DOING GOOD WITH CHELI GHARTI

Photography By Diogo Lopes

As part of Women’s History Month, we want to use our platform to spotlight women doing amazing things in fashion design, and what better day to start than International Women’s Day? 

From Nepal to Hackney via Wales and Winchester, meet Cheli Gharti, who created GOOD WORKSHOP with a simple goal in mind: “It’s very hard to change the world just by myself. It’s just adding a little bit of goodness to what I do.”

After studying Fashion design in Winchester then going on to work as a seamstress for a few fashion companies, lockdown was the game changer, helping her actualise her dreams to begin something of her own: “I always wanted to make something for myself. I worked for some other brands for four to five years. But there's always things that you want to do for yourself.” 

Starting small, the support of her friends has what has continued to spur her on. Speaking on starting out, Cheli says: “The first thing I made was a hat. I showed it to my friends and they would hype me up.” Utilising patchwork detailing became an initial foundation of GOOD WORKSHOP and is the perfect example of the “good” Cheli is dedicated to doing, saving materials that were prematurely at the end of their life cycle. “When I had a studio in Hackney, there was a factory nearby, and they had so many off cuts, wastage, ready to be thrown out,” says Cheli “So I spoke to the people who work there, the manager, and said ‘Hey, sir, can I have this?’ They were like ‘Yeah, sure. Take it.’' she says. Due to the differing sizes of the material, Cheli’s patchworked hats are all one-of-one designs, and have found their way onto the heads of FKA Twigs, Wesley Joseph and many many more.

And whilst hats are such a popular accessory, Cheli is dedicated to never allowing supply to outweigh demand, doing her bit to tackle fashion’s huge problem with waste and overproduction. “Knowing that from my work experience, and then starting GOOD WORKSHOP, I just wanted to take things back. Back to basics. Take it slow, hence the reason why we do everything made to order,” she says.

As the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. Whilst still very much in her growth phase, she can list Billionaire Boys Club as a client, designing an unconventional balaclava in “Five different colours, five different ice cream flavours,” she explains. The product of a naturally progressing relationship, everything Cheli is doing has foundations in authenticity. Speaking on creating something for their Ice Cream division, Cheli said: “We worked on the colour scheme, the design aspect together. It was just that. It was organic. It was nice.”

Looking forward, Cheli hopes to continue to do good, create more, and encourage slow and deliberate shopping. As well as some more projects in the pipeline (spoiler alert: think disused parachutes), she looks to keep creatively exploring, and have her products grace the bodies of many more.

It’s not even been 2 years, and it’s been a great start so far.

Stay good. Stay tuned.