Atlas’ small business feature is SEWT!
Founded by three dynamic partners – Luan, Oksana and John, SEWT is a brand that encourages women empowerment and liberation through offering custom, quality wardrobe solutions for the professional women. Although each of the partners had a different reason for starting SEWT, their visions weaved together seamlessly, which makes SEWT incredibly successful in its field.
Starting with Luan, her desire and drive to learn encouraged her to leave her corporate job to pursue her MBA. Throughout those years, Luan saw a need in the market for women to receive custom clothing (suits, pants, shirts) that were so easily accessible for men. This helped shape the foundation of SEWT – to tackle this lack of custom wardrobe service and to give women a service they could not historically receive.
Oksana was inspired to create SEWT from her previous experience in bra fitting and luxury retail. Bra fitting is a very intimate and vulnerable position for women to be in. Women can be left feeling discouraged, upset and exposed if they cannot find the perfect product. Seeing this, Oksana was motivated to create a service where women don’t need to feel self conscious about their body image just because they don’t fit into a standard box size. Even in high end fashion, their standardized sizes aren’t for everyone as women vary from all sorts of shapes and sizes.
John helps SEWT round off the team. He also comes from a corporate and luxury retail background where he’s had ample exposure to business operations and also fashion. From being in fashion, he’s had a first hand glance at how many more options men have to professional clothing than women do. John’s inspiration came from his core values – believing in female liberation and giving back to women and he saw an opportunity to do this through SEWT.
SEWT is more than just a femme clothier. Starting from their most iconic product, the power suit, this custom piece is a reflection of the modern women’s battle to receive equal education and job opportunities as men. SEWT’s continuous product expansion provides women with a variety of options to build the wardrobe most fitting to their lifestyle. SEWT embodies the strength and willingness of women to break down barriers and to always stand for what they believe in.