THE FOUNDER
Bojana Sentaler was born in Belgrade, Serbia and moved to Toronto at the age of eight. From an early age she developed a keen attention to detail and had a natural eye for beauty and aesthetic. Bojana spent much of her youth sketching fashion designs in her free time.
While she dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, her strengths in school were always math and science. During her teen years she developed great leadership skills and a love for business, and therefore chose to pursue a degree at the prestigious Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, with a specialization in marketing and finance. After graduating University, Bojana quickly joined the corporate world with a Fortune 500 beauty company, where soon after, she felt she was unable to utilize her highest potential and creativity in such a structured environment. A lesson learned early in life to trust her intuition, Bojana’s entrepreneurial spirit led her to the decision to leave the corporate world, take a risk, and explore her true passion.
In 2008, Bojana relocated to Dubai, where she worked on economic investment reports on emerging markets focused on the MENA (Middle East Northern Africa) region. Along with interviewing many prominent businessmen and women and government figures, Bojana’s most memorable interview was with the late fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld, who at the time was designing villas in Dubai. This chance encounter with Lagerfeld changed the trajectory of her career as he inspired her to pursue her true passion, a career in fashion. However, at the time she did not know whether or not that would come to life.
At the beginning of 2009, by chance, Bojana traveled to Peru where she soon discovered the scarce and natural alpaca fabric and all its beautiful qualities. Bojana spent months living in Peru researching different types of alpaca, the number of microns contained in each fabric and its finesse. She fell in love with the exceptionally soft hand-feel, its natural thermal insulating features, that alpaca is lightweight yet exceptionally warm, the sustainable way of obtaining the fabric, and the utmost respect and care towards the alpaca animals, who are considered sacred in Peruvian culture. Inspired by the diverse vibrancy and beauty of her journey’s, Bojana identified a gap in the North American market for coats that were beautiful and fashionable, but at the same time warm and functional.
In 2009 Bojana created her first collection of 7 dream coats. These were coats that she designed for herself; coats that she could not find on the market. She brought these 7 coats back to Canada, and established the luxury outerwear brand, SENTALER. The purpose of her company was simple: she wanted to make people feel good, and she wanted women to feel beautiful. To this day, SENTALER continues to serve that purpose.
Now, 15 years later, the SENTALER Canadian luxury outerwear brand is recognized as a leader in the fashion industry with products offered at major luxury retailers around the world. Many of the world’s most influential women and men continue to appear organically in SENTALER coats including the Royals, A-List Hollywood actors, supermodels and professional athletes.
Since its inception, all SENTALER products continue to be proudly sustainable, ethically sourced, cruelty-free, and the company continues to serve many charitable and environmental initiatives that give back to the community and the planet.