Have you ever heard of Gunting Batu Kain? This is not the ordinary Gunting Batu Kain we usually play with our sisters and friends. Gunting Batu Kain — they started off by selling the English cotton fabric. Now, they have rebranded their business, they sell readymade (beautifully tailored by themselves) Baju Kurung too! Worry not, they have other kind of style like Kurung Peplum, Mini Kurung etc. Cantik sangat!
Anywho, here’s abit of a story of their journey.
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Wanna know how Gunting Batu Kain gets its name? Well there was this one night, my partner and I were on our way back to Ipoh and we started to discuss on the name we could use. As dark approached, with the radio off and there were only few cars on the road, really helped us to become more creative and able to give out some names. Then it just popped out ‘Gunting Batu Kain’, and we both agreed to name it GBK.
At first I bought less than 10 meters of English cotton just to wear it myself but later I had a thought that I could get a lot cheaper if I purchase more than 100 meters. So I did. The remaining cotton was meant to be sold. It was very hard to attract even one customer and at that time I got quite a lot of comments and critiques that the patterns are unattractive and dull. Frankly speaking, I felt like I want to give up. I felt like that this is not going to work. But I am blessed to be surrounded with positive people that always believe in me and never stop supporting me.
As time flew by, I was able to handle the critiques and took them as a constructive feedback. It actually encourages me to take risk and I believe that the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. Finally, I took the leap by purchasing from 100 meters of English cotton to 1000 meters and managed to produce 6 different designs using the English cotton material. GBK sells English cotton through online and being promoted by words-to-mouth among friends and families. It was a big success for me because everything happened so fast, it took me less than 4 months from where I first started. I have to admit, I was scared when I first took the big leap, but I used it to give me strength to wake up early in the morning, work hard to get new ideas and keeping things in order to meet the timeline.
With GBK’s tagline, “Colour Your Beautiful Soul”, we hope that you’ll be able to feel comfortable wearing our colourful printed piece which can paint your soul while keeping the rest of the outfit simple. Most important of all, I get inspired by how I deal with imperfections. So, don’t worry love, you look beautiful even with wrinkled clothes on.
Instagram: @guntingbatukain
Credit: Shahirah Nasir
