Grace Designs was founded in 2017 by me, Marike Spreeth, from Cape Town.
Grace is a family name, and named after my grandmother, Grace Victor. She was a phenomenal woman who raised 8 children by herself for nearly 50 years after my grandfather passed away at the age of 52. For over nearly 50 years she remained faithful to my grandfather and made it her mission to do and give everything she could to her children, as well as grandchildren and made sure we were left with an incredible heritage. She passed away at the age of 91, 10 years ago. I look up to the woman she was and hope that I can one day give my children and grandchildren the same heritage!
The name Grace also has a spiritual connotation to it with the Grace that God has shown me during my life journey’s and spiritual walk with Him. I am forever grateful to serve a God of Grace.
Owning my own business in designer clothing and accessories, have been a dream of mine for the past 8 years. Finally, in 2017, I left my fulltime employment as an accessories buyer & brand manager at a big retail firm, to pursue my dream.
My long-term plan with my business is to use it as a platform for skills development and job creation for underprivileged women who never had the opportunity to study or develop their talents like I had. God blessed me with the incredible talent to draft patterns & sew my own clothing, and I would like to pass this skill down to others!
In the beginning of 2018, I entered the Mrs. South Africa Pageant with the hopes of creating a bigger platform and more knowledge of how to pursue this outreach with my business.
By the Grace of God, I became a semi-finalist and my life was forever changed in a very short amount of time! I now possess the knowledge and have built contacts with NPO’s where I want to, in the near future, start a skills development program.
This all takes longer than I anticipated, as there is still lots to do, and my business needs to grow till a certain point where it is safe for me to invest more time in my program.
I pray that each person will be blessed by each Grace Designs item they own, and that it may be passed on one day, as part of their heritage 😊
Lots of Love
M