“I could stop it right here and live a good life, but I want to grow the business,” said Saghian. There are currently around 20 job openings, which range from a denim buyer to a data architect to a director of accounting. One gets the sense that Saghian never imagined the business would get this big and he wants to protect and cultivate his team, which he believes will be key to Fashion Nova’s continued success. He brings up poaching often, as if it’s a tactic used by his competitors, another term he uses often, to dismantle his company. They just released a new logo - it no longer has the hot pink woman’s silhouette and the text is cleaner and bolder.Īttracting and retaining talent seems to be a top concern for Saghian, who said for many of his junior employees, Fashion Nova is their first job out of college. The staff is diverse and growing, and Fashion Nova is changing. It’s homey, with remnants of Valentine’s Day and boxes of doughnuts, a Friday mainstay, scattered about - free food and the employee discount are apparently big perks at Fashion Nova. It doesn’t have that sterile, start-up sheen nor is it decorated with disco balls and lacquer furniture. The Fashion Nova head office, which is in an industrial neighborhood, is nondescript. But for context, Boohoo, another fast-fashion retailer that has 3.1 million followers Instagram, had a revenue of £294.64 million in 2017, which translates to $411.43 million. Saghian said the company grew by 600 percent in 2017 and is profitable, but he declines to reveal its revenue. It’s easy to assume that Fashion Nova only exists online, but it has five stores within malls across Southern California. By working with a network of more than 3,000 influencers, he’s made them pervasive. The clothes are tight, trendy and affordable and by working with celebrities, Saghian has made them aspirational. Women like Belcalis Almanzar, also known as Cardi B, or Angela Renée White, also known as Blac Chyna, who have bulbous hips, rotund butts, spindlelike waists - and big Instagram followings. Fashion Nova is a bona fide apparel, accessories and beauty business that’s attracted women with body measurements that don’t always fit within standard sizing - although Saghian says the clothes are for everyone. “I know most of the people who read WWD probably don’t even know what Fashion Nova is.”įor the uninitiated, it would be easy to describe Fashion Nova as “an Instagram brand.” Saghian likes to call it a viral brand, but something about those descriptions make the company feel ephemeral and illegitimate. “For recruitment,” he said in an unsure tone. So why should he submit himself to an interview now? And the company landed in the fourth-place slot without a runway show, placements in magazines, traditional marketing campaigns or, Saghian added, forced SEO tactics. In 2017, according to Google, Fashion Nova was one of the most searched fashion brands alongside Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Supreme and Chanel. He’s been able to build and grow Fashion Nova, which has 10.7 million followers on Instagram, independent of the traditional powers that be. He says things like “overpriced fashion is dead” and “Fashion Nova is the fastest-growing women’s apparel company.” To help guide the interview, which took place in a conference room at Fashion Nova’s headquarters right outside of downtown Los Angeles, he referred to an Excel sheet of questions he’s received from this journalist and other reporters over the past few months, which were coupled with very prepared, corporate answers.Ī Look Back at Fourth of July Celebrations at the White Houseīut he also doesn’t need press. Saghian also likes to speak in talking points and grand themes that aren’t always conducive to a free-flowing conversation with a reporter. He dismisses the idea of a portrait photograph to accompany this story and he has on a very low-key, trend agnostic outfit: a denim shirt worn unbuttoned over a T-shirt, jeans and a black chunky watch with gold accents that looks expensive, but isn’t ostentatious. Saghian, who is Iranian-American with a boyish face and a full head of wispy hair, doesn’t want a lot of attention. It’s partly because being interviewed clearly makes him uncomfortable. Richard Saghian doesn’t do many interviews. Until now, he’s tried to avoid them, save for some general statements and phone conversations with a few publications here and there.
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