There are moments in life when you realize your career didn't begin with your first job. Mine began long before that—with a piece of raw denim.

I grew up in Bucharest in the '90s, during the years that followed the fall of the communist regime in Romania. If you weren't there, it's difficult to explain what fashion meant back then. There was nothing to buy. Western brands existed only on TV, in NBA games, music videos, and in our dreams. Beautiful clothing wasn't something you chose—it was something you imagined.

My first memorable garment wasn't bought in a store.

It was made.

My father, Dan, bought a piece of raw denim fabric, and together we visited a neighborhood tailor who specialized in denim. He made me a pair of jeans. Looking back, that moment was far more important than I realized. I wasn't simply wearing jeans—I was witnessing how an idea became a product.

Soon after I received a blue sweatshirt my cousin Florin brought from Germany. Maybe it was Puma, maybe Adidas—I honestly can't remember anymore. It represented another world. A world that felt modern, creative, and free.

I wore it everywhere until one afternoon, while chasing a soccer ball that had rolled under a parked car, I hit the back of my head on the bumper. The sweatshirt was stained with blood.

Oddly enough, that's one of my strongest childhood fashion memories.

Clothes weren't just fabric anymore.

They became part of my story.

Falling in Love with American Fashion

Basketball changed everything.

Early morning I was watching NBA games live, fascinated not only by the players but by everything surrounding them—the jerseys, the sneakers, the oversized silhouettes, the logos, the arenas, the graphics. It was my first real introduction to American streetwear culture.

As Romania slowly opened to the West, international brands finally began appearing in stores.

My first branded sneakers were a pair of white Puma GV shoes, bought with my cousin Dana.

Puma still makes them. Today they're considered a classic—but I like to think I could make them even better haha.

Growing up in a country where beautiful products were difficult to find creates a different relationship with design.

When you cannot buy what you love, you begin imagining how to create it.

Instead of asking,

"Where can I find this?"

I found myself asking,

"How could this be better?"

"How would I redesign it?"

"How is this manufactured?"

Without realizing it, I had already started thinking like a product designer.

Hip-Hop Became My Fashion School

By the time I reached high school, hip-hop wasn't just music.

It was our language.

It even helped us learn English.

Long before social media existed, hip-hop taught us fashion.

We studied music videos frame by frame.

We hunt Eastbay.com at internet cafes and knew every product inside it.

We talked about fabrics, fits, graphics, and sneakers as if they were works of art.

I started wearing brands like Pelle Pelle, Southpole, Mecca, Marc Buchanan, DaDa, and Avirex. They weren't simply clothing labels.

They were identity.

They made you somebody.

A pair of Pelle Pelle jeans from Castel Store cost more than the average monthly salary in Romania.

Owning them felt almost impossible.

Which made them even more desirable.

Back then, in Bucharest, people recognized each other by what they wore before they even knew each other's names.

Fashion had become identity.

Hip-Hop Gave Me My First Career

My passion for hip-hop soon became my profession.

I started organizing hip-hop events in Bucharest.

At first, I became a DJ simply to warm up the crowd before the guest DJs arrived.

Soon I was organizing events all over Romania.

Then internationally.

Eventually my work took me to Ibiza, London, Dubai, Miami, and many other places around the world.

Music introduced me to incredible people, unforgettable experiences, and different cultures.

Looking back, I now understand those years weren't a detour from fashion.

They were preparing me for it.

Events taught me branding.

Artists taught me storytelling.

Travel taught me culture.

Business taught me people.

Learning to Believe in Myself

Fashion never left my mind.

But I never believed I was good enough to study it.

I came from the streets.

Art universities felt like places for other people.

Not for someone like me.

Then, almost impulsively—and after my mother insisted that I should go to university—I applied to Hyperion University of Arts in Bucharest to study Film & TV Directing.

I enrolled only one week before the entrance exams.

There were three candidates competing for every available place.

And somehow...

I got in!

That acceptance changed far more than my education.

It changed my mindset.

For the first time in my life, I truly believed that maybe I could do anything.

Maybe I wasn't limited by where I came from.

Maybe I was only limited by how much I believed in myself.

The Moment Fashion Became Reality

While producing events, I was invited to DJ at the opening of the very first Vagabond store inside AFI Palace Bucharest.

That day I met the founders, Darian and Andrei Vicol.

Not long afterward, they invited me to join the company as they opened their first office.

I said yes!

That decision completely changed my life.

For the first time, I experienced fashion from the inside.

Design, production, sampling, printing, manufacturing, collections, marketing, mistakes…

Everything fascinated me.

Years of creating promotional material for events had already given me strong skills in Photoshop, graphic design, branding, visual communication, and—thanks to university—video editing and film production.

Designing T-shirts felt natural.

Soon, my graphics were everywhere.

I would go out to clubs in Bucharest and see complete strangers wearing designs I had created.

That feeling is impossible to describe.

It wasn't about recognition.

It wasn't about money.

It was about realizing that an idea born inside your mind could become part of someone else's life.

That was my epiphany!

Little by little, DJing and the events business stepped aside.

Fashion became my first love.

Looking Back

Today, after years of designing collections, sourcing fabrics across Asia, working alongside factories, developing products, and helping brands launch around the world, I often think about that first pair of handmade jeans.

Everything connects - Nothing was random.

Every chapter prepared me for the next.

Every experience taught me something I still use today.

I don't believe my career happened overnight.

I believe my entire life has been preparing me for this moment.

Building brands isn't simply what I do.

It's what I've been learning to do since I was a child standing in a small tailor's workshop, watching a piece of raw denim become something real.

And perhaps that's why, even today, every collection still begins the same way.

With curiosity.

With imagination.

With the courage to create something that doesn't exist yet.

Because every great product begins as an idea.

And every great story begins with believing that impossible things can be made.