Cutting fabric in a family friend’s garage in Vernon is worlds away from where Raji Aujla was six months ago.
The founder of the fashion label Aujla was working as cultural curator for a private art gallery in Toronto. She had what many would believe to be a dream job, interviewing and networking with the likes of Ethan Hawke and Gloria Vanderbilt, but she never felt like she really fit in.
On a trip to a small cabin in Newfoundland with her best friend, she decided she was done expelling all of her time and energy on a job she wasn’t truly passionate about.
“Literally on the first day, I sat down and was looking out at the ocean and I said ‘I’m going to quit my job’ and it was just so natural,” said Aujla.
By the fourth day of that vacation, she called her mom to ask if she could move home, and after 11 years in Toronto, she made the move back to Vernon to work on her clothing line until she starts law school.
Things for the 30-year-old fashion designer have taken off from there.
Originally she was slated to start law school in September, which she is taking to educate herself in international law to help navigate her non-profit subsidiary, the Sikya Project, but orders and interest for her clothing have been coming in after she was picked up by Fashion Week in Toronto in 2012.
Building on her label’s success, after a positive experience at Eco-Fashion Week in Vancouver, she has decided to put school on hold until 2016.
Aujla is determined to have both her business and the Sikya Project, which is going to provide educational facilities to developing countries, as self-sufficient as possible before throwing herself into law school.
Partial proceeds of the line she is working on will go to the Sikya Project, with her goal to build a school in Pakistan by December 2016.
“The reason why I focused on South Asia for the first school is linguistics. I speak the language. I can go there and know that I’m not getting screwed over. It just makes it easier and my parents are from India, so we can make all our mistakes there, because there are certainly going to be many, and then go from there,” said Aujla
“I would really like to go into Sri Lanka. They have gone through such a civil unrest and those types of war-torn countries, where they have so little infrastructure that remains, is where I think you require educational facilities most.”
Her background in journalism inspires her charity work but was also the muse for the utilitarian look of her clothing designs.
“When you have that journalism bug, you are constantly inspired by stories and interested in learning about things happening around the world, so I’m getting a lot inspiration from my news reading at this point,” she said.
Utilizing contacts she has made in Toronto and Vancouver, Aujla soaks up advice and information like a sponge.
Her ability to ask questions and make plans has been a trait she has been known for since she was a Grade 4 student at Mission Hill Elementary, when she approached the school counsellor to find out the best way to reach her career goals.
As of now, Aujla is a family business. Her mom, a former seamstress, helps with the sewing and accounting, and family friend and local seamstress Rosie (Reshma) of Casual Wear, who sewed for NASA for 15 years, helps sew. Her older sister is her publicist and her younger sister helps with cutting when she is in town.
After the birth of her niece and nephew, she was inspired to make sure the world is preserved for them, so she has worked to make sure Aujla is environmentally responsible, using only eco-friendly fabrics like bamboo, hemp and cotton.
The collection they are working on now showed at Fashion Week in Vancouver and will be available to preview and sale at Alfie Italia in Gastown July 9 to 12. The clothing will also be available on the online store within the next month.
“It seems that these little decisions that I’ve made are growing at an exponential rate that I wasn’t prepared for, now we aren’t saying no to anything, we are just kind of riding the wave and I think when you live in a community like Vernon you can do that. You can have an idea and there is literally no end to where you can find support, whether it is Service Canada offering business development courses, or just calling up a business leader and asking to meet for coffee,” said Aujla.
“Vernon is very accommodating and supportive that is why we located our head office here.
“There are business opportunities here and there is a way for the community to benefit if we ever open a factory or start expanding the business line, which I think will happen because of the response we have been getting.”
