Wearing the Pretty

Photos by Michael Powers

As a designer, Desanka Fasiska is not, as she puts it, trying to reinvent
the wheel. You don’t need an instructional diagram to put on any of her outfits.
Not that she doesn’t appreciate the avant-garde. She wants to be of the moment,
even a little ahead. Respected creatively by her peers. But mostly, she wants
her clothes to be something that a potential customer understands — as in “Oh,
I love that. I want to wear it.” Interesting and comfortable. And, of course,
pretty.



She is keenly aware that fashion is as much commerce as it is art. “It has been
a learning process,” Fasiska says, “because I do have to answer to the market
ultimately with what is going to sell and what isn’t. I’m happy I don’t have a
partner, because I like calling my own shots. I don’t think I could have anyone
telling me what I could design and what I couldn’t design except for the market.”


Fasiska, who grew up in Ladera Heights and started her flirty, floaty Desanka
line three years ago, projects a kind of pragmatic confidence with a twist of
bubbly Cali girl. But she wasn’t one of those kids making outfits for her dolls
— she was drawing the clothes. Fashion wasn’t a driving force in her life. She
didn’t know what she wanted to do — other than not go to college — after graduating
from Beverly Hills High. Six months of doing nothing, then her mom pushed her
to go to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.


And that’s where she fell in love with fashion. Once she became an FIDM graduate,
she studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and did a semester at the Chambre
Syndicale de la Couture in Paris to study couture sewing, followed by a six-month
internship there with American designer Carrie Rossman. All-night sewing sessions
taught her a lot.


She planned to return to Paris after graduation — she had the really cute boyfriend,
was speaking French — but on the way back to France, she stopped in New York and
was inspired to stay. But it was just before 9/11, and jobs became hard to come
by. Well, there was the well-paid, if somewhat gross, gig as a receptionist at
an escort agency. At least the hours were good. And there was a two-month internship
with Anna Sui — not that she was doing much creative there. Think gofer.


Ultimately, Fasiska — known as Desa and named for her Serbian grandmother — wasn’t
really doing anything fashion in N.Y. Time to come home. Friends from high school
who didn’t have as much training as she did, people who took, like, one fashion
class, were starting successful clothing companies. Plus, she was excited by the
possibilities of design in L.A.


With her parents’ backing — dad is a metallurgist and mom is a retired insurance
defense lawyer — she launched Desanka, which was featured in Gen Art’s “Fresh
Faces in Fashion” show last October. Detailed illustrations that evince a sense
of discipline and stick-to-itiveness dot the walls of her Garment District studio,
where the line is manufactured. She’s already filled a rolling rack with samples
from her Spring 2006 line, which she says will be for her first big show at this
fall’s Fashion Week. She’s been able to hire a few people to do some of the business-side
work that her mom has been handling — which means, Fasiska says, “She can be my
mommy again.”





Desanka is available at Sirens & Sailors, 1104 Mohawk St., Echo Park, (213) 483-5423;
Satine, 8117 W. Third St., (323) 655-2142; Diavolina, 156 S. Robertson Blvd.,
(310) 550-1341; Tracey Ross, 8595 W. Sunset Blvd., Sunset Plaza, (310) 854-1996;
or desanka.com.

CREDITS:

Model: Joline Towers (Photogenics)

Makeup: Alma Anguiano (MK Artists)
Hair: Kristin Sivesind (Luxe Lab)

Jewelry by Coryn Madley; madley.com

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