Team Stories

The Stories Behind the Atelier

Every woman in this studio arrived by a different path — a different city, a different training and a different reason for caring about clothes. Together they make one house.

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Layers of ivory silk-wool, camel wool, cocoa-brown silk satin, greige tweed and charcoal cashmere stacked in the atelier

The Atelier Thread

Eight Women, Eight Weaves

Every fabric in this house arrived as its own bolt — a different weave, a different origin, a different hand. So did the women who work with it.

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Story 1

Elena Jones

Founder & Creative Director

Born in Seoul and raised between two cultures, Elena learned early that style is a form of self-possession—something a woman carries rather than borrows. She studied fashion design and art in Canada and completed her studies in 2012, drawn to the discipline of cut, proportion and fabric above the noise of seasonal trends.

She moved to Vancouver in 2016 to begin her career as a designer, and founded the house from a small studio, working with one client at a time. What began as private commissions for women who couldn't find what they wanted in a shop grew, season by season, into a full atelier.

Today Elena leads the creative direction of the house, the planning of each collection and the development of the Vancouver atelier. She still reviews every garment before it leaves the studio—and still keeps the first sketch she ever sold.

“True elegance comes from confidence, independence and staying true to yourself.”

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Story 2

Amy Bennett

Executive Assistant

Amy is the calm centre of the studio. She manages scheduling, client appointments and business correspondence, and keeps the atelier's many moving parts in step with one another.

She came to Elena Private Couture from a background in luxury retail coordination, where she learned that the smallest details—a correctly spelled name, a well-timed reminder—are what make a client feel genuinely looked after.

Amy is often the first voice a new client hears, and the one who makes sure every consultation begins on time and without friction.

“The details are the experience—the gown is only half of it.”

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Story 3

Charlotte Laurent

Lead Senior Fashion Designer

Charlotte leads design direction for the house, with a particular devotion to couture gowns and garment structure. She thinks in silhouettes and load-bearing seams, and approaches every gown as a piece of engineering as much as art.

Trained in Paris and seasoned in Milanese ateliers, she brought to Vancouver a deep respect for traditional technique and a refusal to cut corners where it matters—the shoulder line, the waist, the way a hem falls.

Charlotte works closely with Elena on each collection and guides the design studio through fabric application, proportion and the long, patient work of getting a garment right.

“A gown is decided by its structure long before its beauty.”

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Story 4

Olivia Chen

Senior Fashion Designer

Olivia designs the house's business womenswear and everyday tailoring—the pieces a client reaches for on a Tuesday morning as much as a Friday evening.

With a background in technical design and a love of clean, modern lines, she builds garments around the way women actually live: long days, unpredictable schedules and a need to look composed without effort.

She is the studio's voice for the modern professional woman, and keeps the house's tailoring sharp, wearable and quietly luxurious.

“Good tailoring should feel effortless, because it was anything but.”

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Story 5

Isabella Moretti

Senior Fashion Designer

Isabella specialises in eveningwear, occasion dressing and refined couture detailing. She is drawn to the drama of a single, well-placed detail—and to the restraint that keeps it elegant.

She studied in Florence and spent years with independent bridal and evening ateliers before joining the Vancouver studio, where her hand embroidery and finishing have become a signature of the house.

For Isabella, an evening gown should feel inevitable—as though it could not have been designed any other way.

“One detail, done perfectly, says everything.”

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Story 6

Sophie Martin

Senior Couture Seamstress

Sophie leads the making of couture garments—construction, hand sewing and the final inspection that decides whether a piece leaves the atelier.

She trained in couture tailoring and has spent more than a decade in the fine work of building a garment from the inside out: interfacings, horsehair, hand-padded lapels and the quiet structure no one is meant to see.

Clients rarely meet Sophie, but they wear her work in the way a gown holds its shape across an entire evening.

“The parts you never see are the parts that hold everything together.”

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Story 7

Grace Kim

Senior Couture Seamstress

Grace specialises in precise cutting, pattern adjustment, hand finishing and fitting alterations—the measured, exacting side of couture.

She came to the atelier from bridal alterations, where she learned to read a body and a garment together, adjusting a millimetre at a time until the fit disappears into the woman.

Her fittings are calm and exact, and her alterations are what turn a beautiful dress into a dress that belongs to one person.

“A perfect fit is the moment the dress stops being a dress and becomes yours.”

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Story 8

Emily Carter

Senior Designer Assistant

Emily supports design sketching, the fabric archive, sample preparation and production scheduling—the groundwork that lets the designers focus on the work itself.

A graduate of a Vancouver design programme, she is the studio's memory: she knows where every swatch lives, which fabric has been discontinued, and what was decided in a meeting three seasons ago.

She is quietly building a design practice of her own while helping keep the house's archive and calendar in order.

“Every collection starts in the archive, long before the first sketch.”

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Your Personal Couture Experience

Let’s Create Something Uniquely Yours.

Share your occasion, your preferences and your timeline. Our Vancouver atelier will guide you from the first sketch to the final fitting.

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