Izadora Hodges often meets people wearing her designs around London. But bumping into Joy Crookes by the toilets at All Points East was a definite highlight. “She was like, ‘I love your brand,’” Hodges tells Broadsheet. “I was stunned, because I was a fan of hers when I was younger.”
The brand in question was Hodges’s label, Arodazi – a label that has taken London’s cool girls by storm. Worn by CMAT and Asha Banks, among others, Arodazi’s signature baggy check Oshi trousers, fitted tops and indigo denim are everywhere once you start looking, especially in east London.
Since founding the brand, Hodges has gone from pinch-me moment to pinch-me moment. She’s popped up at a showroom at Copenhagen Fashion Week, been tapped by pop musician Madison Beer’s stylist and built up a 50,000 strong community of Arodazi-lovers on Instagram. All that, and she’s only 23.
It’s been a learning curve. Hodges founded the label following a solo trip around India. After a childhood spent visiting the country with her family – “they used to be dancers and actors in Bollywood” – she found herself in Pushkar, Rajasthan, a town with a lot of family-run clothing manufacturers.
Hodges – who had studied fashion design for two years – got chatting to the owner of a clothing shop, and one day he offered her the chance to make some of her own items.
“I knew that I loved clothes and I knew that I liked designing,” Hodges says. “So I took the opportunity. I was like, ‘Well, I could either stay in India for another month, or I could get some skirts made, and try and sell them.’”
She chose the latter option, smuggling them back in her suitcase and leveraging her social media followers to promote them. The skirts sold out immediately, and Arodazi – her first name backwards – was founded soon after, when she was 21. Barely three years later, she operates out of a space in Limehouse and is, to hear her tell it, constantly busy.
Arodazi’s target audience is wide-ranging, but Hodges says there’s a through-line. “The concept throughout all of my designs is to make people feel powerful when they’re not feeling the best. I want them to think of Arodazi when you wake up and you just feel a bit shit.
“I’ve struggled with body issues – so many women and people have – and I think just to have a safe outfit, always, is so important. I want everyone to feel good, basically.”
This approach also applies to the people she works with. “I never, ever want to be fast fashion. I always want to be conscious of sustainability and ethics.” That includes paying her suppliers fairly, and sourcing her material from small family-run stores in India, where she travels twice a year.
Hodges has plenty more in the offing. This Sunday, September 6, she launches her latest collection: The Dog Days, an exploration of the last days of summer with four pieces designed for the changeable autumn weather, including a puff-sleeve dress with an open back, and calf-skimming functional shorts. She’ll also host a sample sale in Brighton in October – “we’re making sure that every piece of clothing has a home” – and Arodazi’s first showroom is also in the works.
“I’ll always wanna grow more,” she says. “There’s no limit. And as long as it’s done in the right way, then I would love [Arodazi] to grow as big as it possibly can grow, but even if it stayed at this level I’d be happy, too.
“Where I’m at right now, I’m having a really good time with it and I feel like there’s no need to rush into anything.”
