By Naeema Hazoor
I am Naeema from Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. I belong to a middle-class family. I am a Textile Designer, Entrepreneur, Trainer, and Teacher. I am fun loving, caring, and love to go for outings with friends, and love meeting new people. My hobbies are to design and explore new things in arts and design. I have completed my graduation in Textile Design from Center of Excellence in Arts &Design (CEAD-Jamshoro) and completed master’s in design marketing& Merchandising from Asian institute of Fashion Design (AIFD-Karachi).
Nowadays I am teaching textile design at University of Sindh (Art & Design Institute, Textile Design Department-Jamshoro). Our rich culture and tradition motivated me to become a textile designer. I find so many traditional textile techniques in our country. Our artisans make it beautiful with their skills. I have always wanted to be a textile designer mainly because I love to design new products from traditional techniques. When I was young, I was always excited to design my own clothes and was inspired by beautiful prints. I was always fond of arts and designs so I pursued my education in one of the fields of arts which is textile design and the story begins for my brand; down the road I have always been thinking about how I can make a name in this competitive world.
I am making it a step ahead by my designs in the fashion world, NS – Naeema Soomro clothing is the brand for designing ready to wear and unstitched which is made from fabric of made in Pakistan. It is an online business which I established in October 2015. I started with an idea and an initial investment of PKR 13,000. I have faced many challenges when I have started this business including how to find a suitable human resource, workers, and platforms to display and sell products. Being awoman, I was also faced by many challenges, however, things began to progress smoothly. Today I have a good response to my products. It’s an online small home-based business on social media. I have launched my official website too; links are mentioned below. Website: www.naeemasoomro.pk,www.facebook.com/NaeemaSoomro.Clothing/, www.instagram.com/naeemasoomroclothing/.
In these five years I have participated in many exhibitions, 8 in Karachi and 2 in Hyderabad with different organizers like: ST Women’s Club, The Crafter’s Guild, Ladiesfund, The Orange Tree Foundation, and Womenza Pakistan. I have also got an opportunity for TV and radio shows with the help of Shaoor Foundation, Join Hands with N & H, and ST Women’s Club.
Today I have good response about my products and clothing business is going good on its way but no doubt every business takes time. In 2019 got the opportunity to be selected for advanced incubation 6 days training at Islamabad. I am the only woman selected from Sindh province. In this training my business was awarded for seed grant. It was such a great experience to be part of it. That was the Capacity Enhancement Leadership and Linkages Development Program for SMEs, a project of the Shaoor Foundation for Education and Awareness funded by the US State Department.
It was great to be part of the Launch of All Pakistan SME Network – Web Portal. The web portal aims to be a facilitator for the creation of public-private partnerships, a gateway to innovative and best practices for the support of SMEs and entrepreneurship. My business is one of them to get a chance for more opportunities on APSN.PK. My business has been selected to participate on the XPOSURE Startup Track at Startup Istanbul 2020, but unfortunately because of Covid’19 I can’t attend the event. This is an achievement for me and my business. My business is my passion and dream. I have struggled in my life to carry on my career in the design field. This transition was very tough and hard to live without a family. I have faced many traveling problems on local buses.
The biggest challenge for me was to live in a new city (Karachi) to actually get a job after graduating and overcoming the fear of going out alone, also gaining confidence over the time. The best personal development is to never quit if it’s hard because you get it when you go through the tough process of something in your life. I think life is a challenge, also a goal for me to push myself to do what I want to. life is not easy that I used to think about, but it’s easy when you make it easy. My dream, my passion and my vision to be successful in life inspires me to keep moving in life. In the end never let go your dreams fade away from your life. Keep your dreams alive. Understanding to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.
