Elegance Is Knowing Your Worth

The Other Voice: You once said, “I want to bring back women’s strength through elegance.” But what does elegance actually mean to you?

Gelme: Elegance is knowing your worth, knowing who you are, taking time to put yourself together from head to toes.

An elegant woman chooses every piece in her wardrobe very carefully. It has to express her individuality.

Elegance can never be status as social status. Today many people have money, but money does not necessarily give good taste.

Elegance is your status of worth—knowing who you are, knowing it, and presenting it.

The Other Voice: Not everyone would define elegance in exactly the same way. But in your definition, elegance is not really about fashion.

It is about self-respect.

Taking time with your appearance can mean that you value yourself enough to make thoughtful choices. Each piece becomes part of how you express your personality rather than a costume designed to display wealth.

Months ago, when you said you wanted to bring back women’s strength through elegance, I thought strength was the central idea.

Now I would shift the emphasis.

Perhaps your work is not about making women elegant. It is about celebrating the elegance already within them.

A scarf, hat, or coat cannot create genuine confidence. But it can give a woman another way to express the confidence, individuality, and self-respect she already possesses.

Individuality seems to connect every stage of your creative life.

As a child, you wanted to be different. As a teenager, you made your own outfits. At the Hermitage, you were fascinated by extraordinary craftsmanship. Today, you create pieces that cannot be mass-produced.

The materials and techniques changed, but the underlying value remained the same: being true to yourself.

And that leads to the next question:

What do you hope people remember about you one hundred years from now?

Not only about Gelme’s Designs, but about you.

If someone saw one of your coats or hats in a museum a century from now, what would you hope she understood about the woman who created it?

Gelme: I want them to say, “It is so Gelme.”

About me, I know what everyone will remember if I die today: bravery.

I took a lot of risks in life. I burned a lot, but I can't be still.

The Other Voice: “It is so Gelme.” That is what every artist hopes for: that the work becomes recognizable not only by technique, but by vision.

And the second part is just as revealing. You did not choose talent, success, or status. You chose bravery.

Looking back at your life, I can understand why.