Introduction
In this exclusive clothing brand success story interview, Fisayo Longe reveals how she built Kai Collective from a £8,000 loan into a £2M+ per year fashion empire. From failing university exams to launching a viral fashion brand, Fisayo shares the raw truth about her journey, including the launch day disappointment that only brought 23 orders despite 40,000 followers, and the breakthrough Gaia dress that changed everything.
Fisayo Longe’s Clothing Brand Success Story QnA
What is Kai Collective to you?
Kai Collective is a women’s wear brand intentionally crafted to make women feel the most confident. We make very main character clothing.
What year did you launch Kai Collective?
2016
Since you’ve launched, how much revenue has Kai Collective generated?
We’ve done 6 million since launch, but most of that has been in recent years.
What inspired you to start the brand in the first place?
I have always loved fashion. I started a fashion blog in 2012. I love fabric shopping, and I also love traveling. When I would travel, I would go shopping for fabric and then get clothes made with the fabric I bought, wear the clothes on my blog and on my Instagram when Instagram started. People would always ask me, “Where did you get that from?” I’ve always been quite entrepreneurial, so I thought if people are asking, there is demand and I can make money from this.
Did you go to university? Did you study fashion? Have you worked before apart from Kai Collective? What’s your background?
I was meant to go to university to study law. I missed my offer, needed 3 A’s, got AAB, so they didn’t take me. My mom said I could only take a gap year if I got a real job, so I worked at KPMG as a gap year student. They offered me a full-time program where I’d work at KPMG and go to university part-time in the summer. I was an auditor at KPMG and studied accounting and finance at Durham University. I ended up leaving KPMG and didn’t complete the program, but finished my degree at Durham, got kicked out, moved back to London, and studied anthropology at UCL. That’s what I graduated in.
You mentioned your mom’s involvement in Kai Collective. How did you convince her to believe in your idea?
My mom has always believed in me, so it wasn’t about convincing her to believe. It was about whether she had the money to give. Giving me money to bring my dream to life was never a problem, it was just about her actually finding the money.
How much did she give you?
£8,000
What did that loan go towards?
Manufacturing costs were the largest chunk of that money, website, packaging and shipping, and then storage cost came shortly after. At first it was just in my flat.
At what point did you decide it was time to invest in an office?
My flat was really small and I just needed to get out of there. Even in terms of inspiration, we wanted to shoot more content, so we moved into an office where our storage space is. I don’t know if you know Big Yellow Storage, there are some offices there. I also wanted to make my first hire, my second hire, and we couldn’t all be in my flat. That’s why we got an office.
You originally started blogging in 2012 and had 40,000+ followers on your social page. Did those followers translate on launch day?
I really thought I would launch Kai and immediately sell out, order more, be rich. I thought my life was about to change. My thinking was, if I have 40,000 followers, at least 1,000 would shop, even if 500 shop, that would be more than fine. But that did not happen. I would honestly say Kai failed as soon as it launched. I didn’t think of it as a success. I was not happy on launch day. How can we have 40,000 followers and get 23 orders? It wasn’t adding up. I was very, very disappointed.
A couple years later you had a product that went viral between 2019 and 2020 that increased revenue by 535%. What product was it and how did that happen?
It’s called the Gaia dress. At some point I realized there wasn’t enough uniqueness with Kai, it was too generic. We didn’t have a stamp, and I thought this is not going to work, we need a unique selling point. I wanted to do something that incorporated my heritage, color, my maximalist style. We designed the Gaia print, and when I saw it I just knew I wanted it on a mesh dress, fully body con, very fitted, almost like wearing a tattoo. I wore it for a boohoo party, took a picture in a hotel dressing room, posted it on Instagram, and the immediate reaction was amazing.
You’ve had another viral product recently. How did you do it again?
I knew I did not want Kai to be a one-hit wonder, so I stopped production of Gaia, kept it very limited quicker than I should. Our robe did amazing with the Gaia print, but this year we launched the Adisa dress. This dress I’m wearing right now but in white has been incredible. So many incredible people have worn it. We’ve also had our vest, a tank top with just a logo, and of course our bag, the London bag, my pride and joy. This bag is fully 100% leather. I designed it for myself, went to New York to scout spaces for a New York popup, posted a picture with the bag, and after that day the girls were like “we need it, we need it.”
You’ve had big brands replicate your designs. How have you dealt with that controversy?
When it first happened, I did not take it well. You have to remember we were struggling before we launched Gaia, and then we launched Gaia and everything changed. Immediately after, to see big brands ripping us off was very painful and I was very emotional. We took legal action against a few brands, some public, some not public. We had settlements. I don’t regret doing that, but taking legal action, especially against brands bigger than you, takes a lot of energy, emotional and financial. It’s just not where I feel we should have spent so much of our time and money.
In your first year of Kai Collective, how much revenue did you make?
We made £1,000.
In 2024, how much revenue have you made so far?
Year to date we’ve done over £2 million.
What percentage of sales come from the UK versus the US?
The US is 40% of our sales, so the US is our largest country. Then 30% from the UK.
How did you build such a big fan base abroad?
It’s just happened organically. Even starting out as a content creator, I’ve always had a lot more people in the US. It’s been really good for us. The US babes love us. When we went for our New York sample sale a few months ago, it was incredible. They have a lot of spending power and are very excited about the brand. There’s also so much more potential for growth in the US, so it’s definitely a place we want to invest in.
What would you say are some of your biggest overhead costs?
We have this amazing office in Shoreditch, but as a percentage of total revenue it’s actually quite small. We invest a lot in our media, our creative, our shoots. But generally, in terms of recurring overheads, we keep them quite low.
How long did it take for you to hire someone?
My first real Kai team hire was around October 2020.
How big is your team now?
Right now full-time there’s five of us, but from January there’ll be seven. One huge thing for me is to keep my team lean because we’re a bootstrap brand. I hate the idea of spending more than we need to on anything, including staff or having to eventually make people redundant. I’d rather grow slowly and lean, it’s more manageable that way.
In its first year of launching, how much revenue did the Gaia dress bring in?
The year Gaia launched, that entire year we made £400k in revenue, and Gaia was half of that. So Gaia made us £200k that year, which was 50% of our revenue.
Marketing has been a big part of building Kai Collective. What marketing tool has been most effective in producing revenue?
Definitely social media, organic social media. We’ve also become known for our campaigns and the level of production and excellence that goes into them. People actually look forward to our campaigns now. Emails are huge for us. We invest a lot of time into email flows. From the moment someone lands on your website, you should be able to get in touch with them as long as they consent. Abandoned basket emails, reminding them, building that relationship. You’d be surprised how much revenue slips through the cracks just because brands don’t have those email flows.
You spoke about email flows for abandoned baskets. What tools do you use for that?
We use Klaviyo when we moved to Shopify. Shopify and Klaviyo work really well together. Before we moved to Shopify, we were on Mailchimp. SMS is really good too. When a customer gives us their number, we really value it, we cherish it, we do not spam them. SMS is amazing for reaching customers directly. We also use ManyChat. You know on Instagram when people say “comment blah blah blah and we’ll send you blah blah blah”? When I first saw that I thought they were manually DMing everyone, but it’s automated. It’s been an amazing way to grow our mailing list. There’s one we started using recently called Ad Events. When we have a new launch, we use Ad Events so people can add the launch to their calendar and get a reminder. That really helps.
What are some of your notable or favorite campaigns?
This year my favorite campaign was our sale campaign in February or March. It was Paparazzi style, asking me when the sale was starting. But my personal favorite was for the London bag. It was called “Get the Bag.” We shot it in a strip club because strippers popularized the term “get the bag.” We wanted to show different women using the bag in their daily life – a mom using it as her diaper bag, a stripper using it in the club, a woman using it as her work bag. Visually we focused the campaign on the strip club. That was my favorite.
What challenges have you faced as an entrepreneur?
Cash flow with a bootstrap brand at our size for our big plans is always an issue. Staying on top of the numbers, making sure there’s enough cash for these huge things. Also managing people. I’m an introvert, so I don’t really enjoy management.
Have there been moments where you thought Kai might fail?
I cry. I’m a crier. There have been many moments I’ve thought we might fail. During COVID, I was expecting it to wipe us out, and it didn’t. In fact, it grew our business. The year after that in 2022, I thought we needed to invest more in stock to stop selling out so quickly. Like many retail businesses, we saw sales plummet after COVID. I had so much money sitting in inventory, and moments like that I thought, gosh, how are we going to survive?
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
I would have started on Shopify for the website. I would have paid more attention to email marketing, building up our email flows. I wouldn’t have assumed that because I had followers it would translate into sales. I would have made a solid plan for selling. I would have launched with fewer products – we launched with maybe 10 products. I would have started with maybe three, gotten really good and popular for one product, built an identity where everyone knows we do one thing really well. I would have had more of a unique selling point like we have now.
What does the future look like for Kai? How do you plan to build it bigger?
I’m not trying to build a billion-dollar brand. Kai will never be a unicorn. We’re not trying to compete with companies like Zara because I don’t want to make clothes on that scale. I want to build a brand where we’ve expanded into more countries, especially in the US. If we’re making 100 times the revenue we’re making now, I would be more than happy. For me it’s more about building our community such that even as we grow, the community that feels close to us and sees themselves in us, that representation and inclusivity, never gets lost. It always has to be a priority.
Would you like to remain direct-to-consumer or see Kai in retail stores?
I love being direct-to-consumer and was intentional about building that relationship directly so we keep higher margins. I never want to put my brand in the hands of another retailer and give them that much control. Now that we’ve built such a healthy direct-to-consumer business, I do want to be in a few select places to access customers who maybe have higher spending power. I would definitely consider stockists.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a clothing brand?
You need a unique selling point. Create a brand you’re not just seeing out there. I see many brands replicating existing brands, and that’s boring, not inspiring. How can you build your brand differently? How can you create a product that solves a problem or satisfies a desire? What feeling do you need to make people feel that they haven’t felt before? Before anyone starts a brand, they really need to think about that. What’s different about your brand? Make sure there’s something different.
Fisayo Longe Business Stats
Since launching Kai Collective in 2016, Fisayo Longe has transformed a £8,000 loan into a thriving international fashion brand. Here are the key milestones from her clothing brand success story:
- Total revenue since launch: £6 million
- 2024 year-to-date revenue: Over £2 million
- First year revenue: £1,000 (23 orders)
- Viral product (Gaia dress) first year revenue: £200,000
- US market: 40% of sales
- UK market: 30% of sales
- Current team size: 5 full-time employees (7 from January)
- First hire made: October 2020
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Launch Year | 2016 |
| Initial Investment | £8,000 |
| 2024 Revenue (YTD) | £2,000,000+ |
| Total Lifetime Revenue | £6,000,000 |
| US Sales Percentage | 40% |
| UK Sales Percentage | 30% |
Fisayo Longe Method
Throughout her clothing brand success story, Fisayo Longe developed a methodical approach to building Kai Collective. Here’s how she achieved viral growth while staying true to her vision:
- Started with a fashion blog in 2012 to build audience before launching
- Leveraged heritage and maximalist style to create unique prints
- Intentionally limited production to avoid being a one-hit wonder
- Focused on organic social media over paid advertising
- Built extensive email and SMS flows to capture abandoned carts
- Created high-production campaigns that became brand signature
- Maintained lean operations and low overhead costs
- Tested products personally before scaling production
- Built direct-to-consumer relationships for higher margins
- Strategically took legal action against copycats while focusing energy on growth
Fisayo Longe Tools
To execute her clothing brand success story, Fisayo Longe utilized a carefully selected tech stack that enabled Kai Collective to scale efficiently while maintaining lean operations:
- Shopify: E-commerce platform for direct-to-consumer sales
- Klaviyo: Email marketing automation with abandoned cart flows
- ManyChat: Instagram automation for growing mailing list
- SMS