The Romanian Designer Floor

Alina Gavrilă started making clothes when she was just a teenager

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 02.04.2024, 13:01

Alina Gavrilă started making clothes when she was just a teenager. The passion developed over time, and today the fashion designer aims to support Romanian designers in the making, through what she created: “the floor of Romanian designers”, an actual floor, at an address in Bucharest, as well as online.

Alina Gavrilă, the founder of the Romanian Designer Floor concept told us:

“It wasn’t necessarily a need, but a passion, my passion from adolescence, for clothing creation. I started designing clothes when I was 14-15 years old. Basically, I followed my passion, my hobby from adolescence. The idea came to fruition at the beginning of the 90s, when I established a small clothing creation and production workshop. Then I made my own creations and sold them in partner stores. Unfortunately, my dream didn’t necessarily materialize for a very long time. After three years, I had to close that business for financial reasons, but because my entrepreneurial spirit and my passion for fashion remained alive, after many years I returned to the business world and opened a store, which brings many creations from several Romanian designers, that is, I preferred to promote, to support Romanian fashion creators.”

What the Romanian Designer Floor actually is we learned from Alina Gavrilă, the founder of the concept:

“The Romanian Designer Floor is an oasis of beauty, style, elegance, it is the place where women find not only suitable outfits for occasions, for events, but also advice if they want a change of clothes, or don’t know what suits them in certain situations, or at certain events. It is more than a store, it is a place where you charge yourself with positive energy, and leave not only with a dress or an outfit, but also with a feeling of well-being, with confidence, with a positive attitude.”

Beyond the rich offer of shops and malls, The Romanian Designer Floor aims to offer experiences, says Alina Gavrilă:

“I have a physical store, which is located in Bucharest, near the roundabout in Piaţa Romană, the exact address is Dacia 39, first floor. We also have an online store, it’s also called etajuldesignilorromani.com and, in general, people who want to visit us, call us, write us a message, because the meetings are made by appointment.”

Coats, dresses, shirts, as well as shoes and other accessories can be found on the website and even ordered, with delivery taking 5-15 days. However, we found the most challenging thing to be able to call a stylist to change your clothing style. We asked our interlocutor how a style change can be made:

“The style change session takes place in the store, and then the customers receive all the necessary information. Depending on the body shape, style preferences, they receive all the necessary information to have a perfect outfit to best suit their style and body type.”

Alina Gavrilă chose not to make a list of the designers exhibiting their creations on the Romanian Designer Floor, for fear of forgetting someone, but she assured us: “They are very talented designers, many of them are perhaps just starting out, or trying to make a name for themselves on the market, they are not necessarily very, very well-known designers, because those don’t need promotion. Every month we organize meetings, we call them Rendez-vous for Coquettish Women, precisely to support women in choosing a suitable style. We give advice on how to match the outfit with the shoes, with the accessories, what colors to choose. These meetings are monthly or bi-monthly, and can be seen on our Facebook page, where these events are created. Within these events, ladies can visit us and meet other women, they can socialize, they can feel good, may have a pleasant afternoon in our company.”

“Shop with clothing creations, shoes, bags and jewelry from talented Romanian designers!” is the promotion on the Facebook page for Romanian Designer Floor, a page where we also find stories of miraculous encounters between clients and clothing creations. We know that there were ladies who sometimes fall in love with a dress at first sight, let’s say. Another asset we noticed in the way the clothes are presented is the fact that they are aimed at everyone, not just the female runway model as a structure, which is very important!