I keep a keen eye on who is buying them and tabs on where the deliveries are going – and they are not just going to DHA and Model Town. The product is becoming very aspirational. People are willing to save up in order to buy that T-shirt.
A: The most visible part of your success is having celebrities wear your brand. How did this breakthrough come about?
ZA: In the beginning, it was down to luck. The first big celebrity to wear Rastah was French Montana. The way it happened was that my business partner was friendly with the owner of a shop in Queens. He told my business partner that Montana would be coming to his shop and he wanted to present him with a gift and could he give him a Rastah jacket? So, we gave one to the owner and Montana ended up wearing it. Pakistani audiences went crazy because a Western celebrity was wearing our clothes. Part of it has to do with the fact that we still seek external validation; we are still stuck in a post-colonial hangover.
Until then, I had not thought about celebrity placement. I thought it wasn’t possible. But when Montana wore our jacket, I realised the impact this can have – and not just because a celebrity was wearing one of our jackets, but because the celebrity was wearing a Pakistani brand. So, we were like, okay, we need to lean into these celebrities and get them to wear our clothes. The first time was all luck and for a long time, it didn’t happen because we didn’t realise how hard it is to do that. Then we had Anil Kapoor wearing our clothes, which again was very organic. His son saw us on Instagram; he liked the clothes and reached out. We sent him the clothes and somehow the jacket ended up in Anil’s closet and he wore it.
The same thing happened with Karan Johar and then Riz Ahmed. By then, we realised we needed a proper plan because this was leading to sales. So, we got a celebrity showroom in LA; they have connections with stylists and managers, and this improves the chances of these celebrities wearing your clothes. What people don’t know is that for every celebrity that wears Rastah, there are 50 pitches that failed.
A: In terms of regular marketing activities, how consistently do you do this and is it mainly on Instagram?
ZA: We do a lot of digital advertising, although I have told my team we need to cut our spending by about 50%. I don’t want my business to largely rely on advertising. It can be dangerous if your marketing ends up coming only from advertising. Advertising is very expensive and we are a lean business. We are trying to figure out new ways to acquire customers. We do a lot of pop-ups in New York and London, and they are great for building awareness. Another way is to create high-quality organic content that is shareable. This usually happens on a personal brand level and I am trying to build my own personal brand because, at the end of the day, I am the face of the brand, and people are more interested in relating to the owner of the brand, especially Gen Z. Creator-led brands allow audiences to see the human version of the brand, which makes them connect with the brand more.
A: Do you use an ad agency for your campaigns?
ZA: We don’t have an agency. I think the days of ad agencies are dying. Unless you are a big corporation, you don’t have the bandwidth to go out and find the right talent, so typically you pay an agency. But for a lean team like ours, it’s easier to collaborate with different creatives within the Pakistani industry. For each campaign, we may work with a new photographer, art director or production designer; this gives a unique perspective to each campaign.
A: You said one of the reasons you decided to price yourself at the higher end was to ensure you could compensate your artisans more adequately. How difficult is it to find such people, given that the younger generations might prefer to work in factories where the remuneration is better?
ZA: I think the ecosystem is better than it was about a decade ago. Along with Rastah, other brands have gone into traditional clothing and for a lot of artisans and craftspeople, their stock is going up in the sense that the value of their work is more appreciated. I don’t think it is close to the level of what is happening in India. India is in a different league in terms of compensating their craftspeople and artisans because they have the kind of infrastructure and mechanism that protects them, which we don’t have in Pakistan. India has huge vantage points towards the European markets and big luxury houses like Dior and Louis Vuitton are working with Indian craft studios. I think in Pakistan, Rastah has shed light on their work.
For the longest time, this kind of workmanship wasn’t perceived to be cool, but this is changing. However, the next step requires an infrastructural framework to allow these artisans to flourish.
A: Do you see Rastah playing a role in further elevating their work?
ZA: We are doing whatever we can. We work with embroiders, weavers, block printers and painters. With our block printing team, we have been testing the idea of letting them put their original work on our website and use the brand’s name to command a higher markup and they keep all the money. Mr Aslam, one of our block printers, used to sell his tapestries for about Rs 5,000 to 8,000 (this was four or five years ago). On our website, his tapestries are selling for about $300-400 and he keeps all the money other than the transaction fees. As a result, the pieces he doesn’t sell on the website but sells locally have started commanding higher prices. It is important to make our artisans aware that their work is special and that there is an audience out there willing to pay higher prices.
A: Rastah is having a big moment, but moments come and go. How do you see the future of the brand panning out over the next decade? Are you looking at coming out with different product options or more accessible product categories?
ZA: We have started to produce variants that are more accessible. For example, the Core Collection, which I spoke about earlier. I also understand that in fashion, there is a window of opportunity that typically doesn’t last for more than a decade, after which things start to change. The brands that last for more than a decade are those that have built a strong community so that when that decade of relevance wanes, you still have a community you can take to the next chapter of growth.
Source: Zain Ahmad – Facebook
A: You are only 29. How do you see your role evolving?
ZA: Right now, I have the role of creative director and CEO, but there will be a point in time when I will step back because I have always told myself that the day I have nothing more to share is the day I hang my hat as a creative director and let someone new come in. We typically see this with international brands, where they cycle through creative directors because they have to stay relevant. It is a concept that doesn’t exist in Pakistan because businesses are run in a different way.
My dream is for Rastah to be one of the biggest brands outside of Asia, not just South Asia.
Zain Ahmad was in conversation with Mariam Ali Baig.
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Publish date : 2024-07-29 22:11:44
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