First of all, meet my humble self, hehe. The face behind the brand "Amie Couture".
I have been a fashion designer for the past 5 years and the journey has been amazing.
I learned fashion design for three years I must say that fashion is sky-rocketing every day.
New styles, new trends, and new ways of making outfits keep showing up every day.
Do you move with the pace? Or do you still stick to the same methodologies you've always known?
While I was an apprentice, there weren't trends like corsets or bust caging.
The trends back then were just Princess dart, shoulder dart cut, the regular dart, and a very simple bustier blouse.
My boss will always tell me to explore my creativity and that she can't teach me everything๐, I only need the basics, and today I believe everything she said.
As a fashion designer, I've come to learn the importance of color blending, fabric sorting, and paying attention to details.
A style might look simple at a first glance, but trust me, if you don't pay attention you'd end up sewing the "What I ordered for vs what I got series" ๐๐.
It makes me wonder if I'm the only one who has got this deep-seated fear of not disappointing my client, this feeling was overwhelming when I became my boss.
I still remember one day, a friend referred a client to me, I stay in Lagos State in Nigeria and the client stayed in Oyo state, Nigeria.
My girlfriend must have hyped my sewing skills to this potential client, for her to be convinced I would be the perfect designer to make the outfit. Hehe
She was going to get hitched soon and so she wanted something nice for her pre-wedding shot.
To cut the story short, she came to my office and showed me the style she wanted to sew. Omo!, I was a bit scared, it's not like I couldn't sew it o, but I was just scared to handle such an expensive material for a memorable event too.
She warned me not to mess up her fabrics, or else she will deal with me.
Ha! I said to myself, "Amie you can do this!", I promised her that I was going to deliver, but in my mind of the mind, I said, " I pray oh".
I zoomed the picture she sent me hundred times just to be sure of the style, then started to figure out the best way to cut the cloth.
After cutting the cloth, I began to sew with half mind ๐๐๐, my mom was my motivator, she kept encouraging me that it was nice and it was the same as the one my client showed me.
Well, I fitted it on my mannequin, then I didn't have the full dummies, just the one without hands and hips, so the style didn't really look good on the dummy, so I wasn't still confident, I just told myself, it was only my client that will give me the feedback I needed.
A day before the date we fixed for the collection of the outfit, she called me, "Amie, is my outfit ready?", it was ready but I just said" Almost ready", I was just imagining different scenarios in my head, it's either she loves it or she gets angry, I hope this turn out well.
Finally, the day arrived to fit and collect the outfit, she didn't come alone, she came with two of her friends, "ha! I am dead today o if this doesn't turn out well!"
I just wore a smile, like I wasn't battling with myself, then I brought out the cloth, I was just focused to see her reaction.
Lo and behold, she wore the cloth and started to dance, "This is beautiful, Amie, she didn't want to take off the cloth.
That was when I took a breath of relief, " I did it", I said that silently and yeah, I started to feel myself.๐๐๐
That incident boosted my confidence level by about 20%, and from that day on, I was more confident to try out styles I've never made before.
This happened in 2021.
Here is the outfit o
These pictures were later sent to me by my client for promoting my work.
After the pre-wedding shot, she referred me to her sis-in-law, and I made their wedding outfits.
Here is the screenshot of our conversation.
I was glad I didn't disappoint my friend who referred me, she was glad too.
My ordeal led me to greater heights. If I was too scared to accept that job, I would have lost these beautiful clients and money of course.
So what do you fear? Were you able to conquer? Are you ready to face your fears?
Watch out for part 2๐๐๐
All images used are mine