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SHOP BAG
Hey everyone! I just wanted to check in and send my love to you all.
Here in the UK we are about to go into week 6 of lockdown and I know there are a lot of people at home right now feeling worried and anxious about their jobs, businesses and livelihoods. Also boredom is most probably creeping in for a lot of people.
So, I thought I would reach out to you all and share my story, in the hope it may calm or hopefully inspire you to try something new in this time we have.
8 years ago I was working for an events company. I liked it but I wouldn’t say that I LOVED it. Then one day the company closed down and I lost my job.
Now at this point in my life, I was nearly 30 years old, and I had realised that I had two options:
I could go and get another job in the same industry
OR
I could just stop for a while, take time out and spend some time thinking about what I actually wanted to do with my life.
When working in the events industry, I was always struggling with what to wear. I didn't want what everyone else was wearing on the high street as I wanted to be different but I couldn't afford £2000-£3000 designer labels. So I just thought to myself...it can’t be that hard to make a dress! Now I didn’t tell anyone about my crazy idea at the time, as I had absolutely no experience or education in designing and I actually couldn’t even draw!
I worked out I had enough savings to keep me going for about 4 months, so I decided to give it a go as I would only regret it if I didn’t at least try.
So that afternoon, I went to Argos and bought a sewing machine. When I got home I had no idea how to even thread a sewing machine, so I started watching YouTube videos so that I could learn.
From this point, I spent the next 2 months sat in my bedroom with the sewing machine on my left and my laptop on my right watching YouTube, learning all the different stitch types and how to put a garment together.
I decided not to tell anyone what I was doing or what my ideas were as I was worried that they would laugh or tell me that I couldn’t do it.
I could see in my head what I wanted the dress to look like, but when I tried to draw it, it never looked the same. So my only option was to teach myself how to create the dresses I envisioned.
During this learning period in my bedroom I had found a pop-up shop where you could hire a rail for a month. I needed 20 dresses to fill the rail so over the next month I set myself the target to create these 20 bespoke dresses in time for the pop-up.
Now I will be honest with you, I only managed to create 18 dresses in time and what's worse is none of them had a zip (as I had not mastered zips yet!) BUT within a couple of weeks I had sold all of the dresses and I had already started creating more designs.
I realised that people just wanted something different, unique and affordable. And I had such a passion and drive to create this and make women feel amazing about themselves wearing my designs.
So this is how MERABI started and I am so proud of where we are today. I guess I just wanted to share this with you all, in case anyone else was feeling a little low or bored. Or incase anyone else had an idea or a dream, my advice would be:
Don’t be scared or afraid to try it.
It doesn’t matter how OLD you are! Young or old! I was nearly thirty when I started.
You don’t need to have experience or a qualification. You need an idea, a passion and belief in yourself.
Don’t ever let anyone put you off or tell you that you can’t do something. If you need to then just keep it as your project and your secret until you have your plan together.
I hope this has helped!
If anyone wants to talk through their ideas or dreams, it doesn’t have to be in fashion, then please do reach out over Instagram or email and I would love to help and support you in your dreams if I can. .
This month we speak to Gina Swire, Self Love expert, mentor and manifesting queen. We believe a Power Woman is someone that tries to lift others up and that's exactly what Gina does! On an incredible mission and with an amazing story she inspires us and makes us really consider what's important. With a year like 2020 we think it's so important to reflect and make positive changes, so we hope introducing you to Gina and the amazing work she does will help that.
My mission is to help one billion women fall madly in love with themselves and to get what they want out of life. It’s not about belittling men at all but lifting women up to be equal within the patriarchal society that we live in. It’s about empowering women and lifting them up.
I’ll start by telling you what self love is NOT, self love is not self care. Self love is not just bubble baths and saying “I love my body.” Self love is what comes before self care. Acts of self care like going to the gym, eating well, filling out a gratitude journal, they all take will power, unless you have self love, when you have self love you work on your inner layer and these things just happen. There’s an identity shift after the blocks are removed which stand in the way of love.
Not at all, I grew up in a family and in a school where people would say “She loves herself” like it’s a negative. I was a plus size model for 14 years and felt constantly in flux, I wanted to be skinny but the agencies wanted me to be bigger, it really messed with my self worth, I felt like I wasn’t good enough as I was and I had a mean inner voice constantly telling me that I wasn’t enough.
In modelling it’s like living in a microcosm of a macrocosm of what happens to all women. We blame ourselves for everything, if clothes don’t fit, if a relationship doesn’t work out. We’re constantly telling ourselves that we should be skinnier or curvier.
I was studying nutrition while working in NYC and I was always really busy - working, partying, everything. It got to a point where I was numbing myself with alcohol and just by keeping busy all the time and working to please other people so I thought enough is enough. I quit it all, I quit modelling, I quit friendships that weren’t right for me and I quit dating. I became celibate and vegan and cleared out space in my life for something different. I got the signs from the universe -I don’t need to change. It’s profound but so simple and that’s what I teach to my ladies now.
Not at all, I grew up in a family and in a school where people would say “She loves herself” like it’s a negative. I was a plus size model for 14 years and felt constantly in flux, I wanted to be skinny but the agencies wanted me to be bigger, it really messed with my self worth, I felt like I wasn’t good enough as I was and I had a mean inner voice constantly telling me that I wasn’t enough.
In modelling it’s like living in a microcosm of a macrocosm of what happens to all women. We blame ourselves for everything, if clothes don’t fit, if a relationship doesn’t work out. We’re constantly telling ourselves that we should be skinnier or curvier.
I was studying nutrition while working in NYC and I was always really busy - working, partying, everything. It got to a point where I was numbing myself with alcohol and just by keeping busy all the time and working to please other people so I thought enough is enough. I quit it all, I quit modelling, I quit friendships that weren’t right for me and I quit dating. I became celibate and vegan and cleared out space in my life for something different. I got the signs from the universe -I don’t need to change. It’s profound but so simple and that’s what I teach to my ladies now.
Power Women are women
Not at all, I grew up in a family and in a school where people would say “She loves herself” like it’s a negative. I was a plus size model for 14 years and felt constantly in flux, I wanted to be skinny but the agencies wanted me to be bigger, it really messed with my self worth, I felt like I wasn’t good enough as I was and I had a mean inner voice constantly telling me that I wasn’t enough. In modelling it’s like living in a microcosm of a macrocosm of what happens to all women. We blame ourselves for everything, if clothes don’t fit, if a relationship doesn’t work out. We’re constantly telling ourselves that we should be skinnier or curvier. I was studying nutrition while working in NYC and I was always really busy - working, partying, everything. It got to a point where I was numbing myself with alcohol and just by keeping busy all the time and working to please other people so I thought enough is enough. I quit it all, I quit modelling, I quit friendships that weren’t right for me and I quit dating. I became celibate and vegan and cleared out space in my life for something different. I got the signs from the universe -I don’t need to change. It’s profound but so simple and that’s what I teach to my ladies now.
