The Glossy Podcast

As calls for sustainability within the fashion industry swell, some brands have been quick to vocalize their sustainability strategies, while others have taken a different approach by working to meet sustainability goals in silence. In the case of Faherty, a sustainable clothing brand launched in 2013, “It's less about making political pronouncements, and [more about] putting our energy and words and actions behind the things that we care about,” said Kerry Docherty, co-founder and chief impact officer at Faherty, on the latest Glossy Podcast. As CIO, Docherty’s focus on the brand’s sustainability and cultural initiatives was magnified in the past year-and-a-half. The brand opened 13 of its 30 stores at a time colored by the pandemic and the social justice movements that simultaneously took precedence. “It was a real opportunity for us as a brand to put a stake in the ground and say, ‘What are we standing up for? What do we need to do internally to get to where we want to be?” she said. The Native-American community is one community, in particular, that Faherty has invested in. “[The focus is] how we, as a brand, can differentiate ourselves as someone who's [allying] with the Native community, instead of exploiting it,” said Docherty. Rather than “appropriating” Native designs, Docherty is learning about Native culture and art and “focusing on long-term impact” and relationships with Native designers, she said. In terms of sustainability, maintaining a sustainable brand means “holding ourselves accountable” for the materials and lifecycle of the clothing items, said Docherty. Faherty has done so with its concrete benchmarks of having 85% of fabrics be sustainable and 90% of packaging be “plastic-free,” she said. “[For] our generation and the generation coming up, intentionality and sustainability are important, as are giving back,” she said. “The more brands that feel accountable for that, the better it is for all of us.” 

For many consumers, a well-curated Amazon homepage -- complete with a fall shoe edit and ‘customers’ most loved’ products, from toaster ovens to tote bags -- has replaced the need for the local department store. But the benefits of a brick-and-mortar store for brands and customers alike were not lost on Matt Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Neighborhood Goods, a department store for the new age.Unlike the traditional -- and dying -- breed of department stores, Neighborhood Goods, which launched in 2017, caters to the modern consumer with a selection of rotating brands and innovative restaurants. For some brands, having a presence at Neighborhood Goods resembles “a pop-up,” while for others, it resembles “wholesale,” “testing real estate” or “a marketing channel,” said Alexander on the latest Glossy Podcast. “It creates this opportunity in this landscape and ecosystem where they can show up in a physical and digital way, [and] leverage the restaurants and different bits and pieces. [And they can] inexpensively get in front of a great consumer and accomplish all sorts of different goals.”Since the first Neighborhood Goods location opened in Plano, Texas, the company has continued to expand its physical footprint, with stores in Austin and Chelsea, as well as its digital presence. “With the [onset] of the pandemic, [all products] went online,” leading to a 1,000% year-over-year sales growth on digital last year, said Alexander. “The more we can [translate] the ‘why’ and the storytelling that we do well in the stores to the digital realm, the better,” he said. “[Our website] can augment and create something special to exist alongside a lot of existing channels for the brands [and] consumers.”

In 2020, office spaces around the country began to resemble the ghost towns of the Wild West. Still, Suzy Biszantz, group president of men's and women's at Centric Brands, was determined to find an in-person space for her teams that would balance safety and productivity. To do so, she traversed to the Arts District of Los Angeles and secured a workspace that could also facilitate the growth of the company, where she oversees its Favorite Daughter, Herve Leger, Hudson, Buffalo Jeans and Izod brands.“It’s important that your creative people who touch product are able to actually touch and feel and be around the product,” said Biszantz on the Glossy podcast. “We rented a new building that’s 20,000 square feet, has 10 separate entrances and is all one story.”The building's other Covid-safe features include ample outdoor space for collaborative meetings, a lack of elevators, and separate exits and entrances.Each brand needs its own space because each is focused on different objectives, she said. “[For] each brand, you have to look at the total potential,” when determining its DTC, wholesale and retail strategies," she said.In the same way, not every brand is focusing its marketing strategy on collaborations with influencers, which is a unique challenge.“You have to strike the right balance of operational support, logistics support, strategic support,” she said, regarding a brand's role in influencer partnerships. “But you can’t lose and water down the authenticity of who you’re collaborating with.”

Glossy’s editorial team, like much of the fashion community, reunited with New York Fashion this past week, as the event returned by hosting a full schedule of IRL shows for the first time since February 2020.Going in, we had some expectations about how the event would play out, as we’ve covered NYFW every season for the past several years. But as the world has turned upside down since we last hit a runway show at Spring Studios, for example, we also had some questions. For example, how would event organizers make showgoers feel safe, as the Delta variant is still a big cause for concern? And would the usual editors, buyers and influencers show up, with most every brand also showing their collection virtually?On this bonus episode of the Glossy Podcast, editor-in-chief Jill Manoff and fashion reporter Danny Parisi break down what they experienced while show- and event-hopping this season. As they tell it, the event had highs and lows, plus a few surprises that hinted at the future of fashion week.

In his 13 years working on the events production side of IMG, Dominic Kaffka -- now svp of IMG Fashion Events -- has not only had an insider’s view of New York Fashion Week’s ongoing transformation, but he’s also had a hand in steering its course. For example, he spent the past two show seasons fueling the event’s digital acceleration by ensuring the show went on, so to speak, without physical shows. In September 2020 and February 2021, the bi-annual event was largely carried out virtually, due to the pandemic.“We had 20-25 guests [per show] -- but for us, it was really important to not miss a full New York Fashion Week,” Kaffka said on the latest Glossy Podcast. “Most of our clients who chose not to do a live fashion show with guests came up with much more creative ways to present their collections. A lot of designers did lookbook shoots, a lot of designers produced very elevated fashion films on a cinematic level -- their budgets shifted from putting on a big show to putting on a big digital content production.” But now, he said, “People are shifting their budgets, their intentions and their planning back to live events.” Ahead of New York Fashion Week, which kicked off on Wednesday, Kaffka discussed how designers will strike a physical-digital balance this season and to what extent the event will be democratized moving forward.

“We have to be OK with riding the wave." That is the mantra Michael Preysman, founder and CEO of Everlane, has come to rely on throughout Covid-19.In other words, Preysman has learned that, while the Everlane team can't control what challenges are thrown at the fashion brand -- which was founded with a focus on transparency and ethical sourcing in 2010 -- they can control the way that they respond.From the initial waves of the pandemic to the Black Lives Matter movement to now the Delta variant, getting through the past year can be described as “running a sprint, and it turns out it’s a marathon,” said Preysman, on the most recent episode of the Glossy Podcast.While the vaccine rollout evoked hope in many for the return of normalcy, Everlane has been honest about the fact that the resulting supply chain issues and labor shortages will take “another 3-5 years” to come back from, said Preysman. Until then, Preysman remains determined to maintain transparency regarding Everlane’s prices and direct-to-consumer business model, overall. “[Our] $100 cashmere is coming to an end in 2022, because the cost of cashmere is increasing, said Preysman.However, the typical Everlane customer, who ranges in age from their late 20s to early 30s, is “willing to pay more” for the brand’s environmentally conscious and quality pieces, said Preysman. Everlane has also adapted the customer experience to be “seamless” online and offline, ensuring that “fitting rooms are the star of the [physical] space,” and that returns and shipping are made easy for customers. Looking at the bigger picture of sustainable fashion, Preysman remains outspoken that sustainability has “completely been greenwashed,” he said. "We try to avoid that word [sustainable] and use more factual statements, [like] organic, or clean water, etc.,” and to actively focus on reducing the brand’s carbon footprint. Everlane has done so by committing to the use of recycled materials and more efficient means of transport.“What we're trying to show is that you can both … live a great life and have a low environmental impact,” said Preysman.

The word “suit” may elicit visions of measuring tape, tailors and brick-and-mortar stores filled with crisp jackets and slacks. However, as consumption evolves from being within the mall to on the computer, and from cashmere to casual, Sene, an apparel brand that started with a focus on being the Lululemon of suits, has adapted accordingly.Since the brand launched in 2015, Ray Li, co-founder and CEO, has spearheaded Sene’s transition into an online purveyor of custom suits under the brand values of sustainability and inclusivity. In 2019, Li decided to close down Sene’s Los Angeles location and relaunch the brand on Kickstarter with a SmartFit Quiz to hone in on the custom sizing aspect of Sene. This changed the trajectory of the business, Li said.“Our mission was always to make custom clothing possible for everyone,” he said on the Glossy Podcast. “But it was a very long journey to get here.”After moving the brand fully online, Sene introduced its FlexTech Suit, a “custom suit [made of] athleisure fabric,” and soon after, its custom denim. Li, who sees a “$17 billion opportunity for custom denim,” plans to expand Sene’s denim selection with shorts and jackets. He also plans to introduce more athleisure styles like joggers. “Each time we enter a category, we want to feel like we’re making the best possible version of the product we have,” said Li. “We also want to price it at an off-the-rack price.”

With 25 years of experience at luxury brands like Burberry and Céline, Ulrik Garde Due’s reputation for revitalizing companies led him to his current position as president and CEO of Mark Cross, America’s oldest luxury accessories brand. “I saw a real opportunity in creating a lifestyle positioning," he said on this week’s episode of the Glossy Podcast. “[Not only with] women's accessories, but also [by] relaunching men's, which we [did] last year ... [and] creating more of a gifting destination for top-class quality and American luxury."When the pandemic hit, however, “We went from this survival to contingency planning to then, as I like to call it, ‘thrival’ mode,” said Garde Due. “It was our job to start thinking of the opportunities that this pandemic created for the industry and for the luxury consumer, and look at the post-pandemic era and what was needed to get executed during the pandemic to be ready for that.” That meant focusing on developing Mark Cross’ wholesale and directly operated channels and catering to consumers in the U.S. and in mainland China, which Due sees as ”an ever-growing market share” opportunity. Mark Cross first began to cater to the preferences of the millennials and Gen-Z consumer demographics in the fall of 2019 by launching an “in-house vintage website.” Even more recently, the brand has reacted to the changes accelerated by Covid-19 by “investing heavily into the digital sphere.” That's included partnering with companies like Hero and a personalized delivery service. “Getting back to the [20]19 [sales] volumes, as well as enlarging our community, are the two main goals this year," said Garde Due.

To be able to say that you’ve been an influencer for almost half of your life is a feat -- even for digitally native Gen Zers. Multihypenate Amanda Steele, 22, has spent 12 years creating content for social channels including YouTube and also boasts the titles of fashion brand founder of Steele and working actress. “Most of my success came from me doing it so early,” said Steele, of her influencer career. “When it gets overly saturated, whatever platform you're using, it's just hard to get your content seen.” Steele, who launched her YouTube channel in 2011 with dreams to become a fashion designer, branched into makeup as the beauty industry took over social media. Now, as the founder of her own clothing line, Steele -- which she describes as “model-off-duty style" -- her aspirations in fashion have come full circle. The line includes “leather pants, so it’s edgy and sophisticated,” along with blazers and baggy jeans.“It’s not super trendy,” said Steele. “But you can walk into a business meeting or you can go out with your friends or get brunch, all in the same outfit.”Most recently, the creator has branched off into the acting world, starring in "Paradise City" on Amazon Prime. But this doesn’t undermine the power of social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, where she has about 6 million cumulative followers. “YouTube will always be there,” said Steele. “TikTok is where our brains are at right now, the short-form content. But now we have Reels, and we can do that on Instagram, too.”