2024-04-11 03:39:38
Youthful assortment
Blouses with wide sleeves and broad shoulders. Suits, overalls, dresses, raincoats, casual clothes and clothes for nursing mothers. This is a youthful assortment, the creator of which is the 27-year-old Laura Vorochė from Tauragi, under the Pupla brand, which has been cultivated since the 2020s.
“I did not plan what I am doing now. Everything happened by itself so that I started a job that I never dreamed of”, said L. Vorochė. Gradually, the brand she nurtured turned into a business, and this young woman currently runs the small community of the same name.
First was trade
Until now, L. Vorochë has worked only one paid job. After graduating from high school and not knowing what studies to choose, she got a job in a clothing store.
While working, this tauragi girl completed part-time studies in green design at the Kaunas College of Forestry and Environmental Engineering, but she never looked for a job in this field.
“After three years, I left my job in the store and started selling clothes myself, having created a Facebook account based on the abbreviation of my maiden name, PÙPLA. I used to order in their electronic stores, after receiving the parcels – I put on clothes, take photos and prepare the catalog that way.
There were damaged and torn clothes in the consignments. I mentioned to my husband Justus that it would be good to be able to repair them myself. After all, then the tailor wouldn’t have to carry them.
I said and forgot, and half a year later, during Christmas 2019, I received a sewing machine as a gift. And I almost cried out of despair, because I didn’t know how to sew at all. It seemed to me that it was absolutely uninteresting”, said L. Vorochė about the circumstances, which at that time did not push him towards his business.
But she felt responsible for the words spoken to her husband, and began to attend one-on-one introductory lessons with a tailor. Soon she was surprised that she liked sewing.
“I decided to learn professional sewing, and I registered with the Employment Service so that I could enter sewing courses. This opened the way for me to the Tauragė vocational training center, where I got to the wonderful sewing technology teacher Regina Paulikienė.
I was already passionate about sewing myself, and the teacher ignited it even more. Although I learned sewing techniques, the teacher also taught me how to construct and model clothes.
First I started sewing clothes for myself, then for others. So, after finishing the course, from November 2021, I devoted all my time to sewing, and my “PÙPLA” brand also appeared on clothes,” said the interviewer.
Created jobs
At first, the young woman installed a sewing room in one of the three rooms of the apartment in Taurage, but she did not stay there for long. In March 2022, they rented small premises in the city center, near the library.
“Now I don’t even know how I managed to pay for their rent. Perhaps when commitment occurs, the brain begins to work differently.
As long as I sewed at home, it didn’t seem to matter if anyone bought my sewing. But, with the emergence of responsibility, there were also ideas, a peculiar business excitement took over”, said L. Vorochė.
According to her, no loans were taken for the initial investments, and no help was sought to establish the business.
“At the time when I was buying and selling clothes, I didn’t know how to handle money. Because of the success of the trade, I spent too much of it on my own needs until I realized that I no longer had the working capital for new orders.
After selling the remaining clothes, I got 600 euros for them, and I was able to buy fabrics,” she said.
Laura bought a straight-stitch sewing machine with a scholarship she received while studying at a process training center. With it, at the beginning of the pandemic, he started sewing protective face masks and earned enough to buy a flat-stitch sewing machine for hemming the edges of the fabric.
After sewing the first collection, she photographed it and started waiting for orders.
“I didn’t have working capital – I fulfilled orders, bought fabrics again, and that’s how I turned the circle. It was a job without income, but I just really liked it.
I helped show my creations on Facebook, someone saw it, someone liked the wide sleeves of fancy blouses. That’s how customers appeared.
Then, when I was raising a baby and started sewing training, I needed help. I invited a colleague with whom we learned to sew at the vocational training center.
I remember when I paid her on Fridays what she earned during the week, I was left with about 20 euros. And I was waiting for someone to order something only during the weekend,” she said.
Currently, there are three seamstresses and Gabrielė Galinauskienė, who takes care of the quality of the garments and orders, working in the small community “Pupla” founded and managed by L.Vorochė.
According to Laura, even a team of five employees has to move quickly. It takes up to 10 working days to make orders, but even this time seems too long to customers.
“We’re not in a hurry. The entire working time has to be devoted to sewing according to orders from the catalog. We don’t have the ability to make clothes “ahead” – so much so that we can ship to people right away as soon as they order.
If people come to the tailor shop from the street, there is little to show for it. We don’t have a representative space to which I can invite them”, said Tauragiškė about the twisted business.
Fashion is dictated by needs
Around the same time when she founded a sewing shop in rented premises, L. Vorochë and her husband Justus had a baby. Currently, their baby is almost one and a half years old. The PÙPLA catalog does not disappear from the PÙPLA catalog for the same period of time.
“I worked while raising a baby. Quick solutions were needed, and this is how clothes for nursing mothers appeared in the collection – jumpers with sewn-in zippers.
I thought I would take those models out of the catalog after I finished feeding the baby, because I wanted to forget about that rather difficult time. But I can’t, because the customers don’t allow it – the orders don’t run out,” Laura smiled.
Casual knitwear is a legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their demand is not diminishing, although, according to L. Vorochė, she prefers to sew complex clothes – jackets, raincoats, dresses.
The assortment is changed depending on the seasons and customer needs. It happens that some clothes just don’t catch on – they don’t have a demand, although the creators thought otherwise.
“And here are the raincoats, which Gabriele and I sewed first, joking that they are “clothing for the ladies” because they are oversized and long, and they don’t disappear from the orders.
I’d love to make bolder designs, but I doubt others would like them. There are clothes that are not to my taste, but customers willingly order them, said L. Vorochė. – When modeling clothes myself, I focus mainly on the sleeves and shoulders – I spread them, puff up the sleeves.
When ordering fabrics, I choose calmer, earthy colors, and black and white are still the most acceptable colors for me.
I’m a minimalist, I usually dress myself, but when I sew for others, I don’t avoid various ruffles.”
The focus is on the quality of fabrics
During those few years in business, fabric prices rose, which, Laura says, inevitably affected the cost of clothing.
If four years ago, a meter of knitted fabric cost 7 euros, recently – more than 10 euros.
“I observe the changes in the market, the prices of other clothing manufacturers. I don’t see how they can give big discounts, maybe such opportunities arise when sewing in large quantities in mass tailors.
We are a small team, we create everything for our brand. The cost price is high, so we cannot offer cheap clothes”, assured L. Vorochë.
She usually looks for fabric suppliers abroad – in Turkey, Poland, the Netherlands. They are also available in Lithuania, but it is cheaper to buy directly from the manufacturers. However, doing so also carries the risk of sending poor quality, damaged leather.
If it is possible to return them to suppliers in our country, it is very difficult to do so when buying abroad.
“The country of origin of the fabric is not important – it is important that it is beautiful and durable. I know there are sewing shops that work only with natural fabrics. For me, the most important thing is their quality, because only clothes made from this fabric do not lose their shape when washed and are easy to maintain.
I test the fabrics I bought myself – I sew the simplest clothes, such as trousers, and wear them for two weeks, washing them as often as possible”, explained the interviewer.
In general, she and her colleague G. Galinauskienė “tear apart” each garment sewn by the tailors, so that everything is done flawlessly.
“The sewing room is like an operating theater for us, and our eyes are like eagles, we watch everything closely,” laughed Laura.
2024-04-11 03:39:38