Another success story from Malaysia is that of Vivy Yusof. Like Neelofa, she spotted a gap in the Muslim fashion market. The popular 29-year-old blogger used her social following to grow FashionValet, an e-commerce site carrying leading designer labels from around Asia as well as her own brand of scarves and branded accessories catering to style-savvy young Muslim women.
She and her husband, Fadzarudin Anuar, started Fashion Valet (FV) in 2010, a fashion, e-commerce site that brings homegrown, high-end designers closer to consumers. Back from studying in London, Yusof and Anuar got frustrated during a shopping trip – driving from shop to shop, in heavy traffic under the rain. It was that kind of inconvenience that sparked the idea of bringing online shopping to Malaysia.
Yusof approached designers, asking them to create ready-to-wear pieces for FV. "They were skeptical at first but I urged them to try. I basically introduced the idea because RTW for designers was not that big in 2010," she said. From a MYR100,000 ($24,195) capital, 10 designers and a staff of 20, FV grew to 500 brands and hundreds of staff in just six years with offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta.
It's here that Yusof is choosing to innovate with her brand, capitalizing on the rise in number of women donning the hijab. Under FV, Yusof devied a muslimah urban lifestyle label called dUck, which offers hijabs and soon, some home items and stationery. The name comes from Yusof's own blog and has its own store in one of KL's swankiest malls. The idea came about after she started wearing the hijab and found it hard to find a store that sells all colours in different fabrics. "I wanted a store where they are always available and not sold out – that was the plan."
0 comments:
Post a Comment