Every day, thousands if not millions of people decide to follow their dreams and launch a new brand. Only a small portion actually follow through and even fewer succeed. Fashion entrepreneur Marc Mahsyian is among the latter.
Why did you decide to choose fashion as a career? Share some of your background.
I don’t feel like I chose fashion as a career, I kind of feel like I’ve always been creative and into arts and god chose the path of fashion for me to impact and display my creative niche and many talents. Prior to becoming a fashion artist I was making my way up the corporate ladder working for one of those cell phone companies as a store manager with eyes on becoming a district manager, and then Vice President of the company. But all that changed back in early 2015 when the vision first touched me and god introduced me to what is now Mahsyian.
Fashion has always been a major part of the culture, what motivated you to launch your own clothing brand?
My motivation to peruse a street fashion brand came from a vision I was giving while on a fight out to California from North Carolina. But what keeps me motivated outside of my family and homies is one I feel like with fashion and street fashion in particularly is that you end up having everybody look the same, and my biggest thing with my brand is I want it to one look different, two everybody can’t buy the same shirt I purposely only stock 103 of the gold member style items so it’s a first come first serve basis and there is absolutely no restock on gold Member items. Third the impact fashion has on the world gives you a platform where you can help manifest change in the community. Something I’m very big on with talking to the high schools and doing give backs to colleges, investing in scholarship programs, adopting families around the holidays things that make you realize what your doing is bigger then just a shirt and should be all the motivation anybody needs to keep striving to be great.
The name of your brand is very unique, what inspired you to choose it?
The actual name came up in the vision I mentioned earlier on that flight but the meaning behind what Mahsyian stands for comes from my own beliefs that everybody is great and has the ability to be great through creativity, like we where made to create so the definition of Mahsyian being the royalties in oneself, meaning the empowerment in which we as individuals take control of our lives by tapping into our creative talents that differentiates us from society in an effort to create a better quality of life. Is a empowerment movement to encourage people to be different and don’t fall in a box of what society tells you, you have to look, act and be. As an individual your creativity is what makes you different and is your biggest asset in life and once you tap into just one of your creative talents and master it then you will be on track to creating a better overall quality of life.
When it comes to choosing your brand ambassadors, are there specific attributes you seek?
When it comes down to brand ambassadors, I don’t really have an actual set of brand ambassadors. I have a group of people who support me or love the brand and that’s the MAFIA. So becoming a member of the mafia is either you can buy into being a member by purchasing an item off the online shop. Or if you encounter me and the vibe is right and I feel you genuinely as a person want to see the company do good and you have something unique to bring to the table then we can talk about bringing you aboard the mafia that way to help grow and promote the company.
How do you stay up to date regarding fashion trends? In what ways do you prepare for the next wave?
Honestly I don’t , when I create I create based of the vibe and zone I’m in at that moment. That might be why most of my items don’t really resemble anything that’s currently the [ wave of fashion] at the moment. I’m more focus on creating my own lane, own style of what fashion is and overall my own wave for others to catch on to.
Is there any particular software that you use to design?
I can’t tell you the secret to the sauce, but nah I use the same basic programs that most people use your adobe software’s, my MacBook, and then I sketch some things out sometimes. Nothing to major the biggest tool in designing is my brain and creativity the programs and gadgets just help me bring it to life.
How big of a role do you think music plays in fashion fads?
Music and fashion go hand and hand like peanut butter and jelly. With street fashion Hip-hop is everything, people like to see there favorite brands on their favorite artist and vice versa that’s what gives items hype, status and value to society. Image watching a music video with no fashion in it the video loses a lot of appeal people love to see what others are wearing, especially when those others are famous musicians. Also with marketing using musical influencers are a plus but don’t completely bank on influencers to build your brand.
A lot of people start clothing lines every day, what do you think are most common mistakes?
I don’t think I can really speak for everyone in general on that because with any business nothing is done the same on how they achieved there success or what was considered a mistake and not. The only two things that are the same is hard work and never giving up and I feel a lot of entrepreneurs give up to early because they don’t have realistic expectations and don’t want to put in the hard work to reach there goals. Majority of people are like microwaves they want stuff to happen quick and when things don’t happen quick enough they deem it as a dub and failure. So patience is the most common mistakes I feel people make with anything, great things come to those who wait and work they ass off.
