On the road to pursuing her passion

Designer novice Natalia Naveed on bagging laurels with eponymous label on both sides of the border

ISLAMABAD: Natalia Naveed worked with Generation for five years before she decided to launch her namesake label in May this year. Over a short span of time, she has already exhibited in India, collaborated with US-based retailer Victoria Road and is showcasing at multi-brand atelier Le Vogue in Lahore. As she works on her first Autumn/Winter 2015-16 collection for Victoria Road, we talk to her about how she managed to bag laurels in her nascent designing career.

A tomboy as a child and a national-level football player, Natalia shocked her friends when she set foot in the world of fashion. “Being a tomboy, I wasn’t expressive or demonstrative about my love for designing clothes, thinking everyone would make fun of me for being girly,” she shared. “So, while I spent my days at school and college in the basketball court, I’d take out time at home to secretly sketch clothes for imaginary people.”

Natalia ultimately decided to pursue a career in fashion. “After completing my Bachelors, I declined all job offers related to my major and started applying to fashion houses instead. As expected, nobody responded because my resume had no relevant academic or professional experience in any art-related field, let alone fashion designing. I had no way of showing them how badly I wanted this,” she stated.



But her persistence finally landed her a job with Generation. “When I started off, I was being paid half of what a graduate of NCA or PIFD would earn. Generation taught me everything about textile, pattern-making and surface-designing,” said Natalia. She was eventually promoted to the post of team head for two of Generation’s key lines, Generation Woman and Generation Basic, and went on to train designers from different fashion schools.

Read: Misha Lakhani opens doors to Lahore

With sufficient work experience under her belt, Natalia launched her brand shortly thereafter. Her brand’s debut collection featured luxury prêt, including western-wear and semi-formals. Natalia’s designs comprise digital prints and multi-head embroideries, both of which are rare among small-scale designers. As for Victoria Road, she joined forces with the brand when its co-founder and CEO Shannon got in touch with her and eventually flew to Pakistan to meet her.

She has designed digital-printed and embroidered kimonos, wraps, palazzo pants and gowns, which boast neat cuts.  “I had difficulty finding vendors who’d be willing to cooperate with a new start-up, producing at such low quantities,” she said of the glitches she faced in the process. Managing labour and vendors, meeting deadlines in the midst of load-shedding and overseeing assigned tasks are the challenges she faced initially. She explained how juggling between the creative, financial and marketing aspects of the business get tedious to manage single-handedly. “But appreciation and feedback from my customers makes everything worth it every day.” shared Natalia. Of her success mantra, she revealed, “I think my tattoo sums that up. She slept with wolves without fear, for the wolves knew a lion was among them.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2015.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.