Haberdashery and alterations store
“Microlux had confidence in my project! Their explanations of the little details you can forget were a great help to me, and the support of a volunteer means you don’t feel alone or lost! Today, entrepreneurship gives me professional and personal fulfillment and a great deal of freedom to make decisions!”
Isabel Pinto opened her small business, Bitzbel Couture, 8 months ago. “Word of mouth works very, very well”.
We met Isabel Pinto at the end of winter, a few weeks after the opening in Capellen of her small couture business, Bitzbel couture, “Bitz” for couture in Luxembourgish, “Bel” for Isabel. When we push open the doors of his store again, we’re greeted by the frenetic noise of the sewing machine. “I’m late, I’ve got so much to do,” smiles the 48-year-old seamstress, her smile radiant but a little tired.
“Word of mouth works very, very well”, so the seamstress doesn’t know where to turn, but it’s with sparkling eyes that she unwraps a wedding dress she’s made with her own hands. “I added tulle, tulle and more tulle,” she exclaims, adding that she even had to unstitch the bustier and reassemble everything afterwards.
“It was time to take the plunge”.
“It’s wedding and communion season, and a little help wouldn’t go amiss,” explains this mother of three. She is also looking to recruit a part-time assistant, “especially to do the touch-ups”. While she waits to find the rare gem, Isabel works hard, doesn’t yet pay herself a decent wage and brings back hems to do at home, “in front of the TV”. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy at first, and I’m not complaining, I wanted it and I don’t regret my choice,” she says.
After a career in sewing and sales, she “felt it was time to take the plunge”. “I looked at my CV and realized that I was unemployed every five years because the company was closing down or making redundancies, so I said to myself ‘STOP’, I don’t want to depend on others anymore”. Today, however, she doesn’t see herself as a boss: “I’m just a worker who makes her own decisions,” she smiles.
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