Olga Szwed built a cult following in Seattle for her fabulous couture gowns, but she didn’t stop with only one fashion brand. Soon she became the creative director and designer for Poppy & Bloom, which offers whimsical prints, timeless shapes, and flattering silhouettes for women in sizes 12 to 28.
Several years ago, Olga sold La Belle Reve, so she would be free to explore new opportunities. While she continues to sell her own brand Olga de la Couture through La Belle Reve and is available as a consultant to the new owners, she is committed to training and learning as much as she can in every aspect of fashion design, manufacturing and merchandising. To learn more about the business side of merchandising, she took a position as a buyer at zulily and finds now she is working with designers all of the time and seeing how they market themselves. She’s been with zulily for two years and frequently goes to market at the large trade shows in New York City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
A life transforming moment occurred for Olga four years ago when she gave birth to her first child, Adam. She began seeing motherhood and children as playing an integral role of how fashion could lead to an even larger vision. She began to explore how fashion could be used to help children, especially those children who had special needs. This past August she launched her first full-scale charity event, Compassion with Fashion, to raise funds for two small children who have urgent life-threatening medical needs. The fashion community rallied around Olga and her cause. The event successfully raised over $30,000 to help pay for the children’s medical bills.
Olga sees this first event as one of many to come. Her goal is to bring the fashion community together for a common cause that benefits, not only young children, but all of the local and professional businesses located in the eastside and Seattle metro area.
Olga works very hard to achieve results. She is a perfectionist, detail-oriented, very European in style, passionate, likes to meet people, and most of all, she has recently discovered a joy in being able to take her dedication to fashion and translate it to philanthropy and charity. Her ultimate vision is to use fashion as a vehicle to give back to the community. For Olga Szwed, doing fundraisers is part of her beautiful dream and a natural adjunct to her career path as both a designer and as a businesswoman.