In the first episode of Fortis’s Crossing The Desert, Isaac is joined by Sustainably U’s Simy Jose Hammer, a fashion designer and micro-entrepreneur in Dubai.
Simy takes us through how she came to create her business, and the challenges she faced.
About Crossing The Desert
Crossing the Desert is the Fortis sponsored podcast that gives a voice to the entrepreneurs who shaped the journey of businesses in the UAE.
Podcast Transcript
If nature wants, it would not take a second to wipe out the whole.
The whole story is not about, you know, as I thought it would be. It’s completely another story. Oh, sorry, you are not allowed to work. Because you know, as people, we’ve been taught to think about the future more than now. Who complains?
Raise your hands. What a piece of not true. Dubai was so much, so much smaller. It was worse. Hello, you’re listening to Crossing the Desert. This podcast is a reality series about how I build my small business in the emirate. You will hear my calls to friends, the sounds of Dubai streets, and most importantly, the stories of other people.
Entrepreneurs who opened a business and settled here in the Emirate. In each episode, I interview people from India, Egypt, Palestine, Caribbean islands, UK, and other countries. I don’t know which ones yet, because the story is just beginning. The podcast is hosted by Fortis Digital Solutions, the POS and CRM in one easy to use solution specially designed for small businesses.
I’m Isaac. I came to Dubai to put down my roots here. The stories of entrepreneurs who have already succeeded here will help me on my way. So we are currently in a Jumeirah district in Dubai. What do you see around? I see a lot of greenery. This is a very green neighborhood, which is a cool thing. This is a very special moment for me.
I had just landed in Dubai and Dubai opened up to me from a side I’ve never expected to see. There are a lot of flowers, like specifically pink flowers, which is a very beautiful contrast with green grass. It looks like a cool neighborhood in Dubai. Somewhere in the United States, you know, in LA, I would say that what vibes it gives me.
And if you look to the right, you can see buildings and Business Bay in the district itself. Wow. I like this contrast between like this high, tall buildings and the tranquility of this neighborhood.
It is, it is wonderful. And they even, look at that, they even have the swing bar. I’m walking into Simi’s home. Simi is a sustainable fashion designer and founder of the slow fashion brand Sustainably You. Hello. Hi. I’m Simi. I’m Isaac. Nice meeting you. How are you? Good. How are you doing? This is a lovely place.
It’s a little heaven in Dubai. A huge tree surrounded by many colorful flowers is the first thing that grabs my attention and after that I see a bright elegant house with floor to ceiling windows and a paved path that leads to somewhere I actually can’t see. I’m here to record an interview for my first ever podcast project.
But this conversation changed my life. I’m from Kerala in India. And it’s a tropical state. It’s very, very green with lots of animals and birds and fireflies and stuff. I still remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap and around seven o’clock in the evening and you look out on the veranda. You know what a veranda is?
Yeah, on the veranda and you can see millions and millions of fireflies on trees and it looked like Christmas. You, today you go back, there, there is no fireflies, there is, it’s gone and it’s because of us. The strong connection Simi has with nature defines everything she does as a businesswoman and it’s not only about your eco friendly products, no, it’s about your approach to life itself.
Just live in the moment. I love that. Because, you know, as people we’ve been taught to think about the future more than now. You need to focus on today. Our focus is always that that thing that will happen and it’s it’s a conscious effort. My husband. He’s completely my opposite He’s somebody who lives in the future.
It took me a long time But every now and then I’ve tell him like just enjoy now Forget about you know, because that would happen. Do you remember any specific example, you know when you were like, hey Let’s take a moment. This is now, this is what is happening right now. So he was in the US for their board meeting, um, and he knows for a fact that they love what he does because he’s His area has got the biggest numbers.
The way I’m, uh, I don’t like sales, he’s, he’s a salesperson. He’s about numbers. He’s about millions and whatnot, right? And then he came back, um, last week, uh, from the board meeting. And there’s been a reshuffling talk going on in the company about what’s going to happen in the near future. He knows that, but he also knows that They really, really appreciate what he does.
But in the morning he was like, Oh my God, I just don’t know what’s going to happen now. They’re going to reshuffle. And I’m like, why are you focused on these things? It, you do not know. Do you know? He was like, no, I don’t know. Okay, then. It’s just, you just woke up. Let’s have a coffee and let’s, Philip is going to school and okay.
And then he mumbled a little bit and then he forgot about it. Like, okay, yeah, she’s right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We talked with Simi for two hours about business, life, and nature, and soon you’ll hear much more about how Simi built her business in Dubai, but
As soon as I said goodbye and I closed the door behind me, I found myself alone on a dusty road filled with mixed feelings. I had a lot of questions for myself. I even called my friend. The whole story is not about, you know, as I thought it would be. It’s completely another story, which I would never guess.
And, uh, after listening to this, to the interview, you will see, and you will understand, your yard, your flowers, and what does it actually mean. You will listen to it, and you will, you will, Yeah, I’m interested. How would it affect you? Will it be the same way that it affected me? To understand why this meeting has such an impact on me, I need to take you back and explain how I actually ended up in Dubai because, believe me or not, it wasn’t part of my plan.
One day, I packed my bags, bought a one way ticket, and flew Krasnodar to Barcelona, Spain. So I arrived on my birthday in Barcelona, it was 9 October, I wanted to spend my birthday in Spain so I applied for the visa and I just bought a ticket, one way ticket, to Spain, took my luggage, and the thing is, I always, when I travel, I tend to not to buy tickets.
to get backs. Like I never know for sure what day exactly I’ll be coming back and everything because I have different schedules and things to navigate through. So that drives my family very crazy because they never know how long and where I’m gonna stay and what’s my next route and destination is going to be.
Even if you don’t have a specific plan like me, traveling is always a good idea. I mean, just, Just buy a ticket and the plan and new travel ideas will be suggested by the journey itself. The magic of traveling is another thing that we share with Simi. Listen to what she has said about it. What is life?
It’s always a quest but I’m also a person who is like a leaf in the wind. I just fly and I just, I just go with the wind wherever it takes me. I love how Simi describes herself as a leaf in the wind, because honestly, I feel the same way. My collection’s hugely influenced by wherever I traveled that summer or the winter where I went to, places I visited, people I met.
I was in Denmark. Um, Denmark is known for, for, for its Monarchy, right? It’s one of the oldest monarchies. So they have a lot of museums and a lot of events around history. So, uh, if you see my new collection, a lot of clothes are kind of influenced by, the cut especially, is influenced by the medieval, uh, In dress inserts, they used to wear it, they used to call it slips.
So it’s very free flowing and then you wear the corset and the dress on top. So the outer part of the clothing is usually quite restrictive. However, the inner part, which they change into when they sleep. are very free flowing, are something you can just sleep in and wake up and I can wear it and you can wear it.
You can adjust the stitchings. Like, when you think of old wares, you think of clothes that, uh, that stick to people. You think of clothes that’s very, very restrictive. You think of corsets and women wearing so many layers of clothes. But I was getting inspiration from what they wear In the inside, how the little girls, the clothes the little girls wear, they can move in it and it was more about growing into those clothes.
You can wear it for many, many, many ages. Like, you know, a little girl can wear it when they’re a baby, but they can also wear it till they’re three, four, five. Now you know my and Simi’s secret. We are this kind of people. We are travelers. We’re not afraid of the unknown because it actually inspires us and we observe the best of different cultures into our philosophy and so You understand why I bought a one way ticket to Barcelona, right?
Yes, I wanted to see the world. So imagine me then, full of hope and joy, about to rent my first ever rented flat when the owner opens the door for me for the first time. He opens the door, I walk in and I just look at the living room, which is full of natural light and I love it. natural light, you know, this is one of the things I really, really appreciate.
So, you know, it has a glass table and a huge couch in the beginning, like in the middle of the living room, and it has a study workplace and the bar stand where you could drink some wine, look into the night, uh, city square, and it was, it Close to the center. So I was living a nice, good life. The truth is the world is not prepared for the leaf on the wind kind of people.
We need documents. And I had nothing. It was only me, myself and my passport. I was like, okay, my only way is to find a job, to find a position that can sponsor the visa. I needed a legitimate reason to stay in Europe longer than my tourist visa allowed. So I started looking for a job and I started with LinkedIn.
I applied for offers and left personal messages to recruiters. I would have a phone calls usually, you know, I would leave my number I had my sim card and they would call me and I remember I was talking to one woman from the company I don’t remember what was going on and she was like, yeah So the whole idea is that to answer the calls from nine to five And I was like, what do you mean?
She was like, yeah, it’s like you will have the script So you just need to go with the script and the salary is that I was like, um You Thank you so much, but I don’t think that’s something that I found interesting and usually they would say something like Well, this is temporarily at the beginning, you know, nobody would tell you that they want you to be there for a long time but It’s just phone calls or emails where you’re like, Hi, unfortunately you’re, when you put yourself in a high position, they will be like, sorry, we decided to, uh, proceed with another candidate, but thank you so much.
We’ll keep your, in our list in order to have some openings. We’ll reach out to you. And you’re like, what a piece of not true. Uh, yeah, thank you very much, but no, I could, I couldn’t, yeah, I couldn’t see myself needing a script to talk to people. All the job offers that I got was something about like call center.
Or something like that, but I had my projects. I had my school online I just didn’t see any reason to to do what I hate and to Uh to agree to something less And why would I i’m a very good teacher I love my small business and my online English school. Maybe it’s connected with the culture that I was brought up in.
I’m Kurdish and like everywhere in the Arab world, we value education and knowledge very much. In our culture, teachers become historical figures the same way as teachers. you know, scientists or politicians. And stories about them teaching are told many centuries later. One of my favorites is about Zibawehi from the eighth century.
First, imagine here I am sitting in Barcelona and I still have no idea that soon my life will completely change. And I will find myself in Dubai in a completely different world. But. In the 8th century when Zibawehi studied grammar and taught both the current territory of Dubai and Barcelona, they were part of the Arab Caliphate.
It was huge. From India to the Atlantic Ocean. Here’s the story about Zibawehi. One day a group of students approached him seeking his guidance in mastering Arabic grammar, and instead he took them to the marketplace. There were merchants from different backgrounds, they spoke different, uh, dialects. I, uh, to me honestly, it sounds like they were markets nowadays.
Fine. Thank you. Welcome back. Yeah. Do you like some stuff to buy, my friend? Yes, ma’am.
Hello. Hi. How are you? Rashmina. At the marketplace, Siboehi encouraged his students to observe, to interact with merchants, artisans and traders from diverse linguistic backgrounds. He instructed them to engage in conversations, to negotiate prices and to inquire about goods and services using the Arabic language.
And centuries later, in 2023, here I am, teaching my students the same thing. Language is a tool. If you can use it to buy best spices, ask for a discount, or express your idea, that means that you made a connection with someone. And that is my goal. Do you want to ask me a question using Present Continuous?
Not from the list. Come up with yours. Present Continuous? Yes. It makes it harder for you. Okay, it’s just so, uh, challenging because of the language. It’s English and you try to connect everything in your head. You have your homework, girlies, right? Yes, essay. Essay. You go, you enjoy your essay. I’m waiting for it.
And I’ll see you on Friday. But cannot just develop my online school instead of finding local job. It wouldn’t give me the documents I need to stay. While I was trying to figure it out, it turned out to be the minor problem. I found out that Spain It’s not the place for me. You know, they have siesta, like they just need a reason not to work, basically.
I don’t know, you just, maybe because the Barcelona was full of tourists, you know, but when you walk there, when you do, it can be Monday in the middle of the day and people just enjoying themselves and they’re kind of slow, you know, for example, I had a zoom call. And I needed a place, but at 6 PM, I think it was six.
I’m not sure about the details, everything closing. So even five minutes, they are not willing to wait because they’re like, we’re closing. That’s it. Like, get out from here. You know, just like my work day is over. Uh, they don’t hold themselves for the clients. They don’t try to sell more to do all those things.
Uh, they are. In a very healthy work life balance to me now at my stage where I am right now, I am very passionate about what I do. To me, it’s more about Dubai, New York, Moscow life. Style and type of life where you rush where you need to manage a couple of projects at the same time. Forget about work life balance.
I know that’s avoidance and stuff, but that’s what drives me. And I really, it’s like Isaac Newton’s law, you know, energy gives power. So every movement is just gives you energy to keep going. So in a couple of weeks, I already thought, oh, maybe I should leave. I had my apartment for one month, and when it was closer to due time, I needed to decide, you know, whether I want to prolong it or not.
I was like, hmm. I’m going to Italy because I had some people where I could stay at first, you know, be not alone in that case, and to see how it works there. And because I know Italian. Quando è di emozio, sì. So I was like, well. And do you think I liked Italy compared to Spain? It was worse, it was incredibly cold, it was grey, and then took place what I like to call the filtered coffee situation.
There was only one cafe in Rome that served filtered coffee, so I spent my weekday drinking Uh, my Sunday, I had work to do with my laptop, so I planned to go to this cafe with filtered coffee because I really wanted to have filtered coffee, uh, to drink and to work. So I spent like around 50 minutes one way, it was very far to get there.
I got there and then they told me, Oh, sorry, you are not allowed to work here. Don’t use your laptop. I was like, what do you mean? And I had article to finish, you know, so I had my deadlines as well. I was like, what do you mean? They’re like, yeah, it’s Sunday, like people enjoying, some people complain about that.
I was like, who complains? Raise your hands right now. I want to see you people. It was shocking. I didn’t appreciate it a lot. I drank my filter and then I had to spend, you know, extra 50, 60 minutes to go back home so I could work. I know, it sounds like nothing, but a cold, grey place without a coffee place to work just wasn’t working for me.
Yeah, so I decided to, that nothing can happen in Italy, so I should take a step back to Barcelona. So I booked my flight, I bought the ticket, I booked my apartment and everything like that. And one time I just wake up, uh, it was, like my flight was next day already and I got an email that my apartment was declined like the offer was, um, declined.
Okay. Rejected or something. And I couldn’t understand why because it was paid. So I checked the money, everything was okay. Like they refunded the money. But the thing is that I don’t have a place. So I went to Airbnb. I went to booking and stuff like that. And It was so expensive, like, and the apartment themselves, they were ugly.
The complete opposite of my apartment that I had. So just, no, I don’t want to settle for this. And then my friend reached out to me. Uh, she was like, why don’t you consider Dubai? Actually, why not? This is a lovely place. It’s a little heaven in Dubai. As you could have guessed, our story has made a turn and we find ourselves back in Simi’s marvelous garden with a dog.
So yeah, I agreed to visit friends in Dubai and I’m now recording my first interview. We’re in the yard, uh, a big tree is just growing here. It’s very beautiful. And it’s cool. She loves visitors. So yeah, I think. It’s a him because he looks like a warrior with all that chain and stuff. I fell in love with this tree.
That’s why we moved in here. When we came here, this was whole, this whole house was a complete ruin. We had to get it all done. And then, um, yeah, it took like, um, maybe a couple of months before they could fix everything. But this tree was there and we just thought that was the most important. Amazing thing.
Nice. I love it. This wonderful tree Simi called wild bunion. And it has a unique quality. In India, the bunion tree is practically a world tree of legends. It grows in width, creating a large shadow, and it’s very powerful. It made me think about Simi. Also from India and also very powerful. It’s a banyan tree.
It can live for five, six thousand years. I mean, can you see all those chains? I mean, somebody at some point had put something and then like a swing or something like we have. Oh, yeah. And it went inside. I cannot pull it out because it’s inside. It hasn’t run in yet. Simi invited me into the house, offered me water, and we started the interview.
My name is Simi. Um, I own Sustainable You. I am the creative head and designer for Sustainable You. Um, I’m born and brought up in India and For most of my life now, I’ve been living in UAE for past 20 years. So that’s almost half of my life. How did Dubai look like when you first came here? Do you remember, can you describe it?
Yes, Dubai was so much, so much smaller. It’s, I think it’s grown at least double its size now, uh, from all sides. But you knew that you, you came to Dubai when you saw the Hard Rock Cafe, and that was out in the middle of nowhere. So there was, there was no, uh, no Burj Khalifa, nothing. I mean, the landmark was, uh, Burj Al Arab.
It’s, but Dubai was Dubai even then, yeah. And I was so young at that time it, uh, I wanted to just travel the world that was perfect. I enjoyed it. I think that’s what, uh, that’s showcases in what I’m doing now. How did you start your business? Well, I just, I just wanted to change. Um, I wanted to change from what I’m doing, but I didn’t know what to do.
I could not figure out like, okay, what else should I do that would really fulfill me? And I love the idea of sustainability. And because I grew up in a family where we always were very, the concept of sustainability was there in everything that how my mom lived and how our home was operated. The sustainable ways of living are deeply rooted in Simi’s family.
We used to go out and play, which was never inside the house. And we would we would eat food that was cooked. Uh, the vegetables mostly came out of her gardens that she used to have when she goes out to buy, uh, buy grocery food, whatever. They carry their own bags and then, uh, carry things back home. Uh, yeah.
And clothes used to be heirloom. My mom still has my grandmother’s, uh, pieces because it used to be, uh, thing of beauty, things that you pass on to your children, like jewelry. Clothes used to be that as well. It has emotions attached to it. It has love attached to it. It has work attached to it because they were mostly hand woven or things that my grandmother collected.
It was not just to wear and throw after two days. Yeah. So those are the things that inspire me to, to, yeah, to work towards a sustainable business. We are all connected as much as human beings wants to think that we are very big and we can change everything. We are the, whatever we are not, we are as miniscule in the whole larger system of the universe as an ant who is moving around here.
Uh, It, if nature wants, it would not take a second to wipe out the whole, and we as doing it to ourselves, how stupid is that? And that’s what I’m trying to, I’m trying to tell people through my brand that it’s important, the importance of sustainability is not that, Oh, I am a sustainable business. Oh, it’s going to be the new trend.
It’s not the trend. Business should be sustainable if you want your children. I am a mother. I want my child to have a future. I want my child to have a tomorrow. Uh, so I thought this is it. I, I love the idea of sustainability and that’s one thing that’s really lacking in, in UAE. So what I came to know is if it’s not there, then I should create it.
So if the reason sustainable, fashion brand for women. There are few, but to my standards, it was not enough. So you cannot make clothes out of plastic and call it sustainable. I asked Simi how she organizes her business to be sustainable in every process. It turned out that it’s not just a matter of selecting fabrics and accessories or avoiding long deliveries.
She makes sure that every item of clothing she sells is worn as long as possible. And then we do give a two year warranty to all our clothes. So if you feel that your clothes have, have some buttons missing or the zipper has come off or, or let’s say you fell pregnant, you want to get, uh, get the pants that you made a bigger size or extend it a little bit, we do that, which usually you never see any clothing company do.
We are able to do it because We do everything in house. I ask her to give me an example. I’ve done that for a dress. The girl had got a dress from me and then, um, she was supposed to, uh, she was supposed to pop out soon. So, so she wanted the front to be a bit lower. So then I cut open the front to put buttons so she can breastfeed.
I love that. But how this approach can compete with all the advertisement we consume every day? I asked Fortis Digital Solutions how they can help a small sustainable business win customers from large companies. Look, I think it’s a fascinating question that you’re asking. This is JP Serhal. Marketing director from Fortis.
The world in which we live in today is a world that is powered by over consumption and targeted advertising. That’s what it is. If you put yourself in the position of a micro merchant, The value that you bring is something that big businesses cannot give you, which is human connection. If I’m working with a micro merchant, for example, your friend who sells dresses, I’m more likely to feel important if I want to buy a dress or shirt from someone who understands my taste and will text me and say, Hey, JP, I know that you like blue shirts.
I got a new collection today. Do you want to come and see it? I’ve kept one specially for you. This is a lot more powerful, in my opinion, than a paid advertisement from a random big corporate business. And keep in mind that our generation today is much more conscious and careful about how they consume for the ecosystem, for the environment, for the planet.
The advantage that Fortis gives you is a much more in depth understanding of your customer. An increase in the quality of your customer service, which is something that medium sized or big businesses cannot give you. And these are the tools that Fortis gives you. Thank you. Many people would say that there are so many things nowadays in this world that it’s difficult to be innovative or to come up with something original.
But I do think, um, that also says that there was a lot of people always who was creating but didn’t ever get a channel to showcase their creativity. In today’s world, it’s much, much more empowered to start a startup than let’s say last 20 years ago, where with no social media, with no connectivity. Today, I think even if you have a small, you have a small investment, you can start, but focus on What’s unique to you.
I think that’s very very important. How do you think about the UAE? regarding small businesses Dubai is very Inducive do you see inducive? Yes Environments to to help small businesses To create business. It’s so easy if you have an idea You can go out and pitch or, um, do you, the whole world’s investors sit here.
If you really have a great idea to go out and pitch. It’s true. People from different countries come here to pitch their projects to Dubai. And I noticed that not only nomads like me came here from all over the world, but also birds. When I first came here, I was surprised by how many bird voices there are.
Much more than I actually expected from a city in the desert, but, um, much more than in European cities. And I recently found out why. Let me quote Jackie Giudice, manager and scientific advisor with the Emirates Wildlife Society and associations with World Wide Fund for Nature. The quote. What has been interesting is the association of species.
These birds tend to live in very different climates, from Central America, like the Muscovy Duck, to South and East Asia, like the Red Vented Bulbul. So you don’t usually see them in the same habitat like this. So Dubai is a man made environment which attracts, let’s say, a choir of invited specialists from different countries.
And each bird has its own features and each adds something special to the biome. Common Minas, for example, are social birds and live in large flocks not only with their kind but also with other birds. When miners need to communicate with each other, they use croaks, quokes, chirps, clicks, whistles, and growls.
Uh, I won’t be surprised if one day they will find how to communicate with human. Wide eared Bulbuls are more like musicians. They don’t have their signature song, but they have few notes and each time they improvise with it. How sparrows hang out near sports stadiums, they eat popcorn with sports fans, seems they like to cheer.
And Arabian babbler, my favorite, it likes to help other babblers. The more families it supports, the higher is its status. There’s something Arabian about it. I also brought my competences and skills to Dubai. Yeah, I mean, we’re sitting here having a conversation and you from the culture you are, I’m from the culture I am, I’m married to somebody from a completely different culture.
Yesterday I was with someone who was British. You kind of make a community, a tribe of all sorts of people and you also realize and learn that everybody on, on the basic level are the same. There’s no division. of all the things that you feel when you’re in many other different countries. You feel the others either are superior or inferior or they are different in, uh, with your culture, religion, you have so many divides.
But I, uh, I don’t think that’s there, that, oh, maybe that’s the kind of people I go around with, but I have never felt that here. It’s very, um, you feel, you feel A brotherhood or sisterhood or whatever you call it, um, in the community. It’s very welcoming. Yes. Then, out of nothing, Simi asked me an unexpected question.
But do you, do you like to Teach? I love to teach. Yeah? Okay. I love teaching. I love talking to people. I love interviewing people. Yeah. I tend to know people, yes. Maybe then you should do more than just teaching. Suddenly that’s my interview. Love it. Sorry. No, no, no. I mean, you can, you should write that down and so you can explore because I feel you’re not a teacher.
Really? Yeah. Uh, do you have any Maybe, maybe another 50 years you will be a teacher, but not yet. Do you feel, what can I be? Is that a good question? Can I ask that question? Yeah, you can ask that question. Um, I do think that you should be trying more things. I think you should go into media. Yeah. And, uh, I think, cause you are a seeker.
You’re the happiest when you’re seeking. Wow, I was, wow, but it was time to say goodbye. Thank you again. It was nice meeting you. And I left. My mind was blown. There were so many questions. I mean, Simi has found her big idea. What’s my big idea? Do I really want to be a teacher? And if not, what should I be?
Walking down the dusty road, I left a voicemail for my friend. She told me all about clarity and everything that comes to it and with it and how everything is just meet us here. That’s what freaks me out currently because it’s like kind of impossible. That’s a very, very impactful conversation. I was like, I was like, what should I say to that?
Uh, at one moment she was like, are you sure you want to teach? And I was like, um, actually no, but why are you asking? She’s like, I don’t know, I feel that, uh, you should be like somewhere different. I was like, oh, okay, like what ideas do you have? She, she was like, I, I think that mass media and media in general is very your thing, but you should get to, to it.
I was like, wow. And I have a class. In 45 minutes.
You’re listening to Crossing the Desert, podcast by Fortis Digital Solutions. Fortis helps seamlessly connect businesses and their customers and run the business. It assists in attracting and retaining customers, selling products and services, accepting payments both online and in store, and managing finances and personnel.
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Showrunners Aleksandr Volkova and Yelena Volkova. Producer Albert Olhovikov. Script writer and editor Olivia Estevo. Sound designer Mikhail Vasilev. History consultant Alexander Kondrashov.
