Deborah Latouche On Flower-Inspired Fashion & Accessories for Women

Opening Scene
It was already a very beautiful room. But the flowers. So it just transformed. It's like the dress. It's exactly like the dress, isn't it? Yeah.
Introduction: Meet Deborah Latouche, Creative Director of Sabirah
Hi, my name is Deborah Latouche.  
I am the Creative Director and founder of SABIRAH. SABIRAH is a sustainably conscious demi couture modest wear brand. I'm here today at Blooming Haus.
How Flowers Influence Design
Hi, I'm Michal. Hi, I'm Michael, and we're here  today to discuss with Deborah how floral themes  
influence her designs. Deborah, when you  think about your creative inspirations,  
how do flowers or floral themes get their way  into your inspiration or your mood boards? Um,  
so I love florals. Um, and I love nature  and they come in in so many different ways.
It could be the form of an item of of a piece  such as this one here, which is very informed  
by a tulip shape, even the the form here. And you  can see how it kind of bellows out at the hips.  
And that was very inspired by tulips. There have  been other occasions where I have dyed fabrics  
which were representative of, um, when, uh, like  a scene arose and how the gradation of the flower,  
the colours were so beautiful, and I literally  stopped in the middle of the street to,  
um, to kind of say to my  friend, oh my God, look at that.
It's so beautiful. And I took loads of pictures  and stole one, you know, so in many different  
ways, I really I love nature, I love colour, and I  think we get the most magnificent colours through  
nature. So that is another way as well. This  is what we see here. Right? So when you create  
your mood, when you start creating your designs,  you think about do you think about the colour?
First you say, oh, I'm going to design a dress  that's going to be this pink rose colour. How  
do you start thinking? How does the process. I  think that the fabrics are really important to me.  
So? So yeah. So I will by looking at  the fabric I will know like for example,  
this fabric lends itself so much  more to being a shape, you know.
Whereas other fabrics like this one, it's much,  much flimsy. So it will drape much better. So
The Design Process: From Florals to Fashion
00:02:36.400 — 00:05:45.450 because of the way that we source materials, which  
is essentially going to the factories and seeing  what the end of life materials are. So you never  
know what you're going to get when you go there.  So that is for me, I absolutely enjoy that. I'm a  
I'm a car boot sale vintage girl. So go in there  and having a rummage for me is like my dream.
That's the source of your inspiration. So  you're looking at everything around you,  
The Tulip-Inspired Collection
and then that informs your decision of what  you're going to do afterwards. Yeah. I mean,  
what I, what what fabrics  I'm able to get, you know,  
I, you know, see a material and I go,  oh my God, I have to have that. And oh,  
it would look fantastic if it's in this form  or if it's in this shape, it will look great.
Um, so yeah. So I think that's it's kind of a bit  of a mix. I like it. I've got a question to you  
about flowers. So you told us about the rose  that rose in this by the design. Is there any  
other occasions when it happened? This one was  the, um, was the blue was the bloom skirt? Um,  
so that was I showed you the picture which  had the, which was about it blooming.
And you can see when this is on, it really  opens out and it really is like a flower  
blooming. So that's kind of how shaking things  are, are very it's very shape related. So we  
know that sustainability is very important.  Yeah. In your brand and in your designs. Um,  
is there a reason why you think  everyone should think about this?
Is there a reason why, you know, we should save  fabric that's been discarded and create? Yeah.  
I mean, as I've said, you know, I've come  from, like, very much loving vintage and,  
um, and when I first started the  brand, I really just felt that you  
couldn't start a brand in 2020 and  not have sustainability at its core.
Um, and that was basically I, you know, and  I'm still on this journey to figure out every  
time with different collections, how can I  make the brand more sustainable? You know,  
so we start off with the fabrics. How can  we then move on to maybe the hangers or  
the bags that they come in? You know, for  the iftar we use the offcuts to create,  
um, goodie bags for, you know, the  ladies that came to our, to our dinner.
You know, so it's there, you know, I mean, I save  all the fabric. You know, I think my seamstresses,  
they go a little bit crazy because I'm like, you  know, you're a hoarder. Yeah. Well, basically.  
But but because the way that our garments  are there. So the some of the, like, pattern  
shapes are so big that there's so much waste of  fabric, I'm like, we might want to cover a button.
So, you know, let's keep it.  You probably remember that  
for the iftar arrangements that  we did we did them in this? Yes,  
they did this. This is made up. I think. Wasn't  it plastic? Yes, it was exactly. Oh, you know,  
there you are. Yeah. I think you guys. Yeah. We  did tell you. Yeah. So that's. Which is beautiful.
I love the way it's marbled. I love  the products we get. Still come up  
with these spices? Yeah. So we  found a solution for it. Can't  
recycle it. You don't want it to go  to landfill? Yeah. And these beautiful
Sustainable & Vintage Sourcing
00:05:46.530 — 00:05:52.770 flowers are both delicate and  
resilient. How does this resonate with  you as a creative director of your brand?
00:05:53.970 — 00:06:45.350 I, I feel that that is, you know,  
we're all about empowerment of women. And  I do think actually women are both delicate  
and resilient as well. So I think that flowers  probably come in in that way. You know, because I  
do think that women can be delicate, they can be  resilient. They can be empowering. They can be.
You know, I think we have all of this  in flowers, literally. That's what  
you're saying. Yeah. We have so many  facets within us, and I do. I mean,  
and they're also very beautiful. That's true.  And women are beautiful. So I wanted to talk  
that about colour and flowers, as you know. And  we all know flowers come in all different colours.
Some are on the pastel side, some  are very bright. I wanted to ask,  
how does this resonate to you? How does it  relate to your culture? Um, I feel that colour is
The Bloom Skirt Story
00:06:46.830 — 00:09:17.300 more than likely really comes  
from my culture, from being Caribbean.  Um, whenever I'm in the Caribbean,  
I'm absolutely in awe of the colours that  are in the environment. The lighting that  
there is within the Caribbean as well.  It's just so beautiful. And the amount  
of flowers and the different types of flowers  that we have as well is really, really amazing.
So, so you see colour as an inspiration to what  you do. Yeah. I see a lot of sun and then how  
Why Sustainability Matters in Fashion
it shows her how you write the colour. So I  can see that and also how it makes you feel,  
how colours make you feel. So  yeah. So colour. I think has a  
great impact on you as well. Kind of like  internally, I think it has a really cool.
I think like there's something very relatable  to us because like in our business as well,  
we obviously show the flowers, but  we show the flowers with colour,  
not through colour but with colour. And  that's what then changes our perception of  
the evening of the day eating the wine,  you drinking and so on and so forth.
So there's many times when we're setting  up events, the groom would be completely  
everything's ready, everything's in place,  no flowers. Then we come in with flowers  
and everything and it just goes. It  absolutely does. And that is exactly  
how I felt at the time. Actually, it  was already a very beautiful room.
But the flowers. So everything was it just  transformed. It's like the dress. Exactly like  
the dress, isn't it? Yeah. We feel as we do feel  as well. When we put on the dress, we put it on  
the flowers as well. And that's when you feel  it. Yeah. That's the true feeling you get. Yeah.  
Let's talk. Textiles have natural elements like  flowers for example, affected your choice of your  
garments, the texture, the embellishments and any  other elements that you have within your designs.
There was a time when I, I think, had  mentioned it before about the flower  
that I then hand-dyed a cotton to actually  replicate the, um, the gradation of this  
rose that went from yellow to pink. Um, so  I think that was something which, I mean,  
it's very similar, but it was much more dramatic  than this one. Zoom in here on the back here.
It does have a bit of the yellow, but it was much  more dramatic than that. It was. It was. Honestly,  
I was floored by it. It's something that's  very present in flowers that they never  
just let say I would say monochromatic.  It's just that it's exactly there's this
Women, Flowers & Resilience
00:09:18.500 — 00:10:29.040 beauty and this gradation of cloud colours  
as well. When we see it, zoom in here from yellow  towards pink. It's a good inspiration, I think,  
for you as a designer. Yeah, it's lovely,  but also how colours go together. You know,  
pink and green or beautiful together. We type  of do these things as well. So when we work  
Caribbean Culture & Colour Inspiration
on events, when we do proposals,  for example, for clients as well.
This is a good inspiration for us because  we know if it exists in nature. It means  
that if we create the colour palette of  this, it will always work. It's always  
going to be great. So as a designer, do  you first think about the emotions or do  
you think about the emotions later? You first  think about the shape, the form, the colour.
Emotions for me come in terms of well as  the fabric. So it's really like a lot of  
Hand-Dyeing & Colour Gradation Techniques
our fabrics are silks and then they're  silk lined as well. So the emotion for me  
is how does it feel when you've got it on. Oh  yeah. And I always want people to feel really  
Nature's Perfect Colour Palettes
beautiful and have a great feel against  your skin. What's more important to you?
How do the clients feel in your clothes? Or how  do they look in your clothes? I think it's how you  
The Emotion of Fabric & Feeling Beautiful
feel. So I think we can kind of just say, here's  what I made earlier. Guys. It's like it's like,  
you know, Blue Peter, I think I never really  made it, okay? I never really made that.
00:10:30.680 — 00:10:32.640 You could start making them the studio.
00:10:33.840 — 00:10:35.280 Is that nice? Yeah.