Is it just me or is there something in the air for 2025? I do not know how to describe it, but there’s definitely some sort of renaissance this new year—almost as if there’s a collective and unanimous agreement to vehemently chase after goals. I share this sentiment, and I’d like that you did, too. Start on a clean slate, and pursue those goals of yours with both consistency and rigour.

With that in mind, allow me to welcome you back to The StylePen Memoir (TSPM), and to officially say a Happy New Year to you. I do recognise that it’s been such a looonggg time since you saw or heard from me. My absence wasn’t without reason, I promise. I apologise that I had left without making proper plans for you, or putting an effective structure in place to combat my time away. It turns out that I may have underestimated how truly cumbersome the workload I had outside of building this community would be, and gave up managing it even before it properly kicked off. My apologies! If you didn’t know, I have recently concluded my Master’s course in Fashion Communications, and I moved to Greater Manchester almost immediately.

On the flip side, though, my time away has given me so much to think about. It has allowed me the opportunity to properly reflect on what I want to do with TSPM, and what direction I’d like for us to take moving forward. I took the entire time away, and even the holiday season to craft out a plan, a structure, and a strategy that can help both you—especially—and I reach our goals. 

You see, while I built TSPM as a way to provide resources for young fashion professionals and enthusiasts to be abreast with the relevant tools and right information they need to navigate the fashion, beauty, and creative industries, the ultimate plan is to be a resource hub for the same audience to make launches and navigate the industry—but from a business point of view. 

I have found that several subjectively similar fashion and beauty legacy platforms were built with already established and well-grounded industry professionals in mind, making the stories and resources they share a little too out of depth for the nascent next-gen leaders to fully assimilate. Hence, TSPM’s new direction: be a research-driven and data-backed resource hub for the next generation of fashion, beauty, and creative professionals looking to navigate the industry, and are actively seeking informed materials to enable them to build viable businesses and careers.

That said, I would like to introduce myself—again. I’m Elvis Kachi, a fashion and beauty journalist/researcher, and I have worked on multiple research-driven offline and digital projects for organisations, platforms, and companies like the BBC, the Guardian UK, BeautyMatter, Canvas8, Kantar, Conde Nast, Bloomsbury Publishing, The Folklore, AMAKA, Birmingham City University, Falmouth University, STADIO College of Fashion, Luxury Tribune, OkayAfrica, Essence, and a host of others. I mean to use this wealth of garnered knowledge to populate the prospective resources I intend to share with you. Here’s how I plan to do so.

As aforementioned, I took my time away and the recently concluded holiday to create an action plan. I have broken them into batches, but will be sharing just the first quarter with you. You can find the action plan below;

Quarter 1:

Topic: Strategic Insights for Scaling Fashion and Beauty Brands

January: Market Penetration and Brand Expansion

• Week 1: Exploring New Market Frontiers.

• Week 2: Brand Positioning and Differentiation

• Week 3: Building a Business Model for Fashion and Beauty

• Week 4: Operations and Efficiency in Fashion and Beauty

February: Marketing and Consumer Behavior

• Week 1: Data-Driven Marketing

• Week 2: Building Customer Loyalty

• Week 3: The Fundamentals of Marketing Strategies

• Week 4: Brand Building and Positioning

March: Innovations and Disruptions in Fashion and Beauty

• Week 1: Redefining Consumer Engagement

• Week 2: Disruptions in Supply Chain

• Week 3: Navigating Fashion and Beauty Sales Channel

• Week 4: Driving Innovation Through Leadership

Again, a lot of thought has been put into this, and I do solemnly swear to keep up the pace and deliver quality content that you would enjoy digesting and gain so much value from, but I also do need your help. I just need you to hold me accountable. Send me tips on topics you think I’d find interesting, ask me about my sources, constructively criticise my opinions and challenge my thoughts, and ask me about exciting topics I’m looking forward to. Above all, I humbly ask that you read these materials and case studies, and provide me with feedback. I reaaallyyyy want to hear from you, my community.

I’m editing this on Google Docs, and it’s almost superseding three pages. So, I’ll drop my pen and cap my ink bottle here. Happy New Year, once again! Thank you so much for waiting patiently, and I am glad to have given you a peek at what to expect. Please share and encourage anyone you’re sure would find value in them. Do not forget to let them know that I have a gift for them in the Welcome email, if they click here to subscribe!

Speak soon,
Elvis.