Domi Perek - Fashion Entrepreneur on the Rise
Fashion entrepreneur, Domi Perek, founded her own online fashion magazine (Mess Magazine - Creative Chaos) when she was 18 and, since then, has built an international team working on several fashion projects in 13 countries around the world (locations include Paris, London, Los Angeles, China and Middle East); contributed to and consulted with over 50 fashion brands and start-ups; worked with some of the most well-known creatives in the world, including photographers from Vogue and L’Officiel as well as some of the most prominent bloggers; and was accredited at important fashion events such as London and Paris Fashion Week, Qatari Fashion Exhibition and Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
Delightfully engaging, Domi shares with WILpublication her bold and forward thinking views on rising as an emerging leader in the fashion industry.
What is your definition of success?
My philosophy is very simple. Success is an ability to get whatever you want with or without the means you have, by using all possible ways to make things happen. The result is the most important thing, not the ways you have to take to achieve your goals.
Domi Perek - Photo Credit: Alexander Luque
What is the one thing that irritates you the most in the way that society views millennial in business?
A lot of people think that what all millenials do is use Instagram without using brains and that they are usually rich kids with no education or experience within the industry. I believe that it takes extraordinary amount of hard work, focus and commitment to accurately present your vision to the world, regardless the money or connections that you have. You still need to use your brain and have experience and knowledge, to do it well.
Do you consider yourself an emerging leader, if yes, why? If no, why?
Well, I believe leadership is definitely one of my core strengths. Even at 6 years old when I became 'queen of the class' and led my peers at school. Now, I am 22 and my role definitely has changed and it involves different aspects of leadership as am not a 'queen of the class' anymore, but own an international fashion magazine. So answering your question, I have always been a leader, but am someone who has certain influence within fashion industry, works with thousands of people yearly and travels a lot to make my projects, my history soon, so yes I feel like I am the one who has potential to change the industry and make my mark.
At 22, how would you characterise your achievements so far?
I think my biggest achievement is that I was able to follow my instincts at a young age and did what I felt was right - started my own magazine.
I have done a lot of things - from distributing MESS in 13 countries, featuring over 2000 creatives in the magazine, speaking on different fashion panels and doing my fashion trainings in UAE, to working with the best and most accomplished fashion, art and design individuals and industry's leading companies on 5 continents. I think that is enough. I think building your own business which involved more than 3000 people working on it so far is great. Mess Magazine is a community that feels like my family and this is what am the most proud of.
What 3 key
lessons would you
like to share?
1. Never neglect the power of networking! Sometimes a silly situation can turn into a serious business opportunity. Once I met a Chinese girl in a toilet after a fashion show, which led me to having the biggest contract for MESS when I was 19, and eventually printing the magazine.
2. Build your own family with the people you work with so even when the work is done, you will keep friendly relationships, and perhaps you will work with them again!
Photo credit: Antonio Funaro
3. Creative part is as important as business part. Creativity is vital to start with, but only businesses with scalability can survive. So creative part should be the one to start with (idea), but business must come along.
If you had a message for aspiring leaders, what would it be?
Always follow your heart, regardless of the circumstances or the situation you are in now! Focus on the vision and build it day by day.
I would like to highlight the importance of training and educating young women to become proper leaders within their industries, and remind that leadership creates positive impact on society and builds a lot of great opportunities around us, that is why we need to support the leaders first, in order to be led and make this world happier place for all people, regardless of a social class, nationality, age and gender.
Great female leaders should be supported also in a way that they can get together and initiate mutual initiatives, in order to maximize the positive impact on the society. That is why great governmental representatives, such as Angela Merkel, should make our lives easier and support the chain reaction.
What is your vision for your next step?
My vision for now is to work on putting myself more 'out there' as industry leader and influencer, plus continuing editorial works and collaborations with international fashion weeks within the magazine. This is my time and I want to make sure I can travel and do as much as I can!
Mess Magazine is a quarterly, digital and in-print publication that contains the work of over 400 highly creative and talented people including internationally published photographers, writers, artists, stylists, models and industry professionals. So far, Mess MagazineTeam has been able to work with Fashion One TV, British Fashion Council and Net A Porter.
Follow on twitter @ MessMag
Photo credit: Daniel Peace
