Meet Faraz Zaidi, the Immigrant-born American designer whose built a seven figure global fashion business originating in his bedroom in a small rural town in New Jersey. Twelve years after launching the brand, Faraz’s business and creative pursuits have been characterized by the word “pivotal.” Despite the challenges posed by a decade of style and cultural changes in the world along with a global pandemic, Faraz and his team have been able to significantly grow their business through the introduction of new products and marketing campaigns. “We pride ourselves in our ability to keep up with the times” Faraz says. He hints at this being the secret to his brands longevity and continued relevance.
According to Faraz, the most important ingredient to success in any business is to be well-informed about the current state of the world, including socio-political issues, popular culture, global affairs, music, technology, and art and to design relevant products around it. When the pandemic hit, Faraz noticed a pressing need for attractive, high-quality face masks that could be worn with a variety of clothing. Since he couldn’t find any masks that met these criteria, he and his team decided to make their own.
After being featured in reputable publications like Vogue, GQ, Esquire, and Hypebeast, the demand for Faraz’s face masks surged. He attributes the success of his masks to a well-crafted business and advertising strategy combined with the best product he and his team could design. Faraz says, “The formula for success merging design and targeting strategy was difficult to deny.”
After the pandemic passed, Faraz faced the challenge of catering to a diverse group of customers who were drawn to his brand primarily because of their need for high-quality face masks. In order to return to the brand’s central focus of clothing, Faraz had to pivot back into this area. He says, “We then had to shift back focus into clothing again as our central core pillar of the brand and retell the stories that made us who we are.”
As succinctly explained on Faraz’s company website, the brand centers around the theme of constantly adapting to change. The collections are inspired by the designers’ personal experiences and the world they live in, and are shaped by themes of cultural identity, spirituality, social and political commentary, and personal struggle. The pieces are designed to evoke a sense of timeless poetry within the context of modern fashion. The images, text, fabrics, and shapes used by the brand reflect the concept behind each collection and showcase the designers’ reference-rich worldview.
The brand’s vision and future plans involve staying attuned to the constantly changing mood of the world and using clothing as a means of communication to a wide audience. From the state of the economy to human behavioral and social patterns, all of these factors goes into our design process as our products are truly a reflection of us as people and the societies we exist in.
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