Behind every success story is the first effort, tremendous falls and setbacks. It’s these first clumsy steps on the road to success that shape us to be leaders in our respective fields.
Too often young people envy successful people, thinking that it happens overnight without a glitch. But what they do not take into consideration, is that this has come after many hiccups and phase starts. Their success usually follows a trail of disappointing first attempts.
When your journey takes a radical turn and disrupts the “normal” cycle this is often labelled as the end of our journey. Little does society realise that “you often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid”.
The 22 years old founder of The Threaded Man Siya Beyile is no different. He did not defer his dreams, even after “failing” to complete his BA in Fashion at LISOF because his parents could no longer afford his tuition fees. As the old saying goes, “there are many ways to kill a cat”, Beyile didn’t allow his dream to disappear due to his inability to pay his tuition fees. Instead, he networked and began interning for SA Fashion Week and later on, worked for a trend expert and founder of Flux Trends, Dion Chang. This was Behile’s kick off in the fashion industry.
The secret is to find your passion and be the master of your craft. Be it cooking, cleaning, singing or whatever, mastering your craft is doing something extraordinary that no one else but you can do it. In this way you don’t necessarily need to wait years waiting for employment, however, you open your own employment opportunities. The biggest trap that many of us fall into, is that we allow ourselves to be bounded by society’s success formula – complete matric, graduate from a tertiary institution and then wait for employment prospects.
This formula doesn’t necessarily work for #Influencers. To be a person of influence means that you have a responsibility to take the opportunities you are given, not only to better your own life but also the lives of those around you. Influencers don’t wait for opportunities, they create their own opportunities. In the fashion space, influencers don’t follow trends but influences others to follow their trends.
“As an influencer, I am an early adopter of certain trends, through my style I can introduce new trends to the market and make them suitable for brands”, says Beyile.
Sometimes we complicate things
Being the master of your craft doesn’t mean that you need to be able to solve for x like Albert Einstein, sometimes it means just being able to connect two pieces of fabric that look useless and turn them into a what we call a “slay outfit”. So many times people are often caught up in thinking that fashion is about looking good, but it’s bigger than that;
“Fashion is about communicating who you are and what you believe in,” says Behile.
Behile’s passion for clothes is rooted in culture. Growing up Behile was always so proud of how the men and women were dressed. What caught his interest, even more, was that in our culture whatever we wear stands for and means something.
“Kufuneka ube umfana othungiweyo,” Beyile’s mother told him when he started high school. “You must be a threaded young man who not only looks good but is held together by the right things, such as manners and respect.” Today, his mother’s wisdom has built Behile a clothing brand, The Threaded Man.
The Threaded Man is the leading online destination for the modern African man to stay up to date on fashion and original style. The portal doesn’t only encourage men to take care of their outwards fashion appearance but also of their inner well-beings. It helps them to be threaded both on the inside and outside.
Behile says that “I filter these trends and then present to brands on what the focus should be and which market they need to pay attention to.
When asked in an interview with Nontando Mposo, how has The Threaded Man portal evolved since it was launched?
The Threaded Man is a success story on its own, but for every successful blog, there are dozens that fail. When The Threaded Man launched, the idea was that it was just going to be a portal/blog for men’s fashion. Since then it has grown into a full agency, into Africa’s largest men’s fashion and lifestyle portal. Through our styling and consulting divisions, over the past months we have worked on campaigns for big brands such as H&M, Levi’s, Stuttafords, American Swiss, Titan watches and Adidas, to name a few.
You are clearly a creative person, is there anyone or anything that inspires you?
It is funny because I don’t consider myself a creative person… I mean I failed at fashion school, haha!
Interesting highlights you might have missed about Siya Beyile:
Behile’s journey has been evolving and setting fashion climates ever since his biggest highlight The Threaded man, in 2015 he as listed as Mzansi’s 100 Influencer, in a competition started by The Young Independents to identify South Africa’s young people who are making strides in their fields.
His phenomenal work is not only recognised locally, however, he has been making huge fashion highlights even on a global space
What is your success formula as a successful blogger
“The key is understanding the market and finding the gap which your blog will fill. Most bloggers fail because of the perceived lifestyle that comes with it. Blogging is a business and it needs focus and skills.” He further added that he is not any magician, he just knew where the gap was and worked hard to sharpen his skills in order to cater for that market.
Get a glimpse of Siya’s Slayage style…
