As a part of Holoflow Tech Interviews, we had the honor of Interviewing Badrriya Henry, the power woman behind Fashion Foresight and founding partner of MakeVerse Studio.
With over 8 years of experience in the fashion industry, it soon came to Badrriya Henry’s attention that, compared to other industries, the fashion industry was lagging in using technology resources to evolve and transform. Therefore, she founded Fashion Foresight with the vision of connecting brands to the future. Her company started out supplying trend forecasts to brands and grew to offer technology solutions, business intelligence, and immersive experiences. The winner of the Epic MegaGrant, Badrriya Henry, intends to explore innovative tech that changes the Fashion industry. Without further ado, I invite you to read her own words.
1. How did Fashion Foresight come to be?
I started in 2017 with the realization that trend forecasting was not familiar to a lot of aspiring brands and designers. I started consulting and offering it as a service. I was established in Dubai in 2018 and then formally set up in 2019 through In5. I started to focus more on technology in early 2020 as I found a gap in the market for connecting fashion and tech. I knew from forecasts that technology would disrupt and influence every single industry, and fashion was no exception. So I founded Fashion Foresight as a company in a position to connect brands to technology as well as offer consultation for trend forecasts, collection development, and concept development.
2. What is your company’s vision?
My vision remains to connect brands to technology, develop technology, products, and solutions for brands, and align technology with brands so that they interact with audiences in future-driven and dynamic ways that make sense in a modern world.
3. As someone with a background in fashion and a thirst for technology, could you please explain how the world of fashion and the metaverse collide?
In so many ways, now brands can take their audiences on experiences that were not possible before; it is so much more than selling. It is more about experience and entertainment in this day and age. Attention spans are short, and social media platforms are very noisy with content. An immersive experience can really capture your audience’s attention and take them on a journey of product discovery, entertainment, and engagement. Our narrative and position have not changed from 2019 until now. Retail is changing, and a brand needs to become hybrid. Companies are now driven by engagement in a unique and dynamic way.
4. What are some of Fashion Foresight’s highlight projects?
Sure, we curated the metaverse for Africa Fashion Week Middle East that was publicly accessible and will be open again at the next fashion week; we are creating avatars for a few companies here in Dubai and within a mall space but can’t share as yet; and we are exploring brand engagement in immersive worlds and in games like Fortnite. We also consulted and activated Earth Of One Eight, which is mobile retail in Dubai.
5. How do your real-world and virtual businesses interact with one another?
They are usually connected through activities, events, launches or complimenting a campaign.
6. Considering your projects, how did it feel personally to be able to create an immersive fashion experience?
It was a lot of fun, actually. I personally learned so much and was privileged to have the support of Epic Games at the time, so we could learn quite a lot. Our knowledge is always evolving, specifically in terms of how it is relevant to the fashion and retail industries. It’s great to see other projects now coming up, and we are actually always discovering what works and what doesn’t. We are so excited about certain advancements made, and it took me roughly two years to evolve.
7. What is your opinion on virtual humans in interactive 3D worlds and their use case in the retail industry?
There is so much potential that, in my opinion, a lot of local brands in the UAE are sleeping on it. Virtual humans are extensions of ourselves or can have their own personalities and lives. They can be brand ambassadors, live in a brand’s world, or create a very specific message or lifestyle that aligns with the brand. Lil Miquela, as an example, is an online influencer who is a profitable avatar that creates content and is part of campaigns for brands.
8. How do you perceive the UAE and Dubai’s markets gravitating towards modern media technology and the metaverse world?
I believe we are eager for new tech, experiences, and companies that explore these, but I believe more opportunities need to be created, those companies’ leaders need to be supported, and there needs to be room for experimentation and innovation. There is an urge to now move beyond discussion and actually get to work.
I started tech in fashion because the fashion industry was my background, but as I learned more about XR tech and gaming, it made sense to align with a company and start one that was more industry agnostic; hence, Makeverse Studio was the right decision to align with and become a founding partner.
9. Regarding the previous question, what are some advantages and challenges of owning a metaverse-related business in the UAE and Dubai communities?
It’s a young space, but there are fantastic projects happening. I think we are in an environment where projects can be trusted and can actually grow because of the process of setting them up and the level of scrutiny these days. The challenge is education for brands on how they can use these tools and solutions and how metaverse technologies will assist their companies’ growth and relevance in the future. The positive point is that globally, a lot of bad actors or projects have disappeared, so the companies with grit can actually now move ahead and gain the right attention.
10. What excites you the most about your upcoming projects?
The experimentation, because we do a lot of experiments. And in the trenches, we actually get to be the first to do a lot of projects. We placed Africa Fashion Week as the first African and Middle Eastern fashion week in the Middle East and based it in Dubai. I think that’s mainly because we take a lot of risks when experimenting. We have a team of a lot of “YES”s, “why not”s, and “that excites me”s. We also get to learn a lot and make mistakes.
11. What would be your message to businesses and brands out there that hesitate to take initiatives in the metaverse world?
I would say evolution is happening; it’s better to experiment, start small, and grow from there. Align with people who have done it because there is a treasure trove of knowledge.
12. What is your advice to someone starting a new business in the UAE?
I guess go for it, learn on the way and on your feet, and have a good support system so if you fail or at least have bad moments, you have that support structure. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok.
Thank you Badrriya!
Here are some links to follow Badrriya Henry’s work:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/badrriyahenry/
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