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By profession she is a full-time employee at an oil marketing company. She has an MBA to her credit, and is also an honoured gold medallist in her field. Her passion for creation and art comes from her family, and even without any formal training in any field of art, she has managed to focus her creativity and channel it into creating beautiful bags. She has always been artistically inclined and has tried her hand at almost everything related to art, be it charcoal sketching or something as complicated as table-making. She finally settled on designing bags and purses or rather accessories because she doesn’t plan to stop at just bags.
Sana started GUZEL, her exclusive range of bags, in 2006. Her initial motive was to clear her head of creative inspirations by designing them. She put together all her ideas into something tangible and ended up with a business. “I stitched my very first handbag with my own Singer machine at home. I showed it to a couple of friends and, just like that, I made my very first sale! Not only did I sell it, I also got orders for more. That’s how, order after order, I kept stitching bags at home and started a small business. Now MashAllah since it has grown, I don’t stitch them at home anymore, I have an excellent group of very skilled karigars for that,” says Sana.
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She feels that managing a business with home life is very difficult. “Sometimes everything seems to be going smoothly, and sometimes everything keeps falling apart. However, the credit of my success in business and family juggling goes strictly to my husband.”
The materials Sana focused on during her first collection included silks and suede with sequins and embroidery. For her new collection she plans on using a mix of Rexine and silk. Her product range includes handbags, purses, clutches, pouches and mobile covers. The label GUZEL carries bags for girls and women who are young at heart and open to products that have a mix of culture along with contemporary styling. Sana’s major clientele varies between the age of 16 and 35 and she designs on orders as well.
Her inspiration for her work does not stem from one place, so she is not sure who exactly has been the inspiration. “I have always wanted to create something of my own that people can carry or rather ‘show and tell’ to their friends. I can easily say that pretty much every successful designer who has produced unconventional designs has left an impression on me. My mother and husband have helped me immensely to put this desire into practicality.”
Her plans for the future are to first build on what she has in hand, and once she feels that she has perfected her work, she will try and expand her range. At present, Sana does not have an outlet of her own. Initially, she was working from home. But now with the ever-growing demand and popularity of her bags, she focuses more on displaying them in exhibitions. Her first highly successful exhibition was at a Café Coffee Day in Zamzama, Karachi.
Sana has a small group of talented karigars who work for her. She briefs them about the design and then works along with them for the creation of the prototype. She is solely responsible for the designing, colour selection and embellishments of her bags. Through such stringent methods she is able to maintain her high standards of both design and quality.
According to Sana, the latest in bags for the upcoming season are casual, big, sturdy bags that have lots of capacity. In formals, the trend is more towards clutches in bold colours—something that makes a statement. Her advice to anyone who wants to venture into bag designing is that they have to be able to bring something new to the table and that is one sure way that you are bound to hit it big. v
By appointment only. House no. 47/ III, 17th Lane, Phase 7, D.H.A., Karachi.
Ph: 0333-3991046. |
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