Reader of the Week: Desira Pesta

The sharp, socially conscious brains behind well-admired Etsy store: Design/Build/Wear

By Kirsten Kilponen
Published: April 13th, 2009 | 12:00am

New York City is synonymous with fast fashion. You can probably imagine it right now — hoards of fabrics being purchased by the minions of Moschino and Prada, clothes flying off racks on Fifth Avenue, and the latest looks racing off of the runway just as quickly as they went on. Sure the people of NY look super sharp, but at what cost? You, VZ readers, are on the ball enough to get spared the spiel on sweatshops, so we can skip that banter and go straight ahead to feeding your omnipresent hunger for eco-friendly, sustainable, and compassionate fashion. Enter 26-year-old Desira Pesta, the super savvy, intelligent, and socially conscious brains behind the ever-so-popular Etsy store: Desira Pesta Design/Build/Wear. Not does she make amazingly constructed clothes that are inspired by architecture, sculpture, and history, but she entirely self-taught, too. For your reading pleasure, Pesta talks with us about what it's like to live in New York, her new design direction, and her lumber-jacky background.

Your garments are beautifully constructed, but you have no formal seamstress training! Can you explain to us where your sewing skills come from?

Just as a musician spends years and years honing their skills at an instrument and growth comes with this practice, I too have started from humble beginnings as a seamstress and grown. Through sewing and sewing and sewing (well over a thousand garments, bags, and accessories), trial and error, tribulation and triumph have I gotten to where I am today. It's humorous to me to look back on my trajectory of skills as a clothing maker. Now, I can make a button-down shirt in an hour and a half. I have really busted my ass trying to be the best I can and that came with a lot of obstinacy towards using patterns in favor of teaching myself with no crutches. I have training in architecture, so that part of my brain is well-suited for the construction part of designing and sewing. I also have to thank my friend and associate, Layla of Ledthread for her continued help and support with all of my sometimes annoying sewing queries.

Where do you get your design inspiration?

Sculpture, architecture, painting, historical fashion, art history, pre-1980 film, whimsy, costume, and the personas of the people I am dressing.

What's the main philosophy and business ethic behind Desira Pesta Clothing?

My clothing is Desira Pesta Design/Build/Wear which stems from my attachment to architecture and to creating an alternative to mass - produced corporate brands. The term Design/Build is usually applied to architecture whereby the architect not only drafts the plans, but also goes about partaking in the actual building of their work, all "in house". Design/Build/Wear is something of the same vein, but applied to fashion. In fashion design, the designer usually only plans the garment, and a seamstress thereafter constructs it usually somewhere overseas. My company is just me and this equals the ability to stay local, guarantee quality, and make less of an impact on fuel consumption and helps eradicate the need for cheap overseas labor, and the exploitation of third world country citizens.

I have been green since my beginnings in 2003. All wearable art has been handmade or screen-printed with completely original patterns and designs with a strong belief in thwarting new production of fabrics and materials. Desira Pesta uses top quality designer surplus and organic fabrics sourced from a distributor in LA including bamboo, organic cotton, silks, and beautiful cottons.

Lastly, I design and build for the individual, not the masses. I have done over 350 custom couture pieces made to order, and this is really bridging the gap between mall shopping and high end designer couture intended only for the rich. We need to reclaim craftpeopleship and artisan work and rekindle the true connection between ourselves and our possessions and environments. The world of handmade thwarts evils. We are stealing back the people to avoid sweatshop labor and the theft of creativity and the loss of true quality. The people of Etsy and handmade are making a difference in how things are made and how business is run. You can see a real person in my work and the work of my peers.

If you could design for anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Probably Anna Karina in her 1960's heyday. I feel akin to her and I look to [Jean-Luc] Godard and the films they did together for inspiration.

What is your favorite material to work with?

I love working with super soft wallpaper-looking French woven cottons that feel like they belonged to a grandfather.

What's it like to live in New York?

It's great to live in NY, it's such an eclectic place with a constant stream of things to do. I love the freedom of not needing a car, as well as the freedom to be a complete nitwit without it affecting one's reputation. This town is so big, yet so interconnected. It's so cool to live amongst Woody Allen and David Byrne and John Waters, as well as be able to eat next to a supermodel or see a movie with a NY Times writer in a row below you. I think people watching is fun everywhere. There's never a loss of well-garbed folks, nor just wildly-garbed folks. There's a place for everyone, be them goth, designer-laden, or completely covered in tourism.

Is there anything we wouldn't know about you just by looking at you?

Well, I make pretty dresses, but I was raised by two bikers who are also somewhat lumber-jacky. I grew up a tomboy, helping my parents with such things as driving a bulldozer, a dump truck, and a tractor. I also used to be able to tell vintage cars by year and on the weekends thought it was the most fun thing ever to go to junkyards and car shows with my dad. I still really enjoy manual labor and am still a tomboy. I also really like ghost stories and parapsychology.

Do you have any new design ideas you would like to reveal?

I have finally come to the realization that I should design for myself. I think I have been trying hard to express my art and not always what I want to wear. I wear a lot of vintage and a lot of androgynous clothing, so that will be coming in the near future as well.

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Check out the Desira Pesta Design/Build/Wear store