If you’d told us a year ago that we’d be navigating fabric markets in Asia with a baby in tow, taking business meetings while our six month old tried to make friends with mannequins, and somehow developing our first clothing collection somewhere between Malaysia, China and home, I probably would’ve told you that you were insane. But Alhamdulillah, that has pretty much been our life for the past six months.
It’s been exciting, chaotic, but definitely not as glamorous as it may have looked from the short snippets we've posted so far. There have been supplier meetings squeezed around nap times, fabric discussions with a baby climbing over one of us, and a lot of learning as we go.
Alongside running RĀHA and trying to survive parenthood for the first time, we’ve also been working on something we’ve wanted to do for a long time... drumroll... our first clothing line.
RĀHA started with hijabs, and hijabs will always be a huge part of the brand.
But somewhere between building a brand and also trying to find my own style through clothing... I kept running into the same problem.I was struggling to find genuinely good quality clothes that were simple, modest, petite friendly, comfortable and easy to wear, but still made me feel put together. The modest fashion market often felt either too dressy or just not quite my style, while the high street involved a lot of “this would be perfect if the sleeves were longer... or the neckline was higher... or I didn’t have to wear three layers underneath it."
So naturally, I thought: why not make my life even more chaotic and try to build the capsule wardrobe I was looking for myself? That’s really where the idea for RĀHA clothing started.
We didn’t want pieces that felt overly formal or needed loads of extra layering just to make them modest. We wanted clothes where modesty was considered from the start. Pieces that naturally worked with a hijab wardrobe, felt good to wear, and that you could reach for again and again. So, naturally, we decided the sensible thing to do while adjusting to life with a new baby was to start developing a clothing line... and to go and do it in person rather than remotely!
Great timing on our part :D
The whole process has definitely been a learning curve. Our quarter-zip top, for example, has gone through changes to the collar, sleeves, length and fit. We’ve had tops that looked good from the front but sat strangely at the back. We’ve gone back and forth over trouser pleats, waistbands, pockets and lengths. Even something that looks as simple as a long sleeve base layer has involved conversations about fabric weight, opacity, lining and how the neckline should sit.
There have been quite a few “this still isn’t right” moments.
But I think that has been one of the biggest lessons from the whole experience. Creating something simple is not always simple.
We’re still tweaking things, still sampling and still changing our minds. We could probably get things out sooner, but we would rather take a little longer and make sure we actually love what we launch.
Looking back, this whole chapter is probably something we’ll remember for a long time. The huge fabric markets, the pram naps, the nappy changes wherever we could manage them, meetings with a baby at the table, the samples that went wrong and the moments where something finally started to feel right.
There’s still a lot happening behind the scenes and we’re definitely still figuring parts of it out, but RĀHA is growing into something bigger than where we started.
We can’t wait to share more of it with you.