Words by Bailey Alexander
Aileen Gilani, founder of fashion brand Sooratti Sooratti®, speaks to us about her brand’s beginnings, music artists and NBA players, and why she can’t slow down.
BA: So how did Sooratti Sooratti® come about?
AG: So I actually started Sooratti Sooratti® after I got divorced and had to move back home. I spent time basically just kind of going through the process of divorce and just taking some time out, getting some headspace, just trying to distract myself. I wanted to start sewing a little bit and I started with putting pieces on hoodies and jumpers and other bits. I really wanted to embrace and celebrate the fact that I’m Persian and I felt like it was the time for me to not necessarily reinvent myself, but kind of start a new chapter.
Did you have prior experience?
Well, I’m not traditionally qualified. I haven’t graduated in fashion design or anything like that. I’ve just been kind of self-taught but also learnt from my grandmother and my mum as well, so it was nice to have a moment to embrace my culture through doing these sorts of pieces. There are beautiful landmarks in Iran where they have mirror mosaic walls and it’s so beautiful, usually in mosques and very significant historical places, so I used that as an inspiration for the mood board.
I can tell it’s very cultural from just one glance, so it’s nice to know it’s specifically Persian. Would you say that motif is embedded into every single piece?
Yeah because I think nowadays with fashion you have to have a specialty or a niche. Like everyone’s got a technique. So you’ll see a lot of designers now that will primarily just focus on denim or on some sort of graphic design. For me, from the minute I started, I knew that this would be a very iconic style that I would use when it came to future collections too.
I’m sure you would agree all different fashion labels have something that you can use to identify them then?
Yeah exactly. I mean, I think with my pieces, with Sooratti Sooratti®, and with my current collection and even in the future ones, I think with how kind of let’s say ‘flashy’ my pieces are, you’re either gonna love it or you’re gonna hate it, so it’s up to you. But if you want to have a heavy embellished, embroidered piece then you’ll come to me, so that’s kind of how I’m gonna go for it.
And is it exclusively for men?
A lot of people have asked me why why I’ve started with menswear and my very blunt answer is because I just like men, which sounds a bit cheeky but I think it’s just I like the fact that I’m able to kind of break the boundaries a little bit with menswear as well. I think it’s kind of a new take on luxury streetwear which for me is a nice challenge. But a lot of women come into the shop and buy pieces as well, so it’s open to anybody that just enjoys wearing something like this, but I think for me I do love that I’m in menswear. Men are becoming more adventurous and I myself used to go to luxury department stores and straight to the menswear section because I found it exciting how many controversial pieces there would be.
Amongst the men that wear the pieces, do you find they tend to come from a particular profession?
It’s funny because I don’t know whether it’s just me being stubborn or me manifesting it, but I think from day one I said, “This would be brilliant for music artists to wear”. I knew that wearing it on stage, when the light hits from hundreds of thousands of phones, would just be so cool.
What about in sports?
Well I didn’t really have any intention of targeting people in sports, but on a trip to New york in February I reached out to a number of stylists whose clients were athletes and it turned out that NBA players were loving the pieces. I hadn’t planned it, I just realised that the brand had taken me to places that I didn’t think I’d end up in, so I went back to New York in September and the NBA players wanted some custom pieces. Now I’ve changed sizes and go all the way up to XXX-L just to cater to men of all shapes and sizes.
That’s a pretty smart decision ‘cause, of course in America and especially in the NBA, there’s such a range of sizes needed to be catered to compared to here in the UK market. So with all of these developments, have you had to expand in terms of team members, or are you exclusively doing it all yourself?
I have really good friends and acquaintances that have guided me with what to do and given me tips, but ultimately I am a one-woman show and I think you have to do everything on your own at the beginning to really understand every single part of your business. If you delegate too much in the beginning of your business, you lose control. But I’m so open to learning as I go along so I’m doing courses online and going to workshops to learn more about fashion. But because I do it all by myself, people appreciate where it’s coming from. I don’t have 300 of these pieces. I only have a few and I make them as I go along based on demand.
Well there’s so many different jobs you have to do yourself but that’s what makes it even more impressive and I think it really reflects your ambition, which neatly brings me onto my final questions: where do you want to take Sooratti Sooratti® next?
Someone recently told me, “Aileen, because you’ve started your brand and reached such a high level so quickly, you can’t relax. You’ve got to keep going and going and going, and you’ve got to keep stepping it up and developing it more”. So there will be more trips to the US, that’s for sure. I do also want to work with more clients and more people in the fashion and sports industries. I’m working on a new collection too, and I think it would be really fun to do more custom pieces.
Are you currently working on any custom pieces?
Yeah, I’m currently designing balaclavas, which isn’t something I thought I’d do. But again, it’s about listening to the customers. I posted some pictures of the bally and already had people saying they need it. But yeah, I really am just going with the flow and if the flow demands it, I’m just gonna keep doing it.
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