From My Hands to Your Wardrobe: The Story and Craftsmanship Behind Moda de la Maria

There is something very personal about making a garment with your own hands.

Before it becomes a jacket, a coat or a dress, there is simply an idea. A sketch. A piece of fabric. A pattern waiting to be cut.

Then slowly, through hours of work, it begins to become something that will eventually belong to another woman.

That process is at the heart of Moda de la Maria.

I founded the brand in London in 2013, not because I wanted to create another fashion label, but because I loved making clothes and believed there was still a place for fashion that felt more personal, more thoughtful and more connected to the person who created it.

More than a decade later, I still believe that.

A business built one piece at a time

Moda de la Maria has never been about producing hundreds of identical garments as quickly as possible.

I design. I develop patterns. I cut fabric. I fit garments. I make adjustments. I work with customers. I choose materials and think about how they will feel, move and age.

There is very little distance between the designer and the making process.

Sometimes people see a finished coat or jacket and only see the final piece. They don't see the pattern on the cutting table, the fabric being carefully positioned before the first cut, the fitting that changes a line by a few millimetres, or the small decisions made along the way.

But to me, those details are the garment.

They are where its character comes from.

Choosing the slower art of making

It would be easier in many ways to follow the conventional fashion model: produce larger quantities, manufacture quickly and constantly introduce something new.

I chose a different path.

I work predominantly through made-to-order and small-run production, using beautiful natural materials such as British wool and tweed, silk and cashmere.

I love fabric with character. I love knowing where a beautiful wool comes from. I love the way silk changes a garment when it moves. And I love the little details that perhaps only the woman wearing the piece will ever notice.

For me, craftsmanship isn't about making something complicated simply for the sake of it. It is about care.

Care in the material.

Care in the cut.

Care in the fit.

And care for the person who will eventually wear it.

Clothes should belong to the woman — not the other way around

One of the things I value most about remaining independent is being able to know my customers.

Made-to-order creates a very different relationship between a woman and her clothes.

A customer isn't simply choosing something from a rail and being expected to fit into it. We can talk about what she likes, how she wants to feel, how she will wear the garment and what details matter to her.

Sometimes a fitting requires a change. Sometimes a conversation inspires another idea.

That human relationship is something I never want Moda de la Maria to lose as it grows.

I want a woman to put on one of my pieces and feel that it belongs in her wardrobe and her life — not that she has simply bought something because fashion told her she needed it this season.

The reality behind a small independent brand

Running a small fashion business can be beautiful, but I don't want to romanticise it.

There have been difficult moments.

When you are independent, you don't have the resources of a large fashion house behind you. You make decisions, take risks, solve problems and keep going even when you don't know exactly what will happen next.

There are days filled with creativity and days filled with administration. There are exciting opportunities, disappointments, long hours, ideas that don't work and moments when you have to find the courage to try again.

And because the business is so personal, you feel all of it.

But then something happens that reminds you why you started.

A customer comes back.

Someone puts on a garment and suddenly smiles at herself in the mirror.

A piece you spent hours creating finds its person.

Someone notices the craftsmanship.

Those moments matter enormously to me.

More than a decade later, a very special recognition

This year brought one of those moments.

Moda de la Maria has been selected as one of Small Business Saturday UK's Nation's Favourite Businesses for 2026.

When I first heard the news, it meant much more to me than simply adding another recognition beside the brand's name.

I thought about the journey.

I thought about starting in 2013.

I thought about all the fabrics I have cut, all the patterns I have worked on, all the fittings, mistakes, changes, ideas and pieces that began on my table and eventually left in someone else's hands.

And I thought about how much persistence it takes to keep a small independent business moving forward.

That is why this recognition feels so personal.

It tells me that there is still an appreciation for businesses built differently — businesses where the person behind the name is still there, doing the work.

When you support a small business, you support a person

“Shop small” can sometimes sound like a slogan.

But behind a genuinely small business, there really is a person.

There is someone's time.

Someone's skill.

Someone taking the risk.

Someone answering the email, preparing the order, wrapping the parcel, worrying when things are quiet and celebrating when an order comes through.

For Moda de la Maria, that person is still very often me.

And perhaps that is why being named one of the Nation's Favourite Businesses feels so meaningful.

It isn't only recognition of a brand.

For me, it is recognition of craftsmanship, independence and the value of continuing to make things with human hands.

From my hands to yours

I don't know exactly where the next chapter of Moda de la Maria will lead.

I have many ideas and still want to create many things.

But I know what I don't want to lose.

I want to remain close to the making.

I want to continue working with beautiful materials.

I want customers to know that there is a real person behind their clothes.

And I want to continue creating pieces that don't exist simply for a season, but that women can wear, love and keep.

Because after all these years, the moment I still love most is remarkably simple:

An idea begins in my head.

It passes through my hands.

And eventually, it becomes part of someone else's story.

Maria Ruseva
Founder & Designer, Moda de la Maria