It’s one thing to start your own global business, but it’s another to cultivate a fashion movement. Fortunately, Hajra Tariq, the founder of abaya brand FEEYA, was able to do both. How, you ask? Her success lies in one spellbinding secret: girlhood.
You may have seen them on your feed, or even at Dubai’s hottest hangouts (after all, they’re best paired with the aesthetic backdrops of Koncrete or Orto), FEEYA’s abayas know how to make an impression. Colourful, playful and authentically girly in their nature, these pieces have successfully caught the eye of Dubai’s it girls. A passion project of influencer Hajra, FEEYA has become a household name in chic, homegrown fashion. With her own content creation skills at the helm of the brand’s aesthetics, Hajra is well on her way to dominating the fashion space in Dubai and beyond, one colourful abaya at a time.
We caught up with the woman behind the viral brand to discuss everything from her inspirations to just how she gets those aesthetic shots. And, of course, we met at Koncrete over matchas.
A fashion brand doesn’t always need a face to drive sales, but it sure does help. So when Hajra walked in looking impossibly glam in her signature pastel pink abaya, I knew that my obsession with FEEYA was justified. Originally from the US before spending her formative years in the UK, Hajra always found that she had a pull to Dubai. “Dubai is just so different, women love to dress up here everyday which is amazing. I love dressing up here. Especially abayas, as a modest girl I feel more comfortable than anything over here. Whereas there’s always limitations in the UK in terms of what modestwear you can wear. I feel myself here. And in Dubai there’s so much colour. In the UK you’re only going to see me in black or cream”.Â
The brand as its core is hyper-feminine, and truly lends itself to the aesthetics of Gen Z (think clean girl aesthetic with a modest girl twist). And that desire to conform to trends, in part, is where the vision for FEEYA came from. Hajra faced challenges trying to find modest alternatives to trending styles. “I saw an ombre dress that I liked at MANGO”, she said. “But it was one shoulder. I couldn’t wear it. So I decided that I could maybe make something like it that’s modest”. Soon enough, the brand was brought to life, selling ombre abayas to a global consumer base. “In the beginning, I got a bit scared that the ombre pieces were too colourful, like who is gonna wear these? Then Alhamdulillah we actually sold out in the first month”.
Colour me obsessed
FEEYA as a business has been on an upwards trajectory since its official launch last year. But it wasn’t until the brand introduced its essentials collection, which features a range of colours from light to dark, that it truly took off. The brand’s three best selling colours, Buttercup, Matcha and Ballet, have commandeered the spotlight in region. “Dubai is our biggest customer, but Saudi girls love wearing colour too”, says Hajra”. But one of her biggest achievements, however, has been creating an outlet of colour for modest girls across the globe. “In the UK, these styles aren’t really available, there also isn’t really a lot of colourfulness or playfulness there, so I wanted to give those girls an opportunity. We ship worldwide now – and a lot of abaya brands don’t do that. I was surprised that I have a lot of buyers in America”.
The demand for colour is something that drove much of FEEYA’s marketing strategies too. Being an influencer herself, Hajra realised the potential of shooting the content against Dubai’s most happening backdrops, notably, aesthetic cafes. “In the beginning, especially, I couldn’t afford to do a professional photoshoot, so I’d text my girls and we’d go shoot at a coffee shop”, she said. “I could have a whole shoot or spend so much on a full studio set up. But if it’s just a girl wearing it in her style doing her thing in a coffee shop, it resonates so much more”.
And if there’s one thing that Gen Z responds to, it’s influencer marketing; “people don’t want to see outfits modeled in studios anymore, they want to see clothing worn authentically on influencers and normal people”.Â
FEEYA’s strong social presence represents a wider shift in the way young entrepreneurs choose to operate their businesses. In some way, starting up a venture is more accessible thanks to the nature of social media, where, arguably, all you need to market your product is an eye for aesthetic content. “Those studio budgets can go somewhere else”, says Hajra, adding, “for us we’re using it to make sure we have the best fabrics, tailors, and putting a premium on delivery”.
But beyond the brand’s virtual identity, Hajra explains that getting FEEYA to the strong position it’s in now took a whole lot of determination: “I didn’t even know where to buy fabric from. I was literally going from store to store and knocking on doors. I had to figure everything out from scratch”.
Now, the brand has its eyes set on its next venture: the launch of their new print abayas, and Hajra even hints at the possibility of a Dubai pop up soon, too. But most importantly, “I’m just taking it step by step”, she says.
As FEEYA continues to grow, its roots, however, will always be in the power of girlhood, a concept Hajra says defines the brand inside out. “When I first started this I thought I’d be in this alone. Until I stepped into this world and so many people were willing to help. The help I got was always from girls. I’d never start a brand that’s only for one type of girl. The table is open for all, whoever wants to join can come”.
Need some more modest fashion inspo? Check out modest gym wear to shop for your next workout sesh here.