for our clients that is unparalleled. We really are a globally focused brand, though we’re based in New York and work out of London, we really want to overcome cross-cultural barriers and understanding with our apparel.
Ryan: What is your background with the fashion industry? Any fashion education?
Priscilla: I finished high school at 15 and then went straight into fashion school. I didn’t start my career in fashion until my early 20s. After my son was born I decided to start my label so I really credit him with why I started designing. Ironically I lost a ton of weight after I had him, nothing fit me and I was like, ‘I need to make some dresses’ – I actually came across a photo the other day of the first dress I made when I was 22, and that’s what launched my vision. I officially launched the company about five years ago.
Ryan: Wow, I love that. How old is your son?
Priscilla: He’s nine now. I like to say that he’s my future muse or creative director. He comes to all the shoots, he has impeccable taste, and he loves a tux, so he’s definitely my son.
Ryan: That’s great. You have a first on the horizon – your collection ‘Villain’ is being presented in Washington D.C. for fashion week. What is the process for putting together a collection and what is the idea behind this collection?
Priscilla: Every collection is different in terms of how I come up with it. For this one, I came up with the idea in 2020, I literally printed out the idea for it, put it in a frame, and put it on my wall because I knew I was going to do it, I just didn’t know when. I really wanted to combine the intersection of entertainment, nostalgia, fantasy, and storytelling. In my personal life, I’m really intrigued and fascinated by complex characters, by antagonist s– they’re usually dressed really well. The first one I can think of is Cruella. Any from our childhood, that was a deep inspiration for me, along with James Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes. I thought, ‘Why not capture that entire essence? That fantasy, the flamboyance, the seduction, the enigmatic lure, the sophistication. Let’s glamorize the illustriousness of the villain but let’s condense it into a collection.’ I really wanted to build more than just the apparel, I really wanted to build this universe and story-tell. We started building comic book illustrations based on the model’s shoots, we have sort of a name for him in our so-called ‘story’--really storytelling and making that impact. I want people to look at the collection and say, ‘Wow, I feel something,’ whether it’s weird or crazy or daring, I really want them to feel something. What we’re showing is a capsule, we’re showing five pieces and we plan to show the full 15 looks at London Fashion Week in June.
Ryan: Do you have a big imagination?
Priscilla: Absolutely, sometimes it’s too big. Sometimes I have to reel it in and say, ‘What can I actually put into tangible reality?’ I would say, just from the five looks we did, there were probably 40 designs that we had to choose from. I feel like I can see things very colorfully and very dramatically in my imagination, it’s really, ‘What’s commercial and what will resonate with clients? What looks good on a shoot? What could be potentially be collaborated with on a film?’ We’re always looking for opportunities like that, too. I have some hopes for that this year as well.
Ryan: Do you have a fashion team or is it all Priscilla Von Sorella working behind the scenes?
Priscilla: Up until one year ago I was a one-woman show. Now we’re seven people. I have four people in the united states and three people in London who help with our design. My team in the US help with social media, PR, marketing, and influencers. I do all of the creative direction, I work with our manufacturers in London and our partners and sponsors but because we’re such a small team we work very collaboratively. I always want to extend the opportunity for our team to learn across all channels in fashion.
Ryan: How do you maintain a healthy relationship in the fashion industry?
Priscilla: That’s a great question. When my son was a baby, I didn’t sleep much, I would literally put him to bed at 9 PM, then I would sew from 10 PM to 4 AM and then I would get up and go to my day job, so I can’t say I’ve never sacrificed sleep. I’m in a much better evolution with the place I’m in now. How I keep a healthy perspective and relationship is the intense drive and energy and vision that we have. It’s so clean that there is no question, doubt, no going back and forth. We know precisely what we’re trying to achieve. The clearer the vision has gotten, the easier it’s gotten.
Whenever you hit a milestone like your first fashion show it resolidifies and propels you forward and you get just enough energy, self-resilience, and power to say, ‘I’m ready for the next stage,’ and that’s where I am now, for sure. I think milestones are really important and also taking a step back and saying, ‘I have such a long way to go,’ and being really self-caring is important too.
Ryan: Self-care is huge this year for me. Are you looking forward in the coming days, weeks, or months to anything particular in the fashion industry?
Priscilla: Definitely. I want to see the evolution of menswear. I think that we’re witnessing it, I think it’s a massive shift that we’re witnessing, but I want to see it reach the mainstream. I want it to reach and empower anyone who wants to dress the way they want. Whether it’s menswear or womenswear, I think the involvement and surfacing of endogenous clothing, even unisex–really blurring the lines, is interesting to me. I want to see that evolve. Another thing I want to see is the death of fast fashion. I don’t think we will anytime soon but I think it’s so integral, at the core of everything we do and the purpose behind what we do. Whether it’s the people involved, the process, or the integrity, I want to see that happen. Will it in the next year? I don’t think so but I think people like ourselves can push that agenda forward. Empower the next generation to really care about it, more than sustainability. Sustainability is a good foundation but really slower fashion, higher quality materials, involving the people behind what makes it is really important.
Ryan: Obviously I try to educate myself more on what’s going on, the earth is not getting nicer towards us, it’s not happy.
Priscilla: As a parent, I think about that a lot. I think it’s important to a lot of people.
Ryan: Name some of your favorite fabrics to work with.
Priscilla: I am really committed to anything that’s nonsynthetic. All of our textiles exclusively come from England, Italy, or France from family-owned manufacturers with long histories. A lot of them I’ve built very long relationships with, they’re usually velvets, pure cottons, silks. Of course, since not all of those are sustainable, we’re making them at a lower quantity and higher quality, and we’re looking to achieve it. Textiles are a huge part of the brand, I’m a firm believer that it can do a lot of the work in design, if you pick the right fabric it will be the right base to work with. A lot of our fabrics have a sparkle or embroidery, some sort of metallic, that’s kind of our signature. Regardless of how much change we tend to really work with textured and really interesting fabric.
Ryan: I read a quote from you, it says, ‘Nothing bold or magnificent is built from fear, and with this presentation, I would like to empower anyone who wishes, to dress daringly and unapologetically.’ What does that statement mean to you and why?
Priscilla: I’ll break it down into two parts. The quote is originally from the Amazon series called ‘The Collection’ –it’s a fictional drama based on the story of Belmont in post-WWII Paris. It’s really, really compelling because the fashion house is trying to resurrect fashion in Paris, there’s scarcity and still a lot of trauma and poverty from the war. This fashion house takes these extravagant textiles and builds these beautiful gowns that take meters and meters just to make one gown. It can be seen by the public as kind of wasteful. There’s one point in the show where the girl is doing a photo shoot with the dress in the streets of Paris and one of the village people comes up and rips the dress. It goes back to the creative director and he gets really mad and says, ‘Nothing bold or magnificent is built from fear. We’re not going to be fearful, we’re going to resurrect fashion,’ and I get chills just talking about it because I’m so driven by it. You can apply that to so many things. That was the case in post-WWII Paris but now it may be pushing boundaries, reaching different audiences, and making certain statements or stories with your clothing. That’s the core of everything I do.
The reason I tie that to the second part of how I want to use it is to allow people to dress as themselves, don’t be fearful. I had to wear ridiculous uniforms in high school and I think that’s why I’m so obsessed with fashion. I was also a tomboy as a child and I didn’t know how to dress, I dressed so differently. Being fearful is at the root of everything that you don’t want to do unless it’s an actual danger. It’s a big philosophy, almost like a religion to me.
Ryan: I reflect on that answer. Do you have any favorites or role models in the fashion industry? Or directors or musicians? Anyone who makes you who you are?
Priscilla: Inspirationally, I know he’s often quoted, but Alexander McQueen is definitely a massive inspiration, no matter how cliche that is. I think he’s someone that really pushed boundaries, a story told, he was not fearful. Things like that I find myself really inspired by. In film it’s not anyone, in particular, I love actors. This sounds funny but I love Marvel because of my son. I love when Oscar Isaac is playing Moon Knight, I think that character was amazing, polarizing. I love polarizing characters whether they’re protagonists or antagonists, I think seeing things from different angles is really interesting to me. Joker was a really big inspiration for me too.
Ryan: Where do you see your brand in one year, five years, and ten years?
Priscilla: In one year we want to have established relationships with celebrity stylists, we really want to go into red-carpet styling, designing custom pieces. I also really want to experiment in film. In five years I’d like to continue in all of those lanes and get even stronger. A big part of my mission is to empower others, I hope to grow my team. Just in the last year, the team that I brought on has extravagantly grown energetically. Across the board, they learned so much that I hope to be able to give that to other people, as well as myself. I hope in ten years that we’ll be globally recognized.
Ryan: Do you want to own a brick-and-mortar store?
Priscilla: I actually have a drawing in the press kit I sent you. It’ll be in London or Paris and there’s going to be an atelier, just like the old style but it will be modernized, we’ll have iPads and some kind of digital something. We’ll make some of the clothing, as much as we can, upstairs and we’ll have a full-blown showroom. I would absolutely love a brick-and-mortar store one day.
Ryan: Do you have any advice for people out there who might not have the means to afford computers, books, etcetera? Where do you start?
Priscilla: I’m really big on knowing exactly what you want before you get it and making it happen. Visualize, down to the detail, exactly what you want. What this meant for me, five years ago, is that I wanted to live in New York. I know what my future home will look like. I know what the door handles look like. Not just in a material way, know exactly what your life will be like, what your day will be like, and what your friends and social life will be like. Know exactly what you want and then reverse engineer that. Plan as if you’re about to get your big break today. Luck does not exist, I think luck comes to those who are prepared. Good opportunities could befall us all but if you’re not prepared and haven’t done the work you’ll never be able to leverage them. If I get a call from a stylist wanting to know if I’d like to dress a magazine, I’m ready. If I’m not then I haven’t done the work.