Birmingham Business Defies Rules of London Fashion Week
A Birmingham business has seen sales of it’s new season “Boss Lady” collection become a sellout success before the product has even hit the shelves. The founder of the company, Shaherazad Umbreen, puts the success of the collection down to the growing she-boss ethos across the UK and beyond.
September has long been known as the month when designers launch their new season fashion collections. Design is the fundamental component of our changing tastes in fashion, but Shoes by Shaherazad is also making the claim that, in fact, language matters as much as design.
“There are very few languages which have no gender bias. Language defines the limits of our thinking, our imagination and our future vision,” says Shaherazad. “That’s why a collection cannot just be about the design of the product, but also needs to capture the design of language. It’s the only way that fashion will start to instigate true gender equality in society.”
At the start of London Fashion Week, Shaherazad launched her new collection online, available for pre-order with delivery in October. Within 48 hours, 4 out of the 6 designs had completely sold out, including orders as far away as Hong Kong and Australia. The shoes claim to put style over fashion by ensuring that they are not only comfortable but also timeless designs which can be worn for many years to come. The styles are named:
- She Reigns
- Boss Lady
- She.E.O.
Both Boss Lady and She.E.O. have been hugely popular with people paying up front for a product they won’t receive until late October 2018. She Reigns has been popular too but with a number of ladies commenting that they would prefer an alternative embellishment to the crown which is currently part of the collection.
Although language and job titles in particular are slowly changing to become more gender neutral in many cases, there is also a trend of taking male power head on with an overt display of female power. Take for instance, the huge trend on instagram and twitter for women to talk about being a #bosswoman, #girlboss, #sheboss, #womankind and #leadinglady. Of course the terms “boss”, “humankind” and “leader” are gender neutral and readily available to use as part of our everyday vocabulary for women and men. But the feminisation of historically male terms adds direct assertion to the cause of women empowering women. It is a an equality battle that is not yet fully won in the workplace and therefore the feminisation of job titles shows that women are winning new ground, as women and for women.
The sell out success of these shoes isn’t just down to the style and she-boss shoe titles though. Every penny of profits from the shoes is used to directly support a woman or girl living in poverty to gain an education. “A She-Boss who treats herself to my shoes is also helping someone living in poverty to gain a chance to become a she-boss too.” These shoes are all about empowering yourself and empowering others.
These new shoes scream out that there’s a new boss in town, and this boss in the case of Shoes by Shaherazad’s customers, is proudly a woman.
More information on Shoes by Shaherazad can be found here:
www.shaherazad.com
@18hourheels
getnoticed@shoesbyshaherazad.com