Have you ever
felt like everyone
wants you to act
a certain way?
But that way isn’t in line with who you are and what you value? Maybe you’ve felt that you are a little bit more quirky than everyone else? Or perhaps that you don’t fit in or belong in the group?
Well I’ve got a little secret for you, so have I! It started with me, Prem (pronounced Prim!), the founder of Persona. Growing up, I always knew I was a bit quirky and had different interests to others (which in my opinion, were way more exciting!) and that was only made more clear by my life in the corporate world, where I was constantly told I had to dress or act a certain way, but that way wasn’t in line with my inner colourful personality. People wanted me to conform to a 'typical' personality (or more like robotic personality) and have the usual boring interests. Everything had to be done the way people wanted it to be 'because that's how it's always been done'.
That pressure to be someone who I'm not ultimately led me to unhappiness and feeling lost and disappointed with what life has to offer. The feeling of not being able to be who you are just because it's not mainstream and to have your ideas disregarded just because it was different was a feeling I wanted to make sure no one else ever had to experience.
After a lot of self reflection and time building my respect for myself back up (mama ain't raise no fool and made me to be me!), I began to put the boundaries which others had torn down back up. I became confident in who I am again, what I can offer and where I wanted to head and once my journey from unhappiness had led me to a love for life again, I knew I wanted to empower everyone to have the same confidence in who they were and to express that person - because that's when you truly love life and live life!
And like any great cliched movie, when the feeling of not being able to conform anymore got too much, a light bulb moment occurred and Persona was born.
It was time to add some
Personality back into life!
After a while, I began wanting to go about adding little elements of fun, colour and my personality back into my wardrobe in a subtle way – my socks! The problem was, the colourful socks I could find in shops were tacky and didn't feel that nice because they used low quality materials, so I decided I would design my luxury colourful socks!
And so Persona was created! With no experience in the fashion industry, I started with two designs, which I drew by hand on the living room floor on paper (the orange polka dot socks and light blue polka dot socks if you want your collector's item!). When it came to having the designs made, life threw me one of those signs you only get in movies - I had to choose between Turkish cotton and Egyptian cotton and having purchased some new Egyptian cotton bed sheets and realising just how soft and luxurious Egyptian cotton is, it was a no brainer and that's how Persona's colourful Egyptian cotton socks journey began.
In fact, at Persona, all of our socks are made from Egyptian cotton, so you will never have to worry about them not being luxuriously good or of a high quality.
Since the original two patterns I designed, people have continued to notice my socks and how happy I am expressing my love for colours, patterns and the beauty of life and something in me told me I wanted to make sure everyone else felt the same confidence in themselves and that they were able to just be themselves and so I made a commitment to keep designing - here we are with over 20 patterns now! I still design each of our patterns and take inspiration from everything from my culture (a Kenyan Indian!), interests, travels and anything I see which I think looks cool!
So whether you are looking for a pair of colourful socks to show your love of dad jokes, to show just how sophisticated you are or to just to show how vibrant your personality is, we have got something perfect just for you and your sock drawer.
If our socks remind you of someone else whose personality you love and admire then don’t worry – we have beautifully hand wrapped gift boxes for all of our funky socks and for you to show them just how much you love their unique personality!
