User talk:Rizandmarlena

www.rizandmarlena.comCOMPANY PROFILE

Riz & Marlena LTD started in 2011 with a partnership between Rizwan and Marlena. The main focus of the company is clothing and fashion, although the company does produce side collections of accessories and children’s products. Occasionally, they come out with limited, specialty collections for exclusive customer needs.

Values and Goals

“We saw a lack of fashion that could actually be worn in the workplace; clothing that combined current, up-to-date vogue with quality and feasibility for a contemporary professional.”  Rizwan

“As women, I believe we are often pigeon holed as either beautiful or intelligent. I do not believe that a woman needs to look dull to be a professional. Intelligence is beauty and this is something we hope to express in our clothing.” Marlena

The only thing that equals Rizwan and Marlena’s passion for fashion and entrepreneurship is their passion for education. Marlena and I met in Dubai, a city where cultures meet, clash and blend. The one huge thing that differentiates the ignorant from the non and causes a blend rather than a clash, is not the background, wealth or status; its education. “ With this as their motto the duo aim to work with and support educational charities and organizations; their support paralleling their growth.

Creating the Vision

Combining their executive and media backgrounds along with a passion for quality fashion, Riz and Marlena began to design clothing that, in their words, ‘we would wear’.

The Fashion Gap: There appear to be two waves of clothing currently – fashion clothing and professional clothing, with the gap between the two often quite large. Both being professionals, Riz and Marlena found it difficult to find clothing that could be worn in a professional environment,  retained high quality standards and yet was still current and fashionable. Professional clothing was more often than not on the boring side, while ‘fun’ clothing was not appropriate for daily wear and habitually cut-rate quality.

Menswear Vision and Mission The fashion industry places a huge focus on womenswear and often neglects men, perhaps assuming that the average ‘man’s man’ couldn’t care less about his appearance. Riz and Marlena beg to differ. Most modern men do care about their clothing and do take pride in having their own style and taste. Riz and Marlena’s menswear collections focus on modern, professional men and their largely unfulfilled need for high quality fashion clothing that can be worn both to work and for leisure purposes. An average guy these days does not hang around in ripped jogging pants and although comfort is key, most modern men still wants to look presentable and up-to-date even when out with the buddies. The menswear collections are therefore durable, comfortable, high-quality fashion items ranging from casual to smart casual and just plain smart.

Womenswear Vision and Mission

In order to create their clothing, the majority of chains use industry standards for short, small chested women, with the general assumption that big chests equal big waists. A very large percentage of women find that tops which fit in the waist will be too tight in the chest, and if they are over 5’5 they are often considered ‘tall’ or ‘long’ by many clothing producers, when in fact, in many European countries this is a very average height. Creating their own industry standards, Riz and Marlena create clothing for women which acknowledge the fact that women’s average height and bra sizes have increased over the last couple of decades and an increase in height or chest size does not necessarily equate overall increase in dimensions. Their clothing focuses on filling the fashion gap of the body type of an average European woman, who is not a tall girl because she is 5’6 and is not a plus size because her bra cup is over a B.

THE COLLECTIONS

The Company has two main collections

The RIZ & MARLENA Collection began as the company’s core collection. It is a combination of the designers’ favourites in smart casual for ladies and men and focuses on more exclusive pieces. This collection is currently only available on demand, to select distributors.

The GABRIEL collection focuses on casual and smart casual men’s clothing. This collection can be considered the ‘playground’ where Riz and Marlena experiment with their personal fashion ideas. Although consisting mainly on menswear, the Gabriel collection includes select pieces for boys and women. The stores for this collection are currently located in the Middle East.