Meet Sabrina Edelen | Designer and Creator of WASIL Clothing

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sabrina Edelen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sabrina, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
That believing in yourself above all will take you the furthest. From day 1, I knew that I would give my clothing brand 100% until it became a lucrative business. I believed whole heartedly from the start that as long as I had patience and perseverence, I would see “my dreams come true”. For a good 1.5 years, I only got 3-5 sales, and the investment of time and energy I was putting into my brand seemed like wasted energy from the outside looking in. Shortly after that dismal 1.5 years, one of my designs resonated with my (very small) following, and I had received 100+ orders in the following 6 months. I think believing in yourself is the best thing to do for yourself, because when no one else supports your dreams, you’ll always have yourself to fall back on to when things feel stagnant.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m very proud of my commitment to making clothing for all people- Every design I make can be made bespoke to the customer’s measurements, as well as my default size range is XS-5XL. You can still purchase clothing outside of that range, larger or smaller, but as default I will never not include that size range in my clothing brand. I spend about 75% of my design time casting and fitting on actual fat people as well. Making clothing for fat folks is not as simple as grading a pattern up from a size XL. Taking the time to fit my clothing on multiple fat people of different weight distributions is my biggest priority above all- and that effort definitely does not go unnoticed. A majority of my customers are not straight sized, and getting feedback from them like “this is the best fitting garment I’ve ever owned” is what fuels me to be constantly to be better. Even people who haven’t purchased from me yet let me know they appreciate the effort I put into making my clothes truly for every-body. My brand isn’t perfect by any means, I try to be as forthcoming about my desire to be constantly improving, and all future critique I receive will continue to push me to do so. It’s taken a long time for my brand to get to where it is today, as I am a self taught designer.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Since my brand is based in Vallejo/Benicia, I would probably. include Richmond, Oakland, & San Francisco in our itinerary. In Vallejo, going to Hummingbird Bakery is a must- truly some of the best pastries I’ve ever had. Ruthie’s Caribbean, Good Day Cafe, or House of Soul are some great places to eat at as well. Good Day Cafe is right on the farmers market strip that happens every Saturday, so we’re definitely hitting downtown Vallejo Saturday morning for breakfast and local groceries. If we have our dogs with us, we are stopping in Richmond/El Cerrito to go to Point Isabel- which is a dog park on the coast with views of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge. It’s an open expanse of land where the dogs can swim, run around, overall just enjoy the landscape. In Oakland I have to shoutout Asmara on Telegraph- personally my favorite Ethiopian food in Oakland. Lake Merritt is always a party on the weekends or holidays, so we can grab some food and go there too. If you skate, Town Park in West Oakland is a spot I’ve spent many hours at. Finally the city; I mean you can do all the tourist stuff, but when we’re together we’re probably going to take BART to 16th street in the Mission and walk/skate from Dolores Park through SOMA, the Castro, the Piers, really just explore. I would say go to this one Falafel spot out in the Mission, but I think they closed down sadly. I don’t spend much time in the city nowadays since I can’t hop on BART in Vallejo, but I’m always happy to be there and see what’s going on.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to shoutout my boyfriend, Dre, and my Aunt. Dre always says “I don’t get it but I believe in you” whenever I show him new designs or ideas I have. He’s always there to remind me that not everyone is an overnight success, and to remind me of all that I had accomplished already. My Aunt also gets a shoutout because she’s always fostered art and creativity in my life. From sending me articles about fashion news, to congratulating me on new items selling out- she’s always had a close eye on my business and been my cheerleader. I also have gotten some incredible vintage/designer textiles from her that I have yet to turn into personal projects.

Website: www.wasilclothing.com

Instagram: instagram.com/wasilclothing

Twitter: twitter.com/wasilclothing

Other: @WASILClothing on Tik Tok

Image Credits
Modeling by Blessing