2022 CARLA FRANKEL 29, SOUTH AFRICA CEO AND FOUNDER, TOP DRAWER COLLECTION INDUSTRY: FASHION
I founded this company when I was sick.” says Carla Frankel. This is how she created the Top Drawer Collection, retailing personalised luxury sleepwear, in South Africa. She explains: In life-altering moments, I stood at the crossroads and pushed boundaries and used negative experiences to create really great products and experiences, rather than choosing the road of defeat and victimization. At the age of 21, Frankel was walking around campus and suddenly felt her feet burn, which turned out to be Sagittal Sinus Thrombosis. “In other words, I had a stroke!” she recounts. Two years before that, Frankel had already been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases; antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) as well as Lupus. During her second year at university, she had another stroke during a four-hour exam. This resulted in three weeks of hospitalisation and Frankel being unable to finish her exams. It was during the recovery phase that she realised that the only thing in that “dark period” that lifted her spirits was the pair of matching pajamas her mom had bought for her from retail chain Woolworths: We would make quite a moment of them, put on face masks, and watch our favorite movies. Those pajamas with my mom weren’t just pajamas — they were a layer of comfort and safety. They were an armor of sorts to me that helped me feel beautiful and safe even while so disconnected from myself, in this foreign body that didn’t feel like mine. Experiencing this moment feels almost like a full circle to Frankel, as she admits that she started reading FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 lists five years ago and had always been inspired by the stories of the founders in them: I noticed that a large commonality in each person was overcoming challenges to create solutions and innovate. Most of all, I found inspiration in how most of these people made the choice to voyage forward into the path of success despite circumstances being against them.
“A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IS THE REASON TOP DRAWER COLLECTION EXISTS.”
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ALUMNI IMPUMELELO
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