About

Moda de la Maria was founded in London in 2013 by Maria Ruseva, a Moldovan-born designer who has been working in the fashion industry for over sixteen years. Her experience with modern disposable fashion led her to look for alternatives that were both organic and sustainable. Nothing she found suited her sense of style, and so this led Maria to set up her own company. Her passion is to create pieces that take a fresh and contemporary look at classic styles. She wanted to create clothing which combined couture styling with natural fabrics, for women who wanted to stand out from the crowd.

Like her fabrics, her inspirations come from nature and from her travels. Having moved from Moldova to Istanbul in 2004, she spent nine years working in both fashion design and quality control. This gave her a deep understanding of the operational heart of the fashion industry, and of how to produce the best quality clothing. She settled in London in 2013 and continued to expand her knowledge and experience, including working on both the hand stitching and finishing of couture pieces. This combination of techniques and life experience has led her to combine bold patterns and almost architectural motifs within her own designs, but moderating them with softer background colours, emulating the rich variety of colours in a spring meadow.

Each piece is painstakingly designed by Maria in her workshop in South-East London. There, working alongside a small, carefully selected group of craftsmen, she draws the concept art and looks of each piece by hand. She then uses traditional hand techniques to produce the pattern for each piece, before cutting the carefully-sourced materials, making sure that each element meets her rigorous standards. They are then stitched together by hand, using traditional tailoring and hand-finishing techniques, to create unique pieces with a robust construction that will look good no matter where you wear them. They can be worn either as outfits, or used as signature pieces to style around and enhance your wardrobe, producing practical, sustainable fashion that you can love and use for years to come. Every piece Maria sells is produced by hand to meet her client’s requirements, ensuring the highest attention to detail and fit, and also allowing for a level of personalisation should it be desired.

At the heart of her collections are a series of permanent pieces, designed to be wearable year-round. These include blouses, trousers, skirts and dresses, all crafted from high-quality natural silk, and are deceptively simple designs. Each is executed in soft, pastel colours, and they are finished with carefully selected buttons or fastenings made from natural materials. Every item is designed to complement her clients’ figures and can be used to create their own stand-alone wardrobe, as well as harmonising perfectly with her seasonal pieces.