HOUSTON MADE
Designers Damari Rubio and Umair Khan are fashion kindred spirits.
Damari Rubio and Umair Khan are kindred spirits when it comes to fashion.
They not only share a studio space in west Houston, but they also help inspire each other.
Rubio, 31, designs gloves for just about everything from walking the dog to strutting on the red carpet, while Khan creates women’s evening and day dresses. They say it’s a match that works.
Their studio is located on the second level of an obscure office building on Long Point; it boasts a reception area, a photo studio and a factory area, with sewing machines, large spools of thread, mannequins and a massive work table. Both designers create and manufacture their lines here.
Khan, 34, whose nickname is Meru, shows off a rolling rack of his spring/summer dress collection under his Meru Merus label.
“Two brains are better than one,” he said. “We help each other out with ideas and inspiration. We work as a team.”
The designers met nearly a decade ago while taking fashion design classes at Houston Community College. Khan graduated with a degree in fashion design and merchandising, while Rubio stopped taking classes with the travel demands of her marketing job
They lost touch, but in 2011, they bumped into each other at City Centre and shared their fashion dreams.
Rubio was planning on quitting her job to pursue glove designing full time, and Khan had recently sold his designer-fragrance store to work on his fashion line in the studio. He invited Rubio to join him.
Last November, the designers unveiled their collections at a fashion show at Mr. Peeples in Midtown.
“I had gotten such good feedback on my gloves, and I knew it was something different. It was time to do it,” Rubio said.
Born in El Savador and raised in Houston, Rubio worked as a bra specialist at Victoria’s Secret for four years after graduating from high school. She then took the marketing job working with international hotels and spas. In her travels, she would collect vintage gloves, finding them at antique markets in Buenos Aires or thrift shops in London.
The gloves inspired her to create her own.
Her Be Playful dog-walking gloves are $29.95; Be Free driving gloves are $49.95; Be Chic fashion gloves are $34.95; and Be Fit fitness gloves are $39.95. Her collection is available at damariandco.com.
Khan’s journey also is international.
He was born in Pakistan and moved to the U.S. at age 5 with his family. Because his father worked in the airline industry, Khan and his family traveled the world until settling in New York. He moved to Houston in 1998.
Khan learned to sew from his mother and honed his skills while at HCC. His dresses range in price from $100 to $500 and are available at merumerus.com.
While he currently owns a cigar shop in Spring Branch, he said the fashion line is his dream.
“When you can work with another person who is creative, you can inspire each other and your dreams can really happen,” Khan said.