Famous everywhere. Invisible online.
HSY is one of Pakistan’s most celebrated designers — a couture and bridalwear house known across South Asia and its diaspora, on Wikipedia, a name with enormous brand equity. And yet, when we found them, the website did the brand no justice and the brand made almost nothing online. Our job wasn’t to manufacture demand. It was to build the bridge between a beloved house and the people already looking for it.
All the equity. None of the bridge.
HSY didn’t have a brand problem. He was already a celebrity, already on Wikipedia, already loved across South Asia and the diaspora. What he had was a distribution problem online: the website didn’t reflect the value of the brand, and it had loading issues. Even people who adored the work landed on it, felt underwhelmed, and left without getting in touch.
Search was worse. People in the US typing the HSY brand name couldn’t find HSY on the first page — sites selling counterfeits ranked higher than the designer himself. The demand was there. The path to it was broken.
One question, and a moodboard.
We found the site almost by accident — and given how famous he was, it bothered me that it didn’t do the brand justice. So I reached out with a single question:“Are you happy with your website? Does it do justice to your brand image?” The answer was no. We built a moodboard and went to see them as soon as we could.
And here’s what made it daunting: HSY was only our second client, after a software house. Bigello didn’t even have a website of its own yet. One project on the list, a small office we’d just opened. A brand like HSY had every reason to ask the hardest question there is — why should we trust you? — and we didn’t have a polished answer.
It was never a website project. It was a keeping-the-traditions-alive project.
What won them wasn’t a sales pitch — it was the approach. Our design philosophy was led by music: we literally played classical, traditional music while we built the moodboard, and the conversation turned to what those traditions stand for. We talked culture, weddings, family, pricing, weather, fabric. Other agencies came at him technically. We came at the spirit of the house. He convinced himself — we never really had to do the convincing.
We almost became fashion designers.
To reflect a house this rich, you have to understand it. Our team visited many times and interviewed his people — we learned the procurement, the colouring, the cutting, the designing, the stitching, the sale, and who the buyer really is. By the end we’d almost become fashion designers ourselves. His own history is fascinating, and it had to live on the site too.
HSY is wonderful with words — so rather than write over him, we used his own words in several places across the site. The voice of the house, in the voice of the man who built it.
The bridge between the brand and the buyer.
The first site was built on WordPress, and it started working almost immediately — not as a checkout cart so much as an appointment engine: virtual and on-site consultations for buyers both local and international. The brand equity was already there; we just gave it somewhere to convert. People who loved HSY finally had a place that felt worthy of him — and they got in touch.
- A site worthy of the houseDesigned in Figma, built lean on WordPress / PHP — fast, considered, and true to the brand, fixing the loading and credibility problems that had cost him enquiries.
- Appointment-setting, not frictionVirtual and in-studio consultations for local and international buyers — turning admiration into booked conversations with the house.
- His words, his worldHis own writing woven through the site, with the history and craft of the house told the way only HSY could tell it.
WordPress, then Shopify, then six years of it.
Months in, the business needs changed and the client wanted to migrate to Shopify— his call, and we agreed it was the right direction. We were already on maintenance, so we handled the shift and kept building. Since then the site has evolved a lot: at leastsix major versions over roughly six years — frequent in the early days, slower now that things are settled. Today it’s steady work: tweaks, new additions, new collections, and SEO all the time.
We don’t build and disappear. We stay, watch, and evolve the work.
Beating the counterfeiters to #1.
The most telling SEO win is the simplest to state. Before us, someone searching the HSY brand name from the US would find counterfeit sellers above the designer. After we took over, you can search HSY from anywhere in the world and HSY is #1 — the genuine house, ahead of the imitations. (The only thing that beats us is Google occasionally confusing the intent with an unrelated company that happens to share the letters.)
Getting found isn’t only about the global brand term. We also handle HSY’slocal SEO — optimising theirGoogle Business Profile so buyers nearby can find the studio, see hours and location, and walk in or book without friction. Worldwide reach and an easy path to the physical store, both working at once.
Confidence grew. So did the remit.
As the site proved itself, trust grew — and so did what they handed us. Today we run theirMeta and Google ads as well, the work that produced a 20× ROAS. Creative photography and reels are on the table too, though that’s still under consideration. The relationship keeps widening because each piece of it keeps paying off.
HSY came to us with rare, pre-existing brand equity — the demand was already there. Our work was to build the bridge to it and remove what stood in the way. We don’t claim to have created the fame; we claim to have connected it to the people who were already looking. We promise no specific numbers to anyone — context decides results.
One team, end to end.
Design, words, search and ads under one roof — so the whole thing tells a single story, and the house only ever has one team to talk to.
Our #1 client, forever.
HSY took a chance on us when we had no portfolio at all. Years later they’re still with us, and they refer their friends to us. Famous brands get pitched constantly — cheaper, faster, better, the usual claims — but they’re experienced enough to know how few in the market actually deliver what they promise. That they stay says more than any metric.
We learned an enormous amount from this house — so much that HSY’s own offline conversion-tracking challenges are what inspired us to build Zento, the system we now use to help other businesses see the sales that happen off-screen. For all of that, we rank HSY our #1 client, forever.
They had every reason to pick someone safer. They picked spirit — and stayed.
How we’d do it for you.
HSY is one system — brand, build, search and ads working together. Each piece is a service in its own right.
Have a brand worth more online? Let’s build the bridge.
Tell us about your business and where you want it to go — the first reply comes from a partner, not a form.