Journal/SABA Styles/Spotlight on Dharma: with Sarah Lim

Journal

Spotlight on Dharma: with Sarah Lim

29 Dec 2023

AshleighMounser

Sarah Lim, Senior Womenswear Designer and Brand Stylist, speaks on the inspiration behind SABA’s most loved fabrication, how to style Dharma’s many iterations and her favourite picks from the new season. The Summer ’23 drop from SABA heroes an all-new take on Dharma – the perfect travel clothes for women now available in fresh alabaster and bone hues.

Fashion designer Sarah Lim has been creating refined, elevated workwear for SABA going on eight years. With a university background in fine arts, majoring in textiles, she continued her studies at the Whitehouse Institute of Design, where she completed a Bachelor of Design.

Post graduation, Sarah worked at Australian labels Wayne Cooper and Jigsaw, and ran her own label before she was contacted about designing for SABA. On what drew her to designing for SABA, Sarah says, “The brand aesthetic was beautiful and clean…contemporary design with a bit of its own flair.”

One of the most iconic pieces Sarah has had a hand in creating is Dharma, which has long been a pillar of SABA’s women’s workwear range. Made using our best-selling low-crease Japanese fabric, Dharma is available in everything from workpants to a travel dress. Professional without being corporate, the Dharma blazer Dress is the effortless answer to what to wear to work Christmas party dramas.

Sarah says, “We sourced Dharma during a time when traditional workwear was transitioning. People were looking at buying product that could go from desk to dinner, and clothes for travel. It draped well on the body, took construction well for jackets, didn’t crease, was transeasonal for the Australian climate, and made excellent work pants for women.”

Since its creation, Dharma has been designed into every end use. From workwear through to dinner dates and ladies who brunch to wedding guests, this fabrication goes all night and day. Even packed in a suitcase, or after a long commute, Dharma is crease-free, making this product the best travel pants.

For Sarah, the ways to wear Dharma are numerous; “I love that I can take my Dharma Cargo Pants and dress them up with a heel for work and pop them on with slides and a rib tank on the weekend and still feel put together even at the playground.”

The Dharma Cargo is the perfect travel pant, and is a particular favourite of Sarah’s, along with the Dharma Vest. She says, “To me, that is the perfect outfit for desk to dinner – especially with our essential leather belt and a black strappy stacked heel sandal. I like to leave a couple of buttons undone at the bottom to create that effortless thrown-on look.”

Seamlessly transitioning between professional life and moments of leisure, SABA’s Summer ‘23 Edit showcases tonal, transeasonal essentials. Characterised by subtly refreshing shades, lively prints and inviting textures, these pieces are precisely tailored to create a statement.

Sarah’s favourite addition is the Firedance Set – crafted from a stretch mesh fabric, with a double layer to create a dual visual effect, this is SABA’s take on modern date night outfitting. The iconic print is inspired by the weaving strands of Papua New Guinean bilum bags and the result is striking, assertive, bold and ubiquitous – just like the Firedance Set. Sarah says, “I love a twin set for ease, but also because they can be styled back as separates.”