Fashioning a business

Motapwa Ismaila-Azinge, looks on in the distance while two of her employees Ella and Anna-Paul work on a dress. Motapwa has repurposed her garage into a store where she runs her business from.

Motapwa’s store has playful energy and she is very spontaneous with her jokes and her employees Anna-Paul, Ella and Seyilnen.

Paying attention to color detail and comparing which works best is an important part of the process in creating a dress.

An employee Anna-Paul sews pieces of fabric together. Motapwa’s employees do the sewing of the pieces that make a dress.

A lot of the measuring, design, and cutting for a dress is done by Motapwa, before she passes the pieces on to her employees to be sewn together.

Being a mother and fashion designer means sometimes taking measurements in your home, your children and family becoming a part of the process.

Having multiple customers means needing to filter through several measurement files to find the right one.

A sketchbook filled with dress designs is a requirement for any fashion designer; Motapwa is definitely not an exception to that rule.

Motherhood for Motapwa means she sometimes shares a laugh and a hug with her son Tauren while she works.

Colorful fabrics stores are one of the many stops Motapwa makes when in the market shopping for everything needed to make a dress.

Accessories are a very important detail for making a beautiful Motapwa design. Finding the right type and color is an acquired skill.

Chike Azinge, Motapwa’s husband, is not only a supportive spouse but an amazing father to their two kids.

Motapwa accepts all the help she can get from her mother-in-law, who babysits her five-week-old baby girl Arielle. Motapwa takes breaks to feed baby Arielle.

After a long day, Motapwa dozes off while holding baby Arielle.