Nana: Fashion has infinite possibilities, and new power is born from it. As a carrier of culture and times, fashion encompasses everything. From trendy to traditional culture, from celebrities, idols to everyone’s daily life, and from West to East, it is our discourse, our power, our time. Through Asian Voice, we hope to spread the local Asian fashion culture to the world by moving cross languages and borders.
In this issue of ASIAN VOICE, we welcome the founder of AKKARA from Thailand. AKKARA’s designs draw inspiration from ancient Thai characters that symbolize good fortune, seamlessly blending them with contemporary Thai pop culture. This approach enables the brand to break free from convention and establish a unique style that is truly its own. The brand’s products offer a captivating glimpse into the alluring world of Thai culture and language, allowing us to immerse ourselves in their unique charm and beauty. In the fast-paced world of fashion, AKKARA stays relevant by consistently renewing and expanding its knowledge, ensuring that its products always cater to a diverse audience.
Nana: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the AKKARA brand and what sets it apart from other streetwear brands?
AKKARA: The inspiration of our design is from an old Thai font on paper bags that have been used in the past with auspicious words or phrases so our first collection was to create something that using the auspicious words or phrases such as Sati(be calm), ChokDee(good luck), etc. The difference between our brand and others is the meaning of the words or phrases that we have been use for the design which depends on the contemporary situation, various festivals, Thai pop culture, also collaboration with influencers or famous people at that time which allows us to continuously create works that are not fixed and have no definite framework.Nana: How do you describe AKKARA in three words?
AKKARA: Thai Font, Simplicity, Contemporary.
Nana: What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing the streetwear industry in Thailand, and how is AKKARA working to address these challenges?
AKKARA: Fashion is something that moving fast and can be changed all time, so we need to be fast as well. Our biggest challenge is to make it according to the trends and customer’s needs at that time. We have a very short working time to think, design, create and produce.This is why we needs to be alert and keep things fresh all the time.Nana: Can you talk about AKKARA’s target customer demographic and how the brand aims to appeal to this audience?
AKKARA: We have various target groups of customers, mostly teenagers, and adults. Each generation of people has different preferences which is the reason why our brand has various types of design that can match any generation as trendy words are for teenagers, auspicious words are for a group of adults and elderly people, so they can buy our products as souvenirs or for themselves. Therefore, allows our store to attract our customers very well.
Nana: How does AKKARA stay on top of trends and maintain relevance in a fast-paced and constantly evolving industry?
AKKARA: Our brand is following trends like other brands but we have our own identity and passions. So, we combine them to create a new product for our customer’s needs. We never stop developing ourselves and always learn something new and think out of the box to communicate to customers, the production team, and various suppliers to find the problem and solve it together.Nana: What are some of AKKARA’s short-term and long-term goals, and how do you plan to achieve them?
AKKARA: Our short-term goal is to open our pop-up store in Thailand for expanding the business. For the long-term, we will still work following the trend and create a new collection for every festive event to make our brand more recognizable. I think our team is a very important thing for me to achieve the plan, we always brainstorm for adjusting and creating something new together and we keeping up the internal and international trends of the marketing in tourism industry.
Nana: Could you possibly share some memorable collaboration project that you’ve done before?
AKKARA: In the first year of our business, we had collaborated with an influencer named “Nhoo Rat” (One of the famous influencers in Thailand) she has been known by her comedy way of talking and it went viral. Once, our brand took her words to screen on the products, such as T-shirts, it makes Akkara and Nhoo Rat are well-known even more because the product was satisfied by our former and new customers. Therefore, this project made more people know both of us.
Nana: How does AKKARA use social media and other marketing channels to connect with customers and build brand awareness?
AKKARA: About social media, we use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and twitter to connect the customers. Instagram is the main media to share our promotions and information as our customers are based on it mostly. However, there are several types of customer that use different social media platforms, so we try to do a marketing on many channels to reach every group of customer.
We never stop developing ourselves and always learn something new and think out of the box.
