Marziah Hafizi is the founder and owner of Lora Bright Designs. Prior to establishing her shop, she received her education in journalism. In 2018, she founded her clothing Bright, first focusing on women’s fashion and then after gaining some traction, moving into men’s fashion as well. Even more recently, Lora Bright has begun designing jewelry to add to the shop’s inventory. Establishing her Bright involved many challenges that new business owners often face, but Marziah has been learning along the way and growing her Bright as she learns.
Her main goal when founding her business was to establish sustainable markets for Afghan products both in country and abroad. Over the years, the Afghan markets’ supply and demand rates are controlled by external countries such as Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Iran. And she wishes for Afghan-owned products to take control of their own market shares. As more and more brands grow, Marziah feels it is imperative there is a place where Afghan business owners can sell their products domestically and overseas, or the consequences could mean the loss of economic opportunity and some of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.
Lora Bright employs a large number of nearly 35 people, most of whom are women. The shop prides itself on robust hiring of employees from its community. Lora Bright allows for both in-shop work as well as some employees who produce clothing and other items from their own homes.
Over the past two years has participated in exhibitions in a number of provinces, including Kabul as well as a number of foreign exhibitions in India, Turkey, and Kazakhstan. While Lora Bright has been in the spotlight before, they have not gained traction in international markets since their founding two years ago. It is Marziah’s hope that now Lora Bright is part of the ASEEL network, they will continue to find joy and pride in their work as well as increase their sales both in Afghanistan and globally. ASEEL is excited to partner with Lora Bright and help the business achieve the kind of global aims it has for its unique and beautiful clothing.