Home fashion brand 'Bayu Somerset' born of a COVID-19 lockdown

By Samantha Tan

PUTRAJAYA, March 10 -- With her flair for matching colours and patterns, young entrepreneur Siti Nurdiana Kamalul Arifin has always wanted to launch her own clothing line.

Little did she know that the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020, would make it possible as it also opened up a life-changing way of doing business - from offline to online.

Realising the impact of the online platform at that time, and her scanty knowledge and experience in sewing and marketing, she started taking crash courses in e-commerce and online marketing in business management. 

And in July 2021, her own clothing brand ‘Bayu Somerset' was established.

Immersed in the banking industry for more than five years, it never crossed her mind to change careers but the pandemic gave her a lot of space to contemplate her interests and ambitions that have long been hidden by a busy career, until that fateful time which led to her ‘Eureka moment’ to realise a dream of owning her own line of Kebaya and Baju Kurung Kedah.

“Before starting my own clothing line business, I had a part-time job selling Baju Raya. When the pandemic hit, I was desperately thinking of a way to sell the clothes because of the movement control order.

“Prior to the pandemic, I focused more on business in physical stores and didn’t know the power of e-commerce, but the pandemic was eye-opening for me. I know now that sales can be done even without having a physical store,” the Kuala Lumpur-born entrepreneur told Bernama at her office in Shah Alam recently.

Siti Nurdiana, 29, said in less than a year, Bayu Somerset had begun to gain attention and draw high demand and online purchase not only from Kebaya and Baju Kurung Kedah enthusiasts in the country but also from neighbouring countries like Brunei, Singapore and as far as the United Kingdom and Australia.

“Many of our regular customers always ask when will we restock our collection or when a new theme will be launched. From there we know the demand is so encouraging that sometimes we are in short supply,” said the mother of one who started the business with a capital of RM10,000 with her husband Mohamad Emir Mohamad Fauzi, 29.

Siti Nurdiana said Bayu Somerset offers up to 190 designs now and continues to grow rapidly with the opening of its first physical store at Setia City Mall in Shah Alam to accommodate the demands of other customer categories.

Siti Nurdiana said the features of Bayu Somerset collections which are comfortable to wear, easy-care cotton fabric and affordable prices, has been its main attraction as she herself knew how difficult it was to shop for Baju Kurung or Kebaya that is not over-indulgent while being comfortable and easy to manage as a staple clothing to wear anytime and anywhere.

“I used to work in a bank and liked to wear Baju Kurung but young people nowadays are more interested in wearing pants and shirts as it’s easy to manage. We should promote the wearing of traditional clothes but it was difficult to find simple and comfortable ones. That's why my collection is targeted at women in their 20s to 40s who want a comfortable, simple traditional outfit at an affordable price,” she said.

Apart from that, Siti Nurdiana said her business also provided opportunities for students in an effort to guide young entrepreneurs in the fashion industry, including design and creative arts, photography as well as management and accounting.

“I have 13 people in my team, all young and ambitious. The purpose of taking on interns is so that we can hone their potential and prepare the younger generation to venture into the field with a cutting edge of confidence,” she said.

Siti Nurdiana said her future plan is to open up more physical stores and or Bayu Somerset to spread its wings to ASEAN countries.

“We see potential in the Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand markets for our brand to grow as these countries share similar tastes and cultures,” she said.

-- BERNAMA