We are Amanda and Natasja, two sisters who started a new adventure in 2020; our own clothing label. It all started with Amanda who spends her free time designing, sketching, and painting.
With all the creativity and a passion for fashion, embarking on this adventure wasn’t a reach. While studying Architecture at the TU Delft, her interest in fashion started to grow slowly but steadily. Ambitious as she is, however, she continued with her master in Architecture. Natasja has recently graduated in Hotel- and Event Management and was looking for a new challenge.
Enthusiastic, creative, and a little impulsive is the best description for this adventure and exactly how we are.
Our story
We are both big fans of basic T-shirts. We love to wear them with our everyday jeans or a nice skirt. They are versatile and can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. Soraik was created when we came up with the idea to print Amanda’s drawings and paintings on T-shirts in order to create our own unique variation on this wardrobe staple.
Just like with the prints, we stayed close to home when looking for fabrics and a sewing atelier. Both the fabric wholesaler and the sewing atelier that we work with are located in Poland, a country that is literally a second home to us because we have Polish roots.
The story behind the name Soraik
One of the first questions we often get asked is “Soraik, what does it mean?” A while ago when Amanda came up with the idea to start a fashion label and print her artwork on T-shirts, we had to take one very important first decision. What would be our name? It had to be unique, short, catchy. Something that would be easy to remember and something that would reflect our adventure. During a brainstorming session with the whole family, we got no further than something with zussen (the Dutch word for sisters), sisters or a combination of our names. You could say it wasn’t a successful brainstorming session at all… Until Amanda came up with the Greek word Kairos. Not that she speaks any Greek, not at all. She is just really good at pinterest. Kairos means “the fleeting correctness of time and place that creates the right atmosphere for action, words or movement.” We immediately thought the word was a good fit with our adventure, but it wasn’t finished yet. Our search continued and brought us back to our childhood. When we were young we used to – don’t ask me why – say our names backwards. So I was Ajsatan and Amanda was Adnama. We decided to revisit this old habit of ours and try it with this Greek word, turning kairos into soriak… or actually soraik, because that sounds more fun!
