Inspired by the French historical definition of bourgeoisie, and the rising relevance of the term boujee in the hip hop scene, the rising Egyptian clothing brand Boujee was founded. By producing luxurious goods, it aims to penetrate the Egyptian and global fashion industry, whilst maintaining a humble character.
Founders of Boujee, and childhood best friends Assem Elnady, Ahmed Marwan, and Mohamed Yasser started with a vision that aims to restore the position of the Egyptian fashion scene, globally.
They decided to take on an entrepreneurial challenge that nurtures their passion for fashion, and consumes their time and effort, as they didn’t want a usual 9 to 5 job. Although they spent long, work-filled nights, to them working on something they love, is more gratifying than a “traditional, uninspiring” job.
“We were inspired by a collection of high end clothing brands, and we wanted to adopt their approach. Boujee aims to play an immense role in changing the Egyptian niche clothing market, through its luxurious designs,” the founders said.
Boujee’s designs represent an iconic and ancient heritage, such as Greek gods which were featured in their latest collection.
The founders believe the designs are ideal for nightwear and trendy events, as they are styled with royal colors, gold baroque, and luxurious elements that represent a final lavish look. They also opted for an artistic photography session to illustrate the uniqueness of their brand.
Boujee aims to take its brand into the global scene, to prove to the world that Egypt can still produce luxurious products and reflect a better image of Egyptian taste, the founders stated.
With new ideas and visions, come big challenges, “We produce our products from top to bottom, which made it a very difficult challenge for us, but as all of us are business graduates, we tried to apply our experiences and what we learnt to penetrate the Egyptian market,” Yasser said.
The attention to minute details led to a lot of wasted time, money and energy until they finally came up with their fashionable, durable, comfortable and elastic product. Even the workers who manufactured the t-shirts faced difficulties to produce the products, as they didn’t have prior experience on working with such production techniques and materials, El Nady stated.
“I believe that Boujee doesn’t have a competitor in Egypt, when it comes to luxurious clothing, as our styles and brand positioning are unique, and I don’t think that it was introduced before in the Egyptian market,” Marwan said.
The founders decided to challenge themselves by taking an on ground approach to create a strong knowledge base and develop their business from scratch. This is because they didn’t want to have a middleman between them and the factories they deal with, to practice their theoretical knowledge and develop their problem solving skills.
There were various trials and errors in order for the founders to come up with the best outcome. They had to choose the optimum quality of fabric, and choose the best printing technique that would best match it.
With new ventures, come high risks. They had to try out and test different blends of fabric, different providers and factories to reach the best output. This took time, which led to a late launch at the end of the season where demand for shirts is low.
However, the potential scenario they had in mind took a different shift as their social media accounts received massive shares and engagement, leading to many designs going out of stock. This was a surprise to them, especially that they didn’t approach influencers in their marketing campaign, which is somehow unorthodox to what most new businesses do.
“This doesn’t mean that we are against marketing campaigns that feature influencers, we just believe that anyone is an influencer. Everyone can influence the people that surround him, so when someone chooses our products, he or she might influence others to buy our products,” El Nady said.
