Checking Out: Soraya Darabi

Your journey as an authority on digital consumerism has taken you from being The New York Times’ first manager of digital partnerships and social media to starting Foodspotting.com to, now, Zady. What did you feel was missing from the overall online shopping experience when you decided to launch your site?
We launched Zady to bring transparency to the supply chain, to show the origins of the beautiful things we sold. On our website, we take great pains to detail how and why we select our materials, our factories and our partners. It’s because the full-circle story matters so much to our team. We are a mission-driven brand at the end of the day.

Apparently, you feel other retailers aren’t as respectful of the mission?
Major fast-fashion companies produce over 300,000 SKUs a year. They produce in harmful environments around the world, with few auditing systems in place. For our sweater launch last year, we went to every factory to visit every supplier. We know our ranchers in Oregon by name, and our dyers in Pennsylvania are friends. That’s why Zady stands for something new and unique.

It sounds a bit like Whole Foods, only outfits instead of salmon.
We love it when folks refer to us as “The Whole Foods of Fashion.” In our earliest conversations about brands we admired, Whole Foods always came up. We always mentioned our admiration for the way Whole Foods tells the full story behind the products they carry, and how we intended to do the same in apparel retail. That led to a Wall Street Journal reporter stating that we were similar to the brand, and it’s a nod we will take and cherish. Just as Whole Foods became the go-to organic grocer, we plan to become a next-generation apparel brand.

The generation of idealism and tech savvy. Are you a millennial?
I’m 31. And absolutely, I plan to devote my life to helping companies at the intersection of design, social impact and innovation get off the ground. I believe in impact-investing, as well as creating work you love that appeals to personal values above all.

What does Zady mean?
It’s a name we loved. It means “grandfather” in Yiddish and “prosperous” in Arabic – the importance of bringing together prosperity and heritage.

Fun at IRDC

Talk a little bit about your presentation at IRDC.
It’s going to be fun! I’ll speak about my journey from a media company employee to becoming an entrepreneur; about the evolution of our digital brand; about omnichannel marketing; and developing a brand from scratch. I can’t wait!

And also your mission to bring honesty to retailing?
Yes, our manifesto – honesty, quality, transparency – declares why we do what we do. We took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal declaring this statement, and it became a trending Twitter topic on the East Coast.
 

Soraya Darabi will be the opening keynote speaker at the 15th annual International Retail Design Conference. Be sure to join us Sept. 9-11 in Austin, Texas! For more information about IRDC, visit IRDConline.com.