Danielle has always had a love for clothing from a teen, making clothes for friends and family and growing up with the influence of her mother who manufactured Manchester for David Jones.
This led her to studying pattern making and design at TAFE and a career in clothing manufacturing wholesale and retail.
Born in Sydney, then growing up on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Danielle and family moved to QLD on the GC before settling in Wynnum.
She opened her first clothing shop at the Grand Plaza in Browns Plains 14 years ago. Preferring a more community-based outlet and lifestyle than a big shopping centre, she moved her store to Wynnum via a stint in Mt Gravatt . “It was closer to home”, she says, “and we loved being by the water with a connection to a community and close to friends”.
Danielle describes the offering from Sobidah as “Clothing for women size 8-18+ who want to look and feel great and build confidence from within”. Her clothing range specialises in natural fibres and colourful resort styling as befits the Queensland and relaxed Bay lifestyle. She provides Style Consultations and an Alterations service.
Sobidah Clothing has become a staple of the Wynnum Uplate shopping evenings with its highly anticipated Fashion Show and catwalk complete with red carpet adorning the Bay Terrace footpath. Working with neighbouring boutique Simply Bella and until recently DBS Menswear, Danielle says “It a great opportunity to showcase the local wares….and that local shopping can be easy and fun’.
Why the name Sobidah? Long story however, “I made it up”, she says adding, “only ever googling it in English” to then find out it meant, gentle, feminine, calm in an Indian dialect. “My hair stood on end when I found this out”. Pronounced “So Bee Da”
She loves living in Wynnum with its casual lifestyle, water ways and sea breezes. A lover of the water she and her family can be found often enjoying Moreton Bay, or – pre the virus – the hospitality from the bayside eateries.
“Wynnum is a great place to live” she says, “and has a bright long-term future.”
And her business motto? “We didn’t invent fashion, just style it to you.”
