Elena Rostova on the Future of Fashion

Elena Rostova does not believe in trends. "Trends are a way of telling people what to want," she says, settling into a chair in her sunlit studio. "I am more interested in what they already want and cannot name."

Over two decades, Rostova has built a practice that sits between fashion and sculpture. Her clothes are collected as often as they are worn, but she bristles at the idea that they are not meant for the body. "Everything I make, I make to be lived in. Armor is useless on a shelf."

On the future, she is optimistic but exacting. She sees independent designers — exactly the kind who build storefronts on platforms like UVelsi — reclaiming the craft from the speed of the mass market. "The next great house may not have a flagship on the Avenue Montaigne. It may have a phone and a point of view."

Her advice to young creators is characteristically blunt: "Make one thing well. Then make it again, better. The rest is noise."