The Glossy Podcast

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Veronica Beard’s founders: ‘Our stores are our greatest labs’ May 17, 2023

Show notes

Fourteen years ago, sisters-in-law Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard set the foundation of a successful fashion business by launching a layered-look blazer dubbed the Dickey Jacket.

“We ultimately wanted to create a [women’s] uniform,” Swanson Beard said on the latest Glossy Podcast. “We started with the jacket by making a run of them that we sampled using remnant fabric from Mood Fabrics. We didn't know what we didn't know, and it was great.”

Influenced by the stock market crash the year before the brand’s launch, Swanson Beard and Miele Beard opted to focus on a contemporary price point, yet maintain designer-level fabrics and quality, Miele said.

Today, the company has 300 employees, is profitable and is projected to do $250 million in sales this year. And it’s decidedly in growth mode.

After recently launching footwear, Swanson Beard and Miele Beard said they’re now eying categories including accessories, menswear and kidswear. Plus, they want to further expand globally. Veronica Beard recently opened a store in Canada, and it opened a location in London last year.

“We like success, but we want to do it right,” Swanson Beard said.

Week in Review: Chanel's Barbiecore moment, Warby Parker and Allbirds earnings, the return of the Victoria's Secret show May 12, 2023

Show notes

On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.

On this week’s episode, we discuss Chanel’s resort show and the Barbiecore trend; Victoria’s Secret's newly announced and revamped fashion show; and Allbirds' and Warby Parker's earnings, which illustrate the trajectories of major DTC brands.

House of Blueberry's Katherine Manuel on the 'hard' economics of digital fashion May 10, 2023

Show notes

Long before the pandemic accelerated all things digital, House of Blueberry was selling digital fashion.

Founder and CEO Mishi Mcduff started House of Blueberry as an outfitter of Second Life avatars in 2012. In the 11 years since, the company has sold more than 20 million units of digital clothing across 10,000 SKUs. It’s also collaborated with fashion brands including Jonathan Simkhai and hosted the first metaverse fashion show. It currently has a customer base of nearly 500,000 and growing.

House of Blueberry’s chief operating officer, Katherine Manuel, joined the company just over a year ago after spending more than a decade at the data firm Thomson Reuters. In her last four years with Thomson Reuters, she was its vp of innovation. Manuel said she realized the potential for gaming platforms while watching her daughters use Roblox to socialize at the height of the pandemic. And, as these platforms increasingly connect technology and art, their impact over the next 10 years is set to be “mind-blowing,” she said.

House of Blueberry, therefore, is well positioned. “We’re a digital-first company,” Manuel said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “We're really forward-thinking about fashion, but [fashion] entirely for avatars.”

Manuel also discussed current investor interest in digital fashion, and the ways digital and physical fashion can work to each other’s advantage.

Week in Review: Talking dupes, Crocs and Met Gala fashion with StockX CMO Deena Bahri May 05, 2023

Show notes

On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi breaks down three of the biggest fashion news stories of the week. On this episode, he's joined by special guest co-host Deena Bahri, chief marketing officer of StockX.

Bahri brings her industry expertise to a discussion about Crocs' use of smart collaborations to grow beyond being the quintessential ugly footwear brand. She and Parisi also dive deep on Met Gala fashion and the factors that are driving the rise of dupe culture.

Lauren Bush Lauren on the evolution of Feed: 'There's always more to be done as an entrepreneur' May 03, 2023

Show notes

In the mid-2000s, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing someone carrying a Feed tote bag. The reusable tote bag, made of burlap and stamped with “FEED THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD,” swept the fashion world which was just becoming familiar with charitable-focused brands.

Flash forward 15 years, and Feed is now a registered B-Corp brand that has provided over 126 million school meals to children in need. Alongside Toms shoes, Feed was an early brand to make a name for itself through a charitable initiative. While Toms gives away one pair of shoes to someone in need for every purchase made, Feed instead donates a fixed amount of money from each product sold, which is built into the cost of the product. For example, a purchase of the Feed 10 Bag helps provide 10 school meals for children in need. Feed works with two giving partners: the U.N. World Food Programme for global giving and No Kid Hungry for U.S. domestic giving. The dollar amount is donated by Feed to one or both of its giving partners, which then allocate and distribute meals through their network of governments, schools and relief workers around the globe.

“Our brand, products and business model have evolved with the times and consumer demand, but the mission hasn't changed,” said Lauren Bush Lauren, co-founder and CEO of Feed.

Over the years, Feed has expanded its assortment beyond its iconic tote bags to include home goods items like aprons and mugs, as well as wallets and crossbody bags. It has had partnerships in the past with beauty brand Clarins and also Ralph Lauren, via a capsule collection. In addition, it sold through Whole Foods and Target in its early years.

Glossy Podcast host Jill Manoff spoke with Bush Lauren about the ins and outs of Feed, including what role wholesale plays, how the company has focused on sustainability and whether the so-called rise of the conscious consumer has worked to the company's advantage.

Week in Review: Kering's earnings, fashion's water waste and the promise of garment repair Apr 28, 2023

Show notes

On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.

This week, we take a look at the recent performance of Kering brands Gucci to Balenciaga, as they seek to bounce back from a creative transition and a PR nightmare, respectively. Later, we talk about how Levi’s is attempting to get its water usage under control and to what extent garment repair services offer potential for sustainability in fashion.

Founder and designer Janessa Leoné: 'Slow growth has been our biggest asset' Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

Ten years ago, despite a lack of fashion experience, Janessa Leoné launched her L.A.-based namesake fashion brand best known for “cool girl” hats. In the years since, after admittedly leaning heavily on Google to learn the ins and outs of running a fashion business, she’s grown the brand sustainably and without outside investment. It’s earned celeb fans including Meghan Markle and Taylor Swift and, as of 2021, it has a store in Los Angeles.

“I started this [brand] quite blindly; I didn’t have a business plan or go out with this extraordinary intentionality,” Leoné said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “If I did, I might not have done it, because I didn't realize what was actually required.”

Leoné owed the brand’s success to its authenticity and slow, organic growth. Its birth at the start of the Instagram era, as well as its early fans in the fashion industry, worked to get it off the ground. More recently, Leoné has worked out some kinks in-house to ensure the brand’s growth trajectory.

“I used Covid to pause and assess and analyze what was working and what wasn’t working,” she said. “There were a lot of broken systems within the business, plus unsustainable ways that I was trying to show up in this business and that I was expecting other people to show up. And so we went through a metamorphosis… I hired a contract COO to help me problem-solve and look at the org chart, and say, 'What roles are we missing?' We now have extraordinary subject matter experts, and it feels like this massive machine that is growing.”

Week in Review: The Lyst Index, David's Bridal bankruptcy, Express buys Bonobos Apr 21, 2023

Show notes

On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.

This week, we discuss Uniqlo’s $20 shoulder bag topping The Lyst Index, David’s Bridal going bankrupt and Express purchasing Bonobos.

GoodwillFinds CEO Matt Kaness: 'Great brands have a narrow focus and a wide appeal' Apr 19, 2023

Show notes

Matt Kaness has an extensive retail background with a heavy focus on e-commerce, having worked as the CEO of Modcloth and, for eight years, URBN’s chief strategy officer. Since late last year, he’s zeroed in on retail’s booming resale sector, as CEO of the new online marketplace GoodwillFinds.

“We’re a technology venture,” Kansas said on the latest Glossy Podcast, explaining GoodwillFinds’ business model. The company’s tech focus includes building out proprietary tools “for sellers to be able to list [products] quickly, for customer acquisition and retention, and for [partner] Goodwill [store owners], in support of their packing, shipping and outbound logistics.”

What drove Kaness’s interest in running GoodwillFinds was, in part, timing. “Coming out of Covid, the Gen-Z consumer has said that there's no stigma on secondhand,” he said. “That, coupled with a lot of advancements in technology, has allowed resale to scale profitably.”

GoodwillFinds, itself, has also impressively scaled. According to Kaness, the marketplace is currently attracting value-driven and trend-driven shoppers, with sustainability-driven shoppers being a target demographic. Since its launch, it's built up an email database of 250,000 subscribers, plus it's en route to offering 1 million products on its e-commerce site by the end of the year. It has 20 full-time employees, with 20-30 more set to come on board by the end of 2023.

Week in Review: LVMH soars as luxury spending returns in China Apr 14, 2023

Show notes

On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.

This week, we take a look at LVMH’s earnings, including the sharp return of luxury spending in China. We also talk about the possibility of a slowdown in spending on luxury watches and the details of the Lacoste x Netflix partnership.

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