Amina Muaddi on Building Her Namesake Brand And What Comes Next
The innovation award recipient is recognized “not only as a designer but as this incredible business visionary and leader,” said Neiman Marcus chief merchandising officer Lana Todorovich.
Never mind being handed the right shoes to conquer the world: footwear designer Amina Muaddi is doing a fine job on her own.
Her five-year-old brand closed 2022 with sales of 55 million euros, more than doubling 2020's 20 million euros in revenues. With more than 85 wholesale accounts internationally and celebrities including Rihanna, Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber wearing Muaddi's shoes, her signature fluted stiletto heel has become instantly recognizable.
But when the Paris-based designer heard she'd been awarded the 2023 Neiman Marcus Award for Innovation in the Field of Fashion, she was still “pretty shocked.” Diving into the history of the award and the famous names that were distinguished in the past “made the honor even greater than initially,” the designer told WWD.
Although the shoe designer and entrepreneur has received other awards in the past, the one from Neiman Marcus “felt like a different type of recognition because in a way, it's an appreciation for my business,” particularly given the number of brands carried by the U.S. retailer.
It's equally a “recognition of the fact that they appreciate the creativity and what [Muaddi] brought to the fashion industry as a designer and an independent brand,” the footwear designer added.
Choosing Muaddi for the award's return after a six-year absence reflected both the spirit and history of the prize created in 1939, as well as the legacy of Carrie Marcus Neiman and Stanley Marcus, officials said.
Chief executive officer Geoffroy van Raemdonck said distinguishing today's innovators, who bring a breakthrough and a fresh perspective, was key in this new era of the Neiman Marcus awards.
Chief merchandising officer Lana Todorovich was equally supportive of Muaddi's accolade, saying the five-year-old footwear label was “such a perfect embodiment of what innovation means.”
Historically, the Neiman Marcus awards “were given to brands that we now recognize as iconic, pillars of luxury and their luminaries, but at the time [they were distinguished], some of them were quite early in their career,” she continued.
Muaddi, 35, launched her namesake shoe label in 2018, a year after exiting her first footwear effort, Oscar Tiye, cofounded in 2012 with two business partners.
“With [Oscar Tiye], I was so young [at] 26 and it was not the industry of today. Social media wasn't as big; it was the very, very beginning of everything so it was a struggle to make it grow and be seen by retailers, press or celebrities,” she recalled.
When the first Amina Muaddi capsule hit the shelves that year with 10 retailers, the limited run sold out within hours, which made the designer feel “like all the hard work I had put [in] before paid off with this brand,” she said.
Naming her brand after herself was the “natural obvious choice,” since her name was already circulating around those in the know, and further bolstered by the designs she created for Alexandre Vauthier and Rihanna's Fenty.
AMINA MUADDI
The Bajan singer and beauty mogul was also “one of the first, if not the first to support” Muaddi's new label, often spotted in the sculptural heels. “To me, she's the epitome of what the [Amina Muaddi] woman is because she's powerful, she's feminine, she's talented, she's a badass, an entrepreneur, a musician — a multihyphenate,” the designer said.
But whatever her client's walk in life is, the footwear designer gets a thrill whenever she sees her design on the streets.
Her best-known heel was born from the impression that something was off in her initial designs. The classic stiletto felt boring but a flared heel would be “too chunky and close the femininity of the silhouette,” recalled Muaddi. After several iterations, the result felt just right and the “Begum” was born.
A bestseller it may be, but the shoe designer has no intention to “sit and rest on it,” in part because she admitted to getting easily bored by repetition. While her customers often talk about comfort, Muaddi said her secret recipe was “90 percent comfort and 10 percent pure creativity,” because “sometimes we want to create things that feel like sculptures.”
Case in point: the Yigit platform shoe, which owes its graphic outline to the shape of a ship. “I wanted it to be very sharp and the bottom to be very tiny because it was like a sculpture and then I had to adapt it to the limits of walkability,” a process refined in close collaboration with her pattern and last makers, she explained.
This year will also mark a turning point in the brand's expansion.
With the U.S., the U.K. and Europe amounting for nearly three quarters of the company's business to date, the brand is slated to open its own e-commerce in these territories within the coming months. The Middle East will follow shortly after, and global rollout is already on the cards.
Footwear remains the core of the Amina Muaddi business, but jewelry and bags are areas of growth and creative territories in their own right. Muaddi said the latter category would be expanded come September. She is looking forward to launching “proper handbags” after having “flirted with the mini bags as a concept.”
But none of this would have been possible if she hadn't received the early backing of her early retail supporters, according to the entrepreneur.
After meeting Muaddi in person for the first time, Todorovich remembered walking away from the visit “impressed and delighted.” First, by an “extremely personable, very authentic [person]” who owned a diverse, multifaceted identity “with a vibrancy that was really contagious.”
Then by “how quickly [Muaddi] was able to learn from some of the experiences and come back even stronger and more ambitious around what she wanted to pursue,” she continued.
Neiman Marcus started carrying the designer's footwear for fall 2019 in its women's shoes department in Los Angeles, Bal Harbour, Florida, Atlanta and online. A season later, the label's presence was in eight of the retailer's doors, a figure that has now grown to 18 doors, including its e-tail footprint. Bags followed for fall 2020.
From the onset, Muaddi's unabashedly striking and feminine designs resonated with a Neiman Marcus consumer who is “bold and confident and loves beautiful designs,” according to the chief merchant.
So much so that there is “significantly high sell-through of almost everything we bring in,” as the brand “really appeals to both our loyal customers as well as new [ones],” Todorovich said. “It's a rare thing in our industry to really see such a young brand that finds such an immediate success.”
Neiman Marcus consumer favorites are the electric blue Begum Satin Crystal pump, its Glass Slingback cousin in transparent PVC and the baby pink Rosie Crystal Bow Satin pump.
As such, it was important for the retailer to recognize Muaddi “not only as a designer but as this incredible business visionary and leader.” Her focus on innovation and knack for devising the right footwear that gave women what Todorovich deemed a “transformative experience” really set Muaddi apart from her contemporaries.
The strong partnership between Amina Muaddi and Neiman Marcus was born from a shared desire to “revolutionize luxury experiences,” particularly in the post-pandemic era where “customers are looking for a retailer like us to ignite the extraordinary in them,” according to van Raemdonck.
Not only is this award a recognition of the five-year-old business' progress and the entrepreneur's overall commitment, but it also highlights that the Amina Muaddi brand has “enormous potential as a business [and] also as a driving force in expressing a very strong point of view across categories,” the executive continued, pointing out the retailer's role at making sure its customers are connected to young creatives in addition to established brands.
Neiman Marcus will be supporting the brand throughout the year, culminating with an exclusive capsule collection in October.
Although Muaddi demurred about the details, she promised “a refresh, because it's going to be five years since the brand's launch in August,” with a mix of new structures and silhouettes alongside its signatures.
Beyond her business acumen, it's the founder's personality that gives the brand its extra sparkle, with van Raemdonck praising “a generous attentive and very hardworking leader — and designer because she runs her business, but she also creates.”
But even as these decisive first steps will be celebrated on March 5 in Paris, there is a sense that it is only the beginning of the Amina Muaddi journey.
Above all, it's Muaddi's grit and determination to forge a path and take others on that journey that stays with Todorovich, describing the footwear designer as someone “you want to follow because you believe in the journey and the vision is super clear.”
With the “sort of fashion authority that she's establishing in these two categories, [that] is something that can carry her wherever her vision takes her next,” Todorovich said.