Setting trends a stitch at a time

This self-taught designer is determined to set fashion trends instead of following them.

The love of beauty, creativity, and gratitude towards God led Edie Odette Tumwesigye on a journey to designing fashionable outfits. First, because the lord blessed her with creativity and beauty because it inspires her designs.

In her two-roomed rental, Tumwesigye busies herself every day, on a sewing machine. Besides her machine is a book full of hand-drawn designs.

How she does it
“I draw designs in books, on papers, I keep this book besides my pillow so when I wake up at night I don’t forget the designs I dream about,” the self-taught designer says as she moves her feet up and down, to run her machine.

With her designs Tumwesigye believes she is setting trends. “I believe I set trends. I don’t wait for what is in vogue to create designs. I make designs that become a trend,” she explains as she runs me through a variety of dresses, all of different designs.

The 27-year-old works with African prints, chiffon, silk, satin, organza, textron and lace.
“I like these because they are light materials that are best for the Ugandan weather, and they feel comfortable on the skin,” she explains from her Luzira-based work station, along Port Bell Road near the Post Office branch there.

Tumwesigye says the material she will use for a particular attire is mainly determined by comfort, and the need to make someone stand out wherever they go. She also factors in the colours.

Running her business
The young designer buys her materials from shops in town and also has friends who send her materials from London, and the USA, on request. She says, “The prices range between Shs10,000 and Shs50,000 a metre.”

To minimise costs, “I do all this work by myself,” she says. Her life revolves around her business. She makes designs and sometimes showcases in the night. Her creativity comes through in her different work but more prominently in her wedding gowns. Tumwesigye, however, stresses that wedding dresses take a lot of time to design and make, because customers are different and will want their wedding dresses to look unique.

“I will have to make something that will work well with the body of the bride. Some are petite while others are big,” she explains.The biggest order she has handled has been of 24 maids’ dresses. “It was a little overwhelming but I had to manage because whenever you deliver on time, that particular customer will recommend you to someone else. All the dresses came out beautifully and the clients were impressed and gave good feedback,” she explains about that particular order.

How long it takes to make a dress
Tumwesigye says, depending on the details of the wedding gown, she can make a simple design in a day, but for one which requires unique aspects like beading, she can spend a week working on it.
She also makes dresses for party-goers. “For party dresses I can use any material but I keep elegance and beauty as the main pointers,” she says.

“For the little ones I try to make loose-fitting clothes, mostly weekend outfits in which they can freely play and summersault. Cotton is the best for these outfits,” she says.

Pricing of her clothes depends on the details required by the clients and of course the time she takes making the designs. “An average price for dresses is Shs30,000 though I have outfits that cost as much as Shs800,000, for office wear, jumpsuits or overalls, maids dresses, bridal outfits, evening gowns,” she shares about her prices.

Client list
Her main clients are young and elderly women. She says it is a fallacy that women are better consumers of fashion designs. “I get plenty of gentlemen who buy clothes for their mothers, girlfriends, wives and women carrying their babies. Because they know how they want to see their ladies dressed, it is easy for them to make the orders,” she explains.

On average, Tumwesigye makes close to Shs1m in a month depending on if she has bridal gowns or maids’ dresses to make. Her biggest loss has been leaving textron material worth Shs20,000 in a taxi because she had slept off and when she was woken up, she just got out of the taxi and completely forgot to pick the material.

For fellow young desigers
She has some advice to fellow upcoming designers: “Please record every design you make and have a positive attitude even when you have not had even a customer walk in your shop for a day.” Tumwesigye says what makes a good fashion designer is being self inspired. The fifth of eight children, she started fashion designing at the age of 20, teaching herself how to tailor from her mother’s machine using her background as an artist.

Even as a novice her drive was to design fashions that created beauty around her. “I did not want to be employed by anybody else, I did not want limitations in my career. Being the creative director of my talent has been very rewarding as opposed to working for someone,” she says, her face lighting up with a smile of satisfaction. Tumwesigye’s day starts at 5.30am when she wakes up and goes for a jog. She gets ready to work by 9am. “If there is anything I need to get in town I go there and make sure I am back at my workshop by lunch time to avoid the rush hour, and then leave around 6pm.”

rbatte@ug.nationmedia.com