Future of Luxury Fashion: Ruzwana Bashir

Ruzwana Bashir, founder and CEO, Peek

Planning an eventful, enriching vacation can be maddening, even for a Fulbright scholar, Oxford educated, Harvard MBA, Goldman Sachs, Art.sy, and Gilt Groupe-trained marvel like Ruzwana Bashir. But her frustration with booking an escape became the inspiration behind Peek. Stocked with rich, tailored itineraries, lush photography, and tastemaker travelogues, the soup-to-nuts luxury booking website replaces your travel agent and your glossy travel mags at once. Seemless, indeed. 

Tech Crush: "I fell in love with the idea of building a business at a really young age. I craved the opportunity to build a business from scratch. At Gilt Groupe, I realized just how transformative technology could be in creating wonderful user experiences and rethinking traditional business models. I was hooked!"

My Moment: “The inspiration for Peek came from a special birthday trip to Istanbul. I spent 20 hours searching through guidebooks, asking friends, and browsing the web for the best things to do there. Then, I ended up having to call far-flung companies to book all the experiences I'd discovered. It was so lengthy and frustrating, I wished there was a one-stop shop to book amazing activities online. It didn't exist. So, I created it!”

Peek Perfection: "We focus on storytelling through beautiful photography and captivating editorial, so our users can imagine themselves embarking on the activity they’re learning about. We plan a whole trip and discover a city’s hidden gems through a diverse group of tastemakers — Diane von Fürstenberg, Tory Burch, Wolfgang Puck, Steve Aoki, and French Laundry’s Tim Hollingsworth. At its heart, Peek is about being able to tell stories that people can connect with."

Photographed by Michelle Drewes, Hair and makeup by Katie Nash.  Content originally published from Refinery29.