It started with her own wedding dress, today Monika Srovnalová is a popular tailor

^{photo: courtesy of Monika Srovnalá}

From a small workshop with one sewing machine in one room at home, she moved after a year to a nearby village, where she opened her own studio with a sewing workshop. She didn’t expect miracles by waiting, but brides liked her work and soon she had a lot of orders. She received awards in 2018 and 2019 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year. After some time, when her son was born, she longed to have a studio again at home, in a village near Olomouc. This time, however, much larger with a sewing workshop and a separate dressing room. This dream was fulfilled by her husband, who built it all within one year.

“My work is also my great hobby. Not only I, but also my customers enjoy the whole process from the first meeting with the bride. Sometimes we go through a dress in 10 minutes and spend the next hour just talking. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of stories and know what to avoid at a wedding, who to recommend, etc., so brides are happy to have someone to talk to about it,” he says Monika Srovnalová.

Customers like to compare a visit to Monika’s studio to a visit to a psychologist, thanks to the openness of its owner and the satisfaction with which the customer leaves.

^{photo: courtesy of Monika Srovnalá}

“Thanks to this, I get to know the brides’ character and tailor their dresses not only to measure, but also to their soul. They are a big inspiration for me, I like to get to know their style and what they feel best in. When brides leave afterwards, they always say they can’t imagine wearing any other wedding dress than the one I made. I’m in constant contact with a lot of them and that there are,” laughs thirty-one-year-old Monika Srovnalová.

She has already dressed 83 brides and not infrequently receives gifts from her customers on their honeymoons as a thank you for her work. She tailors wedding dresses for each bride, so you won’t find any dresses that are the same. She likes to use different laces, combinations of colors or lengths. However, her atelier also produces dresses for social events, such as balls and other evening events.

“A lot of brides want to use the dress after the wedding, so we figure out how I can repurpose it so that it can be used again,” evaluates the further sustainability of the dress’s author. According to her, about half of brides come with a clear idea. Her dream is that the wedding dress shines on the headlines of magazines, or that a famous person wears it on her wedding day. This dream came true for her thanks to Honza Kvarda’s project called Princesses help, where several celebrities wore her clothes. Photos from this project were then auctioned at a charity evening for the Pink Bubble Foundation.

At the end, Monika Srovnalková indicated that she is preparing a new project for next year, which will not only excite brides, for whom she will thus expand her offer and facilitate their decision-making.

^{photo: courtesy of Monika Srovnalá}