$300, Four Kids and No Bed To Sleep On: Designer Geneva K Garr Shares Her Success Story

         Berenice Mulubah | June 9, 2015 7:00AM

Designer Geneva K Garr

Over the weekend, the owner of Approved Wear Fashion House, Geneva K Garr Shared her success story with C Liberia Clearly, during an exclusive interview.  

How did you get into fashion?

During my childhood, I found myself been very particular about what I woke and how I looked.  As an adult, I became a teacher to make a living but I was not content. I left the teaching field and studied fashion design in Ghana.  After I graduated, I left a broken marriage and moved back to Liberia with $300 American dollars and four kids, in 2008.  All I had was my dream and those negative voices in my head, from my ex-husband, "you won't make it without me. You will come  back crawling and begging."  Friends hosted me for few months.  Luckily, a friend gave me one sewing machine and I started sewing on my porch for few friends and their friends.  One day, I met a lady who owned a school. She contracted me to sew some uniforms for her school. That was my first big contract. I had to sew 250 Uniforms by hand and had to meet the deadline.  From that contract, I eventually rented the shop.  The shop became too small for the quantity I was producing. I had to break the walls and add more rooms. With hard work and determination, I was awarded Best Customer Service of the year by Commerce Minstry, in 2013 and awarded Best Customer Service of the year by Business Startup Center in 2014.  I also had the opportunity to travel to South Africa on an  Entrepreneur scholarship.  Sir Richard Brandson of Brandson Center of Entrepreneurship awarded  nine businesses and I was one of them. 

Could you share one important thing you learned from the experience?

 We learned that your business is your baby. You know what you want and how you want it, you are the only one who can nurture it into what you want it to be.  Put everything into it, all your effort, labor and  time.  I learned that no one is going to envision your business better than you.

                                                                  

                                          How did you come to start your own line?

 I do not have a clothing line but a fashion house that produces clothes and accessories and uniforms for businesses and schools.  We produce in bulk.  

                                                               What is your overall goal? 

            My goal is to turn Approved Wear Fashion House into a factory producing mass quantity of Uniforms and clothing. 

Where do you go for inspiration? 

Look into magazines, not for what is in the magazine but for what is missing from it. What should be in it that isn't.

How would you describe your personal fashion style? 

 I love African fabric. I love working with African fabric. What I like about African fabrics, it goes where you want it to go and stay where you want it to stay.  I like to dress elegantly.

Check out few of Geneva K Garr Designs