Canadian Designer Hayley Elsaesser's Creative Class with Microsoft Surface

By Sonya Davidson

When it comes to sharing the creative process, Canadian fashion designer Hayley Elsaesser tells us she’s super excited.  At a recent creative class hosted by Microsoft Canada, Hayley shared how Microsoft's Surface is very much a part of her design and overall business process.

Following the success of the Toronto Fashion Week show this past Spring where she included her Cosmic Dread collection, Hayley reached out to Microsoft Canada and mentioned that she really wanted to share her experience with a few of Toronto’s creative industry. The idea that creating stuff on the Surface is so easy for her, she felt passionate about showing others what it can do.

Hayley is a Canadian Fashion Designer raised in Cambridge, Ontario by her single mom. As a kid, Hayley was quiet and shy. But, as her brother Connor, who's also her business partner, explains, "she used colour and imagery to differentiate herself. She dressed crazy ever since she was little.”

Hayley went design school in Brisbane, Australia. Upon graduation, she was selected to be part of Melbourne Fashion Week as one of 11 graduates. She didn’t really have intentions to start her own brand but after receiving positive press and feedback at her first fashion week, she decided to dive right in. 

From the get go, Hayley’s designs were inspired by pop culture. She uses elements from art, music, film, and television from her nostalgic childhood. Her collections are each inspired by a story. Her recent Teenage Wasteland collection was inspired by the thought of a post –apocalyptic country club in the desert for delinquent youth. "The idea was that the world is over but some people survived and having lots of fun," said Connor.

Hayley likes to use bright colours and interesting patterns and visual imagery then puts them on classic wearable silhoettes. Since she’s began, she’s grown a fan-base of young creative and celebrities alike including Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, Joe Jonas, Lily Singh and many more. The pieces allow the wearer to stand out.

Hayley’s designs are very tongue and cheek rebelling against status quo. "People in Toronto lean towards darker clothing generally speaking, but Hayley tries to inject colour into that. And because her pieces are so recognizable, people now refer to the style as Hayley," said her brother.

She’s also collaborated with other brands including Nike, Hasbro (My Little Pony inspired), and Annabelle cosmetics with designing their packaging. 

Hayley tells us her design evolution has now become a brand evolution ever since she’s started working with Microsoft about two years ago.  She explained to us that she actually weaseled her way into working with Microsoft. “Before I worked on the Surface, I use to sketch out ideas on paper. Then, I’d scan the ideas then retrace them and then digitally redo them in Illustrator and Photoshop. The whole process was really long," said Hayley.  "Often when you draw something on paper, you might lose it or spill something on it. Because the process is so long sometimes you lose that inspiration. Now, with the Surface I can have a digital catalogue of all my ideas and everything that I do. I can also save and reconsider what I’m doing later on. I can sit on ideas for a while and revisit and tweak ideas or colours when I want. If I just did this all on paper, I’d probably forget about it or just lose it.”

Hayley explains that what she loves about the Surface is that it’s so easy to just draw out your ideas. It’s so intuitive. Recently, she added the Surface Studio at the back of her shop on Queen Street West, saying it's also visually beautiful but having something that streamlines the process makes it more fun for her to create. 

"Technology has the power to create at great speed and helps you creatively grow," said Hayley. "Don’t be afraid to have fun, you can always save for later or start over."

She also mentioned the the love of using the Surface Pen which as we explored, also allows for more creative freedom and flexibility with four different pressure points for more layers and textures.

The creative class event gave the opportunity for all invited participants to explore and customize their own GelSkin for their own Surface devices. 

Thank you to Hayley Elsaesser and Microsoft Canada for this experience!