A fashion student has described the moment she saw a dress she helped co-design in her bedroom, using old clothes from her own wardrobe, worn on the red carpet at this year’s BRIT Awards by rising star Joy Crookes.
Nayaab Mahomed said she was sitting at home, watching the glitzy event on TV when she saw the ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ singer appear.
“She was wearing the dress I worked on,” said the second year Fashion Design student at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).
“Then later on she said my name and I screamed, I was jumping for joy, literally!”
Joy Crookes at the 2022 BRIT Awards (photo credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images)
For Nayaab, fashion is more than just a look. She spent most of her childhood looking for some sort of representation she felt she never really found, until she saw Joy Crookes at the 2020 BRIT Awards.
She said the singer’s confidence to show and celebrate her South Asian roots was something Nayaab had never seen before.
Nayaab said: “On that very day I first saw her at the 2020 Brits I told myself that I’d make clothes for her one day, I didn't believe I'd get to work on a look this soon though.”
With the 2022 BRIT Awards on the horizon Nayaab decided to take a leap of faith by simply sending Joy’s stylist a message on Instagram, which ended up turning her dreams into reality.
Nayaab said: “I have always admired Joy for expressing her culture and not being afraid to be different. One evening I randomly sent a mood board of pictures full of her to a friend and said ‘imagine her in my designs’.
“In that moment I was somehow struck by motivation and thought why not try and make this happen. I messaged Joy’s designer, Natalie Roar, on Instagram and to be honest I didn’t expect anything of it, I didn’t even know if she would be the one styling Joy for this years’ BRIT Awards.”
She continued: “I rarely post on the platform and only have a small following so I didn’t expect her to even read it, let alone respond, but she did and I still can’t believe it!
“Not only did she respond, but she gave me an opportunity, literally the greatest opportunity ever, one to assist on designing Joy’s look for the 2022 BRIT Awards.
“I didn’t even have a portfolio or anything. I had nothing to show because during the pandemic last year we didn’t really make much at university.
“I told Natalie I would send them some photos of my ideas by the morning, at this point I genuinely had nothing and I stayed up all night to create my portfolio using old clothes from my own wardrobe. I couldn’t believe it the next morning when I sent the photos and they loved them.”
Nayaab hand stitching Joy's dress
With just a three-week turnaround to make the dress and multiple trips to London the dress was ready in time for the red carpet, something that usually takes six months to turnaround.
Nayaab said: “It was very much team effort, it was just such a great experience it doesn’t even seem real still, it’s the most amazing thing to ever happen to me and I will never forget Joy saying my name live on TV.
“All the embroidery you can see on the dress, I actually cut out of one of my old dresses, so its sustainable as well. That is the ethos of my own brand that I am trying to create, incorporating sustainability and upcycling, not using any raw materials, so I made sure all of the detail was from recycled clothes.”
13-year-old Nayaab wearing the dress she used the embroidery from for Joy's dress.
For the 20-year-old this was more than just an opportunity, it was everything Nayaab stands for.
She said: “It is very easy to start believing that you can’t make it in this industry if you don’t come from a privileged background. Whether it’s privilege in wealth, race, location, connections or a million other things.
“I am not based in London, I don’t have some of the privileges a lot of people have, I want to inspire people to believe in themselves.”
Nayaab is also a member of Fashion Academics Creating Equality (FACE), an organisation set up to help improve equality in higher education and the fashion industry and is currently working with them to help widen participation.
She said: “I want to inspire the next generation and help them feel seen.”
Posted on Friday 4 March 2022