Everybody should dress well. Your clothes and style are your statement to the world.
That’s what motivates Zahra Omar, 27, to delve into the art of clothes and help girls and women make their statements.
Omar created the online platform ‘Bostyle’ to guide women in the art of being well turned-out with tips on style and connecting potential customers with local fashion brands.
“I noticed 7 million girls and women from all classes follow fashion blogs to learn how to dress well and buy the products they advertise, which might not be suitable for the viewer, because each blogger promotes the style that suits her and her body shape. Not all women are the same, so I thought about lending a hand,” Omar told the Egyptian Mail.
“When I was a content writer, I covered hundreds of success stories in fashion and I found in my interviews with local designers that 90 per cent of brand owners complain about how difficult it is to market their products on social media. So, I thought of connecting them with customers through my platform,” Omar said.
Experts say that any woman can dress well if she listens to advice. For example, colourful trousers and a black top will make you less overweight in the upper body. A pear-shaped woman can use a colourful blouse and dark trousers.
To help women find out more tips and the clothes that suit them in local brands, Omar released an online magazine as part of her online platform. The magazine has articles on how to dress well, interviews and news about local brands and advice.
“This is the first online magazine on fashion in flipbook format to give the same sensation of flipping through paper magazines, but you can view it any time on your mobile phone,” she said.
“We have published three editions to date and we have noticed a huge turn-out on our editions,” she added.
Omar wants to develop Bostyle into an online market gathering local brands.
“A country’s economy depends not only on big companies but also startups. If we support startups now – even with simple methods such as telling people about them and how they create their products – this will definitely help them grow and this will benefit our country’s economy,” Omar said.
What makes Bostyle different from other fashion projects is that it offers user experience as an online platform and enables users to share the outfits they like with friends and take their opinion before buying.
Omar is currently working on AI feature, Recommendation System, which puts together a style guide based on information about the woman’s character and body shape.
“I hope we can make a real change in e-commerce and that Bostyle becomes the biggest platform supporting entrepreneurs and startups in Egypt and abroad and create jobs,” she said.
Omar was nominated entrepreneur of the month by Micromentor platform in April 2022.
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