Umara and Kashaf

co-founders of a fashion blog

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Umara and Kashaf are fashion bloggers who started a blog about Pakistani fashion in their second year of study. They say it has been a pure fashion blog since it began. Most of their campaigns come from corporate brands, and they have since added video content to their work.

Early life and background

Umara and Kashaf say their mother wanted both of them to become doctors. They also say she was strict about good marks. One of them wanted to study fashion designing. [1]

Education

Umara and Kashaf say they went to the same school, college and university. One of them switched to international relations when the institution offered a diploma instead of the international degree she wanted. One of them studied modern political thought and international development in her degree. [1]

Career

Umara and Kashaf started their blog in their second year of study. They say it was a fashion blog from the start and has stayed a pure fashion blog. They put the start at about five years before the time they were speaking. When they began, they posted two or three times a month. They say they first approached blogging with the mindset of students. [1]

They say the blog is about Pakistani fashion and what a normal urban Pakistani girl should wear. Most of their campaigns come from corporate brands. They say they worked with a brand that asked them to cover a collection, and they covered the entire collection. They also say they were often asked to put up a post and take it down after a few weeks, and that they never did that. [1]

They say making a review video was costing a lot and was unsustainable. They say they did not work for almost the entire year, and may have made only two videos in that whole season. They started styling videos in January instead of TikTok-style videos. They have now switched towards video content as well. [1]

They say they want to focus more on blogging and give it a proper structure. They also say they wanted to start a fashion line and to have their own magazine. [1]

Views

They say the trend has moved towards pictorial content, and that a written post does not draw much public heat. One of them says Instagram is more about pictures, which leaves people with very little margin, and that YouTube is a more extensive platform, with videos of 10 minutes. One of them says she does not want to switch to any other platform until Instagram is perfect. [1]

They say people have to understand their own cultural roots. They say there are now 500 brands to choose from, and the number grows every day, and that nobody has the time to look at the whole range of brands. They ask why brands hire creators and then deny them creative margin. [1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2021-08-02 Why Umara and Kashaf refused to chase TikTok Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Umara and Kashaf?

Umara and Kashaf are fashion bloggers who started a blog in their second year of study. The blog is about Pakistani fashion and what a normal urban Pakistani girl should wear. They say it has been a pure fashion blog since it started.[1]

What does Umara and Kashaf do?

Umara and Kashaf run a fashion blog and have also switched towards video content. They say most of their campaigns come from corporate brands. One of them says she posts mostly on Instagram.[1]

Where did Umara and Kashaf study?

Umara and Kashaf say they went to the same school, college and university. One of them switched to international relations when the institution offered a diploma instead of the international degree she wanted.[1]

How did Umara and Kashaf start their blog?

Umara and Kashaf started their blog in their second year of study. When they began, they posted two or three times a month. They say it was a fashion blog from the start.[1]

What are the plans of Umara and Kashaf?

Umara and Kashaf say they want to focus more on blogging and give it a proper structure. They also say they wanted to start a fashion line and to have their own magazine.[1]

References

  1. Why Umara and Kashaf refused to chase TikTok . Thought Behind Things , 2021-08-02.
Show the source passages (53 statements)
  1. Umara and Kashaf say their mother wanted both of them to become doctors. Hum dono ko amma bachate the hum doctors bane.
  2. One of them wanted to study fashion designing. Actually, I wanted to do fashion designing.
  3. Umara and Kashaf say they started their blog about five years before they spoke. Yeah, it was actually five years ago.
  4. One of them switched to international relations when the institution offered a diploma instead of the international degree she wanted. So I just went there for my degree, international degree mujhe karni thi, par woh diploma offer kar rahe the. So I switched to international relations.
  5. One of them studied modern political thought and international development in her degree. Maine subjects padhe, modern political thought padha, international development padha.
  6. Umara and Kashaf started the blog in their second year of study. Aur second year mein hi hum logon ne blog start kar diya randomly.
  7. One of them said she could not imagine running a blog alone. So I couldn't even imagine of running a blog alone.
  8. Umara and Kashaf say they went to the same school, college and university. We went to same school, same college, same university.
  9. Umara and Kashaf say their blog has been a pure fashion blog since it started. when we started, it was a fashion blog and till date it is a pure fashion blog.
  10. Umara and Kashaf say they were often asked to put up a post and take it down after a few weeks, and that they never did that. so many times we were reached out ke aap yeh ek post laga dein, maybe you could take it down after few weeks. And we never did that.
  11. Umara and Kashaf say they cut back on socialising to make time for the blog. humne sab socialization aur woh sab kuch band kar diya us time duration mein.
  12. Umara and Kashaf say their mother was strict about good marks. So Amma was very much concerned about ke achhe marks aayein.
  13. Umara and Kashaf say their blog is about Pakistani fashion and what a normal urban Pakistani girl should wear. I think the main point has been like Pakistani fashion and what I view um, as you know ke ek ek normal Pakistani urban girl ko kya pehna chahiye
  14. Umara and Kashaf say people have to understand their own cultural roots. you do have to sort of understand your own sort of roots as well
  15. Umara and Kashaf say they posted two or three times a month when they started. So when we started, we were posting like twice or thrice a month.
  16. Umara and Kashaf say they want to focus more on blogging and give it a proper structure. humein blogging ko hi thoda zyada explore karna hai aur isko proper ek structure dena hai
  17. Umara and Kashaf say they used to approach blogging the way students would. isse pehle hum log bilkul ek usi mindset ke saath zindagi guzar rahe the blogging ki jaise hum log students thay
  18. Umara and Kashaf say there are now 500 brands to choose from, and the number grows every day. Ab aapke paas 500 brands hain and they're growing everyday.
  19. Umara and Kashaf say nobody has the time to look at the whole range of brands. Nobody has the time to go out there and look at the entire range
  20. Umara and Kashaf say making a review video was costing a lot and was unsustainable. you could make like a review video, but that was costing a lot. That's unsustainable.
  21. Umara and Kashaf say a written post does not draw much public heat. Ab kyunke woh text hai na, toh aapke upar itni heat bhi nahi aa rahi.
  22. Umara and Kashaf say the trend has moved towards pictorial content. as the things have moved towards pictorial and more easy, you know, it's more easy for people to see something than to write about it.
  23. Umara and Kashaf say it is in their nature to let go of bad things. hamari personally nature bhi aisi hai that we, you know, we let go of the bad things, you know?
  24. Umara and Kashaf say they also wanted to start a fashion line. hum log fashion line bhi karna chah rahe the
  25. Umara and Kashaf say they also wanted to have their own magazine. we also wanted to have our own magazines.
  26. One of them says it is better to have one flop business than two. rather than having like two flop businesses, it's better to have like one flop business.
  27. Umara and Kashaf say they did not work for almost the entire year. So we didn't work for the entire year. Almost entire year.
  28. Umara and Kashaf say they may have made only two videos in that whole season. humne shayad pure us season mein do videos banayi, imagine.
  29. Umara and Kashaf say they never made TikTok content from the start. hum logon ne shuru se hi TikTok content nahi kiya
  30. Umara and Kashaf say they started styling videos in January instead of TikTok-style videos. So instead of that hum logon ne January mein styling videos start ki.
  31. One of them says that by that time brands were writing in their briefs that they did not want TikTok videos. by this time the brands are writing in brief ke nahi humein TikTok wali video nahi chahiye.
  32. One of them says she personally loves watching TikTok videos. Main toh personally I love watching TikTok videos.
  33. One of them says content that is original is sustainable. agar aapka content is original, so it's sustainable.
  34. One of them says any business should stay flexible enough to evolve. one more most important thing in any business you do is that you should uh be flexible enough to know to evolve.
  35. Umara and Kashaf say they have now switched towards video content as well. But now we have changed uh you know, we have switched towards the video content as well.
  36. Umara and Kashaf say they never followed statistics or algorithms. hum logon ne kabhi bhi as such statistics aur uh algorithms aur in cheezon ko follow up nahi kiya
  37. Umara says they wanted to make creative content. We wanted to do like creative content.
  38. One of them says it is humanly impossible for all 30 posts to be of good quality. toh humanly it is impossible ke 30 ke 30 post ki jo hai wo quality achi ho
  39. Kashaf says TikTok did not align with their audience. hamare saath TikTok didn't align with our audience.
  40. One of them says that if you are creative, people will watch your organic content. it's the organic content that's going to do if you're going to be creative then people are going to watch you
  41. Umara and Kashaf say they also made a few TikTok videos that went extremely well. we also did few uh TikTok videos which uh went extremely well
  42. One of them says she posts mostly on Instagram. post main zyada tar karti hoon Instagram ke upar
  43. Umara says about 87% of their followers are women. we right now have um 87% of women following.
  44. Umara says their audience is the niche they set out to target. hamari audience hamari niche wohi hai jisko hum target karna chah rahe
  45. Umara says they think carefully about what kind of audience they want. hum log is cheez ke bare mein bahut sochte hain ke what kind of audience we want
  46. Umara and Kashaf say they worked with a brand that asked them to cover a collection, and they covered the entire collection. We got to work with Khaadi aur unhone hamein kaha ke ek collection aapne cover karni hai and we covered the entire collection.
  47. Umara and Kashaf say most of their campaigns come from corporate brands. the campaigns essentially are most of what you call corporate sectors aur yeh wale brands.
  48. Umara and Kashaf ask why brands hire creators and then deny them creative margin. to why are you taking influencers or bloggers or content creators on board agar aapne unko creative margin nahi dena?
  49. One of them says she does not want to switch to any other platform until Instagram is perfect. mujhe nahi lagta ke I want to switch to any other channel or any other platform until Insta is like, is perfect.
  50. Umara and Kashaf say the quality of content has been haunting them ever since they started. it's the quality of content and that has been, you know, actually haunting us like ever since we started.
  51. One of them says YouTube is a more extensive platform, with videos of 10 minutes. But I think so YouTube is a more extensive platform in terms of you have videos of 10 minutes
  52. One of them says Instagram is more about pictures, which leaves people with very little margin. It's more about pictorial aur us tarah, to I think so people, you know, are left with a very less margin.
  53. One of the guests says she wants to live in Pakistan. I said, no, I want to live here in Pakistan