We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nirali Patel, MBA. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nirali below.

Alright, Nirali thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

This is such an important question and I am so grateful to be able to answer this. I feel that in the first decade of the business, some media took parts of my journey and painted a version that sensationalized my story or was just blatantly incorrect and when you are new or a small business, the media won’t even print a retraction or correction. When I asked the media to do so, I was just told that I should feel grateful that I was even featured despite the damaging remarks. This is a second chance and an opportunity to give credit where it’s due by getting the facts straight from the source.

As the company grew beyond anything that I had planned on or imagined at such a young age while I was still completing my education, it came time to bring on board people who I could really trust and would either work for free, at a discounted rate, or pro bono until I was able to get to a point where I could operate through paid independent contractors which was possible after those initial few years. Along this journey, I credit four main individuals. My mother Ila, who helped with hand sewing during the late nights and always served as crafts services for every shoot and show. My immigrant father Hasmukh, a man who not only survived as a single Dad in my toddler years with two daughters to raise before he brought my mother Ila over from India, but also one who built a successful career himself from nothing by working multiple labor jobs and eventually ending up as a reputable man in the Hospitality industry. I attribute my sense of responsibility and work ethic to my father, he taught me how to allocate finances properly, negotiate, and about resilience in times of adversity which is necessary to survive in any business. When it came to all the legal dealings of running a business I have to thank Bhavik, my cousin who provided some of his legal services pro bono until I was able to afford his discounted rate. Last but certainly not least graphic designer and art director, Jamie, my college friend who is also a key component to the company’s success.

I have never had any actual business partners so at first I was just desperate to keep up with the 200 mph pace and grabbed whomever I could trust to not steal money from me or breach my ideas and so family and friends felt like the perfect solution. However, as time went on it became very clear that the business was not their passion it was mine and so it was time to bring on a team that had an interest in this industry and saw value in what I was building. To be honest, I still struggle with trust when it comes to an outside hire because with a family member or friend, loyalty typically can’t be, or at least shouldn’t be, able to be bought and that added layer of protection may not be there with an outside hire; it’s a risk. On the other hand, to answer the question, “where to draw the line” I think at disrespect or disregard. Ultimately everyone, myself included are there to serve the business and its clients and if the passion to do that at the highest quality possible isn’t there or weaponized incompetence is prevalent, it’s time to make a change. Regardless of whether you hire from within your own personal circle or an outside hire, it’s important to really listen to the needs of your team. Whenever the staff would get a performance evaluation I would have them fill out one anonymously for myself as well, this helped me to become a better leader and see where I too was falling short in terms of being able to extract the best quality of work out from my team.

Nirali, 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?

[Insert corresponding image: Nirali Patel MBA Headshot]

Nirali Patel, MBA is a multi-hyphenate in the Apparel industry including roles as Creative Director and Designer.

Nirali has worked in the Apparel industry over two decades and began her career in her teens. The self-made Canadian born designer, was brought up in the United States influenced by her South Asian background. Her various experiences in the industry has led to opportunities from designing for films, television, music videos, stage shows, and other entertainment industry jobs worldwide as well as executive level jobs supervising the production of multiple lines via China, India, and Pakistan. Nirali has worked on the design teams of large corporate accounts including Disney, Nordstrom, Macy’s, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart, Dancing with the Stars, NFL cheerleaders, U.S. Olympic teams, and The American Ballet Theatre Company to name a few. Nirali’s work has been featured on the Bravo network as well as MTV in addition to numerous other notable media and press.

Coupled with these professional experiences, Nirali’s strong academic background from the United States, Italy, and India, earning her a Bachelor’s in Fashion Design, a Certificate in Costume Design, and an MBA in Management and Marketing, has led her brands to be the most trusted among the Entertainment Industry and South Asian clients. Her clients, colleagues, and employers accredit her as being a visionary, reliable, honest, budget-conscious, and easy to work with. She is respected as an industry expert receiving accolades from reputable executives such as,

Corinne Ionescu VP of multi-million dollar company Hale Bob “there’s clear talent here”
&
Kiean Satvat Design Director of JC Penney brands “you’re impressive Nirali”!

Her well-received work has gained her a nomination for Adrianna Papell & E! Television Network Design Award along with several wins for best costume at various dance competitions and pageants. Nirali is also credited with being the official inventor of South Asian special occasion maternity and nursing apparel via her brand Mamta Maternity and Nursing by Nirali Designs LLC®, the first of its kind launched worldwide in 2006. Since 1995, Nirali has launched a total of five brands which make up Nirali Designs LLC Group of Brands today.

Nirali Designs LLC® founded in 1995 is a Special Occasion Apparel company serving the entertainment and special events sector through our many offered products and services. Nirali Designs LLC® has built five brands over the last twenty plus years, each with its own set of apparel lines and services to ensure the complete needs of valued clients are met.
[Insert corresponding image: All NDLLC Logos]

DANCE COSTUMES BY NIRALI DESIGNS LLC® founded in 1995 caters to dance companies, dance schools, and collegiate teams. They have designed for the top dancers worldwide for over two decades. They focus their complete attention and energies on the performer, to help alleviate the stress of finding costumes, jewelry, and props.
[Insert corresponding image: DanceCostumesFinalCanvasRebel]

RED CARPET BY NIRALI DESIGNS LLC® founded in 2000 caters to those who have a special appearance or event. They offer custom designs and wardrobe services for photo shoots, pageants, live concert performances, music videos, films, and television shows. They have designed for recording artists, actors, actresses, pageant contestants and other entertainment industry elite. Nirali states, “We love to make everyone feel and look like a red carpet ready star”!
[Insert corresponding image: RedCarpetFinalCanvasRebel]

DESI REVOLUTION BY NIRALI DESIGNS LLC® A clothing brand for the new Desi generation, the word Desi is slang for South Asian. The brand launched in 2004 creates fun, fresh styles with urban flare and Desi roots apparent in its jeans, tees, and novelty apparel. Nirali explains the origins of the brand’s tagline, “For the first time, our identity…our clothes, were carried at retailers nationwide and displayed in store windows! In a time when there were no brown beauties on any American billboards, fashion magazine covers, or in-store ad campaigns, I was determined to create a platform where young South Asian American females and males were represented. Desi Revolution became a brand that showed Desi pride and announced that a revolution in the standards of beauty were on the horizon. Today, to see Desis on all forms of American media is a mission realized. We are beautiful and we are proud”!
[Insert corresponding image: DesiRevolutionFinalCanvasRebel ]

MAMTA MATERNITY and NURSING BY NIRALI DESIGNS LLC® trademarked since 2004 and launched in 2006, Mamta Maternity and Nursing is the first ever South Asian maternity and nursing Special Occasion Apparel brand in the world. Nirali’s glamorous, elegant, and sophisticated designs capture the spirit of today’s expectant and nursing mothers. “With our variety of belly options and nursing features, we believe every expectant or nursing mom deserves glamour without sacrificing comfort, for each of her special events and holidays”. The entire Nirali Designs team and her personal family kept this concept a secret during development, all the way up until the very public reveal of the brand in NYC. Nirali conceived the idea when her big sister Trupti was pregnant with her niece Suhanee and she went online to look for a gift to give her sister to wear to South Asian events. Due to Trupti’s professional obligations as the director of Payaliya Dance Studio at the time, she was required to travel with her dancers to performances at multiple South Asian events and weddings. She needed something that was comfortable for her changing body yet still appropriate for these special events and venues. However, to Nirali’s surprise, there was nothing available in the marketplace that kept both women’s health and comfort in mind to wear when attending Desi events while expecting or even nursing! This struck really odd to Nirali as India is densely populated and the culture promotes having large families so the fact that no one had come up with a solution led her to dig a little deeper. While Nirali was working on her MBA she also took a role at Destination Maternity® formerly known as Mother’s Work Inc. which gained her access to the company’s Production Manager. She recalls asking him during a time when the company was expanding into the Chinese and Japanese markets if there were any plans to expand into India? His response of, “Well… don’t they all just wear a saree” was enough to give Nirali the confidence to move forward with her idea. Both her sister and adorable niece are the inspiration behind the brand, forever represented in the logo derived from an actual photograph taken of the two of them, making Mamta Maternity and Nursing® a part of their family legacy.
[Insert corresponding image: MamtaMaternityandNursingFinalCanvasRebel]

CBO BY NIRALI DESIGNS LLC® short for Custom Bulk Orders, launched in 2007 creates custom merch with custom graphics for a variety of organizations within the special events and entertainment sectors.
[Insert corresponding image: CBOFinalCanvasRebel]

All of the above services and products are available directly through their website www.NiraliDesigns.com and social media, “we function primarily like a by-appointment boutique from the comfort of the client’s own computer or interested parties can send an email to [email protected] with which brand they would like to schedule a booking for and the designated team takes it from there, fuss-free and simple”.

Although Nirali designed her first actual garment at 11, it wasn’t until the age of 15 that she decided to start building Nirali Designs LLC Group of Brands offering her work to others. Being in her teens and not having access to any mentors from the industry in her family, she relied on her teachers Ms. Judy Wenger and Mrs. Bakula Dharamdas Sanghavi for guidance. After taking a few fashion courses at her high school in Kansas, she began by designing dance costumes for herself and other young amateur dancers. At 17 years old, she was offered the position of design assistant in Mumbai creating pieces for leading Bollywood actress and dance queen, Madhuri Dixit. At 19 she had her debut fashion show at the South Asian Students Alliance Conference, where she was discovered by her first retailer in California; this was her first official contract. Shortly after, Nirali opened up a pop-up shop at Shireen Boutique in Schaumburg, IL, where she was invited to show for one week, but she sold out on the first day! During the first decade of her career, Nirali is accredited with building a multi-brand corporation and being the first female-owned, second-generation South Asian apparel company to have had her brands carried by 7 retailers nationwide. In the second decade of her career she was called to design for various film and TV projects as well as landing herself a seat at multiple corporate design accounts worth 30-40 million dollars in business. These are just a few of the milestones pushing her to keep pursuing and expanding her goals.

In addition to design, a few other noteworthy roles Nirali has conquered in her career included being the youngest professor at the Art Institutes in the Fashion Marketing program called to teach at three campuses. She has been a guest speaker on the Entrepreneurs Panel for Fashion Group International and involved in creating many internship programs from FIT, NIFT, JCCC, to FIDM naming a few. Nirali has also worked as a writer providing Costume and Fashion design content for publications and as a correspondent covering local fashion events when she resided on the East Coast and in Kansas City. The most rewarding has been her volunteer work with the organization Free Arts for Abused Children in Los Angeles. Through the use of arts, crafts, and other fun activities, Nirali works with kids who have experienced abuse, neglect, poverty, and homelessness, to help restore hope, resiliency, and self-esteem.

These successes have not come easily. Nirali has faced much adversity from some for pulling away from the usual South Asian American career paths to pursue her vision. Despite the lack of support or being overlooked and underestimated at times, the designer is grateful for every opportunity and truly loves what she does as she continues to take on projects she truly enjoys that align with her personal mission of spreading beauty and joy in addition to owning and operating her own business.
[Insert corresponding image: WorkingFinalCompositCanvasRebel]

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Knowing what I wanted to do so early on in my life was certainly a privilege in the sense that I was able to gear my education, after-school jobs, and hobbies around that. I attribute my immigrant upbringing to instilling a work ethic and money-saving habit in me that ultimately aided in the funding of my business. Initially, my business as a teen entailed selling sketches for five bucks a piece out of my parent’s basement using whatever school supplies I already had. Any birthday or holiday gift money went straight into something that might be needed for my small business later on. I am grateful to my parents for covering my education despite the financial hardships they endured, I am grateful to my college educators as well who would allow me to create my assignment pieces out of real fabric versus just muslin cloth so that I could sell them after they were graded at various tradeshows and popups. I worked two to three jobs while growing my business, I earned a little, built a little, earned a little more, and built a little more, and so on. Slow, steady growth was the only method available to me if I wanted to ensure to remain debt free which I knew would be a tremendous asset when it came time to exit and liquidate assets.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

I cannot emphasize the importance of setting up multiple streams of revenue as a creative and having a solid financial plan of how to invest that income to reap the benefits of compounded interest, especially as a female. It’s important to understand that corporate jobs come and go, we are seeing a lot of layoffs happening now in various industries including fashion, and even as an entrepreneur in the creative space it’s important to have a few buckets that you can pull from in times when one bucket is maybe running lower than expected. We are living in uncertain times from a macroeconomic standpoint and multiple buckets provide peace of mind financially. For me currently, that looks like having a clothing company with 5 brands, selling props, jewelry, or non-branded clothing items through a third-party site which also aids my business in sustainability efforts and making sure we aren’t adding to the landfills with waste. In addition, I offer bookings as a speaker, competition judge, and creative consultant. In the past, this looked like working in retail, designing for corporate accounts, and running my business out of a dorm room and a storage unit while going to school. Wherever you are in your creative career, the key is to branch out within your area of expertise while still remaining in your industry so your mind isn’t going in too many directions, which for some, can affect the quality of output and quite frankly your sanity. Think of it like this, actors may do stand-up, book a TV show, and can be working on a film or in the theater simultaneously, or a professional dancer who offers choreography services, dance workshops, and is booked for live shows on regular rotation. This same diversification method can be and should be applied to whatever creative field you work in, and continue to make this a habit as you advance. Speaking of advanced levels, take Vera Wang for example, a designer known for her wedding dresses branching out to include engagement ring design for Zales or how Karl Lagerfeld lent his creative direction to not only several clothing brands but also Magnum Ice cream company; proof that you can stay in your lane while not boxing yourself into limitations.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.niralidesigns.com/home.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niralidesignsllc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NiraliDesignsLLC/?fref=ts
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/NiraliDesigns
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/NiraliDesignsLLC
• Other: TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJDq2YHf/ IMDB Costume Design: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2966920/

Image Credits
Graphic design and Photo retouching: Jamie Dacanay RedHed Graphics Photographers: Dustin Jones, Amanda Ford, and Nitin Vadukul HMUA: Monique Powers, Debra and Daughters, Lacinda Fritter, Models: Rina Mehta for Desi Revolution by Nirali Designs LLC® Roopa Patel for Red Carpet by Nirali Designs LLC® Gwen Tripp (ballet dancer) and Karen Lanteros (kathak dancer) Dance Costumes by Nirali Designs LLC®