About The Founder
Soomaiya Omar
Creative director & Founder
Our Creative Director and Founder, is an accomplished business leader, a single mother of three, and has a hearing disability. With over 18 years of experience in luxury fashion and retail in South Africa, Soomaiya began her fashion journey in Dubai in the early 2000s.
Her passion for fashion, textiles, and accessories led her to source unusual fabrics, shawls, and scarves from the wholesale textile markets of Dubai. She would send them to South Africa for her sister to sell, which grew into a lucrative business. In 2004, Soomaiya and her sister Shubnum opened their first store, Chale, which was dedicated to shawls and scarves and has been a great success.
Over the years, Soomaiya has travelled the globe, visiting international fashion fairs and building beautiful relationships with manufacturers to source the most unusual pieces for her stores. She immigrated to Australia towards the end of 2018 and now launches the Soomi’O luxury scarf brand in Australia ,a fashion-forward company with a keen eye for fabrics.