An interview with Hedoum's founder, Malak Fahmy
Thoughts | Rebecca Proch
This online shop offers an alternative to fast-fashion, one preloved item at a time.
Hedoum is an online vintage store that was created by U of T student Malak Fahmy last April, in order to help reduce the waste and carbon footprint of the world’s second largest polluting industry: fast-fashion. The online shop features pieces handpicked by the founder on Instagram @_hedoum, or at their website hedoum.com.
Malak Fahmy (@malakfahmy4 on Instagram) is a second-year student studying Economics and Public Policy. She decided to start this shop to combine her love of vintage clothing with her knowledge of business. Today, she sat down with me to chat over Zoom about her brand.
Rebecca: Hi Malak! We’re so very happy to have you here today to talk about your online thrift shop Hedoum that launched a few months ago.
Malak: Hi! Thank you so much for having me, this is great.
R: Thank you! I’ve been following the Instagram account for a while now and when I saw your new drop on Sunday, I just thought: I need to do an interview! Our theme this month is actually Digital December and this, well, fits perfectly. Hedoum is such a cool project, I’m excited to talk about it.
M: [Laughs] That’s really perfect timing then!
The first question I have is, I guess, pretty obvious: how did this whole project begin? I started to hear about it during the first wave of quarantine back in March or April, I believe. What were the first steps?
So we all got sent home in March, right? And we finished school around the end of April and I was just like: Okay what am I going to do with my time now? I’m sitting there at home, forced to stay in, I’m stuck with my sisters 24/7... And I had always had this thing for “digging for gold” in thrift stores. So I just started thinking it would be cool! I had all the time in the world, and while the idea was always in the back of my head, school always came first so when I finally had time, I just went for it!
I think the shop combines my passion for business and all the marketing skills I gained in High School and College, with my love of thrifting and fashion. Also, I thought: it’s a good way to start working towards paying off my U of T student debt. I lost my source of income during COVID, I had another job and while I was under E.I., I had all this time where I could make extra money to support myself and the education I’m paying for and do something I’m passionate about.
The way it started is I had a lot of stuff in my closet to get rid of, and most of it was actually vintage, so I thought: let’s post those, and we’ll see what goes. And apparently people liked it, I got good feedback, so I was like okay bet! And then when things started to open back up, that’s when the whole sourcing-for-people began, to become as inclusive as possible with sizing and such. In the beginning it was very limited in sizes, it was just what I used to wear, so as we grew, a real focus of mine was to bring in diversity in my sizes and take advantage of the market for that.
Speaking of beginnings—how did the fact that everything is online at the moment influence the shop’s beginnings, and how it functions now? I remember that in the beginning, you started on Depop and now you have a website and you’re also on Instagram… did you get different reactions from each? How beneficial for the shop’s functioning are these online platforms?
I think for any small business, it’s really smart to start off online because there’s no overheads. And well the future is online! It’s what everyone has been doing and talking about: everything is online. Especially for the fact that we’re all Gen Z-ers. That’s my target market with the shop, and most of us of course really understand the world of the internet and social media etc, and spend a lot of time on it too!
Then of course, in the beginning I didn’t have much following on Instagram, so I thought okay I need to find other places where I can gain followers. That’s why I started selling on Depop.
Did that work well?
It was a very mixed result! 50/50, honestly. Depop was easier than Instagram to get following; they help you bring your customers for sure so it was a good source of customers. But the real issue was that Depop took 12 per cent of profit. And my goal with the shop in the first place was to have affordable prices but that was hard to do if I wanted to look at my own margins, my costs, and how much I can make a profit from it.
So then I started really emphasizing marketing and educating followers on the subject of second-hand clothing, and the benefits of preloved items versus the detrimental effects of fast-fashion. I wanted to show people that maybe were previously not interested in buying second-hand that there were alternatives to fast fashion that weren’t as expensive as the sustainable fashion you might find in an actual store.
It really started with me asking my friends to share stories and spread the word. I of course also tried TikTok and I actually got a few orders from that! So that was really good. Then as we progressed, I actually found a big demand in Egypt! Because, actually, “Hedoum” means “clothes” in Egyptian slang (I’m half Egyptian), and also I just thought it had a good ring to it. In Egypt, there’s a lot of demand for vintage clothing but not a lot of places to find it, so I really found a target market there and got a lot of orders. I also tried influencer marketing and that really helped too! I reached out to a few mini-influencers and asked if I could send them a few pieces that they would advertise, if they liked them, of course! And then they all posted about it, and I actually got a lot of followers from that. So yeah! That was very exciting. That’s basically how everything— online and social media—really helped with the shop more than anything else. It is the future, you know!
It really is! But I think it can be hard in the first few steps of a business or project to start online with no mentorship, or campus exposure, interaction, etc. But I feel like for you it actually quite helped! For all your sales abroad for example, that’s something that wouldn’t have been possible. That’s really great!
Exactly! For sure. And quarantine helped, I think! Because people were at home, we all had so much time, everyone was online... People were just very attentive, and I was really able to take advantage of that.
Silver lining! Now, the shop has been going on for a few months and I was wondering: when you started this, did you have a specific vision, like a curated style or aesthetic for the shop? If not, do you think it has naturally evolved into a certain one?
A lot of people have asked me this actually! “Hedoum”; it’s “clothes”, it’s broad! By definition. And also: it’s me! I wanted the shop to look like one that I would shop at and I have different styles and aesthetics—I shift between them. I wanted to create a space where anyone who’s like me, that doesn’t have a definite style but many, could shop and find whatever they like. I’m trying to tackle different styles. In a way, I’m trying to make Hedoum look like the inside of my head! Which is a lot of different preferences. I have dainty stuff, boyish stuff… A little bit of everything for everyone: the vision for the store is just that. I considered a certain style: I wondered if I should make it all, like, 90s stuff. But I feel like that’s too specific! I don’t think I would enjoy sourcing for that. I don’t want to feel restricted.
That makes total sense. Speaking of sourcing, that actually brings me to my next question; how did that change with the new COVID restrictions? How do you get your supplies lately? At least right now in Toronto the thrift shops are closed. Do you have any private sellers?
Okay, so Toronto in the beginning, when it opened up, I was able to go to some thrift stores. Oakville, where I am, is actually not in lockdown at the moment so that does give me more options. It’s probably a trick I shouldn’t share (most vintage sellers don’t) but I’ll let you in on the little secret: most of us don’t actually go to thrift stores. We go to second-hand export warehouses. So in any case, those are considered factories so they are not part of the lockdown. These warehouses have the clothes that thrift stores get rid of, where left-over donations go… A lot of them go to landfills. Which is so sad. So it’s just piles and piles and piles of clothes. I basically just go and shove myself into those bins and try to find gold!
A lot of people ask me: do you think that you buying from thrifts will gentrify the thrift stores? But I feel like we’re doing these stores a favor! Because when I go to these warehouses, the amount of clothes that will be wasted is crazy. The tags from the thrift stores—Goodwill, Value Village, and Salvation—are still on them! There’s just so much supply. Of course, when I do go to the local thrift stores, I try to prevent buying sweaters or coats so that low-income people who really need them have them. For those, I prioritize the warehouses because the items there would go to waste anyways. So I just try to grab the items before they go, so at least they get more use. I mostly source from there! After doing my research to find new places to source, I found these places and, oh my god, it’s a whole new world! It’s a very interesting environment to be in.
It must be, I’m sure. Well, thank you for the pro tip! Your secret is safe with me! My last question then is: what are the next steps for Hedoum? It’s already grown so much with the website launch a few months ago, as well as new photoshoots with models… What’s the next chapter going to look like?
It’s crazy! It’s really hard to “grow” right now with lockdown. I think the next step is to grow my inventory more. I think that’s my main focus. It has been limited because I’m the only picker so I’m the point of reference but the goal we’re working towards is to be as inclusive and diverse with sizing as possible, to give as many options to people as we can.
Also, of course I would really love for us to be able to grow physically! It’s getting difficult to run everything from my room: pictures, packaging, storage… In the future, fingers crossed, if we could get our own space? Maybe even our own shop one day! That would be very cool, after Corona. Thinking way in the future here! I really liked when we did the pop-up a few months back: I think that’s something I would love to be able to do more of. The real hassle of a digital shop is you have to try to sell the clothes and make it look appealing through 2D pictures. The customers can’t see them, feel them: it’s frustrating for the person buying! That’s why I would love to do more pop-ups by this summer: people could actually get to experience the clothes.
I missed the last pop-up, and I was so mad about it because I saw so many stories… I would love if you guys had more!
Don’t worry, don’t worry! It’s definitely a goal of ours, we’ll do one close to you!
I also saw the website launch: that’s a big step for the shop!
It’s hard not to ask yourself if you’re making the right choice, to be like: am I taking too big of a step? My dad was the one to tell me to take a leap of faith! He said: you shouldn’t care if you don’t have this huge following yet, there’s no harm in it. The website does make it more official! So of course, it’s more pressure to make it an actual brand. But it was the best decision I made. I can actually make the prices more affordable now—no 12 percent fees! Which helps me be competitive because vintage shopping really is competitive and the market is quite saturated at the moment. Because buying a pair of jeans for 70 dollars is just not it!
It’s complicated because so many vintage shops do over-price enormously but at the same time with these fees, it’s complicated to make margins and keep the price slow! I think it’s great the website lets you do that. I’m so excited to see what comes next. Thank you so much again, Malak, for talking with us today! Keep an eye out for Hedoum, everyone, they’re doing cool things.