We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diego Aureggi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Diego thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Corporate America sounds a little dramatic, we all benefit from capitalism in one way or another. I rather start by stating that there are some good things that come from establishing a corporate mindset to you business, although expansion and profits should never be the only metric in which you evaluate your next steps. Piece Unik is an auction House dedicated to 1 of 1 Fashion! we work with a small but emerging group of Independent designers that up-cycle fabrics and use clothes as their canvas to create what we define as “art wear”. Our Mission is to uplift and showcase these artists by hosting fashion shows where we have whole performances that lead the attendee to a Runway/Auction show.

What the corporate world does wrong is their lack of care when it comes to curation, they have spent to much money and time figuring out what is the most cost-effective way to generate sales. We have lost the details, and for me the details where always the best part. They’ve created a system where any successful business has an obligation to their shareholders to maximize profits at the cost of the business itself. That is where I draw the line, money comes and goes, it’s probably one of the most accessible assets in today’s age and all it does is depreciate; we alway need more.

Fashion today is absolutely washed up, people buy to impress or imitate others. Conglomerates pillage third-world countries to minimizes cost – quality standards have been consistently decreasing just to make a hand-full of people wealthy. It’s rough out here; as a new business you are competing against un-beatable prices – you are a beautiful fish swimming among bloodthirsty sharks. If you try to source your materials ethically – you just need a costumer that is willing to pay the price. Unfortunately the “corporate America” Mindset has created a cut-throat industry which takes away the beauty from anything it lays it hands on.

Piece Unik doesn’t care – they can’t beat us because they can’t buy us!

Diego , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Piece Unik is the story here! A community run platform dedicated to creating a memorable experiences by merging costumers and designers through a series of curated events. We are obsessively focused on every detail of the experience in order to keep our community present and entertained and excited for our next show.

I’ve lived in multiple countries and I was blessed with the curiosity to engage and create with others! we’ve hosted 10 shows so far – we’ve invited over a 100 designers from 9 different countries : all to be part of what we believe to be the future of fashion. Piece Unik is only a vessel to facilitate the expansion, they are the real future. These Artist/Designers have the ability to create garments that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also capture their personal stories.

This is the exact problem we are trying to solve! No wonder the average consumers buys 10 different garments a month and throws away about 50 a year. The articles they buy have no story, no backbone; how can we expect anybody to truly care! Come to a show – buy a piece and watch how you will cherish it for years to come! Your whole closet should be that way! Quality over Quantity is the motto.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I started Piece Unik when I was still in business school; because of this I began by spending a lot of time building multi-layered business plans – financial models and other decks which would help me acquire an investors early on. I quickly realized that I was going about it all wrong, my venture was not a product but rather a service and because of this I didn’t need to start with capital but rather with a community.

We have so many tools available that allow us to create wealth with very little investment- using instagram and other social media platforms I was able to build a a solid foundation that has allowed us to become the only auction house dedicated to 1 of 1 designs.

All this to say- understand your business model before you start investing your time on figuring out how to raise capital.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In the fashion industry a solid social media presence is at the core of any successful business! We work with people and our market is dedicated by the consumer. My biggest advice is being consistent with your vision, for us at Piece Unik our experience has shown us that because we are working with products that are outside the box we needed to spend a lot of time educating the end user about our values and intentions. I’ve noticed that people resonate & engage greatly with your content when you are being honest about your struggles and your success – let people in to your world and explain them your process. This will generate a following of supporters that want to see you succeed because they believe in your capabilities of actualizing change. Content is King but Quality content is the Emperor.

Contact Info:

• Website: Pieceunikarchives.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piece.unik/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pieceunik1587

Image Credits
Stars Productions, Saiko,