We are delighted to introduce to you Samanah Duran, CEO and CD of Critics Clothing.
« I am the Founder, CEO and Creative Director of Critics Clothing and most recently listed Forbes 30 under 30 Europe. In a just a few short years I built my business on my own with a few favours I managed to pull in here and there. I didn’t have a large amount of personal finance to invest in my start-up or a prestigious Bachelors degree in business management, but what I did and still do have are my faculties and a garnered degree of experience whilst building Critics Clothing.
Critics Clothing is a retail start-up just short of 5 years old is a luxury streetwear brand developed and designed by myself back in 2012. Critics Clothing accurately conveys a powerful message to take pride in your identity, demonstrated through an intricate blend of simplistic and traditional but assertive styles.
Building on that inspiration as an extension of Critics Clothing, I have now successfully launched BEYOUROWN, which is a digital media & news company dedicated to inspiring young women in business.
During my creative process, I found that I was often overcome by the same challenge throughout the first few years of growing Critics Clothing. I found myself hesitating to turn Critics Clothing into a mainstream fast fashion brand to generate more profit. It was a question of whether I wanted to do more wholesale and dilute the exclusivity or to continue maintaining full control over our own online space. This common factor of self doubt always circulated around the same spot on the drawing board.
However, I was also extremely reluctant to do so as I was so keen to keep the elusive, exclusive touch to the brand and I felt that turning Critics Clothing into a brand that just churned out t-shirts and sweaters without any real creativity or thought would take away the real core essence and passion I felt for the brand as a whole.
I know my audience better than anyone and I have always wanted to feel competent when releasing designs and collections online. I had to measure my audience and my demographics constantly to know what the best pricing structure would be, and make sure the brand’s DNA and ethos really matched my intentions for Critics Clothing. It was a case of measuring and testing the market over and over again. Changing the prices, altering the quantity of how much was produced in certain styles etc. It really was down to trial and error.
BEYOUROWN’s rapid growth & evolution is down to continuously delivering a fresh perspective from a wide community of the most affluential, influential and entrepreneurial game changing women of today. BEYOUROWN help empower and support young women that are passionate about changing lives.
Worldwide leading ladies use the BEYOUROWN platform to tell their stories, offer advice and share their knowledge, covering topics such as Business, Music & Media, Science, Tech & Art and Sports.
I am passionate about building strong foundations that resonate with both my self as the founder and my audiences as I believe that authenticity and transparency is the key to success. I love the concept of taking what I have learnt whilst building Critics Clothing and being able to share that on my platform BEYOUROWN- so that other women out that can hopefully take away some tips and advice and apply them to what ever they are doing whilst navigating their way through their own business journey.
If I had absolutely one message to say to share then it would be to « BE YOUR OWN » Be you, be real and don’t be afraid to whole you really want to be. You have one life, and its far too short to live it whilst pretending to another version of yourself. »
www.instagram.com/samanahduran/?hl=en
www.criticsclothing.com