MEET OUMA TEMA, THE LADY WHO'S DESIGNING PLUS SIZE FASHION TO EMPOWER WOMEN TO FEEL BEAUTIFUL
The Insider SA meets Ouma Tema, the founder of Plus-Fab who shares her philosophy behind self love and creating clothes for plus size women.
Born in a small township in Limpopo, Ouma Tema grew up in a world where fashion did not reflect her identity so she decided to take matters into her own hands. She started making her own plus size clothes and sharing them on social media.
“Plus-Fab was born out of frustration. Everytime I went to stores, everything said grandma, and I didn’t think I was a grandma. I wanted to go out on a date and I wanted to look cute, but there weren’t any outfits available for me to do that. As life has given me lemons, I made lemonade,” shares Malesela Rachel ‘Ouma’ Tema, founder and creative director of Plus-Fab.
Ouma started her journey selling clothes from the boot of her car, until the opportunity presented itself to work from her apartment garage which she quickly turned into her studio.
The entrepreneur and designer now owns a fully fledged factory with a growing team of dedicated employees and partners who share in the vision.
“We are here being the change that we want to see because we believe that plus size women can be fabulous, can be plus and still be gorgeous, and indeed they can still look amazing. Our goal is to challenge the status quo and make you see what we see in ourselves,” says Ouma
She has been at this for 10-years, and has just launched her beautiful bridal collection.
“All these plus size women have trusted us to take them to weddings as guests, to take them to their first day of work, to take them somewhere for something. Surely, they can trust us to take them down the aisle.”
How encouraging that through the power of positive thinking and sure will power Ouma Tema has been able to self actualise and reach her full potential. We thank her for the reminder that when we don’t like the way that things are, we can and need to be the ones to change them.
