The Belarusian born, Brooklyn raised designer started her eponymous line in 1999. In the pre-Instagram-aughts, she was among the cult designers favored by women looking to embody their complex femininity through innovative clothes. Her work was featured in Barneys for a decade along with numerous exclusive boutiques across the US. Her clothes have been worn by celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Kim Kardashian, Katie Holmes, Brittany Spears, Rachel Bilson among others. And her work was featured in major publications including Elle, Vogue, Bazaar, In Style, Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, L'officiel, and Marie Claire.

By 2012, fast fashion and social media had changed the rules and Kapustina, also craving a life-change, closed her popular line. Kapustina, who had been on track toward a career in science before embarking on a fashion career, returned to her love of biological systems and engineering.

After completing a degree in chemical engineering in 2017, she decided to marry her two passions with her unique ability to understand the languages of design and engineering. Kapustina taught sustainable design systems and materiality futures at the acclaimed Parsons School of Design and continues her commitment to introducing the scientific language and an interconnected cross-disciplinary approach to emerging designers and her commitment to re-imagining material life cycles, alleviating landfills, the use of biological materials for textiles and the interface between technology and biology.

With her extensive knowledge in both design, engineering, and sustainability systems, she often consults brands with sustainability strategy and product development. She has also guest lectured on new systems in fashion at the Yale School for the Environment, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Syracuse University and was a guest critic for the prestigious H&M Global Change Award during her time at Parsons.

In 2021, Kapustina co-founded Chosenwoven, where she created innovative designs and developed innovative techniques for luxuriously knit lingerie using Merino wool. Her work at Chosenwoven represented a perfect amalgamation of her love of good design and engineering, blending nature with innovative knitting to create garments that are free of plastic, zero waste, totally luxurious, outperform synthetics, and are honestly better than cotton.

Building on this expertise, Kapustina now focuses her talents on her new venture, Elke Merino. Drawing from her lifelong commitment to the finest natural fibers—silk, wool, and linen—she continues to reimagine solutions to design without the use of fossil fuels, bringing her decades of experience in both luxury design and sustainable engineering to create exceptional Merino wool products that honor both craftsmanship and environmental responsibility.