Entrepreneurial Influences- Asal Tehrani
November 20th, 2022
Asal Tehrani
Asal Tehrani is originally from Iran but currently resides in London, England. She is the CEO of Susamusa which she founded in 2020 on Depop, a social e-commerce platform, where the users sell their clothing online (basically an online thrift store). Susamusa is known for being a 90's fashion inspired brand made from dead stock clothing. According to (Allende 2022), dead stocks are high quality fabric, employ mainly by clothing factories with the original intention to make garments from them but are not used and ultimately ends up in landfills because they are disposed of. She spent most of her time studying Chemistry in Kings College which enlightened her about the effects of fast fashion on the environment which caused her to come up with a solution for this problem.
There's no doubt that Asal seized the opportunity on Depop by selling vintage clothing. She expresses that she mainly bought and sold clothing on Depop then many of her vintage pieces sold out rapidly. Asal found a market specifically targeting clients who care about sustaining the environment and also obsessed with vintage pieces (Pike 2021). Her brilliant designs were worn by Bella Hadid and Addison Rae which is another reason why her business flourished as well.
Educating your clients on the harmful effects of fast fashion was one thing that Asal did not fall short on doing besides creating her brilliant designs. On her LinkedIn, she acknowledged that fast fashion is harming the environment and telling the audience that her products are in fact recycled and a slow fashion label. According to (Algamal 2019), the fast fashion industry manufactures 20% of the earth's waste water and harmful microfibres are released into the environment when fabric such as synthetics are incinerated. Forbes (2022) explains that Asal saved by using dead stock fabric 70 million gallons of water was save by the elimination of creating new fibres for her clothing.
The lesson that can be learnt from Asal would be, the importance to start. She began selling her clothing during the pandemic which she seized that opportunity because everything started to slowly move towards e-commerce. She identified that new opportunity and started to begin her business which because of that, she made a name for herself. Another lesson which would be useful in our start up would be the importance of being knowledgable about our goods/products and the important message about environmental sustainability that we would advertise as well; once customers/clients and other audiences are aware of the dangers of fast fashion, this would convince them to implement slow fashion in their shopping routine and to purchase from our store.
Reference List:
Algamal, A. (28 August 2019). New shocking facts about the impact of fast fashion on our climate. Retrieved from: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam-in-action/oxfam-blog/new-shocking-facts-about-the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-our-climate/. [Accessed 19 November 2022].
Allende, N. (2022). One-of-a-kind sustainability: What are deadstock fabrics? Retrieved from: https://www.fabricsight.com/en-gb/blogs/posts/one-of-a-kind-sustainability-what-are-deadstock-fabrics#:~:text=It's%20a%20sustainable%2C%20eco%2Dfriendly,option%20for%20environmentally%20conscious%20brands. [Accessed 19 November 2022].
Pike, N. (5 August 2022). The sotry behind Bella Hadid's favourite Depop shop. Retrieved from: https://www.vogue.co.uk/miss-vogue/article/susamusa-depop-bella-hadid#:~:text=After%20becoming%20increasingly%20frustrated%20by,and%20styles%2C%E2%80%9D%20she%20says. [Accessed 20 November 2022].
Stroller, K. and Sternlicht, A. (2022). Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2022: Art and Culture. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/pictures/626aa21c62af3fa667ea3bca/asal-tehrani/?sh=5c71688f1c3d. [Accessed 19 November 2022].