Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Leading from the front row
What does it take to reach the top, stay there and stay real? We ask fashion creator, entrepreneur and investor Masoom Minawala Mehta
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% of creators in India, someone who’s walked the red carpet at Paris 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 frequent cooing punctuates her conversation with HT Brunch as she discusses what it takes to collaborate with globally recognised brands such as Samsung, BMW, Estee Lauder, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. And whether life really as easy as pout, pose and post.
Minawala Mehta started out as a fashion blogger. The Minawala name (she comes from a family of prominent jewellers) may have helped with early posts and 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 spectator seat to the shows. She only caught a break because one of her friends, who didn’t want to attend one show, passed the invitation on to her.
In 2022, she walked the runway for the Milan Fashion Week. But through that upward climb, and the time since, she’s been candid about struggle and failure. When the hectic schedule at fashion weeks take their toll on her hair, body and skin, she talks about the struggle to create breezy, effortless looks despite it all.
And unusually for young women in fashion, Minawala Mehta hasn’t hidden her post-partum body from the camera. She talks about stretch marks and pregnancy weight. “There have been apprehensions,” Minawala Mehta admits. “There are too many changes when you deliver a baby, and I am still wrapping my head around them. I’m still in the process of accepting my new body,” she says.
But the sense of responsibility, of keeping it real, has trumped such foreboding. “There are people watching and listening to every little thing I say. I want to talk to them about the challenges of motherhood,” she says. “A postpartum body is the most natural thing in the world. If someone like me is not going to be honest and authentic about it, who will?”
Content creators profess to a near-religious obsession with authenticity when they start out. Many abandon it quicky when brand collaborations pour in, when gushing is better for business than griping. “I have understood the power of my content and have been creating it with a lot more responsibility now than when I started out,” Minawala Mehta says.
A few years ago, one brand she promoted on her social media ended up getting hundreds of orders overnight, for a product that cost about Rs 30,000. “I realised that people were willing to put money into what I’ve endorsed. And that I must be very careful with this power.” she adds.
So she keeps the mix fresh. The feed has a mix of covetable international labels,
Think of it as an investment.
Whether you’re picking up a watch, a pair of shoes, a bag or a coat, you’ll avoid a viral, trending style that might look dated later. And pick something at suits your personal style. “Luxury pieces can last forever and even go up in value. Start with a classic style.”
Check the details.
Craftsmanship and longevity is what keep clocks ticking, handbags retaining their shape, gold plating staying put and surfaces looking
Minawala Mehta’s success lies in turning everything in the frame into a polished, poised poem. “I have to be passionate about all my outfits to narrate it well through social media.”
But creators’ feeds are the sum of clever marketing and myth-making. When she started out, she’d do everything herself: Right from sourcing outfits and negotiating business deals to shooting and editing videos. Now, a team of seven: A business lead, content lead, content assistant, video editor, executive assistant, client servicing person, and an accountant work with the stream of photographers and videographers and others in the creator ecosystem.
“We work in a gruelling industry where there is always a lot to do and my team is integral to my business,” she says. Having an accountant is crucial, as the shoe business taught her. “As creative people, we often overlook the financial side. But you need it to sustain and grow your work.”
The genius of the medium, however, is its ability to get followers and viewers to connect. So, no matter how lucrative a deal, Minawala Mehta says she won’t endorse a brand that has been known to follow unethical practices. “Sponsorship deals will come and go, but if you lose your community’s trust you may never be able to regain it,” she says.
Lost personal space is hard to regain too, especially if you want your online persona to stay real. “You are opening up your life and work for the entire world, for strangers to comment on and have an opinion about.” It’s the less glamorous side of being famous. And Minawala addresses it often, in posts that admit she wasn’t feeling up to it that day.
And at some point, on her journey to the top, Minawala stopped chasing more followers and focused on maintaining her creative edge. “I am no longer creating content on the basis of how it performs,” she says. “I create it because I love it and because I have something to say.”
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