Lenna and Catherine Vasilas talk to The Greek Herald about fashion, how the Galanni brand began, and how two girls from Lamia managed to create a very successful fashion brand in Sydney.
“When a woman wears GALANNI, we want her to radiate presence, we want her to feel confident and empowered, by her beauty and by celebrating the female form. The way we do this is by designing wearable art combined with our signature fits.”
For the Vasilas women, it proves true that talent is in the blood. As both mother (Lenna) and daughter (Catherine) believe fashion was their calling.
“Fashion is a platform where we can freely express our creativity and art through design. Often we always made dresses for ourselves and every time we wore them found interest by women wanting and sometimes even demanding to buy our designs, so in 2004 we took the plunge and launched Galanni,” explains Catherine.
“Starting a high end couture label was always dream of ours. Crafting wearable works of arts whilst achieving the ultimate fit transformed the brand to new heights. Being woman designers allowed us to have an advantage as we know exactly how we wanted to feel and look when wearing a glamorous gown.”
Catherine believes that what took GALANNI from a family idea to a high-end couture label was hard work, late nights and focus.
“We feel it is really important to stay true to your creativity, trust your creative intuition, always be original, and don’t take any short cuts in the quality and the journey,” said Catherine.
Lenna Vasilas, who founded GALANNI in 2004, experienced the migrant success story first-hand when she and her family migrated from Lamia, Greece, with one suitcase.
“A lesson that my parents taught me is whatever your situation is or where you come from you can achieve whatever you want. All you need is a vision and just go for it,” said Lenna.
The mother-daughter duo have not forgotten their Greek roots, and say their Greek heritage influences their inspiration for their work.
“Being Greek and being proud of our heritage and culture has always been one of our main sources of inspiration and you can see that through each of our designs, there’s always an element of Grecian flair,” said Catherine.
“When we are designing the Greek summers are always the backdrop to our vision!! And one of our proud highlights of our brand was when we did our campaign photo-shoot in Santorini.”
The GALANNI success story is reflected in their clothing, as well as the highly commendable people who wear their clothing. Some of their most prominent GALANNI fans include Mel B, Paula Abdul, Jennifer Hawkins, Samantha Jade, Jessica Mauboy, Jesinta Franklin, Sophie Monk, The Veronicas and Brandi Glanville.
The duo seek constant motivation from new goals which inspires new creations. They say an ultimate honour of theirs would be to dress Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé or Rihanna!
