Thursday, October 28, 2004
Threading her way to the top
W@W meets designer Sonali White
By Damitha Hemachandra
Ever stopped to admire some of the glittering kurtha tops at certain leading fashion stores? Meet the face behind the glitter-Sonali White the owner and designer of ‘Haddai’, a leading fashion label in town.
After having taken a ‘U’ turn from her insurance career in Dubai, Sonali had been a fashion designer for the past six years and can’t think of a life without it!
“ After working nearly two and half years as a re-insurance executive for a London based firm in Dubai, I took up fashion designing as a past time on my arrival in Sri Lanka,” Sonali explained.
“ My first designs were for family and friends,” she said adding that she started her business since most of her early designs were met with much enthusiasm.
The first steps of ‘Haddai’ was taken with just two helping hands but it had evolved into a high flying business with 30 permanent staff and ten casuals just after six years.
Most of the ‘Haddai’ products are western dresses with an eastern touch, carrying hand embroidery; beads and glittering sequences attracting customers aged 15 to 35 years.
“ We are doing all the work in house from pattern designing, cutting, stitching to value additions like embroidery and beading,” she said.
Moreover her efforts to fuse local taste to western patterns could be seen in oriental embroidery patterns, batik and beading found in most of her designs.
‘Haddai’ caters to some of the leading fashion outlets in town, but also serves individual orders to suit personal designs, tastes and characteristics- even bridal dresses.
Yet ‘Haddai’ caters to so much more. She was responsible for the dresses of the recently staged much loved theatrical R&J (Romeo and Juliet) and had been designing and producing dresses for Theatre productions by Elizabeth Moir School.
Talking more of her work Sonali insists that fashion designing is not glamorous or glittering as it seems.
“ It is a 24/7 job and being a perfectionist I find my self giving more and more into work,” Sonali said.
“ Fashion designing is a roller coaster journey with lot of dead lines and demands and includes lot of effort and team work, never boring and dull, which could also be addictive sometime”.
So what attracted her to this exciting but hectic profession?
“ I have always being a fashion lover and had loved clothes,” Sonali said adding that a good cloth for her should have a good cut, of quality material, simple and elegant.
“ And I always liked arts and wanted to do something to do with art and drawing,”- and fashion designing suited her needs perfectly!
Talking of immediate and future plans of ‘Haddai’, Sonali explained how the ‘Haddai’ team is gearing up for the ‘Colombo Fashion Week’, which is to be held next month and another Asian regional fashion festival including many South Asian and Asia Pacific countries.
However expansion of ‘Haddai’ as a brand and a brand chain too is in the mind of enterprising Sonali, who wants to introduce a new clothes line for men, initiate a brand shop for ‘Haddai’ and introduce ‘Haddai’ to international markets.
“We used to export many ‘Haddai’ products to Dubai, Australia and Canada,” but gave up since we couldn’t keep up with the demand,” Sonali said adding that her main aim however is to improve more on the creativity and quality of Haddai products.
Any future plans for her self?
“ I wish I had more time for my self to relax, chill out with my friends, travel and learn new things, but at the moment this is all I want to do”.
By Damitha Hemachandra
Ever stopped to admire some of the glittering kurtha tops at certain leading fashion stores? Meet the face behind the glitter-Sonali White the owner and designer of ‘Haddai’, a leading fashion label in town.
After having taken a ‘U’ turn from her insurance career in Dubai, Sonali had been a fashion designer for the past six years and can’t think of a life without it!
“ After working nearly two and half years as a re-insurance executive for a London based firm in Dubai, I took up fashion designing as a past time on my arrival in Sri Lanka,” Sonali explained.
“ My first designs were for family and friends,” she said adding that she started her business since most of her early designs were met with much enthusiasm.
The first steps of ‘Haddai’ was taken with just two helping hands but it had evolved into a high flying business with 30 permanent staff and ten casuals just after six years.
Most of the ‘Haddai’ products are western dresses with an eastern touch, carrying hand embroidery; beads and glittering sequences attracting customers aged 15 to 35 years.
“ We are doing all the work in house from pattern designing, cutting, stitching to value additions like embroidery and beading,” she said.
Moreover her efforts to fuse local taste to western patterns could be seen in oriental embroidery patterns, batik and beading found in most of her designs.
‘Haddai’ caters to some of the leading fashion outlets in town, but also serves individual orders to suit personal designs, tastes and characteristics- even bridal dresses.
Yet ‘Haddai’ caters to so much more. She was responsible for the dresses of the recently staged much loved theatrical R&J (Romeo and Juliet) and had been designing and producing dresses for Theatre productions by Elizabeth Moir School.
Talking more of her work Sonali insists that fashion designing is not glamorous or glittering as it seems.
“ It is a 24/7 job and being a perfectionist I find my self giving more and more into work,” Sonali said.
“ Fashion designing is a roller coaster journey with lot of dead lines and demands and includes lot of effort and team work, never boring and dull, which could also be addictive sometime”.
So what attracted her to this exciting but hectic profession?
“ I have always being a fashion lover and had loved clothes,” Sonali said adding that a good cloth for her should have a good cut, of quality material, simple and elegant.
“ And I always liked arts and wanted to do something to do with art and drawing,”- and fashion designing suited her needs perfectly!
Talking of immediate and future plans of ‘Haddai’, Sonali explained how the ‘Haddai’ team is gearing up for the ‘Colombo Fashion Week’, which is to be held next month and another Asian regional fashion festival including many South Asian and Asia Pacific countries.
However expansion of ‘Haddai’ as a brand and a brand chain too is in the mind of enterprising Sonali, who wants to introduce a new clothes line for men, initiate a brand shop for ‘Haddai’ and introduce ‘Haddai’ to international markets.
“We used to export many ‘Haddai’ products to Dubai, Australia and Canada,” but gave up since we couldn’t keep up with the demand,” Sonali said adding that her main aim however is to improve more on the creativity and quality of Haddai products.
Any future plans for her self?
“ I wish I had more time for my self to relax, chill out with my friends, travel and learn new things, but at the moment this is all I want to do”.
