For heritage companies like Fila or Champion -- which have product ranges covering everything from hype sneakers to activewear -- success relies on being able to appeal to a diverse consumer base. According to Louis Colon, Fila's vp of heritage and trend, the company's history in a variety of different categories created an opportunity to authentically stretch the brand and reach a newer, younger customer. On episode four of Glossy Trend Watch: Streetwear Edition, fashion reporter Danny Parisi s...
Apr 05, 2019•35 min
While the rest of the retail industry races to modernize and adapt to the modern consumer, the bridal industry is taking its sweet time. For most brides-to-be, pain points like murky pricing and year-long wait times come standard, especially when it comes to the dress. Shopping for bridal gowns is a long-standing tradition involving the bride, a posse of friends and family, an hour in a showroom, and enough champagne to keep everyone optimistic. But for Jackie Courtney, something about that proc...
Apr 03, 2019•32 min
Before social media and the global trend of hype sneakers and streetwear, sneakerheads would spend hours digging through eBay or combing through the collections of neighborhood resellers to score a great deal on the perfect pair of shoes. While some may still find this practice to be successful at times, they also likely come across fake products and massively inflated prices. Josh Luber, the founder and CEO of StockX, wants to put a stop to that. StockX, a marketplace for the resale of sneakers...
Mar 29, 2019•30 min
Influencer marketing is far from a new concept. Online fashion and beauty retailer Revolve has spent nearly a decade building a massive influencer marketing program, eventually creating an in-house team dedicated to influencer strategy. For Raissa Gerona, Revolve's chief brand officer, it's exciting that the rest of the retail world is beginning to catch up. On this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sits down with Gerona live at Shoptalk 2019 to discuss how Revolve built its br...
Mar 27, 2019•30 min
As any sneakerhead or streetwear fanatic will tell you, the drop model is part of the fabric of the streetwear retail industry. The drop model, which is shorthand for a brand releasing a limited amount of highly sought-after product all at once, developed out of the fact that some retailers simply couldn't afford to produce massive quantities of product. Fans began to scheme to grab the latest and greatest styles before they were no longer on the shelves. The retail strategy has since been intro...
Mar 22, 2019•26 min
When Michelle Cordeiro Grant founded Lively in 2015, she wanted to create a lingerie brand that fit into the lifestyle of the modern woman. In combining design aspects of traditional lingerie, swimwear and athleisure, Cordeiro Grant said Lively has created a new category altogether, which her team refers to as 'leisurée'. Since the company's launch, it has built a massive ambassador program, launched a podcast and started experimenting with physical retail. Cordeiro Grant said the company's move...
Mar 20, 2019•35 min
Ryan Babenzien, the founder and CEO of Greats, has a long history with sneakers and streetwear. When he was growing up, streetwear was a type of fashion that celebrated the rebellious spirit of 1980s youth; it pulled inspiration from luxury brands and flipped them into styles the majority could afford. Nowadays, streetwear has moved up and onto major runways, and for Babenzien, it has morphed into something that can no longer be defined by the same term. On the first episode of our limited serie...
Mar 15, 2019•28 min
When Anine Bing decided to turn her successful fashion blog and social media presence into a brand, Annika Meller was there. In the early days of the influencer's fashion brand, Meller helped Bing with everything from stuffing boxes to fulfilling orders, as they worked to build the company from the ground-up. In the years that followed, Anine Bing continued to grow its following and its business. The brand now has 10 stores, with four more on the way, and is experimenting with social and traditi...
Mar 13, 2019•29 min
For most digitally-native brands, a retail concept is nothing more than a pop-up shop in a major city, but for Untuckit's co-founder and CEO Aaron Sanandres, a modern retail strategy demands a permanent physical footprint. Untuckit now boasts 50 retail doors across the United States and Canada. For Sanandres, it is vital to meet the consumers where they are. That's why you can also find an Untuckit shop on Amazon, which operates more like an outlet and is used to sell products that are from seas...
Mar 06, 2019•36 min
When Joanna Griffiths launched her brand in 2013, she wanted to reinvent intimates. Knix, Griffiths’ brand of functional intimates, was built on the premise that women of all shapes and sizes deserve to be catered to. But while selling the brand through wholesale retailers, Griffiths found the industry didn’t quite share her vision. Stores refused to carry the brand’s extended size range, and Griffiths felt that buyers were more interested in filling a hole on their floor than representing the b...
Feb 27, 2019•27 min
Disrupting an industry as long-standing as fine jewelry is a tall order for any company. Vrai & Oro, a 5-year-old, DTC company promising fine jewelry with a side of transparency and sustainability, is attempting to do just that. In the years since it's launch, Vrai & Oro has been on a mission to modernize fine jewelry through product transparency and sustainably growing its diamonds. The goal, Stofenmacher said, is to de-stigmatize the process of purchasing diamonds and to empower more p...
Feb 20, 2019•32 min
As Marie Kondo has everyone rooting through their closets for the items that spark joy and consumers are becoming more conscious of sustainable buying practices, resellers like ThredUp are hitting their stride. The online secondhand marketplace is based on a model that serves both suppliers and customers: Suppliers are able to send in their items free of cost and get paid for them, while buyers have access to an inventory that is always growing and changing, with products listed for significantl...
Feb 12, 2019•35 min
When Karla Gallardo co-founded Cuyana back in 2011, she was driven by 2 things: a true love for fashion and a desire to impact the bottom line in a real way. In the years since it's launch, Cuyana appears to be one of the few direct-to-consumer brands that has real staying power. Gallardo credits a lot of this success to the fact that the brand has scaled steadily and remained profitable. Now, with a $30 million round of funding under their belts, Cuyana is on track to ramp up its growth efforts...
Feb 06, 2019•32 min
In 2013, Sarah Flint launched her luxury footwear brand in high-end retailers like Bloomingdale's, Barneys and Shopbop.com. Over the years, the brand grew steadily and earned influential fans including Meghan Markle , but Flint felt something was missing: She wasn't able to create a meaningful, direct connection with her customers, she was designing close to 200 products a year and the margins were always slim. So at the end of 2017, Flint cancelled all orders from department stores, pulling out...
Jan 30, 2019•36 min
In 2007, Katie Warner Johnson was a ballerina–turned Wall Street analyst–turned fitness instructor. It was in her fitness classes that she discovered a very specific type of woman: a hard-working, high-powered woman who takes her appearance seriously, but doesn’t have the time to really concern herself with it — and she fell in love with her. So Warner Johnson and a few of her friends came together and decided to find a way to connect with this woman. From selling bundled classes to creating a P...
Jan 23, 2019•35 min
Mark Lynn knows what it takes to build direct-to-consumer brands. After launching two successful DTC brands -- Winc Wines and DSTLD -- Lynn made the decision to stop building brands and start bringing them together. So in 2017, he co-founded Digital Brands Group in an effort to both bring promising brands to the consumer and help growing companies to scale. Currently, there are two brands under the Digital Brands Group umbrella -- DSTLD, best known for denim. and suiting brand Ace Studios. Lynn ...
Jan 16, 2019•38 min
In an industry like footwear, which from the outside appears to be ever-changing, how much has actually changed? During his career as a professional soccer player in New Zealand, Tim Brown began to ask himself this same question. Brown set out on a mission to create the simplicity that he couldn't find in footwear anywhere else. What he found was an industry stuck in its ways, followed by a serious sustainability problem. So he saw the opportunity to develop new materials, and a new approach to ...
Jan 09, 2019•32 min
When Palmer West first became a father, he wasn't quite ready to give up his love for motorcycling. But when he went looking for the proper protective gear, he was greeted by an entire market of products that weren't necessarily suited for a metropolitan lifestyle like his. It was from this 'aesthetic void' that Aether was born. West felt like consumers shouldn't have to choose between fashion and functionality, so he and his business partner Jonah Smith, set out to find middle ground. On this w...
Jan 02, 2019•31 min
This year on The Glossy Podcast, we covered the biggest trends in fashion business. Voices from across the industry -- from influencers to founders to CEOs -- discussed navigating an industry that is changing more rapidly than ever before. Some major themes of the year included the rise of the direct-to-consumer model, the impact of social media and influencer marketing, and the ripple effect of Amazon. On this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, we take a look at some of our top episodes of 2...
Dec 18, 2018•24 min
In the early 2010s, John Ballay saw that there was something missing in menswear. At the time he was working in finance in Dubai, and had developed a passion for well-tailored suits. As the retail pivot to DTC was picking up steam, he wanted to find a way to make bespoke clothing more accessible to the average man. So Ballay and Mueller decided to create the first brand that would bring the magic of made-to-order clothing right to their customers' doorsteps. On this week's episode of The Glossy ...
Dec 11, 2018•37 min
In the nearly six years since she joined Kate Spade, Mary Renner Beech, the brand's CMO, has seen a lot of change. From a major acquisition by Tapestry, to the entrance of new creative director Nicola Glass, to the loss of the brand's founder, Kate Spade has been making a lot of headlines in recent years. But, according to Beech, these changes have only strengthened the brand and its promise of optimistic femininity. On this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes catches up with Mar...
Dec 04, 2018•32 min
When Ryan Babenzien decided to launch his own sneaker company in 2014, the direct-to-consumer brand boom was in full swing. He saw it as an opportunity to develop a brand that struck a balance between traditional and digitally-native retail. In this week's episode of the Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sits down with Babenzien to discuss how he's growing a brand that embraces DTC and traditional retail, balances quality and cost, and serves casual and fashion-forward dressers alike.
Nov 27, 2018•32 min
In an age where e-commerce is moving faster than ever, Etsy is working hard to keep up the pace. By bringing together entrepreneurs from all over the world, Etsy has amassed an online marketplace of over 50 million artisanal products. This network of small businesses has its challenges, like consistency in shipping and customer experience, but they are all part of what Raina Moskowitz, Etsy's svp of people, strategy and services, believes makes their platform a stand out. On this week's episode ...
Nov 19, 2018•31 min
Since former Allure editor in chief Linda Wells landed at Revlon as chief creative officer in February 2017, she has had a busy last 21 months. Not only has she renovated all of the consumer touchpoints, like packaging and the digital and social presences of the heritage company’s portfolio of brands, such as Elizabeth Arden, Almay and Revlon, she also launched Flesh Beauty. In this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Wells discussed how the industry has become “unrecognizable” because ...
Nov 15, 2018•32 min
At twenty-three years old, Stirling Barrett found himself sitting on the stoop of his newly purchased home, located just outside of the French Quarter of New Orleans. He had earned a degree in fine arts, won a few notable best in show titles, and knew he needed to make an investment into his future. Shortly after, he founded Krewe. In this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, founder and creative director, Stirling Barrett, talks about how Krewe got its credibility in the market, why mobile ret...
Nov 13, 2018•35 min
In our inaugural episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast Kerr discussed how she made the move from a model to a CEO, why she only recently decided to scale Kora Organics internationally, and what it means to have integrity as the beauty and wellness industries become more intertwined.
Nov 12, 2018•37 min
When she first joined Lilly Pulitzer over a decade ago, Michelle Kelly was a huge fan of the brand and in search of the best way to get to know the fashion industry. Her mentors suggested she get her start in sales, which Kelly said taught her one of the most important lessons of her career. Now, as President and CEP, Kelly never forgets what she learned in those first few years-- the customers are in charge. In this episode of The Glossy Podcast, Kelly discusses what it’s like to have a truly l...
Nov 06, 2018•30 min
We are thrilled to introduce you to our newest podcast, The Glossy Beauty Podcast! Our show where we cover the beauty and wellness trends of today, and what will show up on your feeds tomorrow, with the people who know them best. Tune in to our premiere episode on Thursday, November 8th, with international supermodel and founder and CEO of Kora Organics, Miranda Kerr. Make sure to like and subscribe to The Glossy Beauty Podcast today!
Nov 02, 2018•37 sec
Since Bill Wackermann joined Wilhelmina Models as CEO in early 2016, his mission has been to bring the company into the 21st century, while remaining true to its original philosophy: Flawed beauty is the most beautiful. Today, being a model is about so much more than taking a good picture; it's about being a real, interesting person, Wackermann said. People, and brands, are demanding authenticity. In this week's episode of the Glossy Podcast, Wackermann discusses why Instagram followers should b...
Oct 30, 2018•39 min
A lot has changed for Reformation since its 2009 Los Angeles launch, but one thing that has remained constant is founder Yael Aflalo's dedication to sustainability. From the fabrics used in products to the employees in the manufacturing plants, Aflalo has set high standards for her brand and is working to ensure they're met. In this week's episode of the Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sat down with Aflalo to discuss what investment is needed to be a sustainable brand, why Reformation's retail exp...
Oct 24, 2018•33 min
