By ASI EFROS
If you like stories with fairy tale endings, you will love a tale about Zeelum. Once upon a time, there were two beautiful young princesses, Sarifka Jungreis and Miri Brecher, who built a one-of-a-kind company from nothing and lived happily ever after.
The story begins at the onset of the 21st century in suburban New Jersey. Sarifka’s passion at the time was photography, and she captured many creative images for happy families and fashion brands. Miri, an IT maven, was also well-versed in the language of business and sales.
And who knows what would happen to the girls if not for the dragon called e-commerce that was about to embark on their quaint and pristine region. The owners of the mom-and-pop shops came to them for advice. “How do we compete with the online stores?” they asked. “We need to build websites and fill them with a myriad of high-quality pictures of our collections. Help us.”
That evening their village looked magnificent in the sunset hues. “What if you and I unite our forces to save our neighbors and conquer the dragon?” asked Sarifka, when Miri joined her for some twilight tea and biscuits. And just like that, in 2016, Sarifka and Miri founded a new queendom and called it Zeelum.
Right away, girls got to work. Hundreds of garments arrived at their studio to be photographed. They spent countless hours steaming the clothes, arranging them on the mannequins, and laying them flat on tables. The product images filled their memory cards, but something felt wrong. The process was slow, and the imagery was inconsistent. No matter how much the girls tried, they couldn’t make it work while keeping up with the growing demand. When asked around, they realized that large photography studios suffered the same ill fate.
“What are we going to do?” wept the girls and promptly gathered for a secret conclave. After a few hours of thorough research, Sarifka discovered machines that had never been used in the photo studio before but had the potential to solve most of the problems when combined with the idea of a factory-like operation. It seemed like Zeelum was ready to take on the fashion industry once and for all.
The only problem was that the fashion industry happened to be a faraway land with a dark forest Sarifka and Miri were unfamiliar with. The girls had to gather all their might to enter these unexplored woods. They built their confidence step by step while making mistakes and learning from them.
“It wasn’t easy finding our way, but our ignorance was a virtue. Because of our lack of knowledge, we had a lot of confidence talking to anyone in the industry, even those that were very high up in the corporate fashion world,” shared Miri Brecher, Co-founder of Zeelum.
“For example, we met Steve Madden, who called himself Buck—apparently that’s his nickname, but since we had no idea who he was, we casually made lunch plans with him. He seemed to find this pretty comical and eventually divulged his name,” remembered Miri.
As in every fairy tale, the glory belongs to those with character and skills. Sarifka is famous for her determination. She lives by ‘anything is possible if one works for it,’ and this has brought Zeelum a long way. Miri’s magic gift is her friendly nature. She forms lasting connections with everyone she meets, and that helps to attain great friends in the industry.
Photography by Zeelum, Invisible Mannequin
Through word of mouth from one happy client to another, the story of Zeelum has quickly spread through the fashion world. Because the demand for e-commerce photography grew exponentially, in 2021 it was decided to open a second location, this time in the center of the garment district in Manhattan. The new studio employs an army of professional photographers who craft high-quality editorial and product images as well as videos using state-of-the-art equipment.
Brands like Tom Ford, Walmart, Disney, Authentic Brands Group, and G-III turned to Zeelum for its photo and video magic. Intimate apparel companies, Skims, Wear Commando, Argo Swim, Lem Lem, Sara Christina, and Great Eros quickly followed.
The beginning of 2024 marked yet another milestone in Zeelum’s history — its expansion to the West Coast and acquisition of the California-based leader in clothing editorial and product photography, Damion Lloyd Studio. By combining forces with Damion Lloyd, Zeelum doubled its capabilities by adding 3,500 sq ft in studio space, to create stunning images including table flats, pin flats, on-model, invisible mannequins, editorial laydowns, 360 spins, and evocative product shots.
“We hope to become a household name in the fashion industry. We would like to be known as the e-commerce photography solution for all fashion brands. Because that’s what we are,” concluded Miri.
Whether you are an online lingerie boutique owner, an intimate apparel brand founder, or a multi-brand e-commerce platform — ‘zeelum’ your new collection to make it shine right from the start.
To convey a thousand words with one image and boost the online presence of your products, visit www.zeelumportfolio.com or @zeelum.
Contact:
Miri Brecher
Co-founder and Director Of Operations at Zeelum
Email: contact@zeelum.com
Tel: +1 732 226 6200
See more features by Asi Efros, Editor of Intimate Talks on Lingerie Briefs
