We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Afroja K. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Afroja below.
Hi Afroja, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Since my early childhood, I’ve always been hardworking and ambitious which shaped my level of confidence and self-esteem in the very early stages. I always believed in myself since I followed my dreams and worked accordingly. Because of those personal traits, I was always appreciated by my classmates, teachers and family members. Though born and raised in a third-world Muslim culture, I used to read short stories mostly written by English writers and those books helped me boost my confidence. Just after finishing my primary school education, I started to become financially independent and it was a major step towards becoming a self-conscious and responsible person. As a student, I was ambitious and confident which helped me achieve my Law degrees from the top university from my home country and now I’m studying Law in London to be a legal practitioner. As a sustainable and disruptive fashion entrepreneur, I believed in my ability and purpose to build something innovative, empowering and game-changing. I launched my podcast to make my voice heard and help other activists from around the world to share their activism in sustainable fashion and justice. I’ve always been authentic about my work and that developed the sense of belonging or confidence about what I do.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m the Founder CEO of NEOMODEST, world’s first phygital modest fashion brand based in London. We offer both physical and digital modest clothing and accessories for women and we’re the first-ever modest fashion startup to offer 100% AI-generated clothing. As the first web 3 and Metaverse-oriented modest fashion startup, we’re going to launch more innovative products like augmented reality, virtual try-on, virtual shopping, wearable NFTs, Metaverse fashion shows and more.
I’d recommend our readers to join our Telegram group (NEOMODEST) or follow our social media pages to explore our latest updates.
As we’re still at our early stage, we’re going to collaborate and partner with artists, designers and brands to promote modest fashion and following our roadmap, we’ll also build a dedicated digital fashion platform to offer digital modest fashion for women.
The exciting part of our project is that our customers can own our digital assets or products buying or owning our limited edition NFTs. For investors, my AI-powered sustainable fashion startup is a great opportunity to invest and build a great project that will transform the fashion industry.
As a fashion brand, we offer limited edition and bespoke luxury clothing and accessories. Our products are made from sustainable fabrics and materials sourced from UK and Italy. While our production is based in London, we aim to work with more designers and artisans from across the globe to empower them as women empowerment is a key part of our project. If we collaborate with artisans and designers, it’ll make a huge difference and through our efforts, we’ll educate our communities about the importance of sustainability and innovation in fashion.
At this stage, we’ve partnered with DressX, the largest digital fashion marketplace and we’re partnering with Union Avatars to offer digital outfits for avatars which people use as their digital identities in digital platforms like Metaverse and social media platforms. Gradually, we’ll partner with other fashion platforms and companies that promote diversity and inclusion. Gaming industry is another key player in digital fashion and we’ll partner with gaming companies to offer gaming skins or digital fashion. NFTs are the key attractions and features in digital fashion and customers get rewards when they purchase certain products backed by NFTs. As a pioneer modest fashion brand, NEOMODEST has huge opportunities and scopes to offer.
I’m also the founder of Hijab On Demand, first AI-powered phygital hijab brand that offers limited edition hijabs, scarves and bandanas.
Our scarves are designed on AI and we offer unique products made from sustainable fabrics. Through my fashion startups, I want to inspire other designers, entrepreneurs and brands to adopt sustainability, inclusion and innovation in fashion while making a real change for a better future.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My activism in human rights with a pure legal background has always been a strength for me to fight injustice in fashion. Backed by this, my research skill has been a great asset to find the gap and build a solution in fashion industry. As a content creator and entrepreneur, I’ve gained the confidence and recognition from my digital community who’ve supported my work, featured me in media and invited me in major events. My purpose was clear and that is very important for my journey as a purpose-driven entrepreneur.
Communication skills have also played a key role to build relationships with my fellow startup founders, web 3 and fashion enthusiasts and other stakeholders.
I think we should have a clear vision when we launch something new and as a founder, it’s important to understand the problem and solution effectively. While it’s not mandatory to develop skills in all areas of a business, learning the basic skills is always helpful. For new entrepreneurs or designers, I’d recommend to start small or it’d be challenging to develop all innovative products at the beginning. Hiring reliable freelancers would save thousands of dollars and help to build projects more flexibly. Building relationships with real people is so crucial as that’s the most cost-effective and efficient way to build a community around our products. Doing regular research and connecting other entrepreneurs and influencers are also very helpful to learn and grow.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any support from my family to launch or run my startup. I faced some real challenges as a Muslim and married girl. Besides, it has been more challenging as I didn’t have the opportunity to build a real community after settling here from another country. For me, it has been very much challenging to build my project being alone and (lonely). Besides, I’ve to take care of my child and I don’t have any family members here to help me. Since I was very clear about my vision and confident about myself, I’ve developed my skills and I’m learning everyday from my connections and other reliable sources. Keeping up-to-date is very crucial to stay ahead of the trends. We’re now in the AI-powered world and we’ve to build more sophisticated products to survive as startups while building real products for a more sustainable world. I’m learning more skills in AI, AR, digital fashion, content marketing and strategy, branding and other forms of marketing, community building, business management and more! It’s challenging but exciting too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://neomodest.io
- Instagram: @neomodest.io
- Facebook: NEOMODEST
- Linkedin: @Afroja K
- Twitter: @neomodest_io
- Youtube: NEOMODEST
- Other: Telegram group: NEOMODEST
