We were lucky to catch up with Afroja K recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Afroja, thanks for joining us today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

With a purely legal background, I’ve been trying to show the intersections of fashion, inclusion and human rights including climate justice. From this perspective, I founded the first ever digital and web 3 modest fashion startup based in London, UK. As a pioneer inclusive fashion startup, Fashion Cults has introduced the new and huge opportunities in digital and sustainable fashion, NFTs, Metaverse, blockchain, gaming and modest fashion. For the greater purpose of my business, I’m rebranding Fashion Cults and the new name of my company is NEOMODEST.

I believe the contemporary consumers of inclusive or modest fashion have different tastes and they’re actually neomodest! The brand name represents our community (consumers) and it’s a purpose-driven and community-focused inclusive fashion brand. I’ve already proved my work and values in my web 3 community. It’s quite a remarkable step in my entrepreneurship journey!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I’m a Law graduate, legal author, podcast host of The Law And Justice Podcast and founder of  NEOMODEST based in London, UK. I’m also a UNWOMENUK Delegate at CSW-66 (Commission On The Status Of Women). 

As I wanted to facilitate sustainability, inclusion and women empowerment through my  entrepreneurship journey, my online-based startup has been a pioneer in the modest fashion  industry including the digital fashion, Metaverse, NFT, blockchain and web 3 spaces. Fashion  Cults has been featured by different media including The Future Laboratory’s Meta-tainment  Report 2022 as the pioneer modest fashion startup to introduce a revolution. 

We offer both digital and physical versions of modest clothing and accessories for women. Our  products come as NFTs (Non-fungible token) and as we’re rebranding, we will offer more features  like AR (augmented reality) or try on fashion, avatar customisation for gaming or Metaverse and  virtual shopping. We will also offer gaming skins for gaming and Metaverse platforms.

As I’m rebranding my business, our products will be community focused creating values and  opportunities for the community (customers). As a web 3 and Metaverse-centric fashion startup, we solve real problems and our key focus is to  create sustainable and inclusive clothing and accessories for women. Fast fashion is a real  challenge and lack of diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry has been more prevalent  specially in the western or non-Muslim countries. 

While our focus is not the community or customers from any specific faiths groups, we aim to  normalise inclusive fashion while offering sustainable and decentralised fashion options. We  believe our products will empower women while raising awareness about sustainable fashion and  inclusion. As we offer utilities through our NFTs and phygital products, our community will be  benefitted through their purchases and engagements. As we’re more community focused, we aim  to build an inclusive community worldwide and would love to engage with our community  members through our social media pages like telegram, discord, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok and  more. 

As we’re rebranding, we will launch our new website, social pages and other updates shortly. So  we encourage our supporters to follow our pages to stay updated and join our community on  telegram. Right now, we’ve our telegram and Twitter pages for NEOMODEST.  Our visitors will also be able to visit our Metaverse galleries and experience the 3D environments  featuring avatars and AR. As we’re looking for startup funding, we will be able to offer more  exciting and problem-solving features including virtual shopping option to represent our  underrepresented communities and their needs through sustainable tech-based projects. We  believe web 3 fashion will be a game changer for our communities who’re the key part of our  journey for a more inclusive world. As we offer on-demand and artisan-made sustainable fashion,  we believe it will change our consumers’ behaviour and thoughts about fashion. We will educate  our community about the impacts of fast fashion on people and the planet while rewarding them  for their support.  

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe passion, simplicity, authenticity and implementation are the key factors that have created  an identity for me in the huge spaces of web 3, digital and sustainable fashion, NFT and  Metaverse. I must mention that LinkedIn has created more opportunities for me to meet the leaders  in web 3, NFT and digital fashion spaces. My recognition comes from this community mostly.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As a female founder from a minority group, it has not been easy for me to implement my plan.  But I’ve reached this stage through my determination and hard work definitely as I had no support  from anyone. Funding is the key for any startups to survive smoothly. I’m looking for startup  funding and I’m yet to get any support from any private or public sources. Despite the challenges,  I’m still trying to be consistent and looking for support from investors. I believe NEOMODEST  will be one of the leading sustainable, inclusive and web 3 fashion brands empowering its global  community.