From Bali to the Bromo Seltzer Tower
Stacy Stube, B.S. ’08, became an international fashion designer after establishing a home and brand, Elsa Fitzgerald, in her native Indonesia. A decade later, rich with experiences and stories, Stube is back in Baltimore. We recently caught up with her to learn about how her business has changed over the years and what lessons she would share with today’s students.
After spending 10 years away from the United States (seven years in London and three years in Bali, Indonesia), I found this magical place that I had been missing and did not see. I spent my entire life wishing to be someone else because in a way, I felt that Baltimore was ordinary, and I wanted this extraordinary life. I found that life, and all of my dreams came true. Then I returned home for a short visit during Global Entrepreneurship Week at the University of Baltimore and I decided that I wanted to stay, mostly to be close to family.
What have you been up to since you returned?
I am apprenticing under Sally DiMarco in fine needlework. She is teaching me the same methods she learned through her design work with Glenbrook, which made fur-lined coats for Chanel, YSL and Christian Dior in Baltimore.
Upon my return, I also spent a summer studying the fashion archives at the Maryland Historical Society as their designer in residence. I was working to take inspiration to develop the new Elsa Fitzgerald Museum Dress Collection called the Duchess of Baltimore. I will integrate royal needlework techniques and Balinese lacemaking methods using a treadle (foot powered) sewing machine named Mary Lou (she is older than the clock tower). My concern is not for the speed of fashion, but the quality and design for which it is made.
I also volunteer with Retropolitan, which is located at Taylors Collective in Old Ellicott City, a costume supplier to various entertainment productions, such as “The Dressmaker,” “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” and “Boardwalk Empire”. Working with Pat Bourque, we have created a fashion film series called the “Tower Raven”. Through this work, we are shifting the focus onto the feeling and the experience of being entertained by fashion rather than merely consuming it through adornment on the body.
What’s it like to do your work in the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower?
I walked into work the other morning and onto the factory floor with all the sewing machines singing and something inside of me wanted to jump for joy. Now that I have fallen in love with myself and this city, I have been shouting it from the rooftop. Actually, more like from a Bromo clock tower where I design and make my fashion collections. Having spent seven years in London, I remember dreaming of Big Ben and now my design studio is in this beautiful historic clock tower like in a movie.
I traveled to a paradise island called Bali with two suitcases full of fashion magazines. Combining Balinese lace with European design, I created a collection inspired by surrealist art, fashion and history—mostly the 1920s elegance and decadence of author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
How has your company changed over time and how has running it changed you?
Being so involved in the product development and manufacturing side has ignited a passion for equality and justice in the garment industry. I currently work full-time as head of innovation for Fashions Unlimited, a fashion factory established in 1976. In 2022, I will continue my journey toward a Ph.D. in human rights law for the garment industry and work between Indonesia, the United States and Europe to improve the working conditions so that the workers have a voice that are heard and wages that are fair.
How did your time at UBalt prepare you for the career you have now?
First of all, UBalt gave me a chance when I had no intention of going to university. I was working three jobs just to pay my way through community college. Due to a life crisis in my early education days, my grades were scarred and I was not admitted. Then I spoke with Jackie Lewis (now retired) and asked her to give me one semester to prove that I am worth it. That is when I began to fight for my life, education, my dreams and to believe that the impossible is possible if I am willing to work for it. I ended up with a scholarship at one of the top European business schools on a joint program with London College of Fashion and setting up the Fashion Entrepreneurship Society for the University of the Arts, London. If I had given up on me back then, and if UBalt didn’t give me a chance, the course of my life would be entirely different.
You’ll be coming back to UBalt for some great events this fall. What advice could you give today’s students about building a business based on your own experiences?
Learn to manage your thoughts and find your happiness through normal life. There will always be something wrong; even at the top, you crash and burn, but if you love the journey and you are willing to let go when you lose, you can find your way back to remembering why it all counts.
UB is hosting a screening of your fashion documentary on Nov. 16. What can you tease about the documentary? What do you hope viewers take away from it?
I want to show the innocence of opportunity, the naive approach to things working out. If you believe in it long enough and work hard enough at it, the world will begin to see what you have known all along. The film is the madness and beauty that is the internal workings of my life and my approach to fighting this entrepreneurial path we walk from amateurs to thought leaders.
How can students follow your lead?
We have launched the Fashion Innovation Hub with the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. There will be a sign-up sheet for you to become a member and join our meet-ups and fashion adventures through Baltimore and perhaps foreign fashion trips abroad.
More about Stacy Stube
Stube will be back on the UBalt campus Thursday, Oct. 4, for Coffee and Learn Workshop: Become a Fashion Entrepreneur. The event is scheduled from 4-5:30 p.m. in the William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, Room 139. RSVP to attend.
UB is hosting a free screening of Stube’s documentary, “Elsa Fitzgerald,” at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16. For details on this and Stube’s other events, visit www.elsafitzgerald.com/events.
Stube also is helping Jose Rosado, an adjunct professor in UBalt’s Merrick School of Business, on a case study that is part of a digital marketing class he is teaching this fall. Through a video interview, his students will get to know her and her company and then develop a marketing plan for her to test. She will report back to the students after an eight-week trial how the plan fared.
To learn more about Stube and her brand, visit her website.