direct speech – Style – Kommersant

Kommersant Style sees off 2022 with a series of interviews about the personal and professional results of the year, plans for the coming year with representatives of various fields of activity. Today, the final one is about the world of fashion.

Alena Akhmadullina, founder of AKHMADULLINA:

“The year was not easy for us, but very interesting. We have opened a new large space in Moscow in Pozharsky Lane, which combines an atelier, a boutique and a design studio. The move coincided with the events of the spring, difficulties with international logistics, the closure of our main boutiques in Moscow, which, of course, affected the revenue. Nevertheless, we found new growth points for ourselves: we added a stronger wholesale direction to the business model, actively worked on international contacts, and held a very successful pop-up in Dubai. Next year we are planning further international development (all developments for this have been carried out) and even bigger changes in the business model, including the long-awaited launch of a men’s atelier.

Andrey Migunov, CEO of Poison Drop:

“2022 has been an extremely challenging year in terms of management. A huge amount of radical news and changes kept the entire team in constant tension, so against this background, an 80% increase in revenue compared to the previous year looks very good for us. This year we have opened three new stores: in Kazan, in KazanMall and in the Gallery shopping center in Krasnodar. In mid-December, just a week ago, a chic project was opened on the first floor of the Aviapark shopping center in Moscow. The great merit of the team is that this year we were able to quickly reorganize and overcome logistical difficulties. Throughout the year, the inputs changed almost every week, several times I had to start from scratch, test approaches, change counterparties. Nevertheless, it was possible to organize an uninterrupted supply chain. Incredible work has been done in terms of relations with international suppliers. Many hours of negotiations and an endless resource of personal relationships made it possible to keep almost all contracts and continue working not only with old ones, but also attract new suppliers. In October this year, we launched international sales through an English-language website with a full-fledged operational office in Dubai. In retrospect, it can be recognized that it was pure recklessness. But the way the guys coped with the tasks set causes pride and respect. Next year we are planning to open the first stand-alone store in Moscow and are investing about 200 million rubles. in the development of sales of gold jewelry with precious and semi-precious stones. We see huge potential in this segment, which accounts for more than 60% of the entire retail jewelry market.”

Olga Paskina, founder of Nuself online platform:

2022 has become a year of powerful professional transformation and personal growth. The birth year of the Nuself project. We were supposed to launch by March 8, 2022, in light of all the events that have taken place, we decided to launch the business, no matter what, and opened in April, rebuilding logistics, payment system, revising marketing channels and management system. The initial choice of the e-com+ media concept in the low-key luxury segment (we deliberately did not go into the “heavy” luxury) turned out to be very timely and in demand.

For me personally, this is an entry into a new and promising industry – e-com after more than 15 years in media, into a new role – from corporate leaders to entrepreneurs, a year of testing personal endurance, antifragility and tremendous personal growth.

Alice Boha, founder of Monochrome:

“Despite the obvious successes and rapid growth, we have not taken the impostor syndrome out of ourselves. At the same time, in our rapidly changing times, moving at super speeds, we ourselves do not notice how much we manage to do. Take the outgoing 2022, for example: in addition to the growing basic product matrix, we have released 13 limited-edition capsules, implemented 4 large collaborations. As before, we are developing cooperation with charitable foundations, institutions of culture and sports. If we talk about plans for the next 2023, we certainly adhere to the adopted development strategy in the local and global markets, the main work has already been done to bring the brand to the international level, it remains to implement technical issues related to the sharply complicated logistics and foreign economic activity in general. This is when it comes to business. Otherwise, the company employs at all levels the most ordinary people, for whom the results of the year, general impressions of 2022 and hopes for the future 2023 are approximately the same and are based on an internal system of values ​​- simple everyday and socio-cultural needs.

Anna Dubrovina, Business Development Director of Fashion Factory School (ex. Louis Vuitton, TSUM):

“This year we have noticed an increased interest in creating fashion brands in Russia – the demand for our best-selling course on launching a fashion brand from scratch “Impulse PRO” has grown by more than 40%. The audience sees the prospect of creating new brands, including against the backdrop of news about import substitution. The country now has every opportunity for this – the local consumer loves to buy and is ready to produce domestically.

We work closely with representatives of the Russian fashion industry and see how market players in 2022 quickly adapted to new realities. Now in the country there is a growing interest in domestic brands. Not only because of the departure of Western brands, but also due to the fact that the investments that local brands have invested in their development – in assortment, content, service – are finally bearing fruit. The success of a galaxy of strong Russian brands inspires the entire industry, so we predict the emergence of new local brands in the new year.”