What's the story behind your label?
Initially, I wanted to do a brand that's completely based in New York, from the designing to the sample making to the production, everything in New York, and now as we go along the idea becomes more clear, and more sustainable. We are currently 38% sustainable, but we have a goal to increase that number every season, and on top of everything being based in New York, the label is an idea that represents the power of feminists, that's how I'd describe it. So, we are targeting women in the workforce, who dress for work and for an outing and not afraid to show the feminist side in a subtly yet elegant way, and of course, the brand has an Eastern aesthetic, because that's associated with my background.
How do you incorporate the Eastern aesthetic?
Sometimes it's just the feeling. It's not really about a specific color, it's the style, the message, for example, last season in London, in February, a lot of our clothes were the high neck, which was found a lot in Asia 100 years ago, so that type of style.
You were talking about sustainability, why is sustainability important for you?
Because fashion is one of the biggest polluting industries in the world, and I think it will make a huge difference if our generation works towards that goal. That is very meaningful for us.
Where are you sourcing your materials from?
Right now, we source our material within New York, however, in the new season, we hope to travel around the world in the hope of finding more sustainable suppliers.
Where did the idea to hand paint collection pieces come from?
We look for something unique each season. My inspiration for the AW18 collection came from the Château de Versailles, Paris, so the feeling of traditional colours like Blue and Gold, are represented in the collection. Also, hand painting makes sense to us, as a smaller brand, because if we were to use prints, we may not meet the supplier's minimum. So with this collection, everything is made to order.
In terms of stockists and buyers, are you stocked anywhere at the moment?
Right now we are only selling in one shop in London.
What are you planning to do in the next few seasons?
So last season we showed in London, and were also quite lucky there, as we had lots of interviews. I also feel the consumer in the UK embrace individuality; a lot of people go for the smaller brands. However, when I went to London, I realized that there is no tradeshow that caters to our category, as our section was very quiet at 'Pure', so many buyers don't go there to buy our category. I was talking to other people in the industry, in London, and they said I should try out ‘Scoop’ as this is a tradeshow catering to the higher end of the market in London. So I reached out to the organizer and she loved the collection, but when she saw the price point, she said they don't reach out to the right buyer for us. I asked for her (the organizer) recommendation in Europe, and she told us we should try ‘Vendome Luxury' in Paris, so that's where we’ll be next season. That will be the SS19 collection showing in September.
What are you currently working on?
Right now we’re working on collaborating with charities, so you can see more of the ideas that we value, and how we act as a brand. In regards to this, we want to do it in a creative way, and our business to give back to society, that's our ultimate goal. So we plan to partner with local charities, for example, right now we are based in New York, but once we start traveling for sourcing, in order to become more sustainable, we want to give back to that part of the world in some way. We’re hoping to partner with charities that help children discover their talent, that's what I'm passionate about.
