gosialondon.co.uk

THE GOSIA STORY
PAST

Mustafa Fuat, previously a professional football player, founded Gosia London Ltd in 1996 with the vision of creating luxury and high-end womenswear. Prior to establishing the business, he had worked with, and been inspired by, a woman named Gosia, and after her death, and the establishment of the business, he thought it was ﬁtting that the business was named after her. It began with a few machinists and initially worked with mid-range brands. At the outset, they didn’t advertise or have a website, conﬁdent that their quality would shine through. This strategy paid off: the majority of work has been gained through recommendation, a testament to the quality of the studio’s work.

The Gosia studio focus is on luxury and high-end womenswear. Provided with patterns and trims to make the sample, Gosia inject the life and soul into the garment. As their reputation grew, work began with a number of inﬂuential designers and brands. In recent years their garments have dressed royalty as well as the stars of ﬁlm and fashion, with Cate Blanchett, Rita Ora, Jennifer Lopez and Kate Middleton among the names on their prestigious client list.

PRESENT

Today Gosia works closely with designers to ensure every garment is the best it can be. Each designer sends comments before production starts, but they often entrust the studio with a large degree of freedom. Quality is imperative, and a ‘that will do’ attitude is never acceptable. Punctuality is of upmost importance too, in over the 23 years of manufacturing, they have never been late in delivering a final product.

When a client sends in a pattern to make a sample, the garment is studied, visualising the patterns to how the garment will eventually take shape. This initial planning and visualisation is essential to ensuring the finished product is of exceptional quality. The relationship with clients is open and reciprocal but the studio takes control over the finished product, always pursuing beauty and wanting each garment to be perfect.

The studio atmosphere is a key part of the best practice and support for the quality produced. Bringing manufacturers into the 21st century is the aim and creating an inspirational environment and a stimulating and pleasurable place to work: Gosia is not a factory; it is a vibrant production studio. Staff are empowered and they all feel personally involved in the success of the business. In 2019, the Princess Royal visited the studio and a gown was made for her. It was imperative that every member of staff put a stitch into the final gown. Involving and empowering staff in this way all contributes to the quality of our finish – it’s the Gosia way.

FUTURE

A key objective is to raise the recognition that UK manufacturers receive. The brands we work with now provide us with greater recognition, but this is still not the case across the board. To change this, we work closely with UKFT and have talked with the CEO of the British Fashion Council highlighting the issue. We regularly post online on social media platforms to continue to raise our profile of our work in the UK within the fashion arena.

Recruitment is an ever growing problem and by working closely with UKFT we want to attract a new tranche of young people into the UK production side and to promote apprenticeships within the industry making people aware of the benefits of manufacturing in the fashion arena.

Our work with the London College of Fashion, giving talks and lectures, to bring them up to speed on the current state of production, is also vitally important and we encourage colleges to contribute to this effort to help us to solve these recruitment issues.

Mustafa was on the Technical Drawing judging panel for the Graduate Fashion Week 2020.