Designer Zulfikar Ali has launched his very own AZA Design Studios and Facing India label, an investment worth more than $250,000. Mr Ali said AZA collection was his personal passion and design, which he officially launched in 2014.
“This first show, initially I did was in 2012 but like on a commercial level, we launched it in 2014,” he said.
“And at that time, I was working for Tappoo group, and it was launched there and it was exclusively available at Tappoos.
“But when I resigned from Tappoos in 2019, it was out of the market and obviously in 2020 COVID happened and all.”
Mr Ali said he had to hold production of his collection for a while as he couldn’t travel to India where his garments were produced.
“Unfortunately, even for this collection that I’ve done, I couldn’t travel but over the years I tried to develop a collection through video calling and on WhatsApp and Viber calls. And that’s how I developed that small range.”
The Facing India was also going to be the in-house brand that was introduced during the launch of the studio on Thursday March 31.
“That’s not something that I’ve designed but this Facing India is a collection that I’ve sourced all over India.
“Majority of the stocks that you’ll see in the store will be Facing India,” he said.
AZA collection had a niche client which Mr Ali wants to focus on.
However the studio was described as a whole family shopping space with garments available for men, women and children ranging from casual wear, semi-formal to formals.
He said they even had the complete costume jewellery, being a one stop shop for Indian attire shopping.
With the AZA collection coming back into the market Mr Ali said he would also be showing a few new pieces at the Fiji Fashion Week show this year as well.
Mr Ali said the most common thing with Indian outfits were the bling which he tried to avoid in his designs. “What makes my garment special I guess, is the fabric and the quality.
“I don’t compromise on quality and finish and I don’t use any synthetic fabrics.
“So I will use all pure fabrics just for the comfort basically.”
He said people who knew about quality and fabric would go for his products. Mr Ali said there were five staff members at the studio including him.
Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Rosy Akbar, while opening the studio, said any business just doesn’t start overnight and that she had a lot of respect for hardworking entrepreneurs.
“The fashion industry has a very special place in not only our country but everywhere else.
“But let me tell you, the world out there is slowly recovering and bouncing back to its feet. And I’m sure with that fashion is going to bounce back.” She said they were not expecting Mr Ali to fill the market with cheap, poor quality clothing.
“We look forward for the same quality and fashionable design, which the Fijian women and men too will get to see very shortly.
“But I must thank you all for bringing Fiji back to where we are helping us get back to normalcy adhering to COVID protocols. I know it was not easy on families and businesses as well.
“So you have had the courage to start at something in this time,” she said. Mr Akbar highlighted that this COVID situation had given rise to a lot of home and online businesses.
“Things that we’ve never thought about, home businesses, online businesses, and we all were trying to struggle in one way or the other just to put food on the table.
“But thank God things are normalising and our hope is that with an easing of restrictions with easing of travel etc, the world borders opening up and our borders opening up we will go back to what we had before COVID,” she added.
