LONDON: WHEN Dr Eliesmaziah Elias felt she wanted a break from working with surgical tools, she thought her time would be well spent focusing on her young family. But as someone who was used to being busy, she took to her sewing machine and turned a hobby into a business, giving birth to Instant Hijabs UK.
The 45-year-old researcher who did biomaterial implanted into eyes and heart sensors, to name a few, literally allowed her ideas to go to the head and now as founder of Instant Hijabs UK, she is proud to see the product of her creativity adorning the heads of Muslim policewomen in several UK police forces, such as the Northumbria Police, Wiltshire and Kent Police force.
While her lightweight, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-perspirant and breathable sports hijab with outlets for earphones are being snapped up, in the pipeline are negotiations with some other police forces, as well as the UK Fire Brigade.
When I first met Elies at the London Muslim Lifestyle show last year, her one-year-old business was already booming with customers snapping up her collections and wanting her attention.
Last week, it was just apt that she was one of the speakers at the 21st Century Leadership Programme in Oxford, organised by Catapult Partners Asia, where she spoke about her journey into the entrepreneurial world.
Challenges were aplenty — not least because she had no business experience at all. However, for the then part-time medical engineering student at Liverpool University, admitting defeat wasn’t an option.
After all, wasn’t she the only female student in a class of male students, who juggled studies with bringing up two young children and yet emerged as the only one with a distinction?
Doing business in Muslim garments in an environment where the Muslim community around her wasn’t very inclusive proved to be difficult as well, but she made a point of reaching out to them rather than wait to be invited.
That was what she did to penetrate the UK police force. At a Muslim lifestyle event in Manchester when her business was still in its infancy, she left her stall to talk to some police officers who were recruiting Muslim members of society as they were still very much under-represented.
From as far back as 2011, the police force in the UK had already given Muslim women on duty the option of wearing a hijab, with the Metropolitan police saying that they would consider whatever changes necessary to make the force more accessible to different races and creeds.
Elies saw this opportunity at the start of a new era in the police force. With her background in biomaterial, she noticed that the materials used by the Muslim policewomen were not suitable and told them so.
Her confidence and outspokenness paid off. That was the break she needed and now with her no-fuss, no-pins, instant hijabs, stretchy and fast drying, complying with EN, ISO and AATCC testing standards she is not looking back.
Instant Hijabs UK ensured its delicately designed hijabs, created for modern, busy women, would stay fresh and free of sweat odour.
“I was experimenting with instant hijabs for sports long before Nike came out with theirs,” said Elies, looking back at the disappointment of having to face the giant in the market.
Her disappointment didn’t last long and it was a matter of time before her business got the necessary attention.
Instant Hijabs UK was shortlisted as one of the finalists for start-up business of the year at the Islam Channel Business Awards.
Elies took me on a breathtaking journey proving that one can be agile in the choice of career and transfer skills when necessary and be willing to adapt and snap any opportunities when you see a gap in the market.
It took this lass from Melaka two weeks to decide whether she should join in as a speaker at the illustrious Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, apprehensive that she had nothing to share after the participants had heard from speakers, such as Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, former managing director of Khazanah Nasional, Adam Grindley, who has 30 years’ experience as a retail consultant, and the award-winning international brand consultant, Kubi Springer.
Her apprehension was unfounded. Her journey resonated with those experienced by participants present although the route taken might not be similar. The journey was indeed interesting and the destination even more exciting.