We were lucky to catch up with Shiva Shamooil recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shiva, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

I was never shy to ask family and friends to support our business as I was always confident of our products and service. I have always been convinced that they would be very happy with our exquisite line.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Our company, Di Stefano Italy, is a family owned business. We are 3 siblings who love and complete each other. Having lived in Milan, Italy, the fashion capital of the world for many years, it was easy for us to bring Italian fashion to Los Angeles. We manufacture, import and wholesale Ready, Period and contemporary custom made clothing from Italy and also work with the entertainment and hospitality industries and are also open to the public. We always thrive to give the best quality, service and prices. Luckily for us, other than a few brand names that charge big money because of their names, there’s no one else who has authentic made in Italy clothing here in Los Angeles.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When about 20 years ago the clothing industry moved to China, we persisted in staying with Made in Italy as we knew no other country or tailor could copy the quality and make of an Italian suit. That’s why even though in the beginning we lost some retail stores because of the Chinese lower prices, we didn’t compromise on our quality and make. And that was the best thing that happened to us because after some time most of them came back to us. Same thing happened with our private clients as they cherish a “feel good” suit in which they look like a million dollar.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Giving best customer service, keeping up with the high end quality, not cutting back on anything and being proud of our Made in Italy clothing. For that reason, mostly word of mouth has helped us grow our business tremendously during the past 25 years that we have been in this business and we are grateful for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.DiStefanoItaly.com
• Instagram: DiStefanoItaly
• Facebook: Di Stefano Italy
• Linkedin: Shiva Shamooil