Sporty fashion with a mission

Alishia Hasan combined her knowledge of texture and design to her passion to tennis.

Determined tennis enthusiast starts her own eco-fashion line

Alisha Hasan always knew she would start a fashion brand at some point in her life. As a young girl her entrepreneur spirit was known to all as she was consistently the top seller of her class competitions to raise money, and had a stall in every single school fare.

It was during her master's degree studies in London in 2013, when she won a business idea contest and got the initial seed money to buy the first batch of fabrics and the final kick to start her business.  

DREAMS & DOORS, Alisha’s business, is not just a regular central London fashion line. It is a fashion line with a mission: 

“It was definitely clear from the beginning that D&D would focus on organic and natural fibre fabrics in all of the garments - uncompromisingly,” Alisha says. She thinks that although the ‘eco-wave' is accelerating, she caters to quite a niche audience.  

“Eco-fashion is still very 'hippie', and I'm here to change that,” Alisha says. She started her company from her tiny student accommodation room which she turned into design production studio. 

Her own background in tennis and the knowledge her mother passed on to her of textile designing, guided her to creating her first organic tennis wear collection. Today, her collections have both sporty casual garments as well as activewear pieces.

Samples of Alishia's line.

Not a ‘one garment wonder’

According to Soil Association UK, the market for ecofashion has risen 2-4% during the last year, and Alisha really feels like she is in the right place at the right time with her concept. She knows that building a brand takes time, so she is still very patient and works hard to build a firm foundation and effective supply chain. 

She doesn’t want D&D to be a “one garment wonder”.

“D&D is for ambitious and active people, who want to change the world,” Alisha explains. 

Her menswear collection has attracted much wanted attention. “It was a conscious choice to have a men's collection from the beginning, although I was discouraged to do this due to resources, because men are so deprived of fashion, especially ecofashion.”

Alisha’s most popular men's products are worn by young men working in banking in the City area in London. 

“The feedback I've received is that they don't sweat as much when wearing organic cotton shirts and tops and that the Gatsby-inspired polo is easy and comfortable to wear under a suit jacket and takes you from work to after work.”

Our potential is greater than we think

From a young age, Alisha’s personal goals in life have been very present. Over the years, her friends have known her of being a very hardworking, determined and open-minded.

“Alisha believes in her friends probably more than they believe in themselves. She is always pushing us forward with our dreams and goals,” says Mirja Vainio, who has known Alisha for many years.   

“Often, during my moments of doubt, she has told me that my true potential is greater than I think. I am so proud of her that even many people doubted her when she started her fashion line, she is now taking of and doing well.”

Alisha does come a cross as a person, who is not afraid of other people’s fortune, rather she drives from it. And she is neither afraid of what other people might think or say - that is what her brand is all about - building your own success. 

Find out more about Dreams and Doors on their website, or click to take a look at Alisha's fashion line for 2015.

We want to know would you buy eco-friendly products? Has the "eco-wawe" gotten the hold of you?

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Want to find out more about eco-fashion? No problem, here are some facts and links to get you started:



By: Ida Ääri

Sexism in football

Women in Football supports female working in the industry 

Woman's Day at Wembley arena

Even after the incident in Paris where Chelsea fans brought the racism in football back to the media agenda, there has still not been much talk about sexism in football. 

This was changed by Woman in Football, an organisation which launched campaign to challenge discrimination inside the industry. 

The campaign group celebrates achievements of women working in the male dominated industry of football, lobbies and advises against sexism inside the sport and offers a network of support, contacts and mentoring for the next generation professionals.

To mark the International Women’s Day and to bring attention to the issue, the campaign group hosted a panel discussion in the home of English football, Wembley arena on 8th of March. 

Campaign hashtags #SheBelongs and #ShameOnTheGame were actively used by the audience which consisted of women working all around the industry. 

After a Google+ Hangout session, during which footballers from England and Scotland teams, currently playing in a tournament in Cyprus attended the conversation via video-link, football agent Dentaa Amoateng and the Head of Security and Operations at Wembley National Stadium, Julia Pendry, offered their opinions on the latest developments on the sexism in the game.

Women need to be competent

Pendry, who was awarded the Member of Victorian Order award for her leadership skills, made it clear that it was her competence that made her confident during her challenging career. 

She said: “If we start to bang the drums, we need to make sure that we are competent.

“What we don’t want is a situation where we are allowed in and we are actually not that good and can’t do the jobs.”

After a Q&A session, a sport law student Anna Storer said, that she almost became emotional while Pendry talked about women knowing their limitations and accepting they need to earn the opportunities equally to men.

“It should not be the way to take things forward that women should just get jobs and opportunities because they are woman,” she said. 

“We should only get the jobs if we are competent to do them. Not just because some organisation needs to ‘tick the female box’,” she said.

She added that there are very professional women out there who can compete with men and do just as well as them, but women who are not competent and get these jobs for wrong reasons, will not take the case forward in the right way, quite the contrary.

Fellow sports law student, Isabella Hislop, agreed, stating that “no-one can take skill away from you.” 

She said: “Sometimes I get these people who instantly think that I don’t know what I am talking about, but I can show them that I know. It just takes confidence to stand up for yourself in this business.”

A long time member of the organisation, Janie Frampton, who retired from refereeing to work on her own consultancy, says that female football has always been her passion, but male football has been her challenge.

She talked about the horrendous “banter” she got from the stands during her career and what she thinks needs to change.

“I asked the men if they would be offended when people shouted that they wish my family dies. They were and so was I when that was shouted at me. 

“They just think that because I am a women it would make me more emotional to hear that. It was over an offside and I struggle to understand what offside had to do with it.”

#SheBelongs is a month-long campaign, supported by Everyday Sexism, to raise awareness of discrimination and sexist abuse, especially on match days, and how to report it through #ShameOnTheGame. 

You can find out more about Women in Football by following them on Twitter: @womeninfootball and on their website: www.womeninfootball.co.uk

Tourists gathering around the iconic stadium

Wembley stadium is known as the home of football which made it the perfect place for the event.

Dolce Vita Editor Ida Aari celebrated Women's Day at Wembley

Missed the event?
Listen the whole Q&A session here:

Want to find out more about sexism in football? 
No worries, we made a simple prezi for you so start exploring:



Are you a football fan or working in the industry? Answer these two questions to help us understand if this is a problem we should take a closer look at.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.