U on Sunday’s Hot 19 for 2019: Sapphiroula Pelecas

Quitting a corporate job at the tender age of 21 to pursue a living in the fickle world of social media influencing sounds risky by anyone’s standards but for Brisbane fashion designer Sapphiroula Pelecas, it led to the launch of her own clothing label.

Quitting a corporate job at the tender age of 21 to pursue a living in the fickle world of social media influencing sounds risky by anyone’s standards but for Brisbane fashion designer Sapphiroula Pelecas, it led to the launch of her own clothing label.

SAPPHIROULA PELECAS

23, Fashion designer/model/influencer

STAR FACTOR: A social media savvy skill set saw her go from walking the runways to showcasing her own creations on them

The model, who studied marketing and events management at Griffith University, decided to take a leap of faith in the hope it would propel her closer to her dream of working in the fashion industry when her growing Instagram following saw brands beginning to pay to collaborate with her.

Within two years, Pelecas, who also walked in Paris Fashion Week as a model last year, launched her versatile range of basics The Blonde Republic, showcased it at New York Fashion Week and had celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Sofia Richie and Emily Ratajkowski strutting their stuff in her pieces.

“I was so scared with Fashion Week because you just don’t know what people are going to think but it was really great feedback and the crowd really liked it,” she says.

To say 2018 was a whirlwind,
life-changing and busy year for Pelecas would be an understatement.

The influencer, who boasts more than 168,000 Instagram followers, married Nick Condoleon in a lavish Greek wedding for 386 guests.

Then just weeks out from Fashion Week, she flew in for the showcase directly from their honeymoon.

And, before the year was over, she had run a Blonde Republic pop-up store in the Wintergarden as part of Brisbane Fashion Month.

She also launched a second collection for the label.

“(Last year) was one of the highlights of my life and I feel really happy and proud of myself because there were times I thought I wasn’t going to get it all done,” she says. “It’s funny how it worked out - we honestly didn’t plan it to happen the way it did.”

Pelecas hopes to launch the second part of her collection by the end of the month, is looking to take her pop-up stores interstate in the coming months and plans to stage a solo fashion show for the label.

“You never know what’s around the corner – I always feel like as long as you keep moving forward in life and in work, things pop up so I’m just going to take any opportunity that comes my way that will benefit the brand,” she says.

“There is so much I want to achieve and do.”

She has high hopes the likes of Kim Kardashian will one day wear her brand.