Cultural Clothing Designs by Pooja

by Zeenat Umer
(Karachi)

Pooja's is a venture that creates cultural clothing designs and accessories with a range of products including hand-embroidered fabric, block prints and beautiful embellishments on garments for all ages.

Venture: Pooja's
Owners: Rekha Achria & Pooja Achria of Pooja’s
Location: Karachi, Pakistan

Cultural Clothing Designs by Pooja's-Interview

Q. What drives you?

A. Starting with a brief introduction to the creatively driven minds behind the brand 'Pooja’s' - The brand name is the brain child of Rekha Achria, my mother and having grown seeing creativity so up close it was only natural that I would follow in her footsteps to take forward a design philosophy that is true to its roots and traditions.

Coming back to the question- as to what drives/ inspires us to be so passionate about what we do is quite simple- it is the pure satisfaction of creating pieces from our imagination, drawing inspiration from natures simplicity and our present surrounding of constructive complexities to be our primary focus. Using and experimenting with different textures and the sense of balancing colour and design, we create pieces of art in the form of garments- it’s like a display of our work on people in the gallery of the world.

Q. How did you get here and how long have you been in this profession?

A. As mentioned earlier, my mother Rekha Achria started this venture when I was still a toddler. From the beginning it was a venture that started from home. Her roots originating from Thailand and having a degree in fashion and design from Japan furthered a naturally skilled entrepreneur she was intrigued by the culture, tradition and age-old crafts that she saw in Pakistan. Other than the love for beauty, what also fascinated her was how the Pakistani woman loved to adorn herself with colour and intricate details.

Q. What has been your vision and what do you most love about your work?

A. Our vision for our brand in the future is to take our brand to the next level which does not necessarily mean expansion we want to stay a brand that is synonymous with tradition and culture keeping the age-old art forms (such as hand block printing, thread embroideries, etc.) but yet we want to branch out into divisions of prêt wear as well as home textiles - staying true to the brands philosophy.

Q. What do you think is your biggest achievement throughout your professional journey?

A. Our biggest achievements are when our work is appreciated and the acknowledgements and the smiles on our customers faces are certainly the highlights in our journey.

Q. What are your current projects and what do you plan on doing in the near future?

A. Currently we are working on how we can be even more accessible to more women who want to stand out in a crowd and look apart and simultaneously also working on our website- let’s hope for the best to come.

Q. A word of advice you would like to pass on to other women struggling with their start-ups?

A. Word of advice or more like what we have learnt in our journey till today is- always have faith, never lose hope, stay persistent and persevere and yes hard work never goes wasted so keep working hard- the Creator has lots in store for all of us!

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