by Muazzam Khursheed
SRINAGAR: In south Delhi’s Shahpur Jat, Sartoriale—a designer studio—has emerged as the place for the Kashmiri brides to shop for their weddings.
Sartoriale started by Juwaria Sufi, a Presentation Convent student who moved to Italy with her family and pursued Masters in Fashion Design with a specialization in Product Development & Research from Carlo Secoli college.
The store has become a spot for shopping for Kashmiri brides where they get their customized bridal gowns made.
“When girls come from Kashmir to my studio for their bridal gowns and suddenly when they get to know that I am myself a Kashmiri, their response is so heart-warming. It just brightens my day that I can use knowledge and skills to help my people,” says Sufi smilingly.
She says her priority is to ensure that she offers the best service to her customers.
She says her studio gets the bridal gown completed in a comparatively short span of time in order to aid the Kashmiri customers.
Sufi’s love for fashion designing was brought to the fore at the fashion capital of the world, Milan where her father moved to set up his Kashmiri handicrafts business to tap the European market.
After her graduation, Sufi took a job at Gruppo Coin a fashion-based Italian Multi-National Company where she was deputed to work in their India office for two years. She says that phase in India gave her real market experience.
However, she moved back outside India to work for a London-based Fashion Company, The East India, as a fashion assistant for one year.
“Some of the work we did there was also showcased during the Paris Fashion Week in 2016.
In 2017, Sufi decided to head back to India and do something of her own.
“I was now sure of the fact that I had gained enough expertise to start my own business.”
To start her own venture, Sufi rented a small shop which she converted into a boutique at Shahpur Jat, an area that has emerged to become an unconventional enclave – a home to designer studios.
“I decided to name it Sartoriale which means High end Customised Tailoring, and what we do is that we use Italian Fabrics with local Indian Embroidery and make custom-made couture gowns on which the artisans work, and do hand-crafted embroidery,” she says.
