Ohsosom : Singapore's latest fitness & fashion offering!

Welcome back to our blog for our second offering!

As we mentioned in our first post, you will know that this is the brand that kicked it all off for Fit ME Active - and for that we are eternally grateful.

We recently had the opportunity to talk to the one and only Khalsom Ibrahim, the founder and creative director of Ohsosom. We had some questions already prepared and hopefully a lot of you reading this will find the answers informative and insightful. Khalsom wears many hats in her life; mother, daughter, sister, wife, entrepreneur, yogi, designer (we could go on) and after only a few minutes of chatting, it is clear to see that she manages to pull off all of these roles in spades!

Firstly, the name, where did it come from?

The name actually came from my mum. We were all wracking our brains trying to think of something “SOM” related. We went through a million ideas, and then she called me up one morning and said she’d got it. OHSOSOM, and that was that!

Where did your love for yoga start?

Like most people I started out doing yoga to lose weight, and of course it had to be hot yoga, yeah, I was under the illusion that hot yoga made you lose more weight. My first class I wanted to puke and faint within the first 10 minutes. No idea why I kept going back, but I did. Then eventually I found Vinyasa, out of the hot room and the love began to grow from there. I did my first TT with Bryce yoga in 2014 and then a Pre and Post-natal yoga training while I was pregnant in 2015.

What got you into the fashion and manufacturing business?

When I first started practicing properly in Singapore, the yoga clothing was really limited, Lulu, Teeki, and I found that there were no “local” offerings. The yoga game in Singapore is pretty strong, there are some really advanced and seriously dedicated practitioners, and I wanted to create something that the local crew could be proud of. Put our little red dot on the map so to speak.

Where do you get your design inspiration from?

My inspiration comes from everything around me, I love colour, tropical prints and block stripes. As much as I try to create more muted designs, the colours just keep creeping back in.

What’s the story behind the legging names…and the funky phrases inside the waistline?

Each pair of leggings is named after a fantastic and inspiring woman. I have to admit it gets a little tricky and sometimes. If I feel like the name doesn’t fit the pants, then I have to name them something else, but it means some names keep getting passed over, and all my friends and family want pants named after them so it can be difficult. Patience friends!

We are all about design at OHSOSOM, if you have a pair of our pants, you will have discovered some of fun little surprises that you wouldn’t normally find on the really big established brands. There are 4 on most pairs of pants, I won’t tell you what they all are, you will have to get a pair and find out for yourself!

Where is Ohsosom currently sold?

We sell on our website www.ohsosom.com, and in Singapore we are stocked in several of the Yoga Movement studios. In the Middle East we are stocked in a number of yoga studios thanks to our distributor Fit ME Active, including Inspire, Exhale, Yoga House and Piloga just to name a few (you can find the full listing on the "Where to Buy" page)...and of course on the www.fitmeactive.com store launching soon!

How do you balance work and family life?

Good question. You just do it! Hah.

To be honest I have never known anything different, I’ve worked since before I was pregnant, all the way through it and after. My son is now almost 2, and he sits along side me doing his thing while I design new stuff, send emails, and then we go to play groups, and then we come back and get back to work/play again. When you have your own business, there is no 9-5 and then you clock out, just like being a mum, it’s 24/7, so you just do it!

It’s hard, but it’s worth it.

Would you ever consider visiting Dubai and possibly hosting a yoga class?

Sure why not. I don’t teach regularly so you’d have to bare with me either making it way too hard or way too easy. Haha, it would be fun either way.

What are the plans for Ohsosom in the future?

The future of OHSOSOM is to carry on creating. I’m really excited about the next line, it’s slightly different from what we have done in the past, there are a few slightly more “tame” designs, but still lots of colour and sass.

We also just started to provide a service called OHSOSOM Bespoke. It’s a service specifically aimed at studio and gym owners, basically anyone who wants to have their own line of fitness apparel, but has no idea how to do it, or the time to do it. We take over the whole process for you, we design to your specifications, then we manufacture and deliver it straight to your door. It’s pretty great really, most people don’t realise how hard it is to produce something from scratch till they try it themselves. Haha trust me, we found out the hard way! OHSOSOM Bespoke takes out all the hassle, and its cheaper than wholesaling from existing brands!

Any final words for the UAE and GCC yogis?

Yes, thank you so much for all your support. We are so happy that our products are being received so well over there, and we can’t wait to come and visit everyone, do some handstands!!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Khalsom for her time (out of her busy schedule) and wish her all the success in life and business going forward. We, for one, are extremely excited to see what Ohsosom has to offer in their next collection - which direction will they take? what colours and designs will feature? what surprises are in store? We know one thing is certain, it will be AMAZING!