Please introduce yourself (biography), state your starting point, and the time you began your activities.
My name is Arash Bostan and I was born in 1992. I started working in 2010, but my professional career in the retail industry began when I started working with the Gosport group France. I can also mention my time at Armani and the Rosha department store, among other places. I worked in various brands for a few years, and in 2018, my friend Shayan Ghazanfari and I created the Alphax brand and began producing products until we launched our first branch in 2021. Currently, we have two active branches in Tehran and a website for online sales. The main activity of the Alphax brand is in the design, production, and sale of clothing and accessories.
What personal experiences or influences led you to choose a career in the fashion industry, and what motivated you to establish Alpha X?
Since childhood, I always had a strong interest in art and loved creating. Shopping for clothes was always entertaining and essential to me. Still, like many others, I don’t know why I went towards industrial engineering, and my work activities have led me to this point. Fortunately, I am among those who find joy in their work and enjoy doing it, and overall, I take pleasure in achieving difficult successes.
Where did the idea for the brand concept and the elected designs come from?
In my opinion, every person has several different characters, and ultimately, one of them is the superior version, the alpha of that person. Based on the pattern of actions that cover physical weaknesses and their disruptive nature increases the courage to choose in people. With the slogan “Build Your Own Alpha,” we created the brand’s overall concept.
Please describe the operational challenges you faced while managing fashion and explain how you overcame them.
If we want to talk about challenges, already living in this part of the world means facing challenges, let alone wanting to create a brand and its products. We had a challenging journey due to the fact that we started from scratch without any specific initial investment and began with just one fabric roll. For example, when you want to buy one roll of fabric, you first need to find a place willing to sell just one roll, and you should know that the price of buying one roll is different from purchasing several rolls. This applies to all areas, such as sales, where we faced a lot of struggles in the first two years. Through extensive searching and persistence, we managed to overcome it. However, today, as production numbers have increased, those challenges are no longer present, and the model has changed. Issues like financial management, fashion marketing in a competitive space, finding a suitable location for branch development, human resources, and other matters can all be addressed through studying and researching the issues, seeking guidance, brainstorming, and sometimes even trial and error. The biggest challenges, however, are related to external factors, where decision-making is involved, and many of them are unpredictable, such as the overall economic conditions and other factors that directly impact society. In these cases, we improvise, and I can say that so far, this has been the best approach for us because you can’t plan precisely for a unforeseen crisis. I always tell myself to never give up and to keep going; it will yield results.
Do you have complete processes for creation and design, material selection, production, and sales? Please explain.
At the beginning of each season, namely Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, we first consider a concept for that collection. For example, last summer, we were inspired by Japanese culture. In the next stage, we prepare a mood board and start designing. We purchase fabric samples for the designs, and sampling is done on that design. The final sample, if approved, will then go into production. Of course, my colleague and I also follow trends in fashion during our trips abroad.
Looking at your experiences, which decision has had the most significant impact on the growth of your business?
I stepped over every fear: the fear of leaving a well-paying job, opening a store under financial pressure and doing something I had never done before. I believe growth occurs when you step on your fears if you take action and keep going.
Since you certainly understand the importance of a strong team culture in achieving success and have valuable experience, please share some profound insights regarding your team’s leadership and management and the process you face as a team and organizational culture.
We are more of a family, and our structure is matrix-based rather than hierarchical. Contrary to the criticism in all management books, we interact with our staff amicably and warmly. In our team, salaries are defined based on individuals’ abilities so that we can have a dynamic environment. We pay attention to anyone capable and creative in their work and consult ideas for decision-making rather than just making personal decisions ourselves as business owners.
How do you see your vision and brand development? Are you considering going beyond Iran’s borders?
We add a branch every two years and are working to establish an online sales platform for international markets. In the next step, we aim to produce and sell in neighboring countries.
Your audience will be attracted to the energy of your products. How did you create this energy?
I think the reason is that a lot of energy is expended to bring each product to the sales level, from the design stage to production and even the way the product is arranged and presented. We also try to share the good feeling and energy we have with the Alphax audience.
In your opinion, what impact do artificial intelligence and modern technologies have on the management of businesses?
Several tasks have become much easier, especially in the design field; any idea you have can now be visualized in just a few seconds by artificial intelligence, which helps us a lot in decision-making. We also use artificial intelligence extensively in marketing and content creation. I believe that soon, more designers will need to focus on how to express and generate ideas rather than just creating images of those ideas. We are also planning more for the sales section with the analysis we are using.
alpha x one of the best fashion brand
I like their styles. Their brand will surely be popular among everyone.
for alpha people, i like Their slogan’s : Build the alpha you
It’s so motivational to read about Alpha X’s ups and downs and how far they have come to make such nice pieces!
It is interesting seeing such young people creating such big brands and ideas, hopefully this brand goes far