The Beginning of UNDRESS

#undressmystory
She undressed and climbed into my bed.
My first baby, my business, and my love – my UNDRESS – was born in bed.

It was the first of July, a full moon night. I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned. Sweating, freezing, sitting, standing. I hated myself. I loved myself. Then I didn’t love myself again.
I knew I wanted something – I just didn’t know what.
And it wasn’t the first night like this.
I was restless – in bed, in my thoughts, pacing the room.
From one side to the other
From one thought to the next.

My eyes wandered – from object to object – until they stopped at my wardrobe. Full of dresses. A wardrobe. Full. Of. Dresses. Only dresses. My dresses.

And then I exploded.
I W A N T T O D E S I G N D R E S S E S!

I jumped out of bed, crying with joy, and for the first time in my life, I started writing everything that was rushing through my mind. And then I collapsed.
It was July 2015, in a Soviet-era apartment block in Žirmūnai.

The next morning, I told my friend:
– I’m going to design dresses. I’ll call it UNDRESS.

Nine months later – on April 1st, 2016 – I wrote on Instagram:
Here we are. Let’s start a friendship.

#undressmystory
Undress = the state of being naked or only partially clothed

That July night, I – 26 years old Ana, – climbed into bed a successful journalist, but one who felt no passion for her work. And in the morning, I woke up as a designer.

For nearly thirteen years, I’d been simmering like cassoulet in a sealed pressure cooker – constantly asking myself: Who am I? Why am I here? Do I even want the life I have? Where is my passion? Where is that fire, that spark?
I felt a strange, chronic heartburn – like someone who keeps eating the wrong thing without knowing why.

But that night, the lid finally blew off. And in that explosion, I found my name, my place, my passion.
I didn’t know how to run a business. I didn’t know how to sew. I had no clue about patterns, or fabrics. I didn’t speak the language I now so badly needed. I had no capital, no cool creative loft, no helpful industry contacts.
But I had a dream. And I had courage.
Once again, I was starting from zero. Completely raw, exposed, standing naked before myself and whatever was waiting on the other side. But this time, I knew what to do. And I knew – without a doubt – that everything was going to be okay.
I felt like Partenope in Sorrentino’s film when she says:
“I don’t know anything, but I love everything.”

So hear me out: When something truly yours comes along, you will KNOW it. And nothing and no one will be able to change that.

– “What makes you think you’ll be better?” my brother asked when I came to him for a loan.
– “Because I just know I will,” I said.

I wrote my first business plan. Got a €10,000 loan. And rolled up the sleeves of my first dress.