Concept boutique Homegrown Market celebrates fifth anniversary

JEDDAH: It was high-fives all round on Monday as the popular Jeddah-based concept boutique, Homegrown Market, celebrated its fifth anniversary.
A platform for local and Middle-Eastern creative talent, Homegrown Market offers consumers an original and diverse multi-brand shopping experience. 
Managing director, Tamara Abukhadra, spoke to Arab News reflecting on the vision of Homegrown Market's role in promoting an entrepreneurial society. “Firstly, I would like to thank customers for shopping local.” she said. “Homegrown's growth is a representation of our growing creative talent. In marking our fifth anniversary, we are not just celebrating Homegrown Market as a marketplace; It is a celebration of the concept and our amazing local talent. We started five years ago with about 15 designers, and now we have more than 100. Four of our designers have even opened their own flagship stores such as Badawiah, Sinless, Yataghan, and Orange Blossom.”
Abukhadra thanked customers for contributing to the business success story by shopping local.
Launched in 2014, Homegrown Market gives creative entrepreneurs the opportunity to showcase and sell their products without having to organize and foot the substantial costs of having their own retail establishment.
“Homegrown Market is serviced retail,” Abukhadra said. “The designers drop off their products with us, and we take care of sales. Everything from providing sales assistants and handling money exchange, to producing sales reports. This allows them (the designers) to focus on the creative process and to learn about market trends and consumer behavior.”
In addition to housing emerging fashion, art, and lifestyle brands, Homegrown Market offers shoppers the chance to buy stationery items, hand-crafted accessories, and culinary creations. “They are not just shopping a product, but months of hard work, sweat, trial and error that has turned into a success,” added Abukhadra.
Homegrown Market’s fashion brands include Moja Majka, Lasuna, Nasiba Hafiz, Mansoojat, Rouba Dayani, Abaya Factory, Qumasha, Rotana, Thaa, and Nouf Fetaihi. 
Among the accessory brands are Min Maadan Alensan, Azha, Alhassan caps, Adios Amor, and Mine bags, with beauty and jewelry covered by names such as Diggn’It, Rose and Amber, Sepale, Lilian Ismail, Haneen Saber, and Shaima.
Homeware, food and beverage brands include Chocolate Couture, Manzil Bazar, Cleanse and Glow, Nawami, Haya Sawan granola, Goin’ Nuts, and Ms. Moh.
The anniversary celebrations were held in-store and featured an array of artistic activities.
Saudi artist Abdullah Qandeel staged a live art display during which he painted a series of original prints, while another painter from the Kingdom, Rex Chouk, launched an exhibition of his works.
Some of the many Homegrown Market shoppers who attended the event in Jeddah, won gifts and prizes from local businesses. Design Magazine, Saudi Arabia’s first design networking publication, crafted a human-sized acrylic magazine cover for visitors to pose and take photos with.
“Successful local brands inspire the youth to be creative,” Abukhadra said. “I have noticed that creative entrepreneurs are starting to experiment and create brands at a much younger age. They are also reaching out to established brands for advice and even collaborations.
“Brands used to adopt a competitive attitude, but today there is more of an innovative and collaborative spirit. This is what we have been trying to create and maintain at Homegrown,” she added.