“When FashionValet was growing, people wanted us to succeed,” says Vivy. “They had hopes for this homegrown business; they raised us up and cheered us on. Things happened along the way, and we had to pivot. I had to face that publicly. As with any startup, there have been many failures, small and big, as well as achievements. If anything, I’m the best example that failures can’t kill you, because I’ve failed publicly,” she adds with a good-natured laugh.

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According to Vivy, the decision was a difficult one to make, resulting from a series of discussions as early as 2019 about the future direction of the company and meeting the expectations of investors who were counting on the success of the entire FashionValet group. 

In her best-selling 2022 book, The First Decade: My Journey from Blogger to Entrepreneur, the mother of four explains the decision to streamline the group’s focus solely on its in-house brands. “We thought a lot about how we needed to evolve as leaders and what we have to do for the growth of the group to become a global brand. This was our opportunity to have a blank canvas. We redefined the FashionValet vision, mission and values… It was crystal clear, and weirdly enough, I was actually excited about this simplicity,” she wrote.

With 1.8 million Instagram followers and 247,000 Youtube subscribers, Vivy has become a social media darling. Her popularity is no doubt helped by the fact that she has never been shy about talking about her journey, both the setbacks and successes, much of which is recounted in her book. While some may say candour comes with the territory when you’re a fashion influencer, Vivy feels her story has created a genuine connection with the community she has spent over a decade of her life building.

“That was my path from the start,” she explains. “You knew me [as a blogger] first before the business. Of course I’ve had moments of backlash. There was a point where anything I did or said became news on TikTok, Twitter or even mainstream media. After those experiences, I thought twice about sharing so much because I wanted to protect myself. But at the end of the day, it’s my nature to be open. If the lessons I’ve learnt in life can benefit my readers in some way, then it’s worth it.”

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Vivy’s own entrepreneurial journey has been largely inspired by the stories of illustrious business leaders, from Starbucks bigwig Howard Schultz and The Walt Disney Company’s Bob Iger to her own father, Dato’ Dr Yusof Jusoh, who became an entrepreneur in his 40s.

“My dad always tells me, ‘Once you reach a point where you’re comfortable, that’ll be the death of everything’, and I agree with him,” Vivy says. “I do think there was a point in my career where I raised funds, got recognised here and there, the business was doing well, and I thought, ‘I’ve made it.’ I got caught up with people’s praise on social media and perhaps I slowed down. I didn’t  work as hard anymore because I was already so comfortable with what we had achieved.

“I think entrepreneurs must have the energy to be uncomfortable, to work as if it’s Day One,” she adds. “Then you have to keep working at it; you can’t think that you’re ‘all that’ because at any time, if God wants to take it away, He can take it away.” 

How different was that heady “Day One” at FashionValet from the present? Vivy describes it as a typical startup set-up: a tiny group of young people who didn’t think twice about staying late, sleeping at the office and enjoying the breakneck pace of a business that was rapidly preparing for more demand than it could cope with.

“Now that we’ve scaled up years later, of course the team dynamics are different,” Vivy says. “The startup phase was fun but challenging, as it involved growing the business from the ground up. Now, it’s a more structured dynamic and less like a family. 

“As a leader, I’ve also learnt to set boundaries with the team. I get that not everyone wants to hang out with the boss or have the boss follow them on Instagram. The team needs to see you as a leader, and if they know you too well or get too close, it’s hard to maintain that sense of respect. It’s a different era for me, and I’ve come to accept that. I’m grateful to have experienced both sides, and now I have to write this new era in the best way I can.”

After 12 years in the fashion business, Vivy has become significantly better at managing life’s paradoxes—learning to be at peace with the past and the future, shifting her definition of success without taking her eyes off the prize, and mastering the precarious art of balancing creative and commercial interests.

“Someone told me once that you should always put the creative team away from the finance team,” she says. “It’s a challenge to tone down creativity and translate it into a commercial product. But after 12 years of doing this, I think I have a good grasp of how to speak to both sides. Sometimes inspiration can’t be forced, but you also have to think about timelines. We’ve had collections where my heart says it’s not ready yet. But because of deadlines, we had to move forward, and sure enough, the collection wouldn’t do as well as we’d hoped. 

“Ultimately, creative people want to express themselves, and sometimes there are hits and misses when they do. One day, I hope to create a ‘playground’ just for our designers to roam free—to paint if they want to paint, to smash something if they want to smash something. I want to build a space where they can express themselves freely and not worry about graphs, numbers and dashboards.” 

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From finally buying her first home this year with Fadza to the release of her book, Vivy has taken several milestones in her stride without losing sight of her plans for the future. She admits it’s tempting to dwell on the past, but she’s not letting it distract her from the end-goal of becoming a global leader in the modest fashion space.

“I believe your ambitions have to be big,” she says. “With no risk, there’s no story, right? Some people say I’m not empathetic enough and I am trying to work on that. But I also believe that you get one chance at life, and you don’t want to be unable to chase your dreams or live your best life because of setbacks or people knocking you down. Everyone is looking for balance, but I just don’t think it exists. I think if you want something badly, sometimes obsession is needed for it to become successful.” 

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