The Glossy Podcast

As the power of social media has grown, public opinion has become paramount in determining the next ‘"it" girl. Style and reliability are key components, but what the public often fails to consider is the impact of the motor behind the superstar machine, specifically as it pertains to a stylist.Law Roach, the fashion stylist to Zendaya and Celine Dion among his extensive résumé of A-listers, has proven the impact that refining one’s style can have on catapulting them to style icon status. Roach’s success in styling celebrities from TikTok to the silver screen -- see Addison Rae for the MTV Movie Awards and Anya Taylor Joy for both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards -- is less formulaic and more “organic,” he said on the latest Glossy Podcast.“I don't necessarily have a wish list,” said Roach, of who he’d like to dress. “I work with people when it feels good or [when] I feel there's something that I can help them achieve, or vice versa.”Logistically, the process behind styling his star clients also varies based on each individual. While some clients are “heavily collaborative,” others “just want to be dressed,” said Roach. The “pop” and “finesse” that Roach brings to the table stem from his often unorthodox approach to fashion. For example, rather than pulling looks straight off of the runway, Roach deliberately utilizes vintage pieces from eBay, which he partnered with in June to “tell a story” through the looks that he curates.“I live in this world that’s very fantastical and whimsical and dreamy,” said Roach. “I'm always trying to use those clothes to help say something or make people feel something.”

Platforms like Depop may be synonymous with virtual thrifting and sustainability today, but Nasty Gal, the online fashion retailer under the Boohoo group, is trying to tap back into its early associations with sustainability.“Sustainable products have been what the business is built on” since it launched 15 years ago, said Kelly Byrne, Nasty Gal’s commercial director, on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “Our vintage collections are still some of our fastest selling collections.”Byrne, whose main task is to “ensure the business reaches its commercial goals,” has been at the forefront of Nasty Gal’s responses to changing trends over the past year. That's included adapting to the pushes for comfort and eco-consciousness within the fashion industry.“We can react [to trends] in around 3-4 weeks,” said Byrne. For example, Nasty Gal quickly added casual items like sweatsuits to its online store in 2020. However, consumer preferences have begun to get “back to normal” since March 2021. “We’ve started to see a real uptick in those traditional summer categories,” like swimwear, footwear and dresses," she said. That brings "a lot of positivity” to the festival- and vacation-centric brand, she added.Still, the brand plans to remain focused on circularity. “By the end of this financial year, 20% of our product offering will be more sustainably produced,” said Byrne. She hopes to increase that to 40% by the following year.

As she has experience as a founder -- of fashion brand Bow & Drape, launched in 2012 -- Aubrie Pagano, a general partner at venture capital firm Alpaca VC, is adept at identifying whether or not a founder is worth investing in. “It's understanding what your customer needs from the brand and how you can augment the brand with that founder voice,” said Pagano, on the latest Glossy Podcast.Pagano founded Bow & Drape at a time when customization, whether of a Chipotle bowl or a T-shirt, was growing in popularity. “We were super excited about creating more personal, expressive fashion,” said Pagano. She set out to focus on the millennial demographic at the time. “[We] launched our sweatshirt that became an eponymous product,” she said, referring to Bow & Drape’s best-selling style that reads "Goal Digger" in gold lettering. It was sported by Serena Williams in 2015.Although Pagano sold Bow & Drape in 2019, the seven years she spent growing it allowed her to experience the evolution of brands.When Bow & Brand entered the retail space with companies like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom in 2015, “It was a symbiotic opportunity at the time,” she said. The brand gained a platform, while the retailers were able to engage customers in a new way.Now, “The future of brands is omnichannel,” said Pagano. “It's going wherever your customers are, whether that's live commerce or retail, or online through a traditional PDP.”As Pagano has shifted from founder to investor with Alpaca VC, she’s also found that tenacity and magnetism are key traits when gauging a founder’s potential.“Alpaca is an early-stage fund focused on the intersection of the digital and physical worlds, where people are using technology to transform daily life,” she said. Pagano was drawn to the firm because of the team’s understanding of “the entrepreneur journey” and its “research-driven approach to how we invest in companies.”One of the areas that Pagano has invested in at Alpaca is the “re-commerce space,” or the reuse of goods. It has to do with the fact that “consumers, especially Gen Z, are saying, ‘There’s too much stuff,'” Pagano said. Live commerce, returns and cross-border commerce are also areas that Pagano deems worthy of investment. “The internet has allowed culture to atomize in such a way that you can speak very specifically to a very vertical audience,” said Pagano. “Speaking to a specific audience and having an affinity and community who you speak to is paramount.”

The move to working-from-home may have correlated with a rise in comfortable fashion, but as the work pants came off and sweatpants on, the desire for luxury brands did not falter. “Jewelry and accessories were favored because so many people were on Zoom all day long, [and] the only thing that you could [use to] accessorize were earrings," said Ippolita Rostagno, co-founder and CEO of Ippolita, on the Glossy Podcast.In addition, for Ippolita, the timelessness of the brand aligned with consumer desire for jewelry that can last beyond the pandemic. Rostagno, who founded the brand 20 years ago, said she focuses on “designing things that are relevant at this moment, but that, at the same time, have a classic enough feel that you know at the time of purchase you’ll love it 10 years from now.”Whether it can be attributed to Zoom or Ippolita’s philosophy or both, the brand’s recent success cannot be denied. Ippolita saw a “very steep increase” in online sales to 10% of total sales, up from 2% before Covid-19.“People have become much more comfortable with learning and making up their own minds, and therefore purchasing online,” said Rostagno. However, she said, "when you're in a store, you have that opportunity to think you're looking for something and find something else. And that is part of the retail experience that needs to be nurtured and come back.”As for Ippolita’s retail presence, while the brand will continue to team up with retailers, like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s, "owning our own retail is the direction that we'd like to take the business,” said Rostagno.Ippolita has seen success with trunk shows, which Rostagno attributes to the tangible experience that customers can have with the jewelry. “[That] was the motivating factor for completely redesigning the customer experience in my store that I opened in the middle of the pandemic, in Chicago,” said Rostagno. Rostagno was inspired by the concept of a physical jewelry box when designing Ippolita's Chicago Store. “You’re walking into a felt box, and then all the walls are magnetic and the jewelry is out; there are no cases,” she said, of the store’s layout. “The idea is that a customer can walk up to the jewelry, try it on, look at it, feel it … ahead of having a conversation with a salesperson.”In regard to Ippolita’s virtual presence, while many brands have chosen to use social media platforms like TikTok to spread brand awareness, Ippolita hasn't followed suit. “This is what women buy for themselves. This is not occasional jewelry, this is not what husbands buy for a woman’s birthday,” said Rostagno. “This state of mind, this sense of self-possession, is not something that is targeted to a young audience, so TikTok is not the right place to be telling this story.”Instead, Rostagno sees places like Milan as the right setting in which to grow Ippolita. Montenapoleone, where Ippolita's next store will open, is “the street for luxury in Milan, and also in Europe,” according to Rostagno. She added that she feels “very confident” about the future success of the store.

The bridal industry, one of the many markets that rely on in-person customer experiences, was not spared by Covid-19.However, “snowmageddons, hurricanes, Covid, murder hornets -- nothing can cancel love,” said Kelly Cook, chief marketing and IT officer at David’s Bridal, on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast.“It’s a fun time to be in our business,” said Cook, who spent a year facilitating virtual wedding gown and bridal face mask shopping. She expects a 25-40% increase in weddings in 2021, “now that vaccines are out and the country’s opening up.”The height of the pandemic last year did not equate to a full stop in the bridal industry, however. While “about 10% of the brides just canceled their weddings,” according to Cook, “out of the remaining 90%, about half of them already moved their weddings into this year. The remaining half moved their weddings into fall of [2020].”For the brides that did get married during the pandemic, David’s Bridal was quick to adapt to their needs with solutions, like the production of “70,000 [face] masks in all colors," as well as improvements to its technology, according to Cook.“We've modernized and digitized our company,” said Cook. “Within a two-week period, we implemented curbside pickup and we implemented virtual stylists.” The latter was possible through partnerships with augmented reality-focused company Vertebrae, as well as Zoey, an automated concierge system, she said. “We sold $1 million in gowns just through text,” said Cook. “We wouldn't have been able to do any of that if we had not had a culture here of serving her and being relentless about solving problems.”Additionally, David’s Bridal hosted its first virtual fashion show in May 2020. It also found success with a YouTube Live channel “of nothing but wedding videos,” as well as with new TikTok and Instagram Reels accounts. Customers have benefitted from the changes, as well -- particularly those who have signed up for the company's new Diamond Loyalty Program.“It’s not a loyalty program for the number of times you get married. It’s a loyalty program around everybody at your wedding,” said Cook. “We launched it on December 8 of last year and have had 55 people earn enough for a honeymoon.”As for the future of David’s Bridal, “the power of our store [is] in making everyone feel absolutely stunning and beautiful in whatever they're wearing,” said Cook. “The trend is that people are going to want more human interaction and want to see more humanity in brands because we are becoming so digital.”The human touch of the bridal shopping experience is not fully replicable via digital. Until life returns to normal, Cook emphasized the importance of David's Bridal “partnering with people that make the [wedding] process easier,” such as WeightWatchers, Black Tux, popular venue Rustic Wedding Chic and micro-influencers. “We partner with the right micro-influencer, and we give her the product, and all of the content is in her own voice and style,” said Cook. She called out that David's Bridal has featured “employees, friends, and family” in shoots, in place of models, since last year.“It’s authentic and real, and it’s representative of who we are as a brand,” said Cook.

Sam Edelman co-founder Libby Edelman is a step ahead when it comes to knowing what shoe trends are going to take off. “It’s our job to come up with what's happening in fashion,” Edelman said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “So every time we design a product, it’s got to [reflect] a trend that’s going to hit the following year.”Trendspotting is a skill she’s perfected over the last 40 years at Esprit Shoes, and co-founder of Sam & Libby and Sam Edelman footwear brands, along with her husband, Sam Edelman. The latter brand launched in 2004 and is now sold at retailers including Shopbop and Nordstrom, as well as through its own e-commerce site and 13 stores.But that’s not to say that it’s easy to get a leg up on the industry’s direction. The reason: "It's hard to move fast in the footwear industry,” Edelman said. “There are a lot of components. You have to own the right leather, you have to buy it, it all takes time.… It’s 180-plus days to take [a style] from an idea to a store.”Luckily for Sam Edelman, it was able to expedite its processes to get in on the pandemic-hot slipper trend. “There was this big resurgence of slippers, with nobody going out of the house,” Edelman said. “It was [a style] we’d never done before, so we had to jump on it.” Edelman discussed the brand’s other mid-pandemic moves, including its marketing expansion to catalogs and its new bid for higher-end shoppers.

Erin Carpenter, Nude Barre founder and CEO, quite literally walked a mile in “pink ballet shoes” and “beige tights,” and felt the pain of finding hosiery in the right shade. It's a struggle that has been experienced before by current customers of Nude Barre, which offers hosiery and underwear in 12 complexion-matching shades.“I’m sure you see this in the market where you go to stores: You ask for something in nude, and usually they bring you options that are beige. I’m not beige,” said Carpenter, who is a former professional dancer and actress, on the most recent episode of the Glossy Podcast. “What I would have to do, and many other artists would have to do, is dye their tights and undergarments to match their skin on a weekly basis to be in uniform.”People of color and white dancers alike have long complained about the lack of hosiery options and the fact that most are “[a] strange shade of beige,” said Carpenter. That led her to start Nude Barre. The demand for diversity in the industry has not yet died down. “There was a petition out about a year ago for the bigger brands like Danskin to make more pointe shoes and ballet shoes in different skin tones,” said Carpenter. “Thousands of people signed this, including dancers, so there’s been a big push for this from consumers,” she said. Carpenter specifically honed in on the intimates category, with a focus on items like bras and stockings. Nude Barre was not exempt from the shift in consumer desires, as a result of the pandemic. “Our customer is at home, and she wants comfortable underwear,” said Carpenter. “So we wanted to give her options other than just our seamless thong.” In turn, the brand launched a bikini panty, a girl short (a female-empowering twist on the classic “boy short”) and face masks. While Nude Barre is carried in retail and dance stores, most of its sales are direct-to-consumer. “We really love [that], because we get to control the narrative of how we want to talk to our customers,” said Carpenter. “We get to have those intimate and deeper conversations around standing up against colorism and fighting against it in this category and in this industry.”Carpenter’s passion to bring diversity to the dance apparel industry is exemplified by her own financial investment into the company. “One of our challenges was that, when we would sell out of inventory, we’d have to scrape up enough money to fulfill that,” said Carpenter, who initially launched Nude Barre with $3,000 of her savings. Over a decade later, Nude Barre has accumulated stable investors. However, acquiring financial support didn’t come without roadblocks, as she approached “a lot of people that didn’t understand the problem that I was solving,” said Carpenter. “They didn’t quite understand the impact and the importance of changing this narrative of beige being the standard of beauty and why that matters.” Eventually, this problem was solved when Serena Williams, who started off as a customer in 2018, became an investor of Nude Barre in 2019. "It helped get other investors to believe in what we were doing and to validate the business,” said Carpenter. With the rise of intimates brands like Kim Kardashian-owned Skims, and the push for inclusivity and diversity in the intimates and lingerie space, Carpenter asserts it is a multi-billion-dollar industry. “Growth for the company definitely means more categories,” such as bodysuits, she said. But when looking for more partners, Carpenter ensures that Nude Barre will remain committed to pushing back against investors who may be “excluding certain pieces of the equation” in their focus, in terms of both sizing and skin-tone inclusivity. 

In the age of Covid-19, Ministry of Supply is a work-from-homer's go-to brand for comfortable yet professional clothing. While the concept of wearing sweatpants to a work meeting may be new, the lovechild of workwear and athleisure came into fruition in 2012, at a time when “performance materials,” such as moisture-wicking fabrics, first started to explode among the athletic wear industry. “We designed an entire line of machine-washable, four-way-stretch suiting and clothing for the office and commute,” said Gihan Amarasiriwardena, Ministry of Supply president, on the latest Glossy Podcast. Amarasiriwardena co-founded the tech-focused apparel company with fellow MIT graduate Aman Advani in 2012. “What's been interesting is that, in the past year -- while people are not wearing dress shirts nearly as much as they used to, nor are they wearing suits -- this idea of the importance of comfort has been elevated. Our days are so integrated, both in terms of where we are and what we have to do. Our clothes should be designed to do that.”As the pandemic shifted the American workplace from the office to the couch, the demand for even more comfort called for a corresponding adaptation to the current “work-leisure” apparel sold by Ministry of Supply. According to Amarasiriwardena, when sitting down, one’s waist expands by 5-7% -- a fact that was made undeniably apparent by the couch-to-bed pipeline facilitated by working from home.In response, Ministry of Supply found that, rather than starting from scratch, “It was about tweaking our products,” said Amarasiriwardena. “We've always been using performance, functional fabrics that are soft and stretchy, and machine washable. So it was about adjusting the silhouette.”Just as many offices closed down as a result of the pandemic, Ministry of Supply closed its six stores across the country, with plans to reopen only the Boston store. This doesn’t mark the end of customer interaction, however, as the company has begun offering live chats and video chats with customers. As for the return to a normal state, Amarasiriwardena expects rebounds to happen in “waves” within the next few months as customers start returning to the office. And in addition to focusing on recovery, Ministry of Supply is focused on “being a leader in this new category of work-leisure.”

Marketplaces were among the big retail winners of the past year, and Farfetch was no exception.“We performed really well, as an overall company,” said Kelly Kowal, chief platform officer at Farfetch, on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. In its first-quarter earnings, released on May 13, Farfetch reported a 46% year-over-year revenue increase, to $485 million. “Nobody ever wants to capitalize off of a pandemic, but one thing that we were really excited about, and something that we really championed on the marketplace side, was keeping our boutique [partners]online and able to trade. And then on the platform side, we saw an increase in new clients and in new technology being adopted. We were really fortunate to be able to have both sides of our business firing on all cylinders.”And that’s despite the fact that new competitors, including The Yes and Amazon’s Luxury Stores, entered the market. What’s more, some luxury brands remained hellbent on keeping to their own sales channels.“What we find sometimes is that customer demands are way ahead of what retailers can do,” Kowal said. “But we spend a lot of our time thinking about what we call ‘the now, the next and the future.’ Keeping our eye on that has allowed us to scale at pace. Innovation is at the heart of our platform.”Focused on what’s next is Sandrine Deveaux, Farfetch’s evp of Future Retail, and her team. “We know only one out of 10 [new technologies] will work, and sometimes one out of 100,” she said. “But because we are a tech company and we can take those risks, and we have this investment in the backend to support our vision, we are the best place within the industry to [explore] them.” 

Often worn by influential women including Michelle Obama on the red carpet, 12-year-old fashion brand Sachin & Babi is best known for its eveningwear. But luckily, prior to the pandemic and the mass cancelation of formal events, founders and married couple Sachin and Babi Ahluwalia had started to expand their product focus.“For the last three years, we've been looking at the business to see how we can make it a little bit more 'all things occasion,' [for] day or evening,” Babi Ahluwalia said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “We made a deliberate attempt at [around] the start of 2019 to showcase how you could wear certain pieces of clothing during the day. [So] that gradual shift had started. And the pandemic helped us to push it a little further, faster.”Now, Sachin & Babi customers can shop styles from linen shorts to peasant blouses.What also changed during the pandemic was the brand’s sales-channel split, moving from 60% wholesale to 60% DTC e-commerce sales. “It's [all] such a shift at the moment, and every month is a different game,” said Babi Ahluwalia. “So here we are, weathering the storm of fashion.” In addition, she spoke about the dwindling importance of fashion week, as it stands; the future of formalwear; and the way she and Sachin Ahluwalia were able to get a second fashion company, The Good Kloth Company, off the ground mid-pandemic.