Queening, the designer
Every morning, Queening cycles to Satdobato and spends her afternoons working with the NLT’s staff. ‘‘The production work started a little late this year, as I switched my leather supplier,” she says, showing some soft leather imported from Biratnagar. “I want to focus every aspect of my production on Nepal.”
The designer, who grew up in Southeast London, made her first trip to Nepal as a volunteer in 2001 and worked for five months in a school at Narayanghat. “Nepal was a place that I felt an affinity with and I wanted to work here,” she shares. So, during her final year at London College of Fashion, she visited Nepal to research on the possibilities of producing her collection.
Since then, the 27-year-old has been traveling to Nepal twice a year to work on her Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections. However, before launching her label, the designer prepped herself by interning with the American fashion house DKNY. She also designed bags for Charlott Vasberg, Oxfam Boutique’s Restyled Bag line and Stori Sac.
Queening, to her parents’ dismay, applied to London College of Fashion to specialize in shoe and bag construction and design. The college boasts alumni like the popular shoe designer Jimmy Choo. Queening, who has a First Class Honours degree in Fashion Products: Accessories, also won the Drapers Student Accessory Designer of the Year Award in 2007.
Behind the scene with Fair Trade Group Nepal
“This time, I got to meet his daughter Alina, who was away the last time I visited,” writes Queening on her travel blog about the visit to Kumar’ Magar’s house, one of the staff from the NLT. Along with providing works for leprosy-affected people, the NGO funds a certain amount of money for the education of its staff and run several empowerment programs.The designer shares a good rapport with the people she works with. And her blog has become one of the ways to communicate with her costumers and customers on the ethical environment that her designs are produced in.
However, for Queening, her work in Nepal is not only limited to producing a sustainable brand. “It’s helping more individuals to find work and be able to provide for their families,” she adds.
Bharat Shah, who moved to Kathmandu some 30 years ago after he was ostracized from his village, is one of the 14 people who benefits from Queening’s venture in Nepal. The soft-spoken Shah, who lost his limbs due to leprosy, opines, “She (Queening) is a friendly person to work with.”Every detailing, like the bag’s straps, papers for notebooks to brass metal plaque that bears the Aura Que’s logo is made in Nepal. Among all these, leatherwork is carried out by the staffs of NLT, which is a member of the fair trade group. And Queening’s preference for fair trade does not lie on a particular reason but transcends her consciousness.
Talking further about the fair trade, she adds, “Many people in the UK get too bothered by certification, but my policy now is to have a transparent supply chain.” And for that, she works directly with production people.She encountered The Fair Trade Group Nepal, which she terms as “a great collective manufacturers” in 2006. “As an individual designer starting out, I wanted the support of an established collective, which prioritized ethical standards.”
At present, she mainly works with these producers, but also smaller family businesses that she is directly in contact with. “I enjoy working with them, regardless of fair trade certification which can be difficult to obtain and monitor.”
When The Week inquired about why she opted for Nepal over country like China with advanced technology and cheaper labor for the brand, she observes, ‘‘I work better when I design in 3D, directly with materials in the factory to develop my designs. I like the “hands on” approach with design and manufacture, rather than sending 2D design specifications to large anonymous factories.”
On her collections
For her fourth collection, Queening has drawn inspiration from her recent summer camping trip to Trishuli River. “Looking at the details and functions of the tents, the camping equipment and rucksacks was as a starting point for my new Spring/Summer collection,” she informs.In her previous collections, two different clashing elements, such as leather and knitted woolen pieces, are juxtaposed seamlessly. “I’m interested in the combination of such materials, which gives interesting tonal texture, and has been a point of difference for my customers.”
According to the designer, every time she visits Nepal, she comes to find a new element that she can incorporate in her designs. The recent addition has been
the label’s brass metal plaque, which adds a touch of antiquity to her works. The designer plans to work on expanding the Aura Que range for women’s and men’s accessories.
*****
For some people, ethical brands maybe the ‘it’ thing and for others a social movement, but for Bharat Shah, it has provided a dignified chance to work, through which he manages to sustain his family of five. While for Queening, it is a matter of conscience.
*Being an ethical brand means taking the social, environmental and commercial responsibilities that range from proper working condition to fair trade during the production of a label.