Q&A With Bel Sorrentino

Q. How long have you been designing?

A. My whole life – mum used to complain that whenever she’d leave me alone for five seconds when I was small, she’d come back to find me butchering my clothes and haplessly trying to sew them back together.

Design has always been my passion, and I’ve never wanted to do anything else.

Q. What’s your creative process?

A. I need to visualise a design, sometimes draw it, and then let it simmer in my brain for a day or two while I refine my goal for its final aesthetic.

From there it comes down to materials – what can I source, what will work best, what will hold its structure, what aesthetic will it give, will it be comfortable, how will it wash, etc.

If the idea is particularly bold – especially when the garment has structural elements or I want part of it to be reflective or holographic or something – I usually enter a bit of a problem-solving phase where I stay up until 4am researching what will work best- I do my best work after midnight!

Once I’ve managed to ensure the elements can all work, it’s a simple case of toiling, testing, fitting and trying-on. If everything goes smoothly, I get to work on the final and start putting the pieces together.

I have a few photographers whose work always stands out – I usually like to try and tee up a shoot with one of them because I know I can depend on the final product, and more often than not, it will still end up looking different to the last time we shot.

Where do you source your materials?

A. All materials are sourced in Melbourne – I have a network of suppliers that I use regularly, and I know I can depend on their product.

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