Priya Downes: Founder of Nudea

0:00Welcome to the Jazz Shapers podcast from Mishkondorea. What you're about to hear was originally broadcast on Jazz FM. However, the music has been cut due to rights issues. The world's greatest jazz, soul and blues. From the world's greatest artists. This is Jazz FM. Jazz Shapers with Elliot Moss in partnership with Mishkondorea. It's business, but it's personal. Welcome to Jazz Shapers with me, Elliot Moss, bringing the shapers of the business world, together with the musician shaping jazz soul and blues. My guest today, I'm very pleased to say, is Priya Downs, founder of New Dayer. I hope I've said that correctly.

0:40I think I have. A B Corp certified underwear brand creating underwear and sleepwear from natural and recycled materials. Growing up partly in Kenya and experiencing poverty firsthand, Priya was drawn towards work that, as she says, had a bigger meaning. Part of a pioneering sustainability movement within the World Bank, where she developed initiatives to champion projects on environmental responsibility and fair trade fashion, Priya's career then moved from finance to luxury fashion with roles at Chanel and Burberry. I'm quite jealous and my wife would be more so. Realizing how uninformed and unsupported she felt when buying underwear and seeing the lack of options that were kind to the planet, Priya's drive to create her own company led to the launch of New Dayer in 2019, aiming to design with purpose and the perfect fit in mind.

1:27New Dayer's success has led to a B Corp certification, a trademark bra fit tape tool, finding out all about that soon, and virtual fitting room, and the launch, only two years into creating their business, of a sleepwear range. Priya Downs is my business shaper. She's the founder of a beautifully named company, may I say, New Dayer, which I've now said correctly a few times, so I've been practicing in the mirror before we met. It's lovely to have... I really appreciate that, thank you. The practice. Yes, the practice. You're welcome. I like to get the name of the company right. It's important.

1:57Why a woman who's a finance person, who does an MBA, who works in obviously the finance bit, the fashion bit, suddenly here she is with her own business. I know I'm nuts, right? I think I've got poorer as my career has gone on. I think I earned the most as a graduate, you know, as an actuary, and now it's kind of gone the other way. But? But it's my, you know, I followed my passion. And I knew that my heart and my soul was never going to be in finance for too long. It was a great start. It gave me the head for numbers, particularly for a youngster who didn't really know what they wanted to do.

2:35I think it was quite a safe career. And particularly growing up in a traditional Gujarati family, you're a very kind of business minded. Math is always a good thing, isn't it? It's almost an ology. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it was a safe career, but it gave me a real good head for numbers and business. But very soon, I knew I wanted to do something a little bit more creative and explore the passion that I had in me for fashion, really, at the time. And it all kind of came together when I was working at the World Bank, because I've always just deep down had this desire to do something bigger than myself.

3:13So even when I was working in finance, the World Bank was an, you know, an obvious dream job because it allowed me to be in an institution that was actually doing things that were for a greater purpose, you know, where it was environmental or poverty reduction. And that's its mission, right, right at the heart of it. And it was there really that my two kind of my love and passion for fashion and the sort of value driven doing something bigger than myself really came together. And this was outside of my day job, but I was doing a lot of work with the youth committee around how fashion engages people from all around the world, the impact it was having on economies, on people, and also the planet.

3:59And this was 2006 when nobody was talking about the impact the fashion industry was having. People were starting to talk about food. Where does our food come from? You know, particularly in the States with the rise of the meat ink and the documentary around the meat industry. But nobody was talking about fashion. And yet, there's a fashion economy in every country around the world. So its impact was huge. And I think I was just the right place at the right time. Washington, DC, you know, it's very political. People care about these things. But also, I think the World Bank was working on so many great projects, you know, from the better cotton initiative to microfinancing artisans all over the world.

4:40So it allowed me really to kind of leverage that and, you know, build a bit of a movement. So I did a fashion show at the World Bank, which was kind of crazy, and became this sort of expert in it, you know, but really, I wasn't, there's no authority to it. You know, I was just doing this on the side, I was kind of self taught. And I think what I lacked was real industry experience, you know, in order to be able to have an impact, I needed to have worked in the industry. And so that's when I thought, right, well, I don't know quite how to get into the fashion industry mid-career. So what do I do?

5:15I'll do an MBA. And we're going to pause there. Okay. Because this is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. And I already have so many questions, but we're going to come back to you, Priya Downs, my business shaper today, the founder of New Dayer. They make beautiful underwear and nightwear. Yes? Sleepwear. I said nightwear again. I'm doing it just to test you, Prit. But she knows her own business, which is really good because you've been running it and you set up for the last six years. You were talking about the World Bank and we're going to get to the fashion world and I mentioned Burberry and Chanel when we started.

5:45Just give me a flavor because it's, you know, I studied politics so I read about what the World Bank did and you've just given a brilliant, rapid exposition of what the World Bank is for. It addresses poverty. There's all the UN sustainability goals, all the things that we know it does. Just give me one example, paint a little picture of what the project that you created actually looked like in the field. So one example was I created a subcommittee of the youth group at the World Bank called Fashion for Development. And what I did was I brought together the experts working on projects at the World Bank together to start really seeing that the environmental impact that was being done, for example, on the Better Cotton Initiative, also had links to other projects the World Bank was doing in relation to the impact on farmers, for example.

6:39So because the World Bank is so huge, you know, employs 15 ,000 people, a lot of the projects are very much done in silo in different departments. and so what Fashion for Development did was kind of bring these experts together and say actually we should be talking to each other we work in different departments we work in different regions but actually what we're doing is there's a lot of synergy and we can have a bigger impact. And you devised that project? Yes I did. And that sense of connecting different supposedly disparate pieces is that a theme for you that's important in life? Yes I mean I've always been a bit of a networker and bringing people together.

7:19And I think that's, that's been a strength that's actually helped me as I formed my own business. But because I think it's really important to be able to see connections that other people don't see. And I think that that was, that was part of the success of it. And I think it was, it was great to be able to do a fashion show. It was fun. It was something new. But I think behind it all was this idea that actually, this is a bigger movement. There's a big industry here that has a huge impact, both environmentally and on the people. And we should be connecting all of it together. But then like an organized good Gujarati, a good brain with family and business, you said, but no, I now need to go from the theoretical and the kind of the big picture stuff to working in the industry.

8:04And I say it, by the way, in a complimentary way, I'm saying that that is a very, very kind of clear-headed person. Priya says, I've got that chip in the bank. I did the numbers thing. I've worked at the World Bank, and now I'm going to go into the fashion world because how can I possibly learn more unless I'm in it? And then you go into it. You just say, tick the box, go and achieve it, work in Burberry, work at Chanel, work with Angela Ahrens, who's an amazing woman. What did you learn about being in the operational side? and how has that helped you as you moved into your own business? Absolutely.

8:38So I think obviously having the benefit of the strategic side, you know, at the World Bank, you get that impact, you understand the bigger picture. But what I lacked was, okay, well, actually how difficult is it in reality for brands or, you know, producers or manufacturers or factories to actually make these changes that are needed to clean up the industry? and that was what I lacked and I think that I really needed to get into the nuts and bolts of understanding how a fashion business works to be able to really go, okay, this is how I can have a tangible impact. And so that's why I felt it was necessary to get into the operations and into the industry itself to understand those challenges.

9:25And what was it from Angela that you learned? Because obviously Angela Aaron's big name in the world of marketing, what was the one thing that you took from her that you've now used and translated in later life? Gosh, there's so much. Just do what? You've only got one magic trick coming out of the Angela hat. Angela was amazing with people. And she had a way of, at a time when everybody was Sheryl Sandberging, is that if that's a word, you know, lean in, be a man in a man's world. She was just like, no, it's really important that I'm going to leverage my skills as a woman. I can be vulnerable if I want, you know.

10:01and I think that she's made me much, I would hope, a much better leader as a result of the fact that I think she saw the opportunity to bring people together. You know, you could be an intern in the Lyft and she would say hello to you, good morning, and chat to you about what you're doing. And I think it was that leadership and that ability to bring people together. And her role at Burberry at the time, was she CEO? She was CEO when I went in. And I just thought, this is how you make a successful business. You know, somebody who can get people talking, speak to people no matter who they are in the business, what they do.

10:40And that's important because I say that any business you're in is a people business. It doesn't matter whether you're selling a product, a service, you know, you have to understand people and be able to relate to them and engage with them. And I think Angela was brilliant at that. Stay with me to find out exactly what Priya did next, which I can tell you post Fiorucci and Stephen and Janie Schaffer, which we're going to talk about very briefly as well. We will come on to the birth of Nudea, along with children probably. Much more coming up from Priya very shortly. She's CEO and founder of Nudea.

11:12Right now, we're going to hear a taste, though, from the Mishcon Innovation Series, which can be found on all the major podcast platforms. Lucky you. Lydia Kelley invites business founders to share their practical advice and industry insights for those of you thinking about starting your very own thing. In this clip, we hear from Bianca Rangecroft, founder and CEO of Wearing, a fashion app on a mission to upend the buy, use, dispose model. The Mishcon Innovation Series. Inspiration from founders of cutting-edge businesses. In association with Jazz Shapers with Mishcon Derea. And if you had to give a piece of advice to somebody looking to break into the fashion tech world, Bianca, what would that be?

11:52I'd say two things. The first, if you're a founder and you're starting this journey, I'd say really focus on your strengths. Solve for what you cannot do and be really, really honest with what that is. Because the ROI and you focusing on your strengths and building that out as potentially the face of the brand or the face of the technology or the face of the operations of the company is so crucial because time really is money. And this journey is a marathon and you really can't burn out because you are the MVP. And so solving for what you're not good at allows you'd have remained as much as possible in a percentage of enjoyment of the work that you do rather than in a percentage of I've just got to get this done to keep things moving.

12:33So really picking that team, being honest with yourself about what you can and can't do is really important to just getting there faster and in a better mental health state. The Mishcon Innovation Series in association with Jazz Shapers with Mishkondorea. This is Jazz Shapers with Elliot Moss in partnership with Mishkondorea. It's business, but it's personal. You can enjoy all our former business shapers on the Jazz Shapers podcast, and you can hear this very program again with Priya if you pop Jazz Shapers into your podcast platform of choice. My guest today, as billed earlier, is Priya Downs, founder of New Dea, a B Corp certified underwear brand, it says here creating underwear and sleepwear good i've said sleepwear i've said nightwear great whatever i've got it now you've got it you've got it now third time lucky third time lucky halfway through this program well done elliot and sleepwear from natural and recycled materials now again i've got this sort of in my head priya i have this juxtaposition of the safe good i'm going to follow this path the logic the math yes yeah and i'm now moving forward through my life and i work for a bunch of i do my well my actuary thing my world bank thing and it's a tick and it's a tick and then I've got these companies and then there's this little voice in Priya's head going, yeah, this safe thing, this logic thing, it's kind of causing a problem.

13:53And then I read interestingly that you wanted you were thinking about this business your new business, but you didn't want there to be a gap on your CV so you thought well maybe I did on the side. And your husband said, no, you don't need to worry about it. What's the problem? There's no gap. Big jump at age 37 helped me understand how safe Priya became adventurous Priya? Well, it was, yeah, I mean, it's amazing you found that moment, but it was literally a light bulb moment. I left Burberry and I knew I kind of wanted to start something, but I hadn't quite got my head around exactly what that was going to look like.

14:33It was also quite hard to top Angela Arendt, you know, Burberry days. So I was plotting my next move and I had the opportunity to work at a startup, effectively. I joined Fiorucci as one of the first employees that they hired. And they were rebuilding Fiorucci. So it was very, very startup-like. Just because it was part of popular culture way back in the day. Absolutely. Immortalized by the song I can't remember, but it's Gucci, da-da-dum, Fiorucci. Yeah, exactly. Which I'm going to remember in a minute, but anyway. And they had all the elements for a great brand. And I think they do still. it was you know all immersive fashion it was you know the Madonna playing in the store I think it was very of the moment I mean this is 2017 a very of the moment and I was quite excited to join and it also I wanted to get into a smaller company I wanted to get my head into take that sort of logical you know I want to start my own brand and where did the illogical come in how did it the illogical bit kind of came in so I was there for about six months and I think they had a lot of challenges.

15:39And, and actually, I think quite quickly into it, I was like, you know what, I don't know why I'm messing around, I probably should start thinking about starting something myself. But one of the things that, you know, as you say, safe Priya, was thinking was, well, maybe I'll do on the side, you know, maybe I'll continue to kind of do do a little bit, you know, work part time in a job. So I don't have this gap. And of course, if I fail, then I've got, you know, I've got something to, to keep me going. And it was literally my husband going, well why why you know if you did something part-time it will feel part-time and it will never be it will never become anything real until unless you put your heart and soul into it and if this is something you really want to do you should do it full-time and I was like but that's risky that means you know what happens if I fail um and and I think it was literally you know I had to soul search I had to go what if I do fail like what's the worst thing that's going to happen and what What was the worst thing?

16:36I'd have a hole in my CV, you know? Which is not such a bad thing. Which is not such a bad thing. For someone who's had such a explicitly fantastic CV, MBA at INSEAD and all these other things, I mean, what's there to worry about? Well, this is it. And I think when I said it out loud, I was like, that is ridiculous. That is actually ridiculous. That the only thing I'm worried about is a hole in my CV. And then when I said it out loud, I thought, okay, yeah, I am. And what's the first thing you did? Just the first thing that you did to then go, I'm now moving towards my new business. I registered it on Companies House.

17:04house and I didn't I obviously didn't have the name at this point but I registered it under a working title I was like right what was the working title interval intimates um so actually if you do look us up in company sales you'll see that in our in our filing history yes there you go you see no one knew that until just then exactly no one knew that unless you're savvy enough to go on company's house and like do all the all the digging but um I registered the company in April um so you know I left via reach I think probably three weeks four weeks prior was sort of dilly-dallying around whether I do something part-time or not.

17:37And then straight away, I got this light bulb moment, decided to start my own business, registered a working title, and it made it real. That's what made it real. And now we're going to hold there. You made it real, and now we're going to talk about what New Day is all about and why it's such a clever, there's a lot of clever things going on around the fact that you do produce gorgeous, sustainable underwear and sleepwear. That's right. Excellent. Well done. Thank you. thank you i feel so good although nightwear's i think nightwear's a new category and the song i was thinking about for fiorucci was sister sledge he's the greatest dancer which is great great number as well so so in this business that you now have you've now synthesized your love of of fashion and i read somewhere i love this that you've you collect old version old editions of vogue going back to 1916 or something huge collection amazing so they're really the fashion the passion thing is there for sure and you launched this business and here we are six seven years later what's the impact of the business that you're most proud of up to this point the fact that we we were one of the first lingerie companies to get b corp certified i'm obviously really happy to see more and more taking things like this seriously particularly on the sustainability side um but we still are one of the only ones around the world that are B Corp certified.

18:59And it really is kind of for us a proud moment. We're really proud of the fact that we take that element, you know, we're recognized for the impact we're having. And I think also, you know, I wanted to get into this to have an impact and not just, you know, as a business, but on the industry. And I'm really proud that you know we're leading that you know we're we're what we're one of the first companies to offer recycling for bras and and whilst it's not huge at the moment i hope it becomes a bigger movement across many brands as well so i think for me it's those kind of things that i'm the most proud of obviously i love our products and i love our customers and the innovation this i love this i mentioned it earlier the digital sizing tool the new the new day of fit tape and the virtual fitting room.

19:49Are you a fan of technology? For you personally in your life? Yes. I mean, you know, I'm not somebody who works in the industry. So I'm definitely not the first adopter of AI. But I certainly can see the benefits it's going to bring my business. And, you know, from the from the very beginning, I saw it as an opportunity rather than a threat, versus a lot of people in my in my industry, who still are quite scared of what AI is going to bring in terms of prospects. I don't look at it like that at all. So from that point of view, I'm very excited about technology and always have been. It's obviously just looking at how it can be used in my business.

20:26But on sizing, I mean, that really came from a practical business need, to be honest. One of the problems that the lingerie industry has, and this goes back to the sustainability thing, is wastage. You know, loads of women buy bras that don't fit them. I mean, this is the thing I hear from my wife. And then she tells me why she buys a specific brand that she buys, which is very expensive. But I mean, it's because, well, there's a fit question. Yes, and I'm glad that she's found a brand. She has. But for a lot of people who struggle with bras and fitting, and particularly because the fact that an average woman wears about six different sizes in their life.

21:06So, you know, you might fit a brand or you might fit a size today, but, you know, you might have a baby or you might lose a bit of weight and suddenly you don't anymore. And the whole industry is so wasteful because women tend to overbuy bras. They have a lot of, the average amount is about 20, but only wears about four. And that's a, Is that right? That is, that is a stat. That's why there's no money in my household anymore. Because of all the bras. All the bras. Absolutely. But that is an incredible, Especially if they're expensive. Yeah, that is an incredible stat. I had no idea. That's extraordinary.

21:38And that's just because they don't quite fit. They don't quite fit. But I feel guilty chucking it because it's too much. What am I going to do? Is it that? Is that the insight? Well, it's that. I think partly it's, you know, maybe your husband partner gets you underwear that, you know, you wear for a moment, but it's not comfortable and it just gets stuck at the back of your lingerie drawer. I never buy my wife underwear. That would be a mistake. Right. Well, yeah, I think absolutely. That's probably quite smart, to be honest. Or it's, you know, they've bought a bra, they've worn it once, realise it's so uncomfortable, and then it's got stuck at the back of their lingerie drawer.

22:06And this is a story you hear all the time. And this is why we end up with so many bras. and there is no end of life options for bras. You know, you can't rent them, you can't resell them, you can't even really give them away. So it just ends up in landfill and something like 19 million bras in the UK end up in landfill and there's not much you can do with them. I mean, that's why we offered recycling and I think recycling particularly is still quite a new movement when it comes to bras and briefs. But I'm really excited to be kind of at the forefront of that And I really hope as a brand that we can continue kind of growing the recycling element of what we do.

22:44But I think that from a sustainability point of view, the best thing we can do is buy less. And buying less means also getting your fit right. And if you're an online brand, that's particularly challenging. So that's what really drove me to start looking at how we can help women size up at home. Because this is, you know, this is actually a business challenge, right? It's a real need. And we're going to have a few more words on other real needs. And final questions I have for my business shaper today. It's Priya Downs. And we've also got some Alice Russell for you as well. That's in just a moment.

23:18This is Jazz Shapers with Elliot Moss. In partnership with Mishkondorea. It's business, but it's personal. Just for a few more minutes, Priya Downs is my business shaper, founder and CEO. So I love people that give themselves title, but you are the CEO. I mean, this is what you do. and your beautiful brand, which is called New Dea. Right. Right, good. You're getting lots of things right by the end of this. Yes, you are. I'm really smashing it out of the park today. I've read somewhere that you like proving people wrong, and I could be wrong. I may have misread something, but there's this sense of people maybe have underestimated you or thought, no, Priya's going to be going down, that's what she's going to do.

23:58Has there been a sense of you showing people that the safe prayer isn't the only prayer in there? A little bit. That's an interesting question. I've never been asked that. But yeah, I think a little bit. I think I've always felt, because I'm not particularly, you know, your classic extrovert. And I've had quite a safe career until I started my business. And then all hell broke loose. And then all hell broke loose. So I do think that people, and I think as an entrepreneur, you do have to be, have an attitude of proving people wrong because you get a lot of no's everywhere, you know, all the time.

24:34And, you know, you probably get one yes for every hundred no's, you know, and you've just got to have the ability to go, no, I'm going to prove you wrong or I'm going to, you know, pick myself up and I'm going to keep going. And I think I definitely, you know, have got a huge, you know, a huge capacity to take a knock and come back. And I think that that's a really important trait. If I didn't, I don't think I would have stuck at it for six years, you know. And is this the most you that you felt in your career? For sure, because the great thing about having your own brand is you can shape it to what your values are.

25:12And Nudea is very much in line with my values, you know, that whole idea of having an impact, the fact that it's very women-led. It's all about my values. And I think that's one of the things I think that I'm really proud of as a legacy. You know, whatever happens with the business, whatever, you know, if we fold up tomorrow, I would still be very proud of the fact that, you know, I have shaped something that's around my values and my vision. And that's, it's a lot harder to do in reality than to say, right? So I think, I think, you know, I'll always, I'll always be proud of that. And is there anything stopping you doing what you want to do next?

25:49what gets in the way of you having your achievements in line in front of you on the wall as it were and then you being able to get there not much i mean i think money helps but it's not the only thing um i think you you have to have the ability as a business leader or as an entrepreneur to to think big you have to think big and you have to think anything is possible and i do i think anything's possible and I would love to see New Day be the biggest brand in the world um quite frankly but you know there's obviously there's lots of challenges along the way and and that's where kind of I love having two heads I've got my logical side that kind of sometimes goes my brain going maybe take a few more steps before you get there but I think it's important to have a vision right and and think big because otherwise what's the point and on a daily basis Priya if there is and I'm thinking of kind of great Indian mythology here for a moment.

26:44I don't know why it's coming to my head. If there's the fighter on the one side of logic and then the other side there's the fight with passion and with just let's just go and do it, who wins on most days? I hate to say it's probably logic. But sometimes I think this is where your gut comes in. I've had loads and loads of moments where I've had that fight with my gut instinct versus my brain. And actually, some of the best decisions I've made have been going with my gut and really sort of saying, no, I know this doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but we're going to do it. And you've been proved right.

27:22And I've been proved right with that. So I think, I mean, not all, I mean, sometimes there are decisions you can make that don't make sense, you know, at all at that time. But I think I'd love to say every time it's the creative visionary that always wins. sometimes you have to think about practicalities but yes i would i would say that most of the time it's the logical side that wins um on the day-to-day but um bigger things bigger decisions i think you know the visionary side kind of comes in and the instinct really helps it's been good meeting both prius thank you very much the logical one and the gut driven one i think that's the combo and i think i'm sure it has to flick inevitably from one thing to the other and the fact that you're able to just turn one of the dials up and then one of the dials down is indeed an enlightened person well thank you so much for um letting me talk about the two sides of my uh my experience my head it's very important for people to know that that is the truth of it it's never it's never just one direction thank you so much for spending some time with me just before i let you go what's your song choice and why have you chosen it thank you so much so my song choice is by the rebirth brass band from the album rebirth of new orleans i absolutely love the energy of American brass bands in the jazz genre.