Winner of Futur Adlib 2022 and co-founder of her brand FATMA OMAROVA; the new and upcoming haute couture designer Fatma, welcomes us into her Atelier in Barcelona, Spain.
Carefully curated and designed, her atelier resembles that of a calm and creativity-flowing workspace, where her team works passionately to complete the upcoming pieces of this new Autumn/Winter 2023 season. The whole studio is peppered with personal touches and yet maintains an air of luxury and commodity, perfect to work in or simply admire for those passing through.
As we set up, she confesses that she is nervous about talking in front of a camera and that she hopes to be able to make the brand that she has worked so hard to create justice.
We sit around a brown leather-bound sofa, as her two cats Serkan and Muishka (the former admittedly being the size of your average medium-sized dog) watch us lazily from their plush beds. As we settle in, we begin our interview wanting to know more about who she is, and how she came to undertake the career of a luxury fashion designer.
Fatma Omarova was born in 1992, in the small Republic of Dagestan, she tells us how she began dreaming of becoming a bespoke fashion designer.
“It was my grandmother that nurtured my interest in fashion. We used to go to her friends’ sewing workshop and pick out fabric for my doll’s clothes.” The doll, she explains, was inherited from her mother, and she recalls that it was “the best, biggest, and prettiest doll” in the playground. “We would dress her in the clothes that my grandmother and I would sew, and all the girls were jealous of how beautiful she was.” Fatma smiles fondly at the memory of her childhood, savoring the simplicity of childhood happiness.
Later on in her life,-she tells us- as a young adult, Fatma would create her own clothes “often staying up all night to sew” to make sure she could show off her latest creation in her lectures at university. “At that point in my life I never really had proper fashion design training. I went to university and studied a completely different course, but I remember I would come up with ideas for clothes in my mind and I would just need to make them, so I would often spend hours working on a design that popped into my head that same day, just so I could wear it the next.” Fatma recalls. She tells us that it was during the 2020 pandemic that she chose to make a career out of her interest in fashion design. Fatma had just moved to Spain with her partner and was starting a new life on the European continent.
“I had always seen fashion design as a hobby, but as the pandemic struck with its full force, I -much like the rest of the whole world- was stuck at home, where I began to create non-stop. I signed up for classes at the EiAD School in Barcelona where I studied Design, Pattern, and Sewing as well as Haute-Couture.”
“One day, during my first year, my teacher pulled me aside and asked me if I wanted to be part of Futur Adlib 2022.” Futur Adlib is a competition held in Ibiza where the most promising young designers residing in Spain compete for the winning title. Only 6 finalists get chosen to take their designs onto the elegant runway of one of Ibiza’s most recognised fashion competitions.
“I remember asking my teacher at EiAD Barcelona if there would be anyone else competing from our school- to which she simply responded that she had “full confidence in me and that there was no need for anyone else to compete.”
Fatma tells us about the months leading up to the competition, how hard she worked, pushed herself to her limits, and all the whilst rejoicing in the process and trusting her abilities to take her where she needed to be.
“I was chosen as one of the six finalists to take their designs to the final catwalk. All the nerves and dread that I felt leading up to that moment dissipated as I saw my creations walk the runway.” Fatma tells us, delighting in the memory of what one would assume to be a simpler time, especially now that she ran a whole business with the help of her partner. “When the competition came to an end, and I was announced as the winner- it was one of the best moments in my career so far. To know that all the hard work I put in was recognised by people I admired, was an honour. I think deep inside my soul I knew I had the chance to win, and it was just as rewarding as I had imagined.” A genuine smile breaks out of her.
Shortly after Fatma Omarova won the Futur Adlib 2022 competition, she set out to work on her brand. Trusting her abilities now more than ever, she decided that the world was finally ready for her art.
Fatma explains how her partner and now business co-founder of the FATMA OMAROVA brand handles the more logistical aspects, whilst she focuses on creating high fashion with the latest trends and leading the team of women that she works with.
“It’s a lot of hard work, but so worth seeing clothing items at the end, for my designs come to life- and it just always knocks me back, reminding me of why I am doing this, reminding me of the reason why I chose to become a luxury fashion designer.
Our interview with Fatma Omarova was a little over four hours long, we spoke about her creative process, her new collection, and new plans for the future.
We wanted to make sure that we covered Fatma’s brand story completely, so we have separated these blogs into 2 other sections, where we will be talking about her upcoming Autumn/Winter 2023 collection and her plans for her couture fashion brand.
Coming Up next week…
“I think deep inside of me I’ve always known that I would have creations to show to the world. Having my own brand and creating FATMA OMAROVA’s latest couture collections is just part of it, and we have many more plans to come.”