Why I started a fashion brand…
As a young girl, I had always loved fashion and outfits. Fashion is a reflection of who you are on the inside, how you feel on the inside and who you aspire to be. I would dress my Bratz dolls multiple times and give them clothing changes every hour, giving me a chance to express my creativity. When I reached secondary school, Textiles class was my paradise. Sewing machines, fabric, knitting — that wasn’t class, that was playtime to me. An arena that I was naturally gifted in. And so it was a no brainer to choose the subject as a GCSE where I was able to choose a brief and do all my market research before designing, pattern cutting and sewing together my first playsuit all with excellent grades to back it up.
However I put down my love for fashion for 6 years as I didn’t know or see anyone in my vicinity pursuing a profitable or financially stable career in fashion and so I took the safe route of taking science subjects but my love for fashion had still remained live and kicking. I would always be inspired by what my favourite TV stars and music artists were wearing and try to find similar items in stores like Forever 21 and H&M at an affordable price for my pocket money budget.
And although I shopped at these brands, I always ensured to choose well, to be intentional with what I bought so that it would last me longer, get more wears out of it and be more versatile but I still wanted to be cute. I carried this mentality with me all the way to university, where I would still be frugal with my clothes budget and not splurge on clothes every time a new trend emerged, but buy clothes that would transcend seasons and years and have some degree of good quality — I have had one of my Zara coats for almost 5 years and I still wear it every winter.
It will always be important to me to look good, because when you look good, you feel good and when you feel good you do good. I would come into my lectures looking all made up, and my peers would ask me where am I going, but the truth is, I wanted to look good for myself, and I felt like a boss going to conquer my degree. I believe everyone should feel good and confident in the clothes they wear.
It will always be important to me to look good, because when you look good, you feel good and when you feel good you do good.
Two-thirds through my degree I had learned that I wanted to start a business and be more intentional about my purpose and career because life is too short to be doing a job you hate just for the money. I knew I wanted to start an e-commerce business — there was something that I loved so much about digital shopping experiences and UX website design and when you receive your parcel in the post but I wasn’t sure what business to start. Then one day in the middle of March 2020, a couple of days before the first national lockdown began, it dawned on me to start a fashion brand. It was like the penny had dropped and my passions that had remained dormant for 6 years had come back to life again.
After completing my Biochemistry degree, I started doing so much reading into the fashion industry, improving my skills, finding a fashion internship, joining fashion career networks and founder groups, reading publications — I did it all and immersed myself into the industry so that I could find myself in it and the problem that I could solve because there are always people to serve. At first my brand was an activewear brand — based on my love for fashion and fitness. I have always been multi-faceted and I wanted to celebrate that and other women who are also multi-faceted. But as time went by, my vision expanded into a womenswear brand for multi-faceted women, and my brand name reflects that. My favourite day of the week and the day when you are most likely to work hard, play hard and train hard. The brand reflects multi-faceted women who want to look good, who want an alternative to fast fashion for all aspects of their lifestyle, quality items that transcend seasons, but still want to be, feel and look, confident, sexy and sophisticated. I looked at slow fashion brands that already existed, but I couldn’t see myself or my personality in any of them, and so this is for the multi-faceted women who don’t see themselves seen yet either.
