[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]In a candid chat on her own podcast, designer Maria Butt, who frequently makes headlines for her thoughts rather than her outfits, recounted some untold stories of struggle and accomplishment. Butt, who has had a successful career spanning over two decades, acknowledged that the road to success was not easy for her.
The designer went through a lot following her divorce, from being a single mother fighting to make ends meet to dealing with the “fashion mafia” while her business was at its lowest ebb.
Butt sat down with her friend Afia for the latest edition of her podcast Dialogue with Maria B, and the two of them opened up about the financial and emotional hurdles they faced on their path to success. “Someone asked me a few years ago to reflect on my life and share a significant event. “One of the lowest points in my life was when I was newly divorced, my daughter Fatima was three years old, my business was at an all-time low, I could barely pay my employees, and I lived in a rented house,” she explained.
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Butt also teased the podcast interview on her official Instagram account. “Life’s trials… untold stories of learnings behind success.” “I am only concerned with Allah’s approval… never with society or people,” she wrote. Butt said in the film that people only see her enormous, opulent property now, but they have no idea that it took her 20 years of financial struggle to get here. “I rented a room for about 20 years.” And I’ve always desired my own home. “All of my friends know how hard I would work for it, but something would take it away from me,” she shouted, adding that she is grateful for the life she currently has.
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Although her parents offered to assist her, Butt preferred to support her daughter on her own. “I had this feminist energy that I’m going to do everything on my own.” I promised myself that I would work and raise my daughter on my own. But what I didn’t realise was that the time between before and after divorce moves quite slowly and is a very long process. “You’re alone and physically and mentally disturbed,” she explained.
“My mental capacity for design and work was at an all-time low.” I couldn’t concentrate. I wouldn’t call it depression, but I felt frustrated and angry with God for allowing these difficulties in my life. “My business began to deteriorate to the point where I couldn’t pay my employees’ salaries one month,” she sobbed. “At the time, my father, who handled accounts, saw how bad the cash situation was.” We needed money to keep the firm running. Without notifying me, he sold our family’s lone home and invested 80% of the proceeds in my business.”
Butt also revealed the existence of a “fashion mafia” that was violently opposed to her, owing to her standing as a “awaami designer,” or a designer for the masses. “The entire ‘fashion mafia’ was working against me. They thought I would never be successful. There was a great deal of pressure. Furthermore, there were speculations in Lahore that Maria divorced and received billions in alimony. “In my rented house, I would just listen to them and think about it,” she recounted.
“However, the notion that successful people have always been successful is incorrect. Maria is the result of my teenage rebellions, my failed love marriage, my crises with the fashion mafia, the joys and trials of being a single mother, and my battle with loneliness. “Everything taught me something,” she said at the end. “Today, the resilient, outspoken, and brave woman that I am is because Allah trained me to be the one I am.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
