Fashion & Beauty
Talking about business, life and Fashion instincts, Munish Maya opens up candidly about his way to making it big!
Tell us about your journey of becoming India’s top fashion influencer till now.
Munish Maya: It all started with passion. I always have had a penchant for fashion world & keen desire to learn more about it – from menswear, designs, their functionality, quality to technical knowhow and knowledge in this field, how to look good and feel good. So, I started grasping every detailed knowledge related to it & wrote my first blog in 2007. As time passed by, the little dream started growing and taking its shape, when Instagram came in 2011, and I came across lots of International Fashion Bloggers & Brands, who were nailing this field. This ignited my passion to create quality content related to fashion, outfit ideas, street style OOTDs, which at that time, very few people were doing, and Indian audience was unaware and untouched about this thing.
With more & more content, my IG page started getting noticed & started growing with fame & followers, until one day, I got an email from an international eyewear brand to try and model for their sunglass range, which in turn got great response & within a month after that, my email got brimmed with collaboration work from lots of clients and brands hailing from various parts of the world. At that moment, I realised that I can make career in this field too & turn my passion into profession. From that moment in 2011 to now, I never looked back and today I feel blessed and honoured to work with more than 500+ International & National brands worldwide from Tomford, Salvatore Ferragamo, Montblanc to Indian startups/e commerce like Myntra, Flipkart, Paytm etc to tech brands like Xiaomi, One plus etc.
Today I feel blessed to have almost 1 Million fans and followers and I’m grateful to have them. They keep me going and inspire me to do great work.
What’s your own fashion game that is sure shot a hit look?
Munish Maya: In 2011, I started experimenting with Street Style Fashion OOTDs and at that time, I was first in India and among very few worldwide, who were doing this in their field. My Experimental Classy Gentleman style with melange of street elements, gave me niche and edge & I got featured on some top IG pages like Men with Class, Men with Streetstyle, OOTD men, menshairstyle etc.
I keep a fine balance between classy and edgy style with elements of streetstyle. For eg – Mixing of 2 piece suit with crisp T shirt and casual sneakers.
Do you feel the need to help indian men elevate their fashion quotient?
Munish Maya: When I started this journey like 7 years ago, a lot of our Indian fashion segment, mainly Indian men were untouched & unaware about style & hacks pertaining to menswear industry. But today I feel that with changing time, modern day gentlemen particularly Indian men are quick to embrace and evolve in fashion segment and I feel more than happy to see this shift happening.
I am looking forward to see more and more Indian men joining and embracing this movement and making India proud on International platform.
You left a corporate job to pursue your passion in life – Please tell us about that.
Munish Maya: ( chuckles ) Well I am from typical Indian Punjabi family and there is stereotype in our Indian education system that before becoming an artist or entrepreneur, you have to be an Engineer. I wanted to break that stereotype image.
So yeah, I’m an engineer. I
Completed my B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Thapar University. Working in one of the Top Fortune 500 companies, I felt that I cannot fit into 9 to 5 schedule. My corporate job though was handsome paying, but was not doing any good for me. It was mundane and boring and I was always creative and think outside the box. So I followed my inner voice and decided to quit my 9-5 job and follow my dreams as full time entrepreneur.
The strong inclination of my passion in fashion world and huge response from IG gave me strong hope and gut to escape the 9-5 job and follow my dream full time as an entrepreneur and I never felt so content, to be my own boss, to work on International projects with my team of hustlers.
I’m looking forward for more hustles and blessings.
What’s your brand’s USP?
Munish Maya: I strongly believe in my motto of – Do well. Live Well. Dress really well & be kind. Always.