Sonoma completes prime-time success first fashion job

A small New York fashion house run by a 34-year-old New York University graduate has taken the fashion world by storm since then-elected first lady Jill Biden arrived at the inauguration of her husband wearing an ocean blue Markarian dress, coat, gloves and matching mask.

When the cameras turned to the arrival of Jill Bidens on January 20, Sonoma Valley high school graduate Anneliese Kochs was instead pointed at the future first lady. Koch gasped. She and her boss, designer Alexandra ONeill, who were watching TV at home, had no idea until then that their outfit had been chosen by Jill Biden. Congratulatory and ordering calls and emails started pouring into the office of luxury womenswear brands in New York City.

Growing up in Sonoma, Koch always knew she wanted to do something creative for a career. She has loved fashion for as long as she can remember and even created a fashion look book for her senior SVHS project in 2013.

But I’ve always been aware that it was a very difficult industry to tackle, and rather ruthless, she said.

Koch studied design at UC Davis, with minors in art history and textiles and clothing. After graduating, she moved home and worked on her portfolio, hoping that the perfect career opportunity would materialize. After 10 months, she realized that she needed to be physically in New York for this to happen. She flew across the country, found a roommate on a Facebook housing page, and started interviewing jobs.

She ended up taking two part-time jobs, one at a small Brooklyn-based interior design firm and the other at the Greenwich Village offices of luxury womenswear brand Markarian.

I love both fashion and interior design. I always thought there was a lot of crossover between the two areas, Koch said. Both were small businesses and working for them gave me a better understanding of what I wanted to do.

In early 2019, she joined Markarian as her first full-time hire at ONeills.

We were still a small team, so we all wear a lot of hats, Koch said. After nearly three years of work, Koch now handles most of the marketing and oversees Markarian’s wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales, as well as operations.

Markarian offers high-end and luxury ready-to-wear to a handful of high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, as well as made-to-order pieces that are sold directly to private customers, like celebrities and, finally, brands. first ladies.

Markarian added a bridal line at the end of 2019. Before that, we were getting requests from brides to make some of our custom pieces in white, so we realized there was a shortage in the market for beautiful dresses. more fashionable for a more non-traditional bride, who doesn’t want a giant lace dress.

So how did Jill Biden end up wearing Markarian at the grand opening?

Jill Biden’s story

Markarian works closely with a boutique fashion PR firm run by Savannah Engel. Famous stylists contact Engel and his team when they need something special. Through Engel, the Bidens team asked if Markarian would be interested in submitting looks for the inauguration.

Of course, we said, absolutely !, Koch said. In December, they submitted 10 full look sketches with a few crafting options.

We didn’t know who or how many other designers we were competing with, but we were very excited, as a brand so young, to even be a part of this initial process, Koch said. Biden then requested that a full look be created and sent for review.

But we didn’t know she had chosen our outfit before she left, Koch said. As a bonus, it turned out that two of Bidens’ grandchildren, Natalie, 16, and Finnegan, 21, had also chosen Markarian ready-to-wear dresses.

Since the opening, Markarian’s offices have been busier than ever, receiving hundreds of congratulatory calls and emails and orders. Alexandra ONeill and Koch are also preparing for New York Fashion Week in February.

Koch works long hours and focuses on the here and now to help develop the Markarian brand, but later she hopes to design for herself. In the meantime, she gains valuable experience seeing firsthand what it takes to create and build a successful brand.

And 2020 has been a year like no other.

Retailers and other brands have gone bankrupt, so we feel really lucky that we were able to weather the storm and come out even stronger, Koch said. I am delighted with what will happen.

She enjoys living in the East Village and even though she misses California, she knows she is in the right place at the right time right now.

Advice to young fashionistas

Kochs’ advice to current students interested in fashion is to take advantage of whatever experience you can because you never know where it will lead.

She noted that coming from UC Davis, which is not well known for its fashion program, she felt a bit of a loser.

I was facing so many students studying fashion in New York who had internships at Vogue and all the fashion houses, but if you persevere, you’ll get there, she says. If you are passionate about your goals, the good things will follow.

Contact Lorna at [email protected].