A humble home studio in Sydney’s south west is the hub for Thomas Lazar’s thriving business.
The fashion designer started his own line in 2012 and today employs six staff in his small business.
While his main designs fetch an asking price from $6000, an awareness of working in a lower socio-economic community and catering for them has helped his business grow.
This awareness and attention to detail is something that led him to discover his passion for fashion at an early age.
Thomas Lazar has always been a creative person, appreciating good, even at this early age with his family. (Supplied.)
“Ever since I was younger I used to go to weddings with my mum,” Mr Lazar said.
“My father is a priest and we were constantly invited to weddings every week, but my father didn’t go so my mother took me as her partner instead.
“I just got so fascinated by wedding gowns.”
An early lesson in business however, forced him to restart and reassess his work.
“I had a brand that I was producing before Thomas Lazar called I am by Tom with a couple of people, but they took the designs of this brand I was supposed to produce and it completely fell apart really fast.”
Growing up, he sensed it was always expected of him to take after his father, who was against his design dreams.
“Culturally it’s not something that, well, everyone thought that I was going to be a priest but that’s not me at all,” he said.
His father is a well-known Assyrian priest, a path in life he said was also expect of him. (Supplied.)
He did eventually go to fashion school with his family’s support. But it was another short course on how to sew that boosted his inspiration, albeit without his parent’s knowledge.
“I used to tell my parents I finished late but this one time I came back really late and my mum was sitting on my bed all teary with this huge bag she had dug up from underneath my bed with dresses.”
“She was like, ‘what is this?’ So I told her that I made them and she didn’t know what to say, her face was priceless.”
He became self-taught and using design books and online resources set him on a path to realise his business dreams.
“I hope this encourages my people to allow creative kids to explore because you can’t teach creativity, and I’m still learning because fashion is an art.”
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