Founder & Designer of BOSHRA
“START BEFORE YOU FEEL COMPLETELY READY. LET IT BE IMPERFECT. LEARN AS YOU GO. REFINE AS YOU GROW. AND DON’T LET YOUR SENSITIVITY BECOME THE THING THAT KEEPS YOU SMALL”
Hi Boshra, how are you!
I’m doing really well, thank you. It has been a very special period for BOSHRA. A few weeks ago, Queen Mathilde of Belgium wore one of my designs, which still feels a bit surreal.
Building something of your own never really stops, but I feel very grateful to share a part of my world through BOSHRA.
You are an amazing entrepreneur. How did you get started?
I started very small and very intuitively. BOSHRA was not born from a perfect business plan. It started as a personal need to create. My mother, Pari, was a very creative woman. She used to sew in Iran and later continued sewing after building a new life in Belgium. Her sewing machine was always part of our home. As a child, I did not fully understand the value of that. I saw it as something normal.
Only later, after losing her, I began to understand it differently. What she did was not just sewing. It was creativity, patience, beauty and the ability to make something meaningful with your own hands. In a way, that stayed with me.
I took a course in leather craftsmanship, at first just for fun, but I became completely obsessed with making handbags. I was constantly cutting, testing, changing patterns, making mistakes and trying again.
I started BOSHRA six years ago, and for the first two years I made every order by hand myself. What started as a hobby slowly grew into a Belgian handbag brand, designed in Belgium and now made in Italy. But even today, the brand is still very much connected to that first feeling of creating something with my own hands.
Wow that’s amazing! So nice that you can share that passion with your mom!
What’s the least glamorous part of building your own brand?
If I could, I would probably design and make bags all day. I have sketchbooks full of ideas, half-made shapes and things I still want to explore.
But building a brand also means emails, production follow-up, samples, planning, sales, accounting, delegation and solving problems no one ever sees. I actually have a degree in accounting, so that helps, but every production still comes with stress and responsibility.
The least glamorous part is that you have to stay practical. A beautiful idea is one thing, but then the leather has to arrive, the sample has to be right, the atelier has to understand the construction, and the final bag has to be perfect for the customer.
What’s a lesson you learned the hard way?
That you can’t wait until everything is perfect. I am very critical of my own work, sometimes too critical. I see every small detail, every imperfection, every thing that could be better.
But I learned that perfection can also become a way of hiding. You cannot build something if you keep waiting for permission or for the perfect moment. At some point, you have to decide: I believe in this, so I’m going to try. That doesn’t mean you always feel confident. It means you move forward anyway.
That’s great advice! Where do you get your inspiration?
A lot of my inspiration comes while I am creating. I don’t always start with a moodboard or a fixed concept. Sometimes the shape appears through the process: cutting, folding, testing, changing and starting again.
Tools, leather and construction itself are often my biggest inspiration. I like to understand what the material wants to do: how it folds, where it needs structure and where it can stay soft.
I also try to start from something essential: why do I want to make this bag? What does it need to do? For example, the Pari Mini started from the simple idea that I wanted a small bag that could still carry my phone and essentials. The Pari Large came from the need for a bag that could carry a laptop for the IT sales job I used to have, while still feeling elegant.
So my inspiration is not only visual. It comes from function, material, emotion and the process of making. I like bags that are functional, timeless and beautiful.
What’s your favourite thing you have created?
That is a hard one, because different pieces mean different things to me.
Emotionally, Pari will always be very special, because it carries my mother’s name. It is connected to the beginning of BOSHRA and to the personal layer behind the brand.
But technically and creatively, the Mahtab has a very special place for me. It took a lot of work to get the shape right. It looks soft and elegant, but it is very constructed. The Mahtab is about that tension between softness and structure.
Seeing Queen Mathilde wearing the Mahtab in Caramel Latte was surreal. Not because it suddenly changed the work behind it, but because it made that work visible for a moment.
That must have been so exciting! What’s your favorite lunch during a work day?
Honestly, when I’m very busy or in a creative flow, I sometimes forget to eat properly, which is not ideal. But when I do take a break, I love something simple and comforting: a good salad, soup, eggs and I also love a simple grilled cheese sandwich.
And I love, love, love Belgian patisserie.
If your 18-year-old self met you today, what do you think she'd be most proud of?
I think she would be surprised first. At 18 I don’t think I would ever have imagined that I would build something like this.
BOSHRA was never planned as a brand in the beginning. I just wanted to make handbags. I wanted to create something with my hands, to learn, to try, to understand the craft. Step by step, almost unintentionally, it grew into something bigger.
I think my 18-year-old self would be proud that I kept going, even without having the full plan. She would be proud that I dared to trust my creativity. And honestly, I still find it a little crazy and very beautiful when I see people carrying something I created. That feeling never becomes normal.
What’s your favorite way to relax?
Honestly, I’m not very good at relaxing. My mind is always busy and I usually have ten things going on at the same time. Even when I try to rest, I often end up thinking about a new idea, a bag shape, a colour or something I still need to fix.
But I love being at home. Spending time with Moni my dog, and Ziba my senior cat. I also have chickens and a rooster, so home is never completely quiet, but in the best way.
I love long summer evenings with food, drinks and genuine people. I’m not really someone who enjoys very busy places with a lot of people. I recharge more in small, familiar settings, with people who feel real and easy to be around.
So I think my favourite way to relax is being at home, surrounded by my animals, good energy and probably still working a little. Real relaxation? I’m not sure I was built for that.
How cute! What’s your biggest dream?
Of course, my dream is to build BOSHRA into an international handbag brand. But not just to become “big”. I want to build a brand with real identity, craftsmanship and emotion. A brand that creates beautiful objects people don’t just buy, but keep, wear and feel connected to.
For me, the dream is also very personal. I started by making bags myself, without a big plan, just a need to create. So to one day see BOSHRA in the kind of boutiques I admire in cities like Paris would feel almost surreal. Not because Paris is just “fashion”, but because it represents a world I used to look at from the outside.
My biggest dream is to prove that something can start very small, very intuitively, even with a lot of doubt, and still grow into something meaningful. I want BOSHRA to travel the world, but without losing the soul of where it started.
We definitely believe you can! We’re rooting for you! Be honest, how many bags do you own? :)
Honestly? I lost count a long time ago. Probably somewhere over 100, but in my defense: I design bags.
Some are prototypes, some are samples, some are leather or colour tests, and some I keep because I want to study the construction, the shape, the balance or how the bag feels after use. So my collection is part wardrobe, part archive, part research and part chaos.
Makes sense haha! Tell us something to inspire the culture
Start before you feel completely ready. Not careless. Not without taste. Not without standards. But before everything feels perfect.
I think a lot of creative people are stopped by the fact that they care too much. They see every flaw before anyone else does. They imagine every possible reaction. They keep changing, improving, doubting.
But the world does not need more perfect ideas hidden in someone’s head. It needs people brave enough to make something real.
Make the first version. Let it be imperfect. Learn as you go. Refine as you grow. And don’t let your sensitivity become the thing that keeps you small.
CHECK OUT BOSHRA