Last week AiSPi’s founder Aisha Saraf Kothari gave an inspirational masterclass at London College of Art in Dubai about navigating the luxury market as an emerging designer. This one-hour interactive lecture consisted of the breakdown on the luxury market and what you need to know to penetrate it globally. Nex to that, Aisha shared tips for fashion newcomers based on her many years of experience in the field of fashion and as an entrepreneur. In case you missed AiSPi’s live stream of the event, here’s Aisha’s main points from her presentation.
"Product Is Everything."
So, the question stands: “How can you penetrate the luxury market as an upcoming designer?” It all begins and ends with the actual product or as Aisha said: “Product is everything.” It’s important to stay true to yourself as a designer and not just be a marketing gimmick. Don’t get us wrong, marketing is one of the most important aspects of branding. However, it comes down to your product on how you stand out in the market. Aisha emphasizes that you don’t always have to be different, you just need to be different in your market.
Next, Aisha brought up the topic of pricing. It’s important not to underestimate your own work. However, you can’t price like Hermès if you are not Hermès. It can take years to build a strong brand heritage like the big fashion houses, so it’s important to determine your price, taking into consideration multiple factors such as the materials, craftsmanship, brand equity, market and competition. When talking about materials and production, “Luxury is material!”, as Aisha emphasizes. The true luxury is being able to pay for what only you can see and feel. It is all in the details.
"Right Place, Right Time"
Having a strong brand identity can take you a long way and, therefore, it’s important to have a story behind your brand. When it comes to a customer’s feeling about your brand, connection is everything. If you sell your product, you get a client, but if you sell your story, you will get an ambassador. At the end of the day, you are remembered how you made someone feel. On the topic of brand identity and marketing, one of the biggest tips Aisha gave based on her past struggles, was content amplifying. Today, content creation for brands is more important than ever. Many of us familiar to it know the time it consumes even for a video as short as 30 seconds. So, when you create content, create content smart! That’s why amplifying your content by using different channels wisely is crucial to get your products out there.
At the end, Aisha talked about luck or as she referred it to “right place, right time.” It doesn’t take much for you to be lucky, but it takes everything for you to be prepared when opportunities come your way. That’s why you should do everything with a 1000%. As one of Aisha’s favorite quotes goes: “Luck is what happens, when preparation meets opportunity.” Lastly, Aisha advises you to stay inspired. You don’t need to travel to the other side of the world for a month to find inspiration, but rather find it in the mundane things in our lives.
Written by Lumi Karjalainen
To see the Aisha’s whole presentation, go see our Instagram page. If you live for fashion, visit our journal page for more inspirational articles.