“Good taste doesn’t sell,” Vanissa Antonious tells MOJEH with remarkable certainty – a striking sentiment from the founder of Neous, the luxury footwear and accessories label celebrated for its sculptural silhouettes and considered minimalism. Born in Sydney to Egyptian parents, Antonious brings a distinctly global sensibility to fashion – one shaped by art history, editorial culture and a nuanced understanding of identity, taste and modern luxury.
Antonious reflects on building a brand that holds its ground beyond the pace of fashion’s image cycle. Speaking from experience inside an industry driven by visibility, she unpacks what it looks like to work behind the surface of it all, where decisions are less about momentum and more about longevity. For her, the focus has steadily shifted away from being seen in the moment, toward creating something that continues to resonate long after it first arrives.
In a landscape shaped by constant digital acceleration, she points to a growing tension between hype and substance, where the speed of attention can sometimes overshadow the discipline of making something truly amazing. MOJEH sat down with the founder to discuss her design philosophy and the secret to longevity in the industry.
MOJEH: Before you had a language for it, what exactly were you noticing about beauty, objects, or design that others missed and where do you see that instinct showing up in Neous today?
Vanissa: I was always drawn to objects that created emotion through restraint rather than excess. Even before I had the vocabulary for it, I think I was noticing proportion, tension, materiality and the relationship between form and feeling. I was much more interested in pieces that felt considered and timeless then things that were immediately loud or trend driven.
That instinct is still very present within Neous today. The brand has always been built around subtlety, precision and longevity, creating pieces that reveal themselves over time rather than demanding attention instantly. I think the emotional connection often comes from those quieter details.
Was there a specific moment that made you realise working inside fashion wasn’t enough and you had to build your own point of view through a brand?
I realised quite early that while working within established publications was incredibly valuable, it still meant operating within someone else’s framework and creative language. I wanted the freedom to build something with a much stronger point of view, something that reflected my own sensibility rather than adapting to existing systems.
At the time, the market also felt saturated with brands producing very similar products and communicating in very similar ways. What interested me was creating a brand with real distinctiveness, not just aesthetically, but philosophically. Neous came from wanting to build a world with its own identity, rhythm and emotional clarity.
What did you get wrong in the beginning about what it actually takes to build a creative career in fashion?
In the beginning, I probably romanticised the role of creativity within fashion. I assumed that if the product and the creative vision were strong enough, the rest would naturally follow. What I learned very quickly is that building a fashion business requires an entirely different level of operational resilience and adaptability.
A huge amount of the work has very little to do with creativity in the traditional sense. You move constantly between logistics, production, finance, sales, partnerships, hiring, problem solving and decision making under pressure. Creativity remains the foundation, but sustaining a brand requires structure, discipline, and endurance far beyond the creative output itself.
What belief about success did you once act on that you would now actively reject?
Earlier in my career, I think I subconsciously associated success with visibility and the idea that recognition, scale, or external validation were the clearest indicators that you had achieved something meaningful.
Over time, I’ve completely re-evaluated that. Particularly in fashion, visibility can often be misleading. There are many brands and individuals who appear enormously successful from the outside while the reality behind the scenes is far more fragile. I’ve come to value sustainability, integrity, creative consistency and long term relevance much more than visibility alone. Those are the things that actually endure.
Was there a moment that you realised taste alone could not sustain a brand and what did you have to add beyond taste?
I always say, good taste doesn’t sell!
I realised quite quickly that taste may attract attention initially, but it is not enough to build a lasting business. There are many beautifully designed products in the world that never become meaningful brands because they fail to create emotional connection, trust, or cultural resonance. I find this a sad truth.
Beyond taste, you have to build narrative, consistency, operational discipline and a very clear understanding of how people want to live with a brand. Product alone is rarely enough, although I wish it was. People need to feel something around it, they need to understand the world, values and identity that surround the object itself.
What is a decision you made early on that seemed small at the time but ended up shaping the DNA of Neous?
One decision that became far more important over time was committing to restraint very early on, both creatively and commercially. We were intentional about not over designing, not chasing trends too aggressively and not trying to appeal to everyone at once. It didn’t feel like a decision at the time as it came so intuitively to me.
At the time, it probably felt like a purely aesthetic instinct, but in retrospect it became foundational to the identity of the brand. That consistency created trust and recognition. Over time, people began to associate Neous with a very particular emotional and visual language and I think that clarity became one of our greatest strengths.
Is there something you had to actively unlearn in order to shift from creative roles into building and leading a business?
I had to unlearn the idea that creativity and business exist separately from one another. Earlier in my career, I viewed business almost as something that protected or facilitated creativity from the outside.
Building a brand completely changed that perspective. I realised that leadership requires making difficult decisions constantly, often balancing instinct with pragmatism. You cannot remain purely idealistic if you want something to survive long term.
I also had to become comfortable with uncertainty and imperfection. In creative roles, you can spend a long time refining ideas. Running a business forces you to make decisions quickly, often without complete information, and accept that momentum is sometimes more important than perfection.
What kept you committed to Neous at the point when the reality of building it became more difficult than the idea of it?
I think there is always a moment when the romanticism of building something disappears and you are left with the actual weight of responsibility. What kept me committed was the belief that the original vision still mattered, even during periods when the process felt much harder than expected.
Once people begin emotionally connecting to what you are creating, it stops feeling like a personal project and starts feeling like something larger than yourself. There is a responsibility not only to the business, but also to the team, collaborators, and customers who believe in it.
I also think resilience becomes less about confidence and more about endurance. You realise that building something meaningful is often about staying consistent through periods of uncertainty rather than constantly feeling certain.
What is something about building a global brand that only becomes visible once you are already deep inside it?
From the outside, global brands often appear very seamless and image driven, but once you are inside the process you realise how much of it depends on operational complexity and constant coordination.
You are managing production timelines, international logistics, wholesale relationships, cultural nuance, communication, cash flow, market shifts and growth strategy simultaneously, all while trying to protect the integrity of the brand itself.
I think what becomes most visible is that scaling a brand successfully is really about maintaining clarity under pressure. The larger you become, the more disciplined you have to be about protecting your identity, because expansion naturally creates pressure to dilute or overextend.
How has your definition of success changed from when you were working in magazines to now running your own brand?
Running a business has completely changed my understanding of success. I now think much more long term. Success is about sustainability, resilience, maintaining creative integrity, building something that people genuinely connect with and creating a company culture that can endure. And mostly importantly the one thing you can’t survive without is profit!
I think I’ve also become much less interested in temporary visibility and much more interested in longevity, creating something that still feels relevant and emotionally resonant years later.
What is a misconception people outside the industry consistently have about what makes a brand like Neous work?
I think people often assume that brands succeed because of aesthetics alone, that beautiful product, strong imagery, or visibility are enough. In reality, those things are only the surface layer.
What actually sustains a brand is consistency, operational discipline, financial management, strong relationships, timing, adaptability and an enormous amount of persistence behind the scenes.
Particularly in luxury, people underestimate how much trust matters. Customers are not only buying an object, they are buying into a point of view, a standard and a sense of emotional continuity. Building that trust takes years.
If you had to reduce your entire journey into one lesson, what would it be?
I think the clearest lesson is that taste may open the door, but endurance is what ultimately builds something meaningful.
Building something lasting is much less glamorous than people imagine. It is usually the result of sustained commitment over a very long period of time.
Being positioned between global fashion capitals and a region like the UAE, how do you see Dubai specifically reshaping ideas of luxury, taste and cultural identity right now?
What is interesting about Dubai is that it is shaping a version of luxury that feels far more globally fluid than the traditional fashion system. It sits at the intersection of multiple cultures, aesthetics and consumer behaviours simultaneously, which creates a very different kind of creative energy.
Consumers there are highly internationally aware, visually literate and deeply engaged with fashion, design, hospitality, architecture and lifestyle as interconnected experiences rather than separate categories.
I also think Dubai is challenging older ideas of cultural authority within luxury. Historically, fashion operated through a relatively concentrated set of Western capitals that largely dictated taste and legitimacy. What is happening now is much more decentralised. Cities like Dubai are becoming influential not simply because of wealth, but because they are actively shaping new ideas around identity, aspiration, and modern luxury culture.
