she is the daughter of Iranian-American businessman Isaac Larian, the founder and CEO of MGA Entertainment, a privately held toy company responsible for launching one of the industry’s best-known franchises, Bratz. Similar to the dolls, known for their “passion for fashion”, Hekmat has a love of design and details that would later help her create one of fashion’s most-buzzworthy brands, Cult Gaia. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2011, Hekmat designed and launched a line of flower crowns in 2012 that would shortly thereafter go viral, largely thanks to a little-known festival called Coachella. The Cult Gaia founder and CEO would hit upon virality again in 2016 with the launch of the brand’s first handbag, the Ark Bag. The fan-shaped, rattan clutch would soon be sported by many a celebrity and fashion influencer, including the likes of Beyoncé, Jessica Alba and Hailey Baldwin (who would go on to launch Rhode Beauty under her married name, Hailey Bieber). Soon enough, the bag hit such a point of popularity that it was being duped by one brand after another. While it is certainly any retailer’s nightmare to have one of its bestselling SKUs get duped, it also helped cement Cult Gaia’s status as a brand known for creating the hottest “it-girl” accessory. Today, the brand is better known for some of its more avant-garde pieces, including everything from a clutch that resembles a bunch of grapes to the Cassidy sandal, a stiletto-heel adorned by a sculptural calla lily design, both of which retail for US$598. Some of the brand’s other bestselling items include the Renata gown, a layered and draped fringe halter gown that skims the body and features an open back; it retails for US$2298. Hekmat explained that the designs and the brand’s name are both influenced by her appreciation of women, nature and Mother Gaia, the ancient Greek goddess of Mother Earth. “Cult Gaia is inspired by nature and women. Gaia is the goddess of Mother Earth and the daughter of chaos, the most creative force there is.” She also stated that the other part of the brand’s name was one part aspirational, one part foreshadowing. “Great brands are cult-like, uniting like-minded people in their aesthetic ideals.” True to her word, Cult Gaia has amassed a sizeable following of women, roughly in their mid-20s to early 40s, who flock to the website, or will stand in lines for hours for a sample sale whenever one is around, to grab a showstopping item for their next big event, be it graduation, a date or a wedding ceremony.  In addition to occasion wear-focused apparel and accessories, Cult Gaia has expanded into other categories over the past 12 years, including children’s, bridal and fragrance. Thanks to this expansion in categories, which is still ongoing, and the hiring of new talent, Cult Gaia has grown exponentially over the past five years. Asal Nazi, Cult Gaia’s CFO, said the brand experienced 48 per cent growth in sales, year-over-year, in 2024 alone, following up on 66 per cent growth from the year prior. Nazi told Inside Retail that the growth can be attributed to three major factors: Hekman’s vision for the brand, a clear understanding of the consumer and a surgical balancing of margins to sail the company towards success. Running a tight financial ship Before officially joining the Cult Gaia team in 2020 as VP of finance, before being promoted to CFO in 2023, Asal had become familiar with Hekmat and her brand, working with them as an independent consultant. When she was approached by Hekmat to join the team on a full-time basis, Nazi recalled that she had also fielded another offer from a film production company, literally up the street from where the fashion retailer was based. In discussion with her Iranian mother, whom she turned to for advice, Nazi was told to simply pick the job that would pay more. Instead of heeding her mom’s straightforward guidance, Hekmat went the opposite way, for a few reasons. “I picked the choice that made me feel good about myself and one where I felt I could truly make a difference. Also, my business philosophies aligned with the founder’s, which is really where the magic comes from.” Nazi explained that she was drawn to both Hekmat’s business acumen, part of which she credited to her father, but also to her creativity and her “beautiful” mind. Seeing the founder’s clear passion for the brand gave her the clarity to make her decision. “At the same time, Cult Gaia was like a Ferrari that hadn’t been touched yet, and you could just get in and rev it up.” Any retailer worth their salt knows that before you can jump in with the big plans, you need to take stock of where the company is and figure out what alterations need to be made from there. Looking at Cult Gaia’s numbers, Nazi noticed that Cult Gaia had an uneven ratio of 60 to 40 per cent between its wholesale and DTC operations. She explained that while she’s a fan of wholesale, from both a personal and professional perspective, she knew that Cult Gais would thrive if it were to laser-focus on its DTC presence. “I’m a consumer of wholesale. I regularly buy from Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Revolve [coincidentally, all carry Cult Gaia], because they have great marketplaces. But I also believe in knowing your customer, and the only way you know your customers is through your own channels.” More money was being funneled into performance marketing, and about 8-10 per cent of the brand’s budget was invested in updating Cult Gaia’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and similar system updates. Today, DTC makes up 70 per cent of the brand’s business, and the brand has accrued a large base of returning customers that have given it essential insights into what they want and what the brand should invest in next. For instance, in September 2024, Cult Gaia marked its first foray into the world of beauty with the launch of its own in-house fragrance line. Versus partnering up with an outside brand to take care of the production and hand over the licensing to, Nazi explained that the brand was able to lead the direction of this launch thanks to its financial independence. To date, Cult Gaia has not launched any funding rounds nor is it looking to add any investors in the foreseeable future. “Independence gives you the agility to test ideas, move fast and build with purpose. Ultimately, there is no pressure to chase vanity metrics. Instead, we focus on the real value of the brand and the customer.” The future of Cult Gaia Nazi explained that while the brand isn’t chasing capital at the moment, it is centred on chasing “connection” and is focused on expanding the brand’s presence, both physically and digitally. On the digital side of operations, Cult Gaia took a major step this November, with the launch of its own app. Additionally, the brand has the wheels set in motion to launch several new stores within the next 12 to 18 months. “I think she [Hekmat] deserves to see Cult Gaia in every major city around the world,” Nazi said. “I think that the consumer who doesn’t already know about Cult Gaia deserves to discover the brand and be able to bring a piece of us into their home.” As a personal fan of the brand herself, she understands that a large driver of customers shopping at Cult Gaia is the sense of beauty and escapism it gives them. “It is all about creating spaces that feel warm, welcoming and human,” Nazi said. Our stores are designed to make you feel seen, inspired and excited to get dressed up, go out, dance and do things together.” She added, “Jasmine always says it’s like we’re throwing a party every day and we’re welcoming her into her home, so we want to make sure that she feels good… If that turns into a transaction, amazing, but if not, at least she had an amazing experience.” Further reading: Cult Gaia CFO Asal Nazi discusses the importance of margins and magic in her role