We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sol Ari a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sol, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
I want my brand to live on forever. I want to make women feel beautiful when they wear my clothing. My brand is dedicated to the fly girls who walk in a room and their presence is felt without having to say anything. For the girls who are not afraid to stand out. For the girls who express themselves with what they wear. Fashion is a very important aspect of our culture and I want my brand to be one of the most influential in the fashion industry and to my people.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Sol Ari and I own The Sol Ari Collection. I fell in love with fashion when I was 10 years old as I watched many seasons of Project Runway. My love for it died down eventually as I focused my time more on kid stuff- like playing with my friends and watching Disney Channel. The love picked back up my junior year in high school when I designed my prom dress and handmade my prom shoes. It was then that I realized I had an eye for fashion and I should maybe take it seriously. About a year later, I met my mentor who went on to teach me how to sew gorgeous gowns and other things.
Now, I create custom gowns and dresses for girls and women all over the DMV. I have a website thesolaricollection.com in which I sell made-to-order and ready-to-wear pieces to be shipped.
In spring 2022, I completed my first prom season on my own, doing 25 dresses and gowns, all while graduating college and working two other jobs. This year, my goal is to complete 40-50 gowns and dresses for prom.
My ultimate goal is to not have to work at all. To design my collections and send them to my team to mass produce. I want my brand to be global and to live on after I die.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Spring 2022 was a bittersweet time for me. I was miserable being stuck in the house for months, however I started making more money than I ever have by creating and selling face masks. I started creating Tiktoks of my creations and a few of them went viral, bringing a lot of people to my social media pages. I honestly feel like this period of COVID jumpstarted my business as I was able to save plenty of investment money and also gain followers and supporters. This time forced me to solely focus on growing my business.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
During COVID I began to record myself sewing and showing the process of how to make clothing step by step. I gained thousands of followers on Tiktok and Instagram. Recently, one of my Tiktoks was posted on The Shade Room, which is one of the most popular and influential instagram pages to my generation.
To build a social media presence, you have to post often. You have to figure out who your target audience is and post content that caters to their likings. You have to figure out what your niche is and stick to it!
Contact Info:
- Website: thesolaricollection.com
- Instagram: @thesolaricollection