Imran Amed

“As much as technology has made me so much more efficient, enabling me to run a small but global company from where I happen to be, at times it feels like the technology is running me, as opposed to the other way round.”

“For someone who comes from my business background, getting fashion people aligned around certain things can be a challenge. In a way, the industry is so forward-looking. And yet, sometimes people in fashion are not open to change.”

“Leaving all the glamour and air-kissing aside, at the end of the day, fashion is about operations and getting things done. The best way to be successful, therefore, is to learn from the people who do it best.”

“There's a side of fashion that's very analytical and data-oriented and methodical, but there's also a side of it that's just like magic. You can't quite put your finger on it, and you can't quite describe or prescribe a formula for how to get that magic exactly, but when you feel it and when you see it,you know that's what it is. It's magic.”

“Fashion is an industry of action, not discussion.”

“Not every brand needs to be on every social platform. Brands should have a very strategic objective, whether it's marketing or commercial. The biggest mistake a brand can make is to be on a social platform without a plan or the resources to manage it.”

“One of my closest friends was a half-black, half-Jewish girl. Another good friend had a shaved head... but I was also friends with jocks. I was a 'floater,' I guess you could say.”

“Growing up in Canada, I used to love a walk in the early morning, when the streets are quiet and the sun was shining. Walking in the morning is still very refreshing... and if I can, I will walk to my first meeting or appointment.”

“I have always been drawn to fashion from an aesthetic and consumer standpoint. I honestly never thought that I could take my business training and apply it here. I worked in retail and was into fashion. It was something I liked, and people trusted my opinion.”

“As I began to take risks, leaving my very comfortable and secure job and taking this first leap into fashion, every subsequent risk became easier to take because I began to see the kind of opportunity and excitement that risk-taking offered.”

“Not everyone can be successful selling fashion at $25,000 for a wedding outfit. Certain designers are able to do that. And there is only a certain amount of consumers who can do that. The real opportunity is in that $25 garment.”

“Education was something my parents always put a lot of emphasis on. It was naturally in me, and my sister is equally driven. She is a paediatric endocrinologist.”

“My advice to owners of fashion brands is that you have to give digital a seat at the board table. A lot of brands treat digital strategy as something on the side.”

“I realised I had to work in something creative, but with a business and global element. And that I had to do it while I was still young and had an appetite for risk.”

“I'm regularly speaking at London Business School and Harvard Business School. They're the next generation of leaders in the fashion industry.”

“My parents landed in Calgary in December 1974, straight from Nairobi. They were immigrants, like many people coming to build a better life. My mom was five months pregnant with me when they landed.”

“The most fascinating part is how fashion just attracts all these social rejects, if you will, from around the world, encourages individuality. They're the people who make the industry tick.”

“I always wanted to do creative things, but I was really interested in entrepreneurship. My family comes from a very entrepreneurial culture, so business was always something I was interested in.”

“Digital has really made the fashion industry a lot more transparent. So people can see and understand how the industry really works, and participate in an industry that was very inaccessible to people. The only thing that people used to see before was the end product. Anyone can participate in it now.”

“Look at the way sports, music and film have become driving forces of popular culture. Fashion is the fourth pillar.”