Twenty-something Canadian designer Ellie Mae was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year when Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau was spotted in two of her jackets. We caught up with Mae this week to find out what that was like, and what she’s got up her sleeve for the rest of 2016.

Can you describe your career trajectory?

Sometimes I can’t believe that my Ellie Mae career is only a year and half old. I have dreamed about doing this for so long that it feels like it has been 100 years. I knew at nineteen, when I moved to California to work with a stylist, that I was meant to work in fashion one way or another. Five years later, I moved across the pond to find myself and to pinpoint what it was about fashion that made me fall in love with it in the first place. I went to Central Saint Martins in London and left knowing that I needed/wanted to bring a little bit of British fashion back with me and channel it into my first clothing line. First and foremost, building the right team was very important to me. I knew it would be what would make or break Ellie Mae as a start-up business. Everyone really needs to have the same goal and be willing and able to wear a few different hats. We have created such an amazing team here and I have no doubt it is the reason why we are where we are today.

What was it like seeing Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau in your designs? 

The first word that always comes to mind is surreal. I was sitting on my bed at home staring at the TV to see if I could get a glimpse of what she was wearing. I made my co-worker sit on the phone with me in silence until we saw her. We saw a quick video on the news of her walking into the venue in Washington. We both swore we saw a butterfly on the jacket, which to us meant she had on our Yazmin piece! It was a very special feeling. I have not met her yet, but I really look forward to it because she gave me a moment in my life that I will carry with me forever.

Who would you love to design for? 

Given that music plays such a vital role in my design inspiration process, I would love to design for any kind of musician. It would be amazing to sit down with a band or an artist to understand their process for deciding what the outfits will be for their tour or performance. It would be so interesting to combine both our creative processes and turn these visions into jackets.

What fashion trends are you loving/hating right now? 

I don’t consider myself an overly trendy person, but right now I’m loving the off-the-shoulder tops. I find them to be very flattering and a little sexy. Such a great top for the summer!

What I’m hating right now are the chokers. I don’t mind trends, but when everyone is wearing them, I can never decide if people actually like what they have chosen or if they are wearing it because someone somewhere said that chokers are cool now so you should be wearing them.

Can you walk us through a typical day in your life?

My mornings start early with a workout with my brother-in-law who is a trainer. After he is done kicking my ass, I head into our studio at John and Adelaide. Each day is always different and I tend to be a very disorganized person. Once I get in, I go over what the day looks like with our operations director (he keeps me organized) and from there we start knocking things off one by one. We have an open concept in our studio, so everyone is working collaboratively throughout the day. Some days are directed more towards design/creative and some days are all about the business side of Ellie Mae. I love both equally and I find I learn something new every day about design or business. We are always learning, which is why I love what we do so much.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2016?

The rest of 2016 will be very busy for us. On September 12th we are launching our e-commerce site, which has been a very big project for us – we can’t wait! So far it looks amazing and the shopping experience is so smooth and easy! After that we’re headed to NYC for a trade show called Coterie to sell our Spring 2017 collection. During all of this, we have already started creating our Fall 2017 line, which we will continue to do until the end of the year. I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2016 has in store for us!