Paolo Sebastian founder on Disney, Paris and his battle with impostor syndrome
He’s a global designer to the stars, yet the genius behind Paolo Sebastian sees himself as ‘Paul from Seaton’ who feels nervous before every collection launch.
His dresses have featured on the red carpet on Hollywood’s biggest nights and been worn by pop superstar Taylor Swift in a music video.
He has showcased his work in Paris six times, collaborated with Disney, was the 2017 Young Australian of the Year and is one of the country’s leading fashion designers. And he’s only 35 years old.
But Paul Vasileff, the founder and owner of world renowned couture brand Paolo Sebastian, says he still suffers from impostor syndrome.
In a wide-ranging interview with Mark Soderstrom on The Soda Room podcast, Vasileff admits he feels “physically ill” each time his team launches a new collection.
“I always feel like an impostor – still now,” he tells Soderstrom.
“I’ve had some incredible experiences, amazing things happened for me but you pinch yourself because it’s like this push and pull between these two (opposing forces) … like this amazing opportunity, very glamorous life, but I’m also still Paul from Seaton.
“I don’t think it (impostor syndrome) is ever going to go, and I don’t want it to go away ever, because I think that’s what keeps me wanting to try to do better.”
It’s been an ethos that has servedhim well since he launched the business with an hour-long fashion parade that delivered him maximum marks in a year 12 extension studies assignment back in 2007.
Vasileff admits he knew nothing about the fashion industry when he charged $15 a head for that 64-piece show at Tropeano Function Centre in Adelaide’s western suburbs.
Sure, he was already a veteran dressmaker by that stage, with six years of experience that started at age 11 when he offered to make an outfit a neighbour and childhood friend had seen in a magazine.
Within a few years this foray blossomed to making pieces for other friends to wear to school formals. These friends duly won “best dress” awards for his designs and he quickly took over the front two rooms of the family house to bring his creations to life.
His business name, a combination of his middle name and the Italian version of his first name, was the result of a class survey during his high school days at Christian Brothers College.
He created a business plan for his company during year 12 business studies, designed its logo in graphic design classes and created a press release as part of his English studies.
Most of his high school experience was geared towards the creation of his own fashion label and he spent months sewing until 3am to create each of the items.
Vasileff knows now that most collection launches feature just 15 to 20 new pieces and last about 15-20 minutes. But because he knew little about the industry and was charging the grand entry fee of $15 a head, he wanted to give his patrons value for money – hence the 64-piece, 60-minute extravaganza with friends cajoled into strutting the catwalk.
“I remember going into the hall and feeling very sick because I thought, ‘I’ve made a huge mistake, I’m going to be a laughing stock – we’ll be lucky to have a hundred people turn up,’” he tells Soderstrom.
“We had 660 people show up. We had a line down the block. People couldn’t even fit in the room. It was just, I remember still, for me, that is the most incredible experience of my life. (There was) so much like joy and love around it, so much support.”
Vasileff had promised his parents they could have their front two rooms back after the launch and things would “return to normal” … but they did not.
He had already registered Paolo Sebastian as a business and received his first wedding dress order before that launch evening was over.
After graduating from CBC, the self-confessed perfectionist did an internship with Di Fabio Brothers Tailoring before winning a 12-month scholarship at Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design when he was 19.
“I remember everyone thinking that I wasn’t going to get on the plane because I’m such a homebody and I’d never been overseas before,” he says.
“I’d never lived out of home and didn’t have to look after myself – I had Mum and Dad looking after me. I didn’t speak really any Italian and all of a sudden I was on the other side of the world, cooking and cleaning for myself, finding my own apartment and had to grow up very, very quickly. It was scary. (I was) petrified.”
And yet he shined. He threw himself into his study, his work was ultimately chosen to be shown in London Fashion Week and he “grew up very quickly”.
“I think that probably put me in good stead for what I needed to run my own business – it gave me that foundation,” he says.
“So I came back home, took some time off and I thought I really want to showcase everything that I’ve learned in this time away, so I set about putting on another fashion show.
“And that’s when the storytelling element really came into play because in that time, what I really learned in Milan was how to take what made me creative and how to harness it and put it into my work.”
That first show was his Swan Lakecollection, inspired by the ballet of the same name.
He was persuaded by a desperate client to sell the finale gown to her as a wedding dress, forcing him to quickly create another showstopper using leftover organza and French lace for the collection’s showcase in Sydney a couple of weeks’ later.
This was back in 2011, and Paolo Sebastian did not even have an Instagram or Pinterest account. But when Vasileff started getting emails of congratulations and interest in his work from around the world, he soon learned that quickly thrown-together finale gown had gone viral.
“I didn’t know what was going on, but the photo of the finale gown had gone viral on Pinterest,” he says. “It was getting tens of thousands of likes and reshares and then ended up becoming one of the most pinned wedding dresses for that year. And it’s something that people still send to me today. Thank God for that woman (who persuaded him to sell her the original finale gown).”
Orders flooded in from across the globe and his parents finally got their front rooms back as he moved first into a showroom at Di Fabio Brothers, then to a studio in Torrensville and eventually to Paolo Sebastian’s current headquarters and atelier in the heart of Adelaide in Gouger St.
Vasileff has been infatuated with Disney movies for as long as he can remember and he realised a childhood dream in 2017 when he collaborated with the entertainment juggernaut for his collection Once Upon A Dream to celebrate his 10th anniversary in the industry.
Teaming up with Disney was the result of a fan letter he had sent to US actor and singer Mary Costa, the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney animation Sleeping Beauty, a year or so earlier.
“I was just reflecting and thought, this movie, this film (Sleeping Beauty) for me has done so much, and part of the reason I am where I am today is because of that inspiration,” he says.
“Every time I see it, my hair stands on end. So I thought I’m going to write her a letter just to say thank you. I Googled online and I found an address that I could send this letter to.”
About a month later he received a random call from an international number.
It was Costa. The couple spent about an hour chatting and she offered to help if he ever needed contacts at Disney.
He took her up on the offer and the couple remain close friends.
Fast forward to 2025 and Vasileffhas already realised two of the three bucket-list goals he came up with when he was nine years old: Become a fashion designer and work with Disney. The third, creating a dress for Jennifer Lopez, remains a work in progress but the list of stars who have already worn his creations include Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, Lucy Liu, Rebel Wilson and Delta Goodrem.
Vasileff was preparing to board a plane to Dubai when Swift released the video for her song The Fate of Ophelia last month.
The video for the opening track of her new album The Life of a Showgirl features the superstar wearing a gown from Paolo Sebastian’s A Lover’s Kiss collection.
“When things like that happen, it’s one of those things that shows us that we’re on the right path, that we are doing the right thing, that all that hard work is for something,” Vasileff says.
He’s been dubbed Adelaide’s King of Couture, a fashion term for creating high-end, bespoke pieces designed and made for specific customers. But he dreams that Paolo Sebastian will one day join the realms of Dior, Armani, Gucci, Versace, Valentino and Chanel into the exclusive haute couture space and his creations will go on show during the prestigious Paris Fashion Week official program.
Vasileff is already dipping his toes in the ready-to-wear space with a collection of scarfs and shoes and hopes to expand into menswear and perfumes as his brand grows.
He created three dresses for his wife Anna when they married in January 2023, and is now focused on his new role as father to a baby daughter, a development he says has changed his perspective on everything. “The joy that she’s brought to Anna, myself and our families, it’s just like nothing else that I could ever imagine,” he says. “I’m very conscious of not being a helicopter parent, and I just want to make sure that I do everything right, that I can do right by her and give her the opportunities – without spoiling her either.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Paolo Sebastian founder on Disney, Paris and his battle with impostor syndrome
An online predator murdered Carly – this could have saved her
