Leading by design

What does it take to reach the top, stay there and stay real? We ask fashion creator, entrepreneur and investor Masoom Minawala Mehta

- Riddhi Doshi

If you're into fashion and live part of your life online, you probably already know Masoom Minawala Mehta. If you don't, think of the 30-year-old content creator as the influencer's influencer. She started more than a decade ago, long before the term influencer was coined, and pushed her way up by championing global luxury brands, Indian designers and homegrown businesses. She is, with 1.2 million Instagram followers, in the top 1 per cent of creators in India, someone who's walked at Milan Fashion Week, and makes heads turn even in the VIP lounge of a fashion event.

Minawala Mehta also delivered her first child two months ago. His cooing punctuates the conversation as she discusses what it takes to collaborate with brands such as BMW, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. And whether life is as easy as pout, pose and post.

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Minawala Mehta started out as a fashion blogger. The Minawala name (she comes from a family of prominent jewellers) may have helped with early access to luxury. But it was hardly a golden ticket. Her first venture, at 19, selling shoes imported from China, bombed in a year.

In 2018, the first time she planned to attend Paris Fashion Week, she sent out more than 100 emails to fashion designers, PR executives and anyone who might get her a seat to the shows. She only caught a break because a friend, who didn't want to attend one show, passed the invitation on to her.