The Glossy Podcast

To forecast the next fashion trends, Soludos founder Nick Brown looked to past crises.Before the 2008 crisis, "it was all about ornaments and stuff being very sexy and over-the-top," Brown said on the Glossy Podcast. "Then in 2010, it shifted toward minimalism and modernism."Brown wagered that fashion will stay on the minimalist side. But either way, shoes are a tough category. "In some of these customer surveys, and certainly in my own life, I'm only buying what I need to, and I'm not going out that much," Brown said.As a result, Soludos is focusing on fewer products and sustainable production.Product delivery has also evolved. Soludos' sales have moved online; 70% of its sales now come through its own website, Brown said. "We've all seen the numbers that, in two months, there's been 10 years' worth of e-commerce penetration," he said.

In fashion, the small businesses have suffered more than the big ones since March.But Commando founder Kerry O'Brien thinks that, for those boutiques that can survive a tortuous shutdown, the other side will be a lot brighter. "I think they're going to have a resurgence if they can make it through these times," she said. "Women are going to want to go to their local shop, and they're going to want to have a conversation with someone they know in a small setting."Boutiques were where Commando, which started off in the underwear category, got its start. It's still carried in more than 1,000 boutiques, as well as at major department stores.O'Brien launched the company in 2003, a few years after having quit her job at public relations giant Edelman the day after 9/11.The company has since grown, playing a role in the surge in popularity of bike shorts, according to O'Brien. Bella Hadid wore a pair by Commando at Paris Fashion Week in 2017.O'Brien thinks women shopping for clothes are now looking for two things: comfort and transparency about where the clothes came from. Commando manufactures its products in the United States and imports most fabrics from Europe.With the pandemic keeping retail foot traffic down, she's been spending most of her time at the company's home base in Burlington, Vermont. For a recent photo shoot, O'Brien said, "We used a local model. We can't bring in a New York City model, because they would have to quarantine."

The ongoing demand for LaQuan Smith's signature sexy designs is both a blessing and a curse, as he put it on the Glossy Podcast."It was a very humbling experience, because I had to find alternative ways to still be able to produce these orders," Smith said. "Thankful they didn't get dropped, but also, damn, because I'm now in a compromised position: How do I get these done, how do I fulfill all these orders on time?"Smith pulled it off by having his cutters work from home while "packing and shipping from my living room," he said. To him, the fact that his designs are in demand despite a pandemic gives him further confidence in his self-named brand, which he said faced significant doubts when it debuted in 2013.But he said he's recently faced tokenism, whereby his achievements as a designer have been flattened by his grouping with other Black designers."You can't group me with [someone] who just started designing three months ago on Instagram. That's not fair," Smith said, referring to the lists of Black designers to support, that have recently surfaced across media channels. "They're putting all these Black designers in one box. To me, this is not the way you do that. If you want to really celebrate designers of color, you do it the right way."

After a pandemic-caused delay, influencer Arielle Charnas' clothing company Something Navy finally relaunched last week as a direct-to-consumer brand, after selling exclusively as a Nordstrom collaboration.For her and interim CEO Matt Scanlan, it was worth the wait: Online, Something Navy grossed $1 million in just 30 minutes, according to Charnas and Scanlan."The velocity and speed of sales totally broke our back end," Scanlan said on the Glossy Podcast.Charnas has a considerable Instagram following of 1.3 million to thank for the marketing push. In fact, Something Navy didn't spend a dollar on traditional marketing, Scanlan said.But a massive following can also come with scrutiny. Back in March, Charnas drew criticism for the way she handled a Covid-19 diagnosis -- withdrawing to a house outside of NYC, rather than staying home."People wanted me to be more sensitive about what was going on in the world, and I should have been," Charnas said.Scanlan and Charnas talked about the lessons learned, the future of influencer culture and the new KPIs for a clothing company.

Putting on a digital fashion show isn't especially revolutionary.But Anifa Mvuemba, the founder of Hanifa, gave her Instagram Live show a novel twist: there weren't any models, whether digital or real."This will be a great way to get everyone's attention," Mvuemba recalled thinking, on the Glossy Podcast.Her virtual runway was stalked by Hanifa dresses, moving of their own accord as if draped over moving ghosts. It was a painstaking endeavor of animation and design, but it paid off.Tens of thousands tuned in, according to Fast Company. "The sales, it was immediate -- probably the best month we've had since I started my company," Mvuemba said.The attention was big enough to push Mvuemba into a more significant public relations hire in the Hinton Group. Next, Mvuemba plans on turning heads again with technical feats (even though "we're still coming down from the high from the first one") and launching shapewear for women of color in the coming months.

Speaking for her corner of the fashion industry -- luxury denim -- Warp+Weft founder Sarah Ahmed said that discussions around racial issues should only be beginning. "If everyone was always receptive to this -- to racial equality -- we wouldn't be having these problems," Ahmed said on the Glossy Podcast."We all need to take a look: maybe the joke that we make, the model choice that we made -- why did we make that?" she said.Warp+Weft is progressive on other fronts. Its manufacturing process consumes a fraction of the water that jeans -- a notoriously resource-intense garment -- typically do, according to Ahmed.And because of the impact of the pandemic, Ahmed hopes to make the family-owned businesses she's a part of (Warp+Weft is one, DL1961 is the other) smarter about human resources.Ahmed said the company saw a spike in e-commerce sales -- yes, even though they're jeans, not sweatpants. But it still had to make layoffs. For the future, Ahmed said, "I talk to people on the team and tell them 'Listen, let's make you and this role irreplaceable -- and so key to the company that you feel needed, and we need you, and you're pandemic-proof.' I think that's how employers need to be looking at their roles."

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Trina Turk's self-named fashion label made 15% of its sales through e-commerce.But with Neiman Marcus' filing for bankruptcy in May and an ongoing lack of foot traffic at mall stores, Turk ideally wants that percentage raised to 50% or more."If they weren't shopping online prior to this whole thing, they are jumping online now," Turk said about shoppers on the Glossy Podcast. "I don't think we're alone in really examining how we can pivot our business to be much more e-comm-focused.Turk talked about managing her relationship with department stores to minimize the excess inventory brought about by the global retail shutdown, exploring the potential of client meetings done via Zoom and hiring more diversely once the company recovers from its layoffs and hiring freeze.

Womenswear brand Knix has already gone through the painful transition to DTC that other clothing companies are being forced into during the pandemic."I feel for those brands," Knix CEO Joanna Griffiths said on the Glossy Podcast. "But I also know that it's possible."Griffiths founded the company in 2013 to make and market leakproof underwear. At the time, the business model was entirely about wholesale. "I did trunk shows at every Equinox location in the United States, I think," Griffiths said.But in the 2016, she decided to pull out of more than 700 retail locations across North America and shift to direct-to-consumer, out of a concern for size inclusivity. "A lot of the traditional retailers wouldn’t carry our size assortment," Griffiths has previously told Glossy. On the podcast, she described it as a "really scary decision" to "basically cut our revenue in more than half and start over," she said.That decision is panning out. This past May, sales were up 135% year-over-year, in part thanks to Knix's categories -- wireless bras and loungewear -- being in high demand in an age of social distancing.

Protests continue around the country and world three weeks after George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. This new instance of police violence caught on video has boosted public support for Black Lives Matter while driving policy changes from governments, police departments and companies.Toms is used to building strategies around public good. "We're incredibly proud to have inspired many, many companies to be purpose-driven," Amy Smith, the company's chief giving officer, said on the Glossy Podcast.The original, core initiative behind the company -- to donate a pair of shoes to those in need for every pair purchased -- isn't exactly adjacent to the public challenges facing America today. But the shoe company is among dozens of beauty and fashion brands that have donated to Black Lives Matter, and it plans on contributing another $100,000 in the next three months.Beyond that, Toms is looking at its own practices. "We're taking the time now to do a full assessment of what our business and employment practices are, so we can create a baseline and share with our customers, very transparently: 'What is a plan for change for Toms?'"Toms anticipates it will cross the 100 million pairs donated mark sometime this year, according to Smith, and since 2018 it has also funded grants for socially-inclined nonprofits. The company also now donates a third of its net profits.Last December, Toms agreed to a takeover from its creditors led by Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Nexus Capital Management LP and Brookfield Asset Management Inc., in exchange for restructuring its debt.

Fashion designer Anna Sui thinks the industry is overdue for a reckoning, in terms of diversity."This is the moment for black designers and companies to step up. The curtains are open. Go for it," Sui said on the Glossy Podcast.Though not equivalent to the black experience, Sui's childhood was filled with dreams to become a designer despite not seeing anyone who looked like her at the forefront of the biggest labels, she said. "I came from the suburbs of Detroit. At the time when I started designing, there really weren't other Chinese designers."Now Sui's main collection is sold in 50 Anna Sui boutiques across eight countries and over 300 retailers globally."In China, I'm more known for my lipstick and my perfume than I am for my fashion," Sui said, noting the contrast to the U.S. market.And in the states, she said, a fashion shakeup is looming."We've drifted into this minimal look before -- this almost uniform look. Business usually gets bad during that period. Then, all of a sudden, something more embellished will look good," Sui said. "It's like a pendulum. Whatever is in right now, the opposite is what's going to make people excited and think, 'That's the next big thing.'"