Anik Atelier’s Solo Debut: ‘Cocktail Hour’

Interview by Peter DeMonte

Dark denim, animal print, flashes of red satin and an air of refinement defined Anik Atelier’s debut solo fashion show, ‘Cocktail Hour.’ The collection from Seattle-born and raised designer Donnika (Nika) Jackson draws inspiration from the extravagance and leisure of ‘The Great Gatsby’ and the stylistic splendor of the 1950s. Jackson seamlessly blends historical influences with her more modern, minimalist aesthetic. The collection tells a story of the transition from a busy workday to an elegant night out. Anik envisions thirteen distinct looks that encapsulate this. The sold-out event featured Seattle singer Isaiah Banks, a raffle, a photo booth and, of course, cocktails.

Jackson was introduced to sewing in third grade, but did not consistently practice her craft until highschool, during which time she created her initial brand ‘Anik Designs’. After highschool, she enrolled in the Seattle Central Creative Academy in 2021, studying apparel design. Jackson released collections for several fashion shows during this time, including with Mesh and for Ebony Fashion Week. After graduating from the SCCA, Jackson began working as an assistant designer at Nordstrom. In 2023, she decided to rebrand herself as the more sophisticated ‘Anik Atelier’, making unique outfits for unique individuals. 

I spoke with Jackson about her creative processes and her journey as a designer. 

Peter: What is the importance of bringing narrative into a collection?

I personally think concept is everything. All of these designers out here, these big old name brands, Louis [Vuitton], Chanel, Gucci, Jacquemus, Hanifa and so many other brands do so well with creating concepts and creating storylines. 

Whenever there's a collection, there's always going to be a description of why the creative director thought this collection that they're producing is so important, and there's always a story behind it. I felt like I needed to have a story behind mine to be able to convey and bond through the intimate setting.

Where do you look to for creative inspiration, both in and outside of fashion?

 A lot of my creativity and inspiration definitely comes from my family. My mom is from down south and my dad is from the East Coast. I'm from the West Coast. So I feel like I have the best of both worlds and just interpretations of different things that are important [in these places]. A lot of the things I take in are hearing stories and experiences.

As a young girl, I was super into Brats, Barbie, Monster High or anything where it was a group of girls wearing fashionable clothing. 

The inspiration just comes from everything nowadays. As of now, I've been very inspired by polka dots and these big, flowery motifs. I'm not really sure where the inspiration came from, but there's just something that I'll see, and I'm just like, Oh, I love that, and then it’ll just stay in the back of my mind like a reoccurring dream. It's like, ‘Okay, there's something behind this that I need to understand and that's making me feel inspired.’ 

I take a lot of inspiration from family, social media and just from the outside world; seeing people on the street and what they're wearing. Some of my favorite designers – Smith, Hanifa, Dion Lee – are just amazing designers that are really up-and-coming. They're bringing something to the table that is new, and it's fresh and it's inviting. I take a lot of inspiration from them as well. 

Do you ever see elements of those designers in your own work?

Yeah, at times I do. I love Jacquemus. I love his work. I feel like his work is just very clean, very cut and precise. He knows how to use the right amount of pizazz, whether that's in color or in silhouette. He’s very good at taking something simple and just helping it to draw to your eye and stand out.  

I feel like with my brand, I am super big on being minimal and also just having people feel good in what they wear. I want the clothes that people buy from me to be interchangeable. Clothes that you can wear all the time, rather than it just being a one-time use. With that being said, I can see him doing the same thing within his brand. I think it's amazing sometimes when I see similarities, but I always try to make it my own thing, and not fully copy what he has going on, because I'll never be Jacquemus. I'll never be that brand. But I know things that I like about that brand that I could use within my brand. 

Would you be able to describe your design process, from initial concepts all the way to apparel production?

Concepts and designing things are very interesting for me because I feel like a lot of people go by the step-by-step process where they figure out what they want and then design it, versus me. I'm one of the people who is more of a visionary. I will think of something that I want to come to terms with and that I want to do for my collection, and I'll think of fabrics and how they could be placed in each kind of bucket of the area that I'm trying to showcase for.

With cocktail hour, my way of designing this time was sourcing fabric, starting last March. I continued to be inspired by a lot of things around me. Once I finally understood what concept I was going for, I then began mood boarding. I use Pinterest and I also use WGSN. It helps me see what might be prevalent in the market right now. Mesh is super huge in the market, and that's why it felt really important for me to use it in my show, along with denim, satin and fur.

Something that's also really important is the season and time that I'm designing for. So, following winter, using fur, denim and stuff that can be worn in different types of climates, whether that's fall or winter, but this whole concept, I basically bought the fabric and the yarn. From then on, I began creating a mood board about where I wanted to go with the collection. After that, it really depends on the time limit for me; sometimes I'll sketch. It's not like these technical sketches I used to do, but I'll just doodle, or have an idea of the kind of thing I want to do. Sometimes I'll [use Photoshop for] images and just try and create this look in my brain that is kind of happening within my mind. After that, I will go into the design process, so I'll start patterning, or I'll use blocks that I find or have and start building my collection. I begin sewing and then just checking to make sure, like everything is good, like no holes, no cut pieces, anything like that. That’s kind of how that goes. So it's kind of like a four way step: source fabric, mood board pattern, designing and sewing everything up. 

You mentioned that you often buy the fabric first, and design the garments after. Do you find yourself going through several iterations of a design, or trying things with the fabric that don’t end up making it to a final garment?

Sustainability is a really big thing for me. Sometimes, I will buy fabric first before I even have an idea in my head. Sometimes I feel a connection between a piece of fabric that I might see, and I might say, ‘Oh my gosh, I know this would be really great for a future collection.’ I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I know I'm going to do something with it. I think that deep down, I think I'm just like, able to trust myself and trust my vision, even before I even know what the vision is. I'm like, ‘There's something there.’ I have to be able to understand it, get a grasp on kind of what's going on, whether that's like a trend, or like how I'm feeling, or what I'm perceiving and seeing within the market before I can mess with the fabric that I buy. I just make sure that I 100% have a vision for it, because sometimes I'll buy deadstock fabric, or I'll buy fabrics that I'm no longer able to get. A lot of my fabric from the showcase were from Los Angeles and Canada; it's not easy to just hop on a flight or drive two hours up north. It's very important that I know and I'm very passionate about what I'm going to design and put into words when it comes to the fabric.

Do you have any hopes, predictions, or other thoughts towards both your future career and the future of local fashion in Seattle?

I would love to see more fashion shows in the Seattle scene, and not just necessarily fashion shows put on by certain organizations. I would love for there to just be a Seattle fashion show. There's a Bellevue Fashion Week, there's an African Fashion Week, there's an ebony Fashion Week. 

I genuinely think it would be amazing to see Seattle creatives come together and put on a Seattle Fashion Week, and really just have a bunch of designers, photographers, hair and makeup, videographers, all types of people to just really come and like, come as a collective and really just showcase their vision and their work and stuff. It's so common to do that at New York Fashion Week, LA Fashion Week and Miami Fashion Week. 

I feel like if we had that here in Seattle, that would really help to bring more people out, and more people would want to be more immersed within the scene. I think there's also a perception within the scene that you have to know certain people to be able to get to where you want to be and that's not true.

When I first started, I knew some people within the scene, but a lot of the stuff I was doing was simply just taking photos on my phone and having my friends take photos of my designs, just trying to curate a brand. Whether that was as simple as, ‘Come outside with me, I'm going to take pictures with me wearing my bag,' or ‘I'm going to take pictures in this jacket that I made.’

 I feel like it's so important for you to just be able to get out there and do the things that you really want to do. Nobody's going to stop you, and nobody is going to tell you that you can't do it, except for yourself. 

So it's very important to get out there and for my brand within the Seattle area, I [would] just love to put on more fashion shows and more events and just really curate a vibe for everybody to come out and really to just see and support the thing that I make and not even just support me, but just support the other people that are on my team as well for the hair, makeup, video, photography and whatever, just the whole staff. I just wanted to feel a shared experience for people to feel like they all won. It’s not just about me.

Jackson can be contacted at Anikfashiondesigns@gmail.com or @atelieranik on Instagram.