Vivy Yusof is the co-founder of FV Group, an omnichannel retailer that specialises in modest fashion. Under the group, there are two brands, Duck and Lilit. Duck is a premium modest fashion brand that offers an array of apparel, scarves, bags and halal cosmetics. To date, the brand has sold over three million scarves, and it prides itself on its unique collaborations with global brands like Disney, Mattel, Hasbro, Marvel, Sephora, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins and many more. Meanwh
Meanwhile, Lilit is a go-to destination for modest fashion staples. Specialising in basics, Lilit offers an array of must-have items like innerwear, basics, scarves and activewear.
Yusof is a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni and most recently joined the Business of Fashion’s BOF 500 list in 2022.
We caught up with her to get her thoughts on her career so far, leadership perspectives and find out what makes her tick.
Inside Retail: Tell me about your career journey. How did you get into the industry, what are some of the different roles you’ve held along the way?
Vivy Yusof: Ever since I was young, I was practising to be the entrepreneur that I am today. I used to sell bracelets, scrapbooks, clothes, bags – you name it. I even wrote a book in my school exercise book when I was 8 and I rented it out to my friends for 50 cents.
Then I hired a friend to add some drawings in the book, and rented it out for $1, now that there was some “innovation”. I smile when I think back on those times, all the learnings preparing me for today.
I read law at the London School of Economics. During the summer holidays, I interned in a law firm and decided a legal career was not for me. I wanted to finish the degree anyway so that’s what I did.
While studying in the UK, two things happened that would affect my career in a major way – one, I started a personal blog called Proudduck and suddenly amassed a following and became one of the most popular bloggers in Malaysia.
And two, I got exposed to the world of e-commerce as online shopping was so mature in the UK. Upon graduating, I returned back to Kuala Lumpur in 2009 and found that e-commerce was still fairly new.
My husband Fadza and I saw an opportunity to start a business in fashion e-commerce because of three factors – my online following, the gap in e-commerce in Southeast Asia and my friendships with some local fashion designers.
FashionValet was born in November 2010, an online platform selling apparel from various local designers. It became a hub to discover local talents and elevate the local fashion industry.
A few years in, we also built our own local in-house brands and these brands grew very quickly, especially Duck which is a premium modest fashion brand under the FV Group.
Duck was built out of the love for high-quality scarves and the various launches completely sold out in minutes. It soon expanded to other categories: bags, cosmetics, apparel, home and living.
The fast rise caught the attention of the retail industry and international collaborators.
Duck was the first local brand to get a retail spot in malls like KLCC and Pavilion, and the first modest fashion brand globally to collaborate with Disney, Sephora, Barbie, Monopoly, Tealive, Starbucks and even some personalities like The Crown Princess of Brunei and Dato’ Lat.
Then, there’s Lilit too that we grew out of the love for affordable modest fashion basics and body positivity. Lilit has a size range from XXS to 5XL, which is beyond what mainstream brands do, and people love it because it caters to their entire family, no matter their size.
Duck now has nine stores and Lilit has six stores in Malaysia and Singapore, hoping to expand it even further to other regions. The vision for the FV Group now is to become a modest fashion group and my job is also to grow more brands within the Group.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for 12 years now, and as an entrepreneur you wear many hats and play many roles. Some days I’m a HR person, some days I’m a product designer, some days I’m a warehouse packer – it’s all encompassing.
But as I’ve hired more professionals along the way, I now focus on the creatives of the company – more specifically branding, product and marketing.
IR: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your career and how have you dealt with them?
VY: I love my job but nothing comes without some challenges, of course. To list them down would be pages long – in fact, I even wrote a book about my journey as an entrepreneur titled The First Decade.
But if I had to list down three challenges as an entrepreneur, they would be:
Knowing when to pivot – in our Group just like any other groups out there, there will be some business units that thrive and some that fail.
Part of entrepreneurship is experimenting and taking risks, but also knowing to shut down or pivot when something isn’t working. The FV platform was not profitable or scaleable, and it was bittersweet to finally close it down in 2020.
Hiring a team – execution eats strategy for breakfast, so even If you have the most ambitious vision, you really depend on a team to execute it well. It’s not easy to find experienced talent in omnichannel fashion in Malaysia, more specifically modest fashion, which is a niche in itself.
And when you get good talent, it’s not just about performance but also about cultivating a good culture and having chemistry between all team members.
As the leader, it is my job to make sure this happens, and managing people isn’t an easy feat because everyone has different characters and styles.
International expansion – I’ve learned that you can’t have a cookie-cutter playbook for growing in other countries because every community has a different culture, style, way of living and shopping.
Do you expand via a partner, or do it yourself? Do you open stores or expand digitally? It’s really about understanding as much as possible before you invest in geographical expansion, and even that, there will be some lessons to be learnt along the way.
The challenging part is also that globally, the big brands come from the West – people don’t really see Asian brands as fashion leaders.
The cool things we do don’t get global coverage as opposed to a brand doing the same thing from the West, so coming from this side of the world, we have to work twice as hard to go global.
You’ve got to really love it, though, because although it’s daunting to some, I find the possibility of global growth really exciting.
IR: What are some of your career highlights so far?
VY: Building brands – I think I found my passion in seeing something grow out of nothing. Be it my own brands or seeing other brands on FV grow, it’s truly a joy to be part of the journey and I consider this to be a highlight for sure
First-of-their-kind collaborations – I never imagined I could put a hijabi on a Monopoly board game, or be the first to enter Sephora, or the first to collaborate with Disney or Barbie.
We had fun collaborations too with F&B companies – we had a bubble tea lipstick collection with Tealive, we did a collab with Starbucks and to see Duck in their 300+ outlets is just a dream come true. To see Duck purple on Baskin Robbins packaging during our collab was just such a joy. Who says local brands can’t do cool things!
Being named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list – I was 29 when I got selected, so I was really cutting it close. And more recently, joining the list of BOF Global 500, where they recognise leaders in the fashion industry around the world.
I’m one of 3 Malaysians (with Dato’ Farah Khan and Han Chong of Self Portrait) and I wave this flag proudly. For the 2022 list, I was even in the Top 8 to have cover features, alongside Giorgio Armani and Jacquemus. It definitely made my year for my career!
Writing a book – this was a longtime dream of mine and the fact that I published a book still gives me goosebumps. You rarely see women leaders writing books, so I wanted to represent, for sure!
I wanted this book to give people useful sharings from life as an entrepreneur, so I started writing about the FV Group turning 10, marking one decade of my journey.
Penguin published it, which made it even more amazing, and it is now on the way to worldwide distribution. It’s been five months since launch and has become a bestseller in all major bookstores. Last month, I won [Malaysian bookstore] MPH’s Best General Book of 2022.
IR: What do you love about your job?
VY: I love creating. Be it creating brands, or creating products, or creating campaigns, or creating stores, it just gives me such a thrill to build something out of nothing, and then see the public enjoying the fruits of your labour.
Every collection is a breath of fresh air because you get to dream and experiment and get inspired, then translating that into something tangible. And the fact that I get to do that everyday?! I consider myself a lucky girl.
Not only do I love what I do, but the fact that I also get to build a company and provide employment to 300 people so far, allowing them to provide for their own families – this gives me a sense of purpose.
No job is perfect, of course, but on down days, I always remind myself of all these things that give my work meaning.
IR: What are some of the key leadership lessons you’ve picked up over the course of your career?
VY: That you need to have a very clear vision and strategy plan, and communicate this to your leaders. And it’s not enough to say it once, but you have to reiterate it again and again because human beings will naturally forget.
I believe everyone is capable of great things in their own respective fields, but if they don’t have clarity from the top, it’s hard to excel in their area.
This is a reminder for me too, to always give my team clear directions, something hard for entrepreneurs because a typical entrepreneur always wants the moon and the stars…at the same time.
I also have learned that open feedback and communication is crucial. I don’t wait for appraisals to iron out issues, I do it whenever it happens. Expectations must align, and there needs to be transparency, on both sides of the table.
A relationship with a colleague is just like any other relationship – you cannot keep things inside, you must communicate regularly and honestly.
IR: What does a typical day look like for you?
VY: Taking care of the creatives and brand-building of the Group means that there is no same day for me.
My official day to come to the office is on Tuesdays where I catch up with my direct reports, and the rest of the week I do store visits, interviews or talks, and a lot of meetings with external parties and potential collaborators.
I don’t believe in being in the office 24/7 – as a leader, I need to see what’s out there and not be in the same bubble.
My day will typically start at 6am with a workout – I workout 4 times a week now, followed by sending my kids to school before I start my day.
As a wife and a mom of four, it’s important to me that I cook for my family, so I will come home and start cooking for dinner.
I avoid dinner meetings as much as I can, because that’s my time to reunite with the family and talk about our days.
My husband Fadza and I will put the kids to sleep before we wind down. When you work with your spouse, it’s very easy to bring work home so we’ve created a system where we have scheduled one-on-ones at work where we align on work things so that at home, it’s family time.
IR: Do you have any “work hacks” for getting things done?
VY: Because my days aren’t typical, it’s hard for me to follow one method. I live via my Google Calendar. Every single thing is scheduled, otherwise it just gets lost. A lot of my time is on social media as well, so even this has to be scheduled.
Other than that, I have a tracker for my to-do lists, an annual tracker of my projects, a tracker with my direct reports – and that’s it.
IR: What’s your approach to work-life balance?
VY: I may be one of the odd ones out but I don’t believe that a perfect work-life balance exists – you just have to prioritise whichever needs you more at any given time. You’re never going to get a 10/10 in both categories at any given time.
When it’s Ramadan, for example, it’s all work for me and I communicate that to my family so they are aware that “Mommy will be busy this month”. And I make it up by going on a short break after my peak period is over.
I know this isn’t ideal, but I think if people didn’t put such a hard line between work and life, it would ease the pressure a little bit. I see work as life, and life as work – they are intertwined, because I genuinely love my job.
It’s hard not to want to share the joy of work and stories with my kids when I come home, and vice versa. I love my family so it’s hard not to talk about them with my colleagues when I’m in the office.
Work is what gives you life, so we shouldn’t see it as an enemy that stops you from living life. I just keep a positive mind, and stop looking for that perfect work-life balance.