Chambeili
I have been in the Asian, retail industry for over 8 years now, I currently make bespoke wedding and party dresses in silk fabrics for clients which are all designed in the UK and handcrafted and embroidered in Pakistan. We also do alterations for clients and upcycling.
I want to go more into doing alterations of wedding dresses and party dresses as a business model especially offering services to businesses and clients. In addition, there is also much scope for up-cycling of outfits especially since many people have only worn them once or twice but with the current climate this would be a very cost-effective method of recycling your clothes and make more use out of them. I am therefore wanting to look into seeing if we can do some light weight embroideries here in the UK, or even order in pre-made embroideries on fabrics which we could then applique on outfits here in the UK.
I have a great knowledge of fabrics and textiles and also advise on different embroidery techniques. I love creating outfits for customers that are versatile, as I just designed a bridal dress for my cousin and had separate trousers done with these which she can wear on another occasion as the original outfit was a short dress with a skirt. The idea is to make the consumer think more carefully about purchases, so making their money go along way, we can create 3 outfits from one bridal outfit.
I also love designing and creating jewellery to match with the outfits, as jewellery has been a passion of mine for many years and I had a small jewellery business, mainly dealing with semi-precious stones and silver, I now deal with gold plating and more Pakistani style jewellery to match with the outfits.
- Listing ID: 1810
- Contact: Fozia Quaddus
- What are your aspirations and plans for the future?: I am applying for a grant from LEP at the moment as my business has been affected by COVID. I used to run a retail shop and now I am in a small unit in a business centre where I take appointments from clients. I now want to set up a made to measure service, an alteration service for local businesses and also an up-cycling service for customers. I would like to have an online form where people can send us their outfits and tell us what they would like us to do with them and we can arrange a video call with them for a consultation. In terms of the made to measure I would also like to take video appointments with clients to discuss their needs for the type of outfit they would like us to make for them, this would be mainly bridal and party wear. I would like to do affordable off the rack bridals, we can have the embroideries done from Pakistan and they can come semi-stitched so that we can have the client in for a fitting and then complete the outfit in the UK for them. In addition, I would like to co-ordinate ornate jewellery pieces to match. It would be good to offer these services also as virtual services with all the issues with lockdown. We can’t always rely on international suppliers so the idea is to create a more sustainable business model which we have control over manufacturing of the finished product.
- What types of projects are you interested in working on through Future Fashion Factory?: Based on the above I would open for suggestions to see how the FFF can help my business and the ideas that I have, or they can support me or guide me in the direction that I can set up the alteration and upcycling services. We want to try create a more sustainable fashion business and try and do things here in the UK as much as we can. If there is any funding/mentoring that we could also apply for to set this up that would also really help us.