Three young mums from London who launched a modesty clothing line have opened their first business current account thanks to Unity Trust Bank.

Arefat Ahmed, 27, her sister Semira Ahmed, 32, and their friend Maria Belete Hailmichael, 30, set up Shama Modesty in Hackney earlier this year to produce good quality, fashionable garments.

The women, who design the clothes and make them by hand, were introduced to Unity through Hackney Cooperative Developments (HCD) – a community development organisation that provides affordable rents, business support and training.

Andy Ledger, Relationship Manager at Unity Trust Bank, said: “We recently provided seven figure finance to HCD to expand its business premises in Dalston.

“We’re proud to support organisations like HCD because they create much-needed business premises and employment opportunities.

“I have been holding monthly surgeries for individuals and businesses that HCD work with, offering general help and advice about business banking, and I’m pleased that an exciting new business like Shama Modesty chose to bank with us.”

Arefat, a mother of one, said: “Me, Semira and Maria are from Ethiopia in East Africa and we moved to the UK in 2007 as we have family living here.

“I’ve wanted to run my own business since graduating from the University of East London with a degree in business management in 2018 but didn’t know what type of business.

“I’ve always loved fashion and wanted to be a modesty model at one time. After the three of us went on sewing courses we decided to launch our own modesty clothing business.

“You can buy modesty clothing anywhere but sometimes it doesn’t look the same after a few washes because the fabric is cheap. We wanted to provide customers with handmade, affordable clothing that was good quality.

“We buy good fabric from wholesalers in the UK and recycle what we don’t use.

“We make the clothing ourselves and follow the latest trends but modify it to fit our audience. We also make children’s clothes.

“Our target audience is Muslim women but many non-Muslim women have told us how much they like our clothes too so we’re selling to a wide range of customers.”

Shama Modesty designs are sold on Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram but the trio have plans to expand in the future.

Arefat said: “We’re still learning and growing the business and our account with Unity Trust Bank is the first one we’ve had. Andy Ledger helped us a lot. I thought that setting it up would be a hard process but it wasn’t; it was really smooth.

“We’re currently working flexible hours set up around our childcare arrangements – my sister has two children and Maria has four.

“However, we want to go full time soon and have our own shop as the studio isn’t big enough to sell our products from.”