When I posted the previous blog online (in case you haven’t read it yet I would certainly make the effort and do it) I did not know that the blog would bring about so much for some women. When I decided to blog, I promised myself that I would take you as much as possible in everything. I wanted you to get to know us better. Not like Kaftan Fes, a brand that makes beautiful dresses, but the real people behind them and their stories, told through my eyes. Over the years I have learned so much from you. There are women who stepped into our shop and who left such a deep impression on me with their guts and attitude towards life. Indirectly, these women changed me. Brave women who had just lost a loved one, women who struggled with serious health problems, women who took over the care of relatives after their mother died, women who had been cheated on, women who have been rejected by family or vice versa; Women who taught me that everything has a downside and how grateful you can be in any situation regardless of the pain that the situation brings.
Stingy I hang on your lips every time you fill my can with new life lessons. From the comments on my previous blog I understand that it would be self-centered if I kept all these beautiful life lessons to myself. I have therefore decided to share more often the stories that touched me in the future. Of course, each time with the permission of the woman herself. But to keep the blog light and fun I will not do this every week. That said, I can finally start today’s blog…
As some of you already know, last year (in May) we participated in a fashion show in Morocco. This show was organized by Caftanos. The fashion show was held in Tangier and was a new and fun challenge for us. I didn’t go because… well, there was someone who had to keep running the shop (heart for the business :-)) and I thought it was more than logical that papa would represent Kaftan Fes. Most people know my father as a man who always knows how to keep the peace and calm. But come take a look just before a fashion show takes place and witness the opposite. No matter how many times we participate in a fashion show, his nerves seem like he is doing this for the first time.
Last week we finally got to see the movie of the fashion show. I was proud when I saw our beautiful creations pass by. I couldn’t help it when an old memory appeared in front of my retina like a mirage….
I was 15 years old when my father first participated in a fashion show. At the time, we were still completely unknown and we saw an opportunity in everything to gain brand awareness. A friend of my aunt Nadia (also working at Kaftan Fes) at the time had organized a women’s event in a neighborhood meeting center in Utrecht. She had seen my father’s work before and had asked through my aunt if he would be interested in a fashion show. Before I go any further you must understand that we really started from point 0. Back then you didn’t have Facebook and Instagram either. Hiring a designer who could give your branding a nice boost was expensive. Nowadays it is easier to create a branding with different apps than it was then. You can also be inspired by others, so that you still have an idea of how you should approach something within your own industry. Because we didn’t have all this yet, we had to figure out for ourselves how to build a “fire”. We did this by trying everything, making a lot of mistakes and in that way finding out what works and what doesn’t. Everything we did in the beginning, we all did ourselves, as a family.
It doesn’t matter how many fashion shows we’ve had after that. The very first one has stuck with me (and I think the rest of the family) the most. Every time we talk about it, my father’s green-gray fun eyes light up and he has to grin. His gray mustache curls up when he chuckles, shaking his head.
We didn’t know with God what we were doing. We knew that models are needed for a fashion show, but we didn’t have a network yet, let alone a network of professional models. We also had no budget. It was my Aunt Nadia who suggested a brilliant idea. Our family is made up of more women than men, so why not run the show as models ourselves. Hair and make-up? No problem! She would take care of that.
Guys, my modeling career has literally reached one peak and it was that day that I quickly decided: this is not