Kelly-Anne Alexander is the picture of determination and perseverance, never once giving up on her dreams, even when the circumstances where not always favorable. Inspired by 70s fashion, Kelly felt herself drawn to the beauty and fashion industry since she was a child.
Kelly recalled wanting to pursue her lifelong dream of creating a brand of haircare products after her youngest child left for college. She created a vision board for the brand she would later name Kelly Anne Products. Starting a business from scratch is risky, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Kelly invested her savings and sold her car in order to kickstart her dream beauty line.
She explained, “This is what I really wanted to do with my life, so I sold my car, and I took the money from that and I decided I could walk to work. I looked at my vision board and I started making labels, and started deciding what my product would look like, what it would smell like.”
As a self-starter entrepreneur, Kelly quickly realized that not everyone she encountered was going to share the vision she had for her brand, and how crucial it is to be able to overcome the negativity.
Although Kelly found herself exhausted at the beginning of her journey when she was going door to door at salons selling her product, she understood the importance of not giving up. She shared a memory of her calling her husband, mentioning that not one salon had been interested in picking up her product. Encouraged by her husband to meet the daily goal she had set for herself, Kelly continued to the last salon she had on her list.
Unbeknownst to Kelly, while she gave the salon owner her pitch, a buyer for Walgreens had been sitting in a nearby chair and was listening. She invited Kelly to set up a meeting with her boss. Shortly after, Kelly’s brand would be added to the shelfs at Walgreens.
“I learned that sometimes you’re tired, but go ahead and knock on that last door. If you have five doors ahead of you, knock on all five. Don’t fall short on what you told yourself to do, because falling short would’ve meant I lost that contract. I got that contract because I knocked on that last door,” shared Kelly.
Before the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly had been invited to participate in a reality TV show, and her product had just been shipped to India, Italy, and San Diego. She was thrilled about the impact this would have on her brand.
Production for the show had stalled, and after receiving a call-to-action email from ther editor-in-chief for American Vogue, Anna Wintour, who spoke about how fashion designers and models were struggling, Kelly decided to launch her own show, “Models Talk on KAFTV,” (Kelly-Anne Fashion TV) on the Roku channel.
She wanted to find a way to give back to the models and designers that had helped put her products in the runway sets. Kelly said, “I created the show because there was a need to keep us relevant.”
She added, “I wanted to give back, but I couldn’t give back like that because I was on the same boat as them, so I came up with the idea to do a show and feature the designers to let them know- to let the world know that they’re still here and try to get them some sales. Same with the models. And it actually paid off.”
Kelly received an award in 2022 in recognition of her show from the Hollywood and African Prestigious Awards (HAPA).
Kelly’s endeavors led her to be recognized by iPOP LA founder, Ron Paterson, and she was selected to choreograph several runway shows. The more experience she gained, the more she grew to advocate for sustainable fashion.
She shared that she created new designs out of discarded pieces of fabric, “and from doing that, [the designs] made it into three magazines.”
Kelly’s advice to young designers and creatives is “to never give up” and surround yourself with “a community of people who have the same goals, especially those who have the experience and can guide them in the right direction.”
Based on the experience she gained talking to models and guiding them in runway shows, Kelly now coaches many of them and helps them gain exposure.
She shared, “So far this year I have five magazines that have published 12 models and also had some featured on Channel 9 news.”
With her passion for design and fashion taking center stage in her life, expect to see Kelly planning more runway shows later in the year.
To learn more about Kelly-Anne Alexander, visit www.kafashiontv.com, on Instagram @official.modelstalk, and YouTube at KAFashiontv.