Meet Mthayel Al Ali and you’ll be immediately struck by her self-effacing charm. She may be a social media superstar with a massive 711,000 followers, and a smart tastemaker with a riveting sense of personal style, but it’s her king-size ambition as the founder of social media marketing consultancy firm Takhayyal that truly sets her apart. That, and the fact that she’s relentless in the face of failure, a side of her we’re about to show you.
“In 2014, I decided to launch a firm that would serve as an influencers marketing agency and I worked on it for about a year,” she tells Villa 88, referencing Takhayyal. “But as I had no real knowledge of how a business works, that company failed. It took a lot of courage, time and self-discovery for me to be able to admit that this happened,” she adds with candor.
But just two years later, the tables turned. “I said, ‘You know what? I can do it.’ It took me two more years to learn everything I needed to know about business and I pursued several courses,” Mthayel shares. It’s this admission of failure and fostering the ability to make something out of it that is her greatest milestone.
“When I relaunched the company in 2018, it was based on a well-thought-out business plan with an eagerness to learn about how it all works. It took so much time and energy, but it was also empowering to gain the knowledge I needed to accomplish my dream.”
Here, you see Mthayel immersed in the magical setting of Al Bait Sharjah, dressed in Chloé’s exquisite Fall/Winter 2019 collection, which perfectly embodies her own sense of free-spirited femininity. “All the pieces are feminine yet strong, and that combination describes who I am, as well as most women in the UAE,” she states. And she surely is a free spirit who can’t be tethered.
All looks by Chloé
Location: Al Bait Sharjah
Talent: Mthayel Al Ali, Founder of Takhayyal
Creative Producer: Ayesha Shaikh
Videographer and Video Editor: Parthiv Dewan
Photographer: Efraim Evidor
Stylist: Sleiman Dayaa
Make-up Artist: Jessie Tabla at Wilhelmina Dubai
