Sara Ali is a luxury business consultant, stylist, activist and mentor with over two decades of experience in her industry. Born in Sudan, Sara spent her formative years in Rome, Saudi Arabia and grew up in London from the age of six.
As she completed her architectural engineering studies, Sara could see she had chosen that traditional path to make her immigrant parents proud at the price of her own happiness. An opportunity of summer training with Giorgio Armani gave Sara the realisation her eye for form and function were more aligned with the construction of couture and the business of luxury. Sara joined Harvey Nichols early in her career journey and, with the championing of visionaries within the company, exposed herself to all facets of the fashion business. Over five years, Sara thrived and contributed in the stores’ sales and management, personal shopping, visual merchandising, buying, merchandising, logistics, wholesale and events management in the United Kingdom and Middle East.
Utilising her Afro-Arabian heritage and unique work experience, Sara went onto tranform fashion programming for MBC international television and modernise the dated appeal to a quality worthy of the spending power of the region. She has since consulted for many world-renowned luxury brands (in fashion, publishing, furniture, property, jewellery, airline and education industries) on the history, culture, consumer psychology and spending habits of the Middle Eastern and Arabian customer.
Today, Sara is based in London, and has the privilege to style pioneering world leaders and royalty for their TV, panel and awards engagements. She is a business insider collaborating with influencers that want to extend their reach whilst remaining exclusive as they grow their brand. As a mentor, Sara is mindful that luxury is intimidating as an industry for newcomers to enter and is proud to extend the hand she was given twenty-two years ago. She has recently won the Fashion Mentor of the Year 2019 Award at the National Mentoring Awards.
Sara is also a mother of two teenagers and a campaigner for an inclusive and ethical luxury industry with modern slavery, sustainability, animal cruelty and women’s rights high on her agenda when she voices her concerns in Houses of Parliament, in her own campaigns and in support of her conscious industry peers.