Born in Brooklyn, New York, Chelsea Bravo moved to London at the age of two with her father - a London native born to Trinidadian parents, and her mother - Grenadian, both growing up in NY through the 70s and 80s.
By the age of 8, Chelsea was showing a keen interest in developing a personal style and identity through clothing, seeing her clothes as a means of self-expression and communication. She recalls vividly remembering the day her Mother made her aware of fashion design as a potential career pathway and told her that she could become a fashion designer.
In 2010, Chelsea Bravo graduated from the University For The Creative Arts Rochester and went on to intern with menswear designers Christopher Shannon and Martine Rose. It was on a bus home at 2am one morning from Martine’s studio, feeling unfulfilled and catching a worn out glum expression of herself reflected back to her, that she decided to call it quits on the interning game and venture out on her own.
2013 saw Bravo launch her eponymous menswear label, when she introduced her strongly received spring/summer 2013 collection entitled ‘Dysfunction’, which was picked up and featured on 'Okay Africa' and 'Fucking Young' magazine. In June 2014 she held her first presentation during London Collections: Men with a collection entitled ‘Concourse’, which explored the notion of 'recreating the experience of viewing art in a museum or gallery through garments', a theme that she has been obsessed with and exploring ever since.
In 2015, Bravo was invited to be a part of the British Fashion Council’s Emerging Designer Showrooms, taking part for two consecutive seasons. In the same year, the brand, was selected by Squarespace to be a part of their 2016 'You Should' campaign, previewing at the Golden Globes and The Super Bowl. Chelsea can also be found featured and interviewed in streetstyle photography book ‘Women In This Town’ by Giuseppe Santamaria .
Chelsea Bravo’s collections are designed, sampled and made in-house and the brand is completely ran and funded independently. Bravo is currently based in Islington, North London, where she grew up, it is her desire to have a 'magic' moving studio where she can design and make her collections whilst travelling and journeying through different countries around the world.
Projects credited in
- Championing Diversity: this Black History Month, meet 100 creatives inspiring changeWe asked 11 of our creative heroes to each nominate 10 leading black change makers and creators who are shaping the current climate with raw talent, big ideas and crazy hard work. There is still a huge disparity of BAME individuals in the creative industry. Currently only 13% of the creative industry workforce identify as coming from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. In addition, only 8% of senior positions have BAME representation. Spotlighting this subject is as important as ever. True d138
Work history
Associate LecturerFashion Retail Academy
London, United KingdomFreelance
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Fashion DesignerChelsea Bravo
London, United KingdomFull Time
Skills
- Fashion Design
- Fashion Copywriting
- Pattern Cutting
- Garment Construction
- Garment Fitting
- Fabric Knowledge
- Fabric Sourcing
- Sustainable Fashion
- Fashion Styling
- Teaching
Education
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BA (Hons) Fashion DesignUCA Rochester
- United Kingdom