Celestial co-founder Desiree Schlotz is a self-driven and work-comes-first kind of woman. What started as a one-million follower mark on Instagram soon turned into her dream business. Alongside her best friend and business partner, Jessica Ghishan, Desiree has turned her passion for spirituality and fashion into a swimwear brand. Celestial is a brand that focuses on pairing strong, beautiful, and confident women with swimwear pieces that resonate with them. With Celestial, they hope to ignite women’s inner goddesses.
The pair of best friends bonded over their love for spirituality for years before creating Celestial. Desiree has owned an oracle deck for about three years with spiritual goddesses on each card from which the pair drew inspiration from. Aside from feeling inspired by the deck, Desiree mentioned that they’re always talking about gratitude, journaling, and manifestation, which also led them to create the spirituality themed swimwear line. Although the pieces cater to a more spiritual audience, Desiree hopes everyone can enjoy the pieces regardless of the spiritual aspect.
Even though Desiree is an experienced model, she previously had no idea what it entailed to create a company. She mentioned looking to her previous works to learn more about the business side for creating Celestial. Desiree also noted the importance of keeping everything eco-friendly. Her main concern came when considering fabrics.
“I was really into trying to find the right fabrics because I really wanted to use sustainable fabrics,” she said. “Just because I’ve been a model for so long and I know how much fast fashion really hurts the climate and adds so much pollution. So by using eco-sustainable fabrics, I feel like we’re leaving somewhat of a good carbon footprint as well.”
The spirituality-inspired swimwear company’s next move is to expand to Asia. Desiree noted that they plan on shooting a campaign there sometime soon. Celestial hopes to reach a broader audience in the Philippines by starting promotions there. As Desiree is half Filipino, she is especially excited to potentially work on Philippines-inspired pieces in the future.
Currently, Celestial is focusing on its release for a 2023 summer one-piece. A key consideration behind the upcoming piece was to listen to the audience. Desiree mentioned that after the company’s first release, there was a lot of feedback asking for more coverage in the swimsuits. As Celestial’s goal is to create something women can truly connect with, Desiree and Jessica took note and plan to deliver. Even though the summer swimsuit provides more coverage, Celestial plans to keep its token appearance of spiritual, yet sexy and appealing. This swimsuit will also be the first piece released from Celestial’s next collection, Ethereal.
“I don’t really wear one-pieces personally that often but if it’s a good one, and it’s cut out right, I might. I feel like we are going to create one that is suitable for everybody, you know, all shapes and sizes. So that’s the goal.” said Desiree.
Ethereal is set for release sometime in 2024. The collection will focus on introducing reversible bikinis to their audience. Desiree mentioned that as a contrast from Celestial’s first release, this collection plans to bring really bright yet deep tones to the swimwear pieces. Celestial aims to create pieces that make every woman feel like she can connect with her inner self.
