‘I have the undying passion for Indian fashion’: Masoom Minawala

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A trendsetter and style icon in the digital fashion industry Masoom Minawala explains her journey in the industry. When asked about the changes in content creation for the past 10years, she said, “When I started there was no wide path. There were a handful of people along with me and we began this journey together. It was so interesting because we were carving the path every single day. As we kept moving on there was so much fear of the unknown because nobody understood blogging or content creation. It wasn’t even respected as a profession when I started. A lot of questions mark everything as in ‘Is this even a viable career option?’, ‘Is it even going to be able to satisfy monetary goals that I had or the kind of ambitions that I had’?. But it was so interesting and so exciting because we were able to carve anything that we set our mind to. We were able to define the industry the way we like it. That was an advantage because I started at that point. But if I have to compare content creators who are starting their journey now, I think it’s just as exciting because it’s an industry that celebrates individuality and uniqueness. They still have the opportunity to completely redefine the industry. We have been seeing that on the internet. There are movers and shakers in the industry who started creating content about 6 months ago. There were a lot of advantages that I had been one of the first movers. But it is an industry that has so much space for everyone.”

Speaking about the presentation style and uniqueness in content creation Masoom said, “For me, content creation is synonymous with consistency. I think above and beyond everything else. You have to be consistent. It requires discipline like nothing else because I think when you decide to put your work out there on the internet for others to see and you build the community, you have a certain responsibility to that community, to continue showing up for them because it’s almost like they’re signing up for a magazine or a product. They kind of blessed you with following or subscribing and celebrating your work every single day. So you owe that responsibility back to them by continuing to create.”

While talking about taking digital content creation as a full-time profession, she said, “consistency plays a very important role in monetizing your content. Unfortunately, I think, the monetizing angle of content creation is not spoken about enough and that is something I try to do on my platform and also about how content creation is such a great profession. There is a great scope in actually what you can bring home. And I think there are tons of things like any other business that needs to be kept in mind before you monetize your content. A sort of tip that I always offer is that when you start charging money like when you start monetizing your content, one thing that I always see is that start monetizing accounts only to the point where you can guarantee some sort of return-on-investment done by the brands and clients.”

Talking about the freedom that a content creator has once they sign a deal, Masoom said, “This is completely personal and differs from influencers. My team is very stringent when it comes to choosing what kind of brands that we work with. There has to be a certain authenticity and aesthetic match. Usually, the brand that you’re working with will outline the campaign details before you get into any sort of contract or official engagement. And then you decide whether the terms and conditions work for you or not. That will help decide whether you say yes or not.”

When asked about the audience she said, “It’s not that difficult to be honest because you don’t. I also have this undying love for Indian fashion. And I think that is so transparent with me and my audience and the kind of relationship they have with me, in turn, it’s like celebrating Indian fashion. Living in Europe has helped me to have access to global trends. But one thing that I’m sure of even when I’m attending international fashion is that I’ll be wearing Indian fashion and I’m trying my best as much as I can because there is so much heritage and culture and craftsmanship. And because I have the privilege of actually living in Europe, I take Indian fashion to the world.”