Sevenov Design House was founded in 2009 by Andrea and Brenda van Doorene. Andrea providing the designs and Brenda being the skilled pattern-maker and seamtress, they partnered to form Sevenov Design House.
I think I have always had my own sense of style and even when I was little I would get and draw different ideas for items of clothing - I even remember my sister and I decorating hundreds of old cardboard cones as hats.
I realize now, looking at those early days that being a Designer was a dream I had not really given much thought to - I knew I was creative and I knew I enjoyed it but to say it was something I would actually do... That was almost too wonderful an idea to imagine or enter my mind at the time.
I am supremely happy that dreams - even the ones we weren't previously aware of - can come true because today I am the Designer and co-owner of Sevenov Design House - a Designer Label which I believe will indelibly leave its mark on the world - for glory and for beauty.
When I was in matric, many years ago, my mom said i should go for sewing lessons in order to learn an invaluable skill that would stand me in good stead for the rest of my life. I discovered I had a natural flair for pattern making. I loved turning a one dimensional piece of material into 3D. However only now after many years am I able to really concentrate fully on pattern design, pattern adaptation and with Andrea's passion for the seemingly impossible design ideas I am learning and succeeding in doing things I thought were impossible.
Undiscovered Dreams lay dormant in the heart of one not yet bold enough to perceive
them nor imagine traveling down the Path that would awaken them.
One not that different from those around her, except that she had come to know that
she was truly and dearly Loved.
Loved for being who she was... by One who knew, understood and Loved the essence
of the person she is.
Loved with an all-consuming Love…
He was the Most beautiful One she had ever known and His tenderness toward her
convinced her that there was no need to guard her heart against Him.
So it was to Him alone - the One who Loved her thus - that she, little by little, opened
up every precious and invisible part of herself.
He soon came to fill every empty space in her heart... Not just to the places where
the inattentive love from others had left a gaping wound, but also to the deeper places
where the love of those most precious to her just could not reach - to the very Lake of
her Soul, where hurt and joy at times well up but cannot escape and make the depth
or richness of themselves known. For Words do not adequately move through the walls
of the heart. In nor out.
He came to call her "Home" and His voice, as she became more aware of it, spoke to
her from within, to quiet and calm the raging Lake of her Soul when she was afraid.
Comforting her when she was hurt.
Inspiring her when she was weary.
Finding her when she was Lost.
He won her heart with all that He is and she came to decide that she no longer had
any use for her hopes or dreams if they were not also His.
It was not a decision she considered lightly...
But He had come to mean more to her than all she had once counted most precious.
Realizing that, she made her decision known to Him.
She placed her dreams and all her future plans at His feet, giving Him permission to
take them... and do with them as He desired.
Expecting Him to say something in the next breath He surprised her with His silence.
His silence did nothing to quell the fear that rose sharply in her heart, the fear that
would, she realized, logically present itself the moment you throw your soul's
most prized possessions away and agree to the future of someone else's dreams.
Placing your trust in One so completely that you agree to go with them, before you
know the where or when.
Waiting, almost impatiently, for Him to speak... expecting Him to give her His dreams,
waiting to hear the future Plans she would soon be calling her own.
She had to remind herself of who He was…
He was the One who Loved her with an all-consuming Love...
Who placed her above every other...
The One who despite great cost to Himself at times, still consistently placed her before
even Himself...
The One who could be trusted - who had been faithful - with the deep and hidden parts
of herself.
Fear gave way to Trust and she waited undaunted for His reply.
When He finally broke the silence, fully expecting He would present all the intricacies
of His own dreams and plans, she was fiercely surprised when He gave her dreams
back to her.
They were the same dreams she had just emptied her heart of, only:
they had somehow grown...?
There was more depth to them... and they were far superior now compared to how
she had envisioned them in all of her thinking about them.
The reason for His silence was now clear:
He had only been silent as He was planning the way to reach and fulfill them...
Going through, in His mind, all the possible paths and all the possible outcomes.
He had been mapping out the Path that would see her Dreams accomplished!
It was a Path where things didn't always look as she'd imagined - that sometimes
seemed to lead them in the opposite direction to where she thought they should be
going and she did not see more than one or two steps, at most, ahead of Them,
but He had the Map and He could be trusted with it.
It was a Path that required great courage... not the courage one might suppose - to
face the obstacles and the hardships and prevail against them...
No...
It called for the courage, at those most difficult times, to continue to place her trust in
Him... to believe Him above all others - over her own doubts and her own theories - and
any other voices trying desperately to have her attention...
It called for great courage, at those times, to choose to ignore every voice that
contradicted His.
That said, it was a Path that held no grounds for fear when she followed His every step.
Not that there wasn't real danger or a shortage of risk, it was simply: she understood
and had come to believe that the One who Loved her thus would not bear to see her
harmed - He had planned much too carefully for that - He knew the dangers, where they
were and how to avoid them.
All she need do was act upon His sometimes urgent, sometimes gentle directions.
This Plan was therefore one that held only excitement at the adventure of it - provided
that she was careful to follow His every Word to her.
He faithfully went before her - making adjustments to His Plan as and when situations
around Them changed.
And in His planning being sure that every Place on the Path would serve its purpose.
Sometimes to teach her things she would need later on in their journey.
Sometimes to let her rest and be refreshed.
Sometimes to teach her the importance of hearing intelligibly all His Words to her.
Sometimes showing her how her Dreams might be able to help others.
And sometimes going through difficult places, to teach her how to fight - not everyone
would see Them succeed, and He would not have her defenseless.
She was surprised, more than once, to find that He'd led her into unknown dreams...
Dreams she had not in the past clearly perceived, as they had only barely existed - in the
least traveled places of her heart.
Places where He had journeyed…
And therefore plainly understood.
This Path has led Them to the place called Sevenov - a dream she never knew existed
within her...
A most beautiful Dream that He breathed Life into - a place He had made for her.
A Place where she could see her ideas Live.
- Andrea van Doorene