Dresden. They were good, important, necessary and especially beautiful – the masks from the Dorothea Michalk fashion house. With the beginning of the pandemic, the Dresden designer shifted to transforming the evil into an accessory that complements clothing and looks much less like a foreign body on the face than conventional models. But that’s not all the 40-year-old tackled in order to face the vicissitudes of life and to make good use of the forced break into which she had been sent.
Now the fashion designer, who, after studying design in Munich in 2009, set up her own studio with her own studio in Munich, is introducing her new label. The decision to stay true to home and not move to a fashion metropolis shows Dorothea Michalk’s attachment to Saxony. She has always kept her Sorbian roots in the region to which she is now dedicating her most recent work.
Kolina – a very personal clothing line
The designer founded a new clothing line under the name “Kolina”that comes from her creativity, is created in her studio and is produced in Saxony. Even before Corona, Dorothea had started designing and making everyday wear for women in addition to the festive dresses for which she is known. In the lockdown, she finally found the time to devote herself to this idea even more intensively and to design the first Kolina collection – seven shift dresses and wide swinging dresses for life beyond big balls and galas.
The designer Dorothea Michalk wants to bring her new line to women in a classic, timeless, elegant and everyday fashion. © Marion Doering
“We want to offer dresses that are comfortable and easy to care for, but still elegant and made in selected designs,” says Dorothea Michalk. They should be “suitcase-proof”, i.e. crease-free and ready for use at any time. The fashion designer found the right fabrics in Italy. They have a stretch, some are structured with a fine waffle look and some are patterned.
“We designed them here in the studio and they are sewn in a sewing shop in the Ore Mountains,” says Dorothea. In doing so, she supports regional handicrafts and offers her customers products that are individual and yet not as expensive as haute couture. “If these made-to-measure dresses cost 600 euros, we can now sell them for less than 400 euros and also offer online.”
From her experience in the field of made-to-measure production, the designer knows that size 36 is more of a rarity and that most of the women among her customers wear larger sizes. “They are seasoned, powerful women that we do justice to up to size 44.” Thanks to the flexible fabrics and the thoughtful cut, nobody has to feel cramped, not even in an elegant dress.
Her new second line shouldn’t change anything the designer is known for by her name: “Dorothea Michalk remains focused on made-to-measure festive fashions,” she says. She is also really looking forward to finally designing evening and ball gowns again. Social events have been canceled or postponed for too long. “The thirst for festivities is great,” she knows.
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By the way, Dorothea Michalk also stands for her new label by her name. “Kolina is the feminine form of my married name in Sorbian,” she says. She uses her husband’s family name and maiden name as a double name in her ID. The new label is therefore an affair of the heart and a tribute to their origins, which will also be reflected in other collections.
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