Every Isemoody piece begins in Ilona’s mind — and takes form through a thoughtful, hands-on process. Ilona was born in 1977 in Estonia and grew up in a Russian-speaking family in Tallinn as the only daughter of an Azerbaijani father and a Russian-Jewish mother. From an early age, at just 12 years old, she began assisting her mother, who worked as a pattern maker. In the 1990s, the family established a sewing factory to provide subcontracting services for high-quality Scandinavian fashion brands such as H&M, Gina Tricot, Joy, and others. At the factory, which employed over 50 seamstresses in two shifts, 17-year-old Ilona’s primary role was communicating with suppliers, ensuring the factory met their strict quality standards, and overseeing production quality. By the 2000s, as the subcontracting business moved from Eastern Europe to more cost-effective locations in Asia, Ilona made a dramatic career shift and decided to try her hand at atelier work. In 2009, she founded "Tallinn Fur Masters," a bespoke atelier specializing in fur and leather garments, which quickly became the leader in its field in Estonia. However, ten years later, in 2018, largely due to burnout from both her professional and personal life, Ilona made yet another bold change—this time, altering everything, including her place of residence. She and her family relocated to Morocco, settling in the city of Agadir near the Sahara Desert. "It's like the wind has changed.," she recalls. "Life simply handed me this opportunity on a silver platter." It was during her long journeys and travels through the towns surrounding the Sahara Desert that Ilona became captivated by the fabrics and patterns of Bedouin and Tuareg women. She discovered fabric-dyeing traditions and techniques dating back over 1,500 years and decided to introduce these ancient skills to the Western world through her dresses. Her Isemoody dress collection debuted on March 20, 2025, during Tallinn Fashion Week.