The Glossy Podcast

Ramy Brook Sharp opened a brand flagship store in Manhattan last fall, before the coronavirus pandemic shut down just about every brick-and-mortar store in New York City -- though since, the company's focus has changed to the company's e-commerce site, of course.Direct-to-consumer was a priority even before the crisis. "That's definitely going to be the future of the company," Brook Sharp said on the Glossy Podcast. "We were going in that direction to begin with, but I think with everything happening, you realize how important that is."Until then, the contemporary fashion company has had to furlough all 45 of its employees. "The hope is that everybody comes back," said Brook Sharp, adding that the company is continuing to cover affected employees' health insurance."We're not allowed to ask anybody to work; we can't expect people to work," she said, but she's found that "a majority" of her team is working despite that, unpaid. "Most of the people want to see the company succeed and understand that this is a unique time."

For Charles Gorra, whose company Rebag has bought and sold luxury handbags since 2014, the competition isn't Hermès or Louis Vuitton. "We like to say we don't compete against this or that company, but we compete against idleness," Gorra said on the Glossy Podcast.His estimate is that nine out of 10 "luxury owners" have never sold those items and that most of his customers (on the selling end) are doing so for the first time.It helps that Rebag buys such pieces upfront, in its nine physical locations in Los Angeles, New York State and Miami. Thirty stores is the "medium-term goal" for the company, said Gorra. Handbag sales, however, are mostly done online, with only 20-30% sold in store. "We're still largely a digital company," Gorra said.Accordingly, Gorra thinks Instagram Checkout -- which is still in beta -- could be "game-changing" for e-commerce in general. And last year Rebag launched Clair, or Comprehensive Luxury Appraisal Index for Resale, a freely-available tool for appraising bags at a distance."Literally, it's three or five clicks, and we tell you right there: 'This is how much we pay,'" Gorra said. He previously told Glossy that unlike sneakers, designer handbags tend not to have product codes or SKU numbers, which come into play in the authorization process. Clair is Rebag's way of bringing some standardization to the market.Gorra talked about Rebag's typical customer, his stores' experiential fixtures and the item appraisal tool that Rebag launched last year.

Jewelry company Gorjana is growing, self-funded and profitable, but its founders insist that it was a slow and tricky road. "No home runs here," Gorjana Reidel said on the Glossy Podcast.She and her husband, Jason Griffin Reidel, first sold their jewelry in small boutiques before partnering with Nordstrom in 2014. "We were kind of the pioneers of the category that you see so many people getting into now, of gold, delicate, layering jewelry," Griffin Reidel said. Early on, Nordstrom partnered with the brand, launching it in 25 stores at a time (the Reidels got to pick which ones), and Gorjana Jewelry is now available across the chain's approximately 120 outlets.But despite its success with Nordstrom, in recent years Gorjana has made the shift to selling direct-to-consumer via its own stores and e-commerce site. Three years ago, 90% of Gorjana’s sales were coming through wholesale channels and only 10% from DTC. Today, 80% of sales are direct-to-consumer.Gorjana has nearly 200 employees and, by the end of May, the company plans to have 16 stores across California, New York City and Arizona -- the coronavirus pandemic notwithstanding.Gorjana Reidel and Jason Griffin Reidel talked about the benefits of boot-strapping a business, their secret to growing steadily even through the financial crisis of 2008 and their advice for entrepreneurs.

For our final episode of Glossy Trend Watch: Influencer Edition, senior technology reporter Katie Richards sits down with Danielle Bernstein of We Wore What.Danielle is a fashion blogger turned clothing designer, brand founder, author and entrepreneur.When she got started as an influencer, payment schemes were a bit arbitrary. "There weren't any set fees for posting on a blog, taking photos for a brand," Bernstein said. "We sort of went off of what modeling agencies traditionally did for models."Since those uncertain days, Bernstein has developed longer-term collaborations with brands and launched a workflow tool for influencers, and she has a book in the works.Glossy Trend Watch: Influencer Edition features interviews with some of the most prominent fashion influencers on how they’ve used their success and social media followings to launch major brands. Our guests -- including Julia Engel and Moti Ankari -- made the leap from interacting with existing brands online to creating some of their own.

Amanda Uprichard's namesake fashion company has quickly reshaped its supply line to work in a world living with the coronavirus."Now, we make maybe 90% of our stuff here because of the virus," Uprichard said about her New York operation. Previously, half of the line's manufacturing was based in China."Anyone that's in manufacturing, you're just affected by the supply chain," she added. "But I do believe China will be completely normal in another month."For Uprichard, making things out of New York was a return to the brand's beginnings. Everything was made out of New York City, "until about a year and a half ago, when we started switching to China because the resources are drying up here," she said.Uprichard talked about the importance of influencers, the reality TV show "The Bachelor" and walking away from Amazon (and, just maybe, going back to it).

Over the next few weeks, we’re bringing you bonus episodes of the Glossy Podcast.Glossy Trend Watch: Influencer Edition features interviews with some of the most prominent fashion influencers on how they’ve used their success and social media followings to launch major brands. Our guests made the leap from interacting with existing brands online to creating some of their own.For our second episode, Glossy senior technology reporter Katie Richards sits down with Moti Ankari, a menswear blogger who co-founded footwear brand Ankari Floruss with fellow blogger Marcel Floruss."I was actually one of the first wave of male influencers," Ankari said. "Nine years ago, there were like five of us out there." Tellingly, the word "influencer" didn't exist to describe someone making a living off of their social media connections -- the word got its own entry on Dictionary.com in 2016.Ankari talks about learning the ins and outs of designing footwear and how to leverage his social following to drive sales.

Rent the Runway, but for jewelry. That was the animating idea behind Switch, the company that buys and rents out jewelry for $29 a month."Ultimately, jewelry is a very different product from apparel, for rental," Kadisha Cohn said on the Glossy Podcast."It's a perfect product for rental. You don't really feel like it's ever been worn before. We sanitize it, we polish it, we kind of bring that shine and make it feel like it's new -- and oftentimes, it is new," Kadisha Cohn said.Switch also authenticates the jewelry in its collection, which includes thousands of styles. ("We have Chanel, Hermès, Dior, real diamonds and gold," Kadisha Cohn said, also listing Sophie Ratner, Mateo and Do Not Disturb.) Some of Switch's items are one of a kind, and none are valued under $100. Their average value is about $700, which is basically the cost of being a Switch member for two years."In two years, to have an endless rotation of jewelry instead of just purchasing one piece -- that, probably, after two years you'd be sick of -- is a really good value for our customers," Kadisha Cohn said.Switch buys jewelry from the public, for either cash, membership credit or credit to be spent toward purchasing an item outright. "If you fall in love with something, you may want to end up buying that," Kadisha Cohn said.Kadisha Cohn talked about what goes into jewelry authentication, what to make of wear and tear, and why her career leap into gems was unexpected.

Over the next few weeks, we’re bringing you bonus episodes of the Glossy Podcast.Glossy Trend Watch: Influencer Edition features interviews with some of the most prominent fashion influencers on how they’ve used their success and social media followings to launch major brands. Our guests made the leap from interacting with existing brands online to creating some of their own.For our first episode, Glossy senior technology reporter Katie Richards sits down with Julia Engel, who leveraged her fashion and lifestyle blog Gal Meets Glam to build the Gal Meets Glam Collection, a fashion brand focused on timeless, classic pieces including dresses, coats and sweaters.On the first episode of our limited series, Engel talks about transitioning from blogger to brand founder, learning the ins and outs of the apparel industry and finding the right wholesale partners.

Despite sharing a name with a popular music streaming platform, Pandora -- the jewelry company -- never had a problem with name recognition.Charisse Hughes, the company's CMO for the Americas, put the company's name recognition at 90%. "People know Pandora," Hughes said on the Glossy Podcast.However, that hasn't meant that people are buying from the brand. The company lost more than a quarter of its market value in 2017, followed by another 61% in 2018.Hughes attributed the decline to a lack of innovation in the brand's aesthetic and not using consumer data to react to shoppers' wishes. But the company has made changes, bringing on a new CEO last year, striking partnerships with the likes of Millie Bobby Brown to appeal to younger consumers and overhauling its stores with engraving stations and a popular items section."There's no silver bullet to get us back to where we need to be," Hughes said.Hughes talked about the company's iconic charm bracelet (which is turning 20 this year), Pandora's take on experiential retail and partnering with Disney.

Birdies co-founder Bianca Gates started her company as a side hustle while working at Facebook, but it took a two-month sabbatical to realize she ought to dedicate herself to the shoe company full-time."We saw the impact of me jumping in and helping out more," Gates said on the Glossy Podcast. "We started to look at different data points. There were sales, editors were talking about us, celebrities wearing us, people wanting to invest, and I thought: 'I guess this is kind of that moment where you just take that leap of faith.'"Birdies launched in 2015 and has since raised $10 million in funding, opened a brick-and-mortar store in San Francisco and expanded its original product line -- slipper-like shoes chic enough for a party host -- to include tougher-soled shoes that can be worn about town.Gates talked about that critical moment mid-sabbatical, her evolving leadership style and the reason the startup rush for unicorn status is like the housing crisis.