UB Around the Globe: Fashion for a Cause

by Koren Wetmore

Category: WebExtras

In a career that traditionally leads to a life in Milan, London or Paris, fashion designer Stacy Stube, B.S. ’08, established her home and brand in Bali, Indonesia. Yet her lifelong dream of launching her company, Elsa Fitzgerald, may have never come true if Stube hadn’t harnessed the courage to pursue it.

She details her journey in her forthcoming book, Bali Fashion Dream, scheduled to release in January. The book shares Stube’s journey, including her challenges and triumphs, and encourages others to embrace their dreams.

“It provides an inside scoop on the fashion industry,” she says. “Not in the traditional way, but in showing how a girl on an island in the middle of nowhere can still be a part of it. It’s also about breaking free from the construct of what your life is supposed to be like and discovering you don’t have to follow the cookie-cutter life you’ve been taught to follow.”

In short, she says, she wants people to follow their hearts, rediscover their dreams and fully live their lives. “We all know inside what we’re created to do,” she continues. “We feel drawn to it, but our dream becomes like a book we keep shelving and reshelving and never read.

“You’ve been meaning to live your life, to live your dream. You just forgot about it.”

From an early age, Stube was drawn to the arts and knew she wanted to help people. She went on to acquire her academic training and work experience—but in the busyness of everyday life, her dream of starting a fashion company in Bali fell to the wayside. Her catalyst for change happened New Year’s Day 2013, when she realized she repeatedly wrote the same resolutions without acting on them.

That’s when she committed to making 2013 the year her dreams would come true. Stube left her management position at Heidi Klein, a London-based luxury brand, gathered her savings and moved to Bali three months later.

Although her dream still comes with challenges, she’s concentrating on the joy of the journey. “This is what I wanted, and I’m making it happen,” she says. “That’s what gets you through all those long hours, the nights you’re not sleeping and the difficult moments when pursuing your dream. It’s a love affair with something greater than you.”

Learn more about Stube’s fashion dream in a video she created.