Onwards we go…

It has been a very busy time behind the scenes at Roaringly Precious. I have recently attended a number of Dementia focused events such as the Wales International Dementia Conference and The Alzheimer’s Show Digital Hub, educating myself further on how dementia affects people and exploring how clothing could be more supportive. We have started developing our next collection which will launch over the summer and, due to the support of our wonderful customers, I decided to introduce 6 new fabrics into the collection and update our branding with a photoshoot! It has been so wonderful to see the reactions and support from people and hear how the clothing has benefited our customers.

As someone who had not organized a fashion shoot before I was a little nervous, particularly in view of the addition of COVID restrictions, I felt a little out of my depth. Everyone involved had to be local, we needed to minimize the amount of people as much as possible, everyone had to social distance and face masks would be worn all day. A far cry from what I had envisaged for my first studio fashion shoot, but I was feeling blessed we could arrange anything at all and grateful to the professionals I worked with. It was also so nice just to see some new faces, for the last year I have barely seen anyone other than family members and so being able to work with my close friend and have a catch up was so lovely. I’ve also come to learn that when having your own business, you cannot shy away from new experiences but instead just go on putting your best foot forward!

After searching online, I found a local photography studio, a photographer, and a model. Amanda our model was amazing! She looked great in the clothing as it matched her coloring perfectly. A businesswoman herself, who you can find on Instagram at ‘Amandadlawrencemodel’, not only does she model but is also in the health and wellbeing business that offers amazing opportunity and natural aloe products. She had such an inspiring, motivating spirit and was such a fun person to shoot with, by the end of the day we were bouncing ideas around and freely experimenting with how to best capture the clothing to help customers easily visualize wearing it themselves. I learnt there was a lot to respect in a leg bend or a side angle! I really wanted Amanda’s personality to come through the images so that people would see that these cloths can be an extension of their own personality, rather than something to detract or restrict it so, after becoming familiar with Amanda’s wardrobe essentials, we styled the clothing with bold heeled shoes. Roaringly Precious is not clothing that is meant to make you fall into the background but is clothing to empower people, making them feel comfortable and confident in their own skin.

It was a long day; we had a lot of looks to get through because although we only offer a few garments at Roaringly Precious, we offer many fabrics. We do this because people living with dementia like routine, familiarity and often the same clothing. By offering people a smaller selection of styles but in a broad range of fabrics, people can choose their preferred colors and prints, creating multiple outfits that feel familiar through the fit and style. Soon we will be launching 6 new fabrics into the range, 4 of which I am delighted to say are organic, all from British fabric suppliers and we are also introducing a new sizing system to be more inclusive of people with more petite figures.
It is very exciting seeing Roaringly Precious grow and my passion for understanding my customers and providing quality, purpose made garments in only growing.

Until next time,
Sara

Posted in What we've been up to! on 21st April 2021 at 3:05pm.