Dana Cooper isn’t afraid to flex her creative muscle. Over the years the Bermudian designer has tried her hand at everything from illustrating children’s books, creating holiday cards and even designing pages for internationally renowned W Magazine.

Most recently she’s been making a splash with her Island-inspired swimwear, as well as her latest collection of sun protective tops, dresses, and beach wraps.

She spoke with Lifestyle about her professional journey so far and what’s next for her design line in 2016.

Q: You’ve worked in so many different areas of design. Growing up did you always know you would become an artist?

A: Yes for sure. It was in high school when the interest was peaked. I went to school in the US and had amazing art teachers there and it kind of just grew from there. After that I went to Parsons School of Design in New York. One thing I learnt how to do in high school was silk screen printing by hand, which people still do now, but it’s considered a very old technique. That was before the days of computer and digital design and when everything was done by hand. I got to experiment with a lot of different processes in class and I think understanding the printing process from that early age helped a lot with my career in fashion. Now I work with a printer, but in many respects it’s the same process for creating colours.

Q: What caused you to make the switch to fashion?

A: One of my past jobs was as an art director and designer for magazines. Then when the magazine world began to collapse and started going online in the mid to late 90s I started to explore other design avenues. I was living in China at one time and was encouraged by a friend there to start designing on fabrics. At first I thought the idea was a little bit crazy, but when I thought about it a little more it seemed like a natural progression from magazines. Plus I’ve always had an interest in fashion.

Q: So what happened from there ...

A: Well, I started with my first beach wrap which featured the bay grape leaf — that’s like the classic item now. I was actually a little homesick at the time and was thinking about the colours of Bermuda like turquoise and the different blues. I started thinking about the beaches and remembered how I would see so many bay grape leaves lying around in Bermuda as a kid. I decided to do something with that. It became a pretty popular piece stemming from something pretty simple. As I was working with fabrics, I didn’t want the patterns to be too busy because I thought that would just complicate things. I tried to keep it really simple with only a few shapes and colours.

Q: What exactly is involved in the design process?

A: So the images I design are drawn by hand first and then converted digitally. It’s certainly Bermuda-inspired, but I also have to take into account what’s going on in the fashion industry at the moment. I do a lot of research. I read magazines online, as well as the various trade magazines. I’m also back and forth between New York. I get very inspired seeing what the designers out there are doing. It’s just so easy to spot great style when you’re in New York.

Fashion is just right there at your finger tips. So while my line is Bermuda-inspired, it does have a global appearance as well. I’ve been selling my collections overseas for the past eight or nine years.

Q: How did you work to get the business to grow and your designs to appeal to customers outside Bermuda?

A: One of the first things I did when starting out in the fashion business was take my bay grape sarongs... I had hundreds of them at the time, but no idea how to market them to the public. So I took them to trade shows in New York and people loved them and they started selling all over. I even started meeting buyers from Bermuda who were coming to the trade shows. A lot of local buyers go up to New York to shop for their customers, so it was like being introduced to a whole new world. I started experimenting with a bunch of different fabrics like the long scarfs, which I did in maybe 20 different colours. The big turn for me came when Glamourpuss NYC picked up some of my pieces. Then some of my chiffon, silk and rayon items started being sold in Saks Fifth Avenue. It all happened pretty quickly. Within two years we were developing the product line to include more ponchos, scarves in different shapes, as well as skirts. Now I’ve since gone off and started doing my own line of swimwear, tops, dresses, and pareos [beach wraps] all of which have a sun protection of 50-plus. They are all made from Italian fabrics. The US Olympic swim team uses the same material — that’s how we know it’s good quality.

Q: Is it still something you enjoy doing today?

A: You know what, for me, there’s no greater feeling then the one I get when the colours are right and I get the fabrics back from the printer in New York and I know that everything is perfect and what I envisioned. That’s definitely the best part. There is a lot of colour checking involved. I will look at a swatch sometimes as many as ten times and it goes back and forth and can be a very long wait sometimes. But other times the printer understands right away what I want and gets it done. Right now I’m working on my 2016 collection and already have so many ideas for that. Other than swimwear and some men’s accessories [ties and bow ties], my plan is just to develop more. It will be interesting to see how it moves forward.

Q: What’s one of the most important lessons you’ve learnt as a fashion designer?

A: The business side of it has been fascinating, but has also been a huge learning curve for me. That’s why my advice to any young designer is always that they understand the business side of it before diving in because that’s what sustains you. An excellent design is a huge part of it, but understanding how to sustain a business is another important aspect. In the beginning for me it was a little bit of trial and error, but I had some business skills tucked away from my time illustrating children’s books and working with magazines. So from that I learnt how to produce sales and learnt how many units I needed to sell in a year to keep growing my business. I think you have to have an entrepreneur spirit for sure to do this. For me I like to see how something develops and unfolds and goes out to market. I still feel like I have more to learn, especially about technology and social media, but it’s been really exciting so far.

•Ms Cooper’s collection is available on-Island at AS Coopers, Luxury Gifts Bermuda at Tucker’s Point and Coral Beach & Tennis Club. For more information visit www.danacooper.net.