I am a reserved person. I always have been. I don’t long for a loud presence or the spotlight – far more for quiet, for the work, for that moment when a fabric reveals in my hands what it could become. When BHARB began in 2018, it felt like the most natural decision: let the dresses stand forward, not me. We started in a small family workshop, quietly, with devotion, and I believed that if the dresses were beautiful enough, careful enough, special enough, then there was no need for me to be in the picture too. What we create is enough.
And in part, that was true, the dresses did speak. Every single piece we made carried within it the devotion it was created with: the long search for the right fabric, the careful cutting, that moment when a silhouette suddenly takes shape and you simply know, this is it. It is no accident that I give every piece in the collection a name. Because to me, a dress only truly becomes itself when it has character, when it belongs to someone, when it has a name — which, of course, I know all by heart.
Behind every brand, there is a person
But over the years, I increasingly felt that something was missing. Not from the dresses, but from the way we show ourselves to the world. Behind every brand, there is always a person. There is a hand that touches the fabric and feels its weight, its light, the way it moves – for me, everything begins with that touch. There is a pencil that someone picks up and begins to draw with, not because they know where it leads, but because they have to start somewhere. There is a decision about which fabric, which lace, and how to combine them, and a thousand smaller and larger choices besides. All of these decisions come from me — and until now, I have hardly ever shown them.
So much has happened since BHARB began. We now have three children, the business has grown, the Sopron showroom has opened, and the dresses have travelled ever further. Every one of our dresses is made to order — not a single piece is created in vain. Most of our materials are made from recycled fibres, come from European textile mills, and our packaging is FSC-certified. Not because it is fashionable these days, but because it matters to us. Because what we make should be worn, by a real woman, in a real moment.
The woman I design for
She is the woman I always see before me as I design. She is not loud, she does not seek attention, but she has presence, she has resolve, and she knows exactly who she is. She radiates strength and fragility at once – the calm of classic forms and the courage of the modern woman. I have often felt that I know this woman on some level. Perhaps because, in so many ways, I am her too.
From now on, I speak too
Over the years, slowly and gradually, a realisation grew within me: a brand becomes truly memorable when there is someone behind it who shows why they do what they do. It wasn’t a sudden moment, not a decision made one morning — rather a slow, quiet ripening. Just as a fabric shows one thing in the light and another in the shadow.
From now on, I would like to show more of what until now existed only within the workshop or even only within me. The process of design, the world of materials, those moments when an idea suddenly becomes reality, or takes an entirely different direction than where it started. I am not planning grand announcements, there will be no spectacular campaigns. Instead, I would like to open small windows – into my work, into my thinking, into what truly defines me as a designer.
The dresses have spoken for me until now. From now on, I speak too.
Barbara