Mitali Saxena is first and foremost an engineer. She knew she wanted to use a data-led model when she decided to combine her two passions — engineering and fashion — into a successful business.
Saxena’s women-led company, Fashom, was born out of those merged passions, plus a desire to make online shopping easier for women.
“My love for both technology and fashion inspired me to create a product that had human personalization combined with data,” she told CO—.
Saxena created the Fashom name by joining the words “fashion” and “om,” the universal meditation sound. Ultimately, Fashom brings together human-powered fashion curation (stylists) and data collected from their styling quiz (artificial intelligence) to build a wardrobe specifically for the buyer.
Fashom’s team of stylists take the data collected from the styling quiz and pick out a number of wardrobe choices they believe best speak to the user’s quiz answers. They then ask the user to select their favorite pieces from the stylist’s recommendations. From there, they deliver the user’s choices right to their door. Users can even select a certain stylist based on their bios on Fashom’s website.
Stay true to yourself. It’s important to always know and believe why you are doing what you are doing. It’s all about the mindset.
Mitali Saxena, founder, FASHOM
How this AI-powered fashion brand stands out through sustainability
In the last decade, the data-driven fashion subscription service has skyrocketed, and Fashom is far from the first to enter the market. However, Saxena’s business is distinct: It’s a cruelty-free, vegan fashion startup dedicated to sustainable practices and protecting the environment.
Fashom is centered around ethically sourced, vegan products and leveraging AI to create sustainable fashion. With the fashion industry producing 20% of the world’s water waste, 10% of the world’s gas emissions and over 13 million tons of textile waste, there’s room for the industry to become more environmentally conscious.
That’s why Fashom fights against waste by giving consumers the pieces they know they’ll love, rather than sending them picks that they’ll want to return and ship back.
“We are well aware of the waste produced by the manufacturing industry and I think data prediction models can be used for better demand [and] forecasting,” said Saxena.
On top of all this, Fashom contributes $1 from every box to Second Chance Rescue NYC, a Manhattan-based animal rescue charity.
When asked about her top advice as a new entrepreneur in today’s world, Saxena didn’t hold back in staying true to Fashom’s top mission: individual self-expression.
“Stay true to yourself,” she said. “It’s important to always know and believe why you are doing what you are doing. It’s all about the mindset.”
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