Haute designs
Manama : With a Bachelor’s degree in International Logistics Management from Bahrain Polytechnic, 26-year-old Hawra Al Qayem owns a clothing line. She is passionate about fashion, which ultimately led her start her own clothing line.
Hawra, who had a unique taste for fashion right from her childhood, was never satisfied with ready-made clothes available in the retail shops. Instead, she always altered and made modifications on the original designs to suit her taste. Her sense of fashion was always encouraged by her mother.
Hawra started her business, Harika Couture, three months ago. “Harika” is a Turkish word that means “wonderful”. Focusing on the branch image concept, she hopes to make her brand a fashion icon in the line of Abaya dresses.
Being in the early stage of developing her startup, she markets her designs through online. “I design my own abayas and always get the compliments. I thought it would be good to share my designs. So I started out with online-shopping channels, using social media, my mobile and car. I rely on online selling only at the moment, with an option of cash on delivery.
“These days, Instagram is considered one of the best online shopping channels, especially in this part of the world. It would be ungrateful if I deny the role of Instagram in expanding my business and spreading the word. I would like to advise everyone, who’s interested in establishing a new business online to manage their Instagram account and spend on ads until they slowly step a foot in the online market.”
She started her business idea with an urge to represent her taste in fashion. “Colours represent life, and dead things lose its colours. I wanted to create a fashion line where I can represent life through clothes,” she commented.
“In the volatile fashion industry, nothing stays as it is, even our taste for fashion. You can find yourself all of a sudden in the mood for something you never thought you would ever try. But no matter how our preferences keep changing, we can’t deny our identity,” she said.
“Abaya is a traditional piece of clothing, which is part of our identity, we can’t deny it even if it is outdated. Abaya couture is just an update for our tradition to make it suitable for every occasion. People now are more open to new ideas, colours and styles, away from the typical-all-black Abayas which had,” Hawra remarked. On the challenges she had in her business as a women entrepreneur, Hawra recollects: “Being a women, it was very challenging to start a business without any support. But I made up my mind to face it bravely, which later proved to be a success within everyone’s merit. A goal-oriented approach with persistence can make every idea to be a success story.”
Currently, she is busy with introducing her summer designs and preparing for an autumn collection. Hawra’s business is now spreading across all the Gulf countries.
She also plans to have a chain of fashion houses, which provides more lines to cover all ladies needs in fashion.
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