AW Fashion: ‘Heeling’ It
“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world”- Marilyn Monroe
It’s a truth universally acknowleged that second only to diamonds, shoes are a girl’s best friend. The more the merrier. Retailer Alea Richards, whose heels always elicited compliments, decided it would be selfish to not offer women the luxury of owning their own statement pair. Three years later Aurak Shoes was birthed. Richards’s passion for shoes goes back to high school. “As a sixth- form student at Ardenne High wanting to run a shoe business, capital was my biggest challenge. I had to sell jewellery to make a profit so I could order my first batch of shoes,” she shared with All Woman Fashion (AWF) . However, in retail, it is not enough to just have the merchandise, you must also have charisma. “Another challenge for me was customer service. Interacting with a variety of personalities that I’ve never dealt with before took some real getting used to,” she shared. Indeed, her determination to succeed as an entrepreneur has reaped success. Eager for others to follow suit her advice to young retailers is to do the research and know the other players in the industry and incorporate an interesting spin in order to stand out.
