2025 was a great year for Senior Designer, Natasha Salim (NS), as she ended it with yet another bespoke design. Her client, Nana, who was based in Melbourne, Australia, first reached out knowing full well the vision, intention, and purpose of her bespoke inquiry. Despite the geographical boundaries that separate Nana and Natasha, a shared vision for dressing with meaning brought the two together onto this novel custom project. It then resulted in the most versatile dress that was forever etched in Nana’s most meaningful moments as well as in the hearts of the SukkhaCitta team.
How did the bespoke inquiry come about?
NS: We received the inquiry from Nana back in January 2025 to create a graduation ceremony attire to be worn in mid-December. The ceremony will be held in Australia, as she was studying in Melbourne at the time.
Typically with custom atelier pieces, I usually ask the clients to provide inspirations or references of the style they had in mind to help with the direction of the design process. Normally, they would simply share images via Whatsapp, but Nana shared a very detailed deck of her preferences. This included information about her profile (e.g. body type, face shape, life values), and inspirations. It was the first time I received a brief like this for an atelier project, so I found her enthusiasm endearing. In her deck, she clearly wanted to wear a sleeveless dress with the possibility of it being wearable for other future occasions. This preference was confirmed all the more when Nana informed me months later that she decided on wearing the dress for her pre-wedding photoshoot after graduation. At that point, I had already shared my design to her and I was thrilled to hear that her enthusiastic response inspired her to wear the dress for two very special occasions.
What was the design process like?
NS: Considering the geographic boundaries between Nana and I, since she resides in Australia, I thought the design and feedback process might be challenging. In terms of lead time, we were on the safe side, but then had to schedule some workaround for fittings and measurement-taking. With bespoke inquiries, I always prefer meeting with the client in person for fitting purposes. Ultimately, to get the project going, I had to take her measurements through an online meeting, and we also agreed to do two offline fittings during her visits in July and December.
We had our first face-to-face meeting and sample fitting in July. I prepared the toile of her inner dress and an unfinished cut of her organza overlay to see how they fit and fall on her body. The dress was initially a bit too tight on her body. As for the overlay, I had it cut on bias to achieve a nice flowy shape. And yet, it still wasn’t how I wanted it to look due to limitations on the fabric width. I continued to revise the patterns, changed some cutting techniques, and updated the design based on the result of the first fitting.
We met again in early December for the final fitting. This time, she tried on the finished dress. There were still some adjustments on the dress as some parts needed a bit of pinching. The organza overlay looked much better than previously, but more length needed to be added. I worked on the revisions with the little time we had before Nana left for Australia within a few days. Time was tight – there ended up being a delay in the revision process, but, eventually, the dress arrived safely in her hands just in time.
Looking back, I liked how specific and clear she was about her vision of the dress, which were all stated in the deck at the very beginning. She noted down a few requirements – it must be in monochrome colors; it has to be simple yet eye-catching; the fabric should feature a transparent element to show some skin in a demure way; and lastly, it should feature little details. She also placed a big importance on intentional design that explains the reasoning behind why the design looks the way it does.
How did you arrive at the final design?
NS: In getting to know the person behind the dress, I learned that Nana’s name is short for Suriana, meaning light. Like her name, she wanted to bring light to her surroundings. I immediately knew I wanted ANGKASA to be part of this dress as the story correlates with her name. She informed me that she often wears white in the summer, which also happens to be the season of her graduation ceremony. For this purpose, I chose our handwoven ANGKASA Jacquard in Nature White for her dress. The initial design thinking was that I didn’t want the dress to look too similar to a wedding dress, since an all-white color might give that impression; at this point, I didn’t know the dress was going to be used for a pre-wedding shoot yet.
To add a bit of contrast and element of transparency, I thought of incorporating our SweetIndigo™ Black silk organza embroidered with ANGKASA motifs. I thought the white jacquard should stand out compared to the black organza, since it’s for summer. Additionally, the black over the white could be symbolic of the eclipse – a moment of transition as she steps into a new chapter of her life. Her rectangular body shape paired beautifully with a deep V-neckline, creating the depiction of an elongated torso, straight upper body line, with waist-defining characteristics that has volume around the hips.
The final result was a slip dress in Handwoven Angkasa Jacquard Nature White paired with a flowy asymmetrical embroidered organza overlay in SweetIndigo™ Black on top. Finalizing the look with a cinch on the waist, the KAPAS Simpul Belt in SweetIndigo™ Black became the focal accessory. The slip dress features an adjustable strap with our signature simpul for an ode to the little details Nana requested from the very beginning.
Was there anything new you learned as a designer when taking on this project?
NS: This bespoke project reminded me once more of the importance of staying agile – to think on my feet and find other ways forward when faced with a challenge.
What are you most proud of from this project?
NS: I always feel proud and happy after every custom project, especially when the client is happy with the end result. I took a lot of time in creating the design to make sure it really captured everything Nana wanted. When the designs were so well-received by Nana, I felt appreciated as a designer and that all the thinking was worth it.
Personally, this was one of my favorite custom projects I’ve ever worked on and I think it was because of Nana’s enthusiasm and clear direction. This truly helped in pushing me to create something full of intention and truly curated for Nana only. Even though there were slight changes to how the final dress looked compared to the very first design, it still turned out beautiful and meaningful nonetheless. When Nana said she was happy with how it looked, that was all that mattered most. I hope in the future I get to work on more projects like this!
