A childhood fascination has bloomed into serious business.
LOCAL celebrities can’t seem to get enough of Von Jolly.
The homegrown couture batik house has seen some well-known folks such as Jaclyn Victor, Asha Gill, Sazzy Falak, Betty Banafe, Noryn Aziz and Corinne Adrienne donning their myriad-hued creations.
But just how did Von Jolly threads end up on the back of these celebrities?
Dressing celebs: Designer Aaron Jolly at his gallery in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, showing off the signature batik fabrics of the Von Jolly house. Label founder Aaron Jolly’s reply is simple: “They call us.”
Detailing the events leading to the dressing up of various stars, Jolly, 32, insists that there was no fervent chasing or arm twisting.
“For instance, dressing Betty Banafe started with a phone call from her manager, Sharizan Isa,” explains Jolly.
“She asked us to come up with 12 outfits for the Samrah Festival in July 2008. I think we were chosen because our work with batik was very much in line with the Malaysian theme which the organisers were looking to promote.”
Glamorous: Singer Betty Banafe in two of the 12 outfits created by Von Jolly for her concert at the Samrah Festival in July 2008. Looking at their celebrity scorecard, it may seem incredulous that every name on their list had arrived there by such pleasant coincidence. According to Jolly, it had been simply a matter of making the right connections.
He quotes another example of dressing popular actress Sazzy Falak for the 16th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) last May. Jolly recalls that it was the result of a brief handshake during the KL Fashion Week in 2006.
As for dressing Asha Gill for the TAG Heuer India Polo Event in 2006, again, it was TAG Heuer Malaysia who buzzed them as they had seen a Von Jolly dress on Wan Zaleha Radzi at another event.
As for actress Corinne Adrienne, the label’s muse, both had met during a photo shoot and had come to the amiable agreement for a “win-win” situation.
Striking: A short ‘train’ adds a hint of drama to this electric blue outfit. “She had just returned from Singapore in 2006 and was trying to get into the movie industry in Malaysia. We were working on establishing our name so we thought we’d be able to work in tandem. In the end, it turned out well for both parties,” enthuses Jolly.
To put a fashion house on such an esteemed pedestal is no easy feat. Participating in competitions and a regular presence in fashion events run the gamut of Jolly’s itinerary.
“One crucial event that helped to shape the Von Jolly name was winning the grand prize in the Fashion category during the Piala Seri Endon in 2005. That opened many doors for us, including the requests from the celebrities,” says Jolly.
Having a celebrity wear one’s creations makes a good marketing tool because it attracts attention but, as Jolly points out, dressing a famous name is mostly on a sponsorship basis. As such, Jolly still has to look for customers who will buy his work.
Sublime: Jaclyn Victor wore this stunning gown to the Citrawarna event “Overheads in the Von Jolly house come up to about RM30,000 per month, with a big chunk of it going towards raw materials and wages for staff which includes our 12 seamstresses. As such, we have to cover a wider scope of the fashion industry, not just couture,” explains Jolly who also designs uniforms for corporate companies.
Jolly made the decision to forego a career in architecture by making his foray into the fashion scene with his uncle, Raymond Jolly, now 56, in 2003. He points out the three crucial elements that helped the Von Jolly house to establish their clientele in Kuala Lumpur, Milan and London.
“The first one was passion. Raymond and I grew up in a family of very vain ladies!” exclaims Sarawak-born Jolly who is of Eurasian parentage.
“One example was my mother, Doris George (who is now 68), the former general manager of Sports Toto for East Malaysia. She never wore the same dress twice for all the events that she attended. Let’s say if the function is at 7pm, she would have started getting ready the night before. As a child, I watched all this with awe and it impressed on me that the business of dressing up was a very serious but beautiful and joyful pursuit,” recalls Jolly.
Elegant: Sexy Orientalinfluenced gown. He also stresses the importance of having a thorough understanding of what one wants to do.
“As a fashion house, you must have your own signature style. In short, we don’t copy. At Von Jolly, our strength lies in our batik prints which carry sweeping brush strokes and abstract art.
“We have a very contemporary feel to our prêt-a-porter and couture lines. This is why we have described our work as ‘the defining authority of Malaysian contemporary batik’ in our business card,” adds Jolly.
Having a sound technical knowledge of tailoring is crucial and this has to be established in a fashion house before any form of marketing can be done.
Jolly says that he and his uncle learned the rudiments of tailoring from the women in their family. He points out that any designer who gives the nod for a chiffon skirt to be put on the rack without lining, for example, obviously does not know what he is doing.
Lastly comes persistence and consistency and it is in this area that Jolly reveals that he has often been chastised by friends for “not having a life”.
“In business, everything boils down to marketing and sales. While many assume that I have a team to do this, I will tell you now that the buck stops with me and my uncle. We brainstorm for new themes and design ideas, organise the literature and photo shoots for our brochures and establish the contacts to develop the business,” says Jolly.
From the very beginning, it had been Jolly’s plan to cater to an exclusive market.
“Let’s be realistic. Without the right customer to support your work, there will be no room for you to develop your creations,” he says.
The early days of establishing the Von Jolly house started within Jolly’s community in Kuching when he and his uncle made evening dresses for his mother’s friends.
Their customer base soon grew as their name spread by word of mouth. Being fortunate enough to have relatives who meet regularly with the well-heeled in society, Jolly did not have to wait long before he was invited to such gatherings.
“The first do I attended was thrown by the association of ministers’ wives in Sarawak and it was from there that I landed my first VIP customer, a lady senator who ordered five batik kurungs from me. I remember being over the moon on receiving our first cheque totalling about RM7,000,” recalls Jolly.
As for the issue of the fashion industry turning a guy “soft”, Jolly’s initial answer is a diplomatic smile.
For him, the task of having to completely alter a dress within a short span of four hours is certainly not for the faint-hearted. This is especially so if the dress is commissioned by a foreign embassy whose intention is to put it on an artiste who will be wearing it in the presence of other VIPs.
“We are creative people and, being in the fashion line, you need a certain degree of flamboyance. Or else, you’d be labelled as boring,” says Jolly.
In any case, Jolly jests that it is always best to adopt a “soft” approach, especially when it comes to advising a woman what will suit her and what will not.
“People assume that the biggest challenge for a male designer is to address bust and panty line issues but, let me tell you, the hardest part is convincing a client to accept your advice. This is especially so when they already have set ideas about what they think they will look good in.
“Some examples are clients who think they will look fabulous in pencil skirts when an A-line cut is more appropriate. The catch here is, though the customer isn’t always right, there is a need to adopt a ‘soft’ approach in explaining why without bruising any egos,” concludes Jolly.
> To find out more about Von Jolly, log on to www.shavalvonjolly.com.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment