Our own label. Couture and prêt-à-porter, designed and produced from Kosovo, sold into the United States and Australia.
Relationship: Our own brand - owned and run by Hapen's founder
Registered: United States
Run from: Kosovo
What we do
Live site: aiyahcouture.com ↗
Why an agency runs a fashion label
Most agencies learn about fashion from their clients. We wanted to learn it the expensive way - by carrying the risk ourselves.
So we built Aiyah Couture: sampling, production, pricing, photography, the store, shipping, and selling to boutiques. Every decision we'd normally advise a client on, we've had to make with our own money.
It also answers a fair question directly. Can an agency in Kosovo really run a brand for the American market?
Aiyah is registered in the United States and sells there and in Australia. Everything else happens from here.
The decisions
Two production routes, not one
Couture pieces are hand-made panels in India, where the craftsmanship for that level of construction is strongest and finishing touches are in Kosovo. The prêt-à-porter line is produced in Kosovo, where we can control it closely and match the design exactly. Each line goes where it's made best.
Design it before cutting fabric
Every piece starts as a visual reference, generated with AI, before anything is sampled. It lets us see a whole collection, test it, and discard what doesn't work without paying for fabric and labour on ideas that go nowhere. The finished couture garments come out around 90–95% identical to the reference; the satin pieces made in Kosovo match it exactly.
Duties included in the price
We ship DDP - delivered duty paid. The customer sees one price, and that's what they pay. Nobody gets a customs bill on their doorstep for a dress they've already paid for, which is one of the most common reasons international fashion orders turn into complaints.
Priced for wholesale, not only direct
We want Aiyah in boutiques and showrooms, not just on our own site. That means pricing with enough margin for a stockist to make money too - so the numbers were worked out from production cost upward, with shipping built in, rather than picked to look good on a product page.
Selling where the buyers are
The US and Australia, deliberately not Kosovo.
It meant building everything - shipping, currency, pricing, copy - for markets on the other side of the world from where the garments are made.
Where it is now
More than 200 samples made. The store is live.
Wholesale outreach to boutiques and showrooms has started.
We'll update this page as it grows, including what didn't work.
One thing it taught us Views aren't buyers.
Early on, our short videos reached a large audience, almost none of it in the countries we sell to.
Reach that looks impressive on a dashboard can be almost entirely the wrong people.
It's why our Growth work reports on revenue and cost per purchase, not views.
Want the same for your label?
Brand, store, and the operational side most agencies don't touch.
