“I think we’ve got it all wrong,” starts Dana Stinea-Messika, founder of uber sexy French fashion brand DANAMÉ. “We talk about female empowerment, but we don’t need to empower women – women are so f*cking powerful. We don’t need anyone to empower us. We’ve been empowering the world throughout history. We don’t need to wait for the world to empower us. We are she wolves, we are lionesses. Power is not ours to be given, it’s ours since the dawn of time. The DANAMÉ women? She’s a badass.”
“Women are so f*cking powerful. We don’t need anyone to empower us. We’ve been empowering the world throughout history.”
It sounds like a feminist manifesto, doesn’t it? Her designs—at once glamorous but not unattainable, sultry but never unkempt—more and more reflect how women want to look today. No longer bound by the arcane rules laid out by male-led corporations, we—women—are free to show some skin, flash some flesh and bare a midriff if we please. But the DANAMÉ era of sexy is softer, more inventive, delightfully delicate, and detailed oriented.
Dana Stinea-Messika, 55, is among a cadre of female designers who are answering that age-old question: what do women want? “DANAMÉ is not about fashion per se. DANAMÉ is about women. Fashion is the accessory and woman are at the centre. I opened this brand when I was 50 years old, so I have direct experience with every DANAMÉ women at each stage in her life. I’m not 25 anymore, I’m 55 and I still find ways to be playful and show some skin.”
In Dubai to celebrate the launch of her Spring/Summer 2023 collection, GRAZIA sat down with the wife of Andre Messika, the founder of the luxury jewellery brand Messika, to discuss creating a brand that’s identity is centered on truly empowering women.
GRAZIA: Have you always been in the fashion world?
Dana Stinea-Messika: “I grew up in a very small apartment with a single mum who was a seamstress. I was a Homoeopath in my previous career, but I wanted to wait for my kids to grow up before starting anything of my own. I was an only child and very, very lonely because my mum was working so hard. It made me think that I always want to be there for my kids when they come back from school. Then one day the stars aligned and I knew it was time! I wanted to create a brand that was friendly. Fashion needs to align with women’s lives – not the contrary – so this is a brand that is kind to women’s bodies, to our comfort needs and our aesthetics.”
GRAZIA: Tell us about your Spring/Summer collection
DSM: “Each collection has a women at the heart its inspiration. This is about a sculpture I found in Positano. In the ’50s the village was dirt poor and everyone was hungry – nothing like it is today with all the yachts and tourists. There was a little sculpture called ‘The Fisherman’s Wife,’ and it felt so relevant to DANAMÉ because she, too, was a bad*ss. When you think about it, in the ‘50s, we didn’t have phones or walkie talkies. When the fisherman went into the sea every day, the wives wouldn’t know if their husbands would come back. The women had to rely on each other, they had to raise each other’s kids, they had to cook for each other and function on their own without a man. They were so strong and so resilient. This is how powerful we are. We don’t need anyone to empower us. We don’t need clothing to empower us. What I want people to feel when it comes to DANAMÉ that is that a clothing will reflect the power they already have.”
GRAZIA: And what can we expect from Fall/Winter?
DSM: “There is a concept- a Japanese concept that always was really interesting to me called Kintsugi. It means that when they break something, they put it back together by pouring gold in the cracks. There is a rebirth. It becomes even more precious when it’s broken. I translated this into the human soul. I think that our hearts are all broken. We all break our hearts at a certain point in our life. But the mending of it gives us gold. It’s like alchemy. I was so fascinated by this I went and told my designer about the idea. She came back to me the next day showing me images from an exhibition that depicts women who have scars on their body, and they filled their scars with gold. I found these women to be even more beautiful because they were baring their scars. So the next collection is inspired by golden scars. It’s an homage to women’s resilience. Because I come from a family of diamonds and jewels, I also call our brand The Wearable Jewel, so you will see all the golden chains, like golden scars, inside the clothing.”
GRAZIA: Do you ever take any inspiration from Messika – be it creative, business or both?
DSM: “Of course. I come from a family of diamonds, and my husband of 34 years was a diamond dealer when I met him. I see women as diamonds, not because of the social status, but because it’s the most potent, and the strongest mineral on earth. Why? Carbon is exactly the same atoms, but one is falling apart in your hands, and one does not. It’s about the quality of the bond between the atoms in diamonds that makes that strong. My view of women is this bond between the atoms. I think that we have so much to offer.”
GRAZIA: What is the biggest lesson your husband has taught you in business?
DSM: “The values are the same across all of our brands. Andre has six children – two from his first marriage, and four from his second – and all his kids have the same values. He is into a non-negotiable quality that we need to provide to our clients. Quality, authenticity, humility, and service are absolute non-negotiables. I call him my mastermind. And I’m going to quote one of my children, who explained Andre’s impact on us perfectly, they said, “he gives us wings.”
GRAZIA: What other life lessons have your children taught you?
DSM: “I came into Valerie’s life when she was 12 and she just had this instant ‘wow’ effect. Valerie somehow managed to not democratize diamonds but to make luxury accessible, and this was one of my biggest guidelines because, you know, silk is luxury, but I wanted to make it accessible for all women. First of all in price and value for money, and also in colour – it needs to be bloody chic! With little you make a lot. That is one of the biggest values I took from Valerie.”
GRAZIA: And what is it about those silks and satin type materials that you’re so drawn to?
DSM: “Fashion is supposed to serve me, I am not supposed to serve fashion. I’m a fit-fanatic. I want people to put on a piece of clothing and think, that’s it. My skin is my first home. It contains who I am. My clothing is my second home, and I want my second skin to be a comfortable home. I suffered enough when I was young trying to look good all the time, and I don’t want to suffer anymore. I want comfort coupled with pretty and sassy.”
GRAZIA: What is a piece of advice that you would give a young fashion designer who’s just entering into this industry and this world?
DSM: “Never, ever, ever – and this is not an option – let go of what you want to do. It is not an option. The difference between the ones who make it and the ones who don’t is so little it’s almost insignificant, but the consequences are life shattering. The ones who don’t make it will stop one time before than the ones who make it. So never ever give up. Always find ways to continue what you love doing, even when it’s really hard, because it is going to get hard and when that happens use resilience.”
GRAZIA: Where do you see DANAMÉ in the next 10 years?
DSM: “I see my daughter taking over. She already has a crazy sense of style. She is only 13, but she loves wearing DANAMÉ. I have friends who are 65 that wear the brand, too. And me? I plan on playing till I’m 100, so I’ve got a long career ahead for me.”
