From Russia with designer bags: the story of Andrei Alekhin

Andrey Alekhin is a real serial businessman; during his life he founded and developed several successful projects. In 2007, the foundation of billionaire Lev Leviev bought his company Apogee-Metal for $19 million. Alekhine was not sorry to part with the asset; he already had another business - a chain of flower salons "Gardens of El Salvador", which he planned to develop, but soon appeared hobby: electronic music. Together with his partners, Alyokhin opened the Arma 17 club, was engaged in marketing research, organized music festivals, and in 2015 he left for New York and is now developing the Forms Studio bag brand with designer Anastasia Komarova. The story of his successful work with projects unlike each other was written by Anastasia Chernikova for publication. "Company's secret".

Metal story

In 1996, Alekhin graduated from the Faculty of Cosmonautics of the Moscow Aviation Institute, but did not work in his specialty. In the third year, he settled in a large bank to trade futures and options. In Russia, this market was just emerging, Alyokhin quickly became the head of a whole department that bought contracts on the Chicago currency exchange, and sold it on the Moscow one. In 1998, the bank where Alekhin worked was the second largest contributor in the country, but the financial crisis knocked down his position, and as a result Alekh was left without work.

His school friend offered to do business - to trade in black metal.

A year later, the partners broke up: Alyokhin wanted to grow a big business, take loans and hire employees, and earn a former partner, enough to travel, and spend more time with his family.

The company Alekhine began to develop in a new partnership, to 2007, she already had 12 branches throughout Russia and 450 employees.

A new financial crisis was approaching, and the partners decided to sell the business, received for company $ 19 million. By that time, its annual turnover was about $ 200 million.

After that, Alekhin decided that it was time to engage in self-development, and entered the Chicago business school.

Flower shop

Another business, the Flower Salon Gardens of El Salvador, appeared at Alekhin in 2004. It took about $ 300 000 to launch. The partners did not have a business plan, but there was a concept: they relied on the compilation and sale of complex bouquets. In order to associate not only with the flower trade, but with the art of floristics, familiar journalists were invited to the opening and arranged a floristic contest and a master class with the famous German bouquet designer.

In the first month, the partners went to zero, after six months the net profit of the salon was 30-40 thousand dollars a month.

In the 2008 crisis of the year, Alekhin closed two stores, but a year later he opened them again. By that time, Sadov had many competitors in Moscow. ABOUT "The Gardens of Salvador" the owner says without enthusiasm, says: not his most interesting business. But the stores still make a profit, so he is not going to part with them.

Club

“I don’t have a life business that I would be interested in immediately and forever.” - Alyokhin explains how he, the seller of metal and flowers, became interested in techno music and DJing.

In 2007, he learned how to mix tracks and started playing sets at parties in small clubs. Soon he met important party-goers Natalya Kaplinskaya (Abel) and Alexei Shelobokov who were going to open a club “with the best parties and DJs in Moscow”.

So in 2008, Alyokhin became the co-founder of the club "Arma 17", which for several years really became the flagship of the nightlife of the city and was famous for its grandiose parties. In 2010, he went out of business - he did not get along with his partners in his views on the future.

After that, Alekhin launched several music festivals, invented a company in the field of marketing research, and in 2015, he moved to New York to develop another project in the new market for fashion accessories.

Bags in New York

Alyokhin says that the main capital for him is people: “In Russia, you live surrounded by ghouls, and you have to hold onto good people.”

Therefore, when he met the architect Anastasia Komarova, who in her free time thought out and sewed leather bags under the Forms Studio brand, he clung to her and invested in her project. He does not disclose the amount, but says he received half of the company.

Komarova sewed three bags a month, each model had an original design that referred to different architectural styles or works of art. For example, she made bags in which Brodsky's verses were stamped in Braille.

He helped Komarova to find production in Moscow, train employees and start sewing 50 bags a month in 2014. And then persuaded her to move to New York and enter the global market. Komarova was selected for an incubator at the Pratt Institute Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator and moved in November 2015.

The cost price of the bag is about $ 100, on the official Forms Studio website the price is about $ 500. According to Alekhin, the company now came to the rescue of $ 17 000 per month. To enter the showrooms, I had to change the concept. Initially, Forms Studio bags were made with interchangeable covers - the top layer could be unfastened and changed. But the shops asked to abandon this idea, so as not to tire the buyers with explanations.

Alekhin says that it’s not easy to fight for a place in the US fashion market, every newcomer falls into a vicious circle: the stores ask which media they have already told about the new brand, and don’t put a brand that nobody has written about on the shelves. The media is interested in what stars wear clothes or accessories of the new company, and they do not write anything if famous people have not yet become customers.

Now Komarova bags hang in several showrooms, including Eight in Soho in Manhattan and souvenir shops at museums, such as the New York Design Museum MAD and the Museum of Modern Art in Chicago. Partners opened production in Spain and retained production in Russia, here it is cheaper to produce bags now. Samples produced in Manhattan.

The full version of Anastasia Chernikova’s material can be read in the publication “Company's secret«.

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