The Glossy Podcast

When Ann Mashburn launched her namesake women’s brand in 2010, she had some concerns about the concept panning out. Mashburn’s first store, which she opened in Atlanta alongside her husband Sid Mashburn’s namesake men’s store, has now been in business for seven years, and the company has since launched e-commerce and opened three more retail stores. Mashburn joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss how she made the leap from editor to brand owner, how she grew her team from the ground up and how she built her brand with word-of-mouth marketing.

Under Nancy Green, Athleta has leaned into being a brand associated with both women’s empowerment and sustainability, by carving out a list of related core values and updating its branding around those. On Tuesday, the company announced it was officially a certified B Corp brand, a stamp of officiation for purpose-driven brands that follow environmentally and ethically conscious practices. Green joined the Glossy Podcast to talk about how Athleta differentiates itself within the broader Gap corporation, how to outlast the athleisure bubble, and what threats and opportunities retailers face today.

Since Milly launched in the early 2000s, the rules luxury brands are supposed to follow have changed. Now that department store traffic is falling and boutiques are struggling to master e-commerce at scale, luxury brands that could once rely on wholesale networks for growth now have to allocate time, money and resources to building up direct retail channels, both in brand stores and online. To recapture stalled growth, Milly has started direct-to-consumer operations and brought sales and marketing teams in house, and will launch a capsule collection later this year targeted at millennials, with more affordable prices and more frequently released pieces. Andy Oshrin, the CEO and co-founder of Milly, joined the Glossy Podcast to share more about the brand’s evolution, the challenges that come with rerouting business and the role customer data plays.

Deborah Lippmann's nail polish and treatment brand is credited for being the first luxury line to sell products like base and top coats, cuticle oils, hand creams and polish remover alongside colored polishes. Today, Lippmann sells her polishes and treatments at Sephora, department stores and select luxury salons, as well as her own salons in Arizona and California. She also works with designers like Jason Wu and celebrities like Lady Gaga in backstage primping sessions. Lippmann joined us to discuss the importance of choosing the right retail partners, the competition in the industry and plans for her next investment.

When Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake took her company public in 2017, her pitch was a little bit rusty. Stitch Fix’s IPO, which valued it at nearly $2 billion, was the biggest exit for an e-commerce company last year. Now, the company has to prove it can continue to recruit new customers -- on top of the more than 2 million who use Stitch Fix already, according to its S-1 -- if it wants to keep growing. For the first few years of business, Stitch Fix did little paid marketing, relying on word of mouth and organic growth to bring in new users. That’s changing, as the company figures out the best ways to reach potential customers, and it’s top of mind for Lake as she navigates her first year at the head of a public company. Lake joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss Stitch Fix’s category expansions and marketing push, plus the changing customer behavior it’s both leading the way for and adjusting to.

Finery co-founders Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey, in an attempt to create the ultimate virtual closet, confronted the issue that caused all the versions that came before them to fail: They removed as much manual work as they could. For inspiration, Decker and Casey looked to similar life-simplifying apps for other industries, like Mint for finances and TripIt for travel itineraries (rather than the idealistic “Clueless” closet other virtual companies have claimed to build). From there, they spent a year and a half building proprietary technology with a team of coders that can pull together every wardrobe-related online purchase a user’s made by combing a linked email inbox for receipts. Decker joined the Glossy Podcast to talk about Finery’s obstacles, goals and future potential. Edited highlights below.

There are only a few aspects of the runway show that Rebecca Taylor misses: the way the clothes move down the catwalk, the post-show euphoria (before any critiques come in) and all the congratulations. But to her, all of that amounts to only 5 percent of a show production. This New York Fashion Week, Taylor has been showing her collections -- the entirety of which are meant to be sold commercially -- in one-on-one appointments with buyers in her showroom. There she can discuss every item in detail, express her inspiration and get direct feedback from a valuable, if selective, audience. Taylor joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss the evolution of her relationship with the runway show, her decision to break away from the in-season model and the role technology has played in her collections.

Ken Downing, the fashion director and svp at Neiman Marcus, will see just under 100 fashion shows this season. That's a light year. It used to be about 120 overall -- and at one point, it was that many shows in New York alone. Things are changing. As designers change the ways they show their collections -- be it on the runway, in private appointments at showrooms or at presentations -- the buyer's job is ultimately unchanged, according to Downing. On an episode of the Glossy Podcast's NYFW series, Downing reflected on the future of the fashion show and how the CFDA's role is shaping the path forward for the industry.

As other designers reconsider the role that runway plays in their businesses, Alice McCall is just getting started at New York Fashion Week. For her debut runway show, which took place Saturday morning, the Australia-based designer said she embraced the exact elements of the production that others find to be distracting. That included planning the music; choosing the hair and makeup, and coordinating accessories; overseeing model castings and even designing punchier products that make for a splash on the runway. It all had to come together fairly quickly, too, as it was only in December when McCall decided to show in New York. For the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast’s NYFW series, she shared what she believes to be the benefits of a traditionally formatted runway show, which includes a “spicier” collection, specially designed shoes and bags, and the runway’s lasting halo effect.

Celine Semaan, the CEO and designer at the sustainable fashion and accessories brand Slow Factory, realizes that running her own fashion brand is, in and of itself, an unsustainable exercise. During New York Fashion Week, Semaan hosted an event about sustainability, technology and human rights in the fashion industry because, as she put it, she wants to do her part to mobilize the industry to taking steps, no matter how small, toward becoming more sustainable. She also planned to watch out for meaningful messages around change during the runway shows, now that being considered an activist brand is considered cool. Semaan spoke to how the customer-brand dynamic is changing, what she expects to see during NYFW and how even fast-fashion companies are making headway.

Vicky Yang, a talent and digital strategy manager at the talent agency The Society Management, has picked up a few new tricks over the last several years. While managing modeling jobs and schedules for the company's roster of talent, Yang now also deals with the daily schedules, PR and brand contracts for the group of influencers (called "creatives" internally) she now represents. Yang joined the special NYFW edition of the Glossy Podcast to discuss how her role has changed in the digital age, how traditional modeling management has kept up and how the front row has evolved.

Designer Audra Noyes has put in hours working at luxury fashion houses Lanvin and Ralph Lauren. But she's always had her sights set on putting on a fashion show of her own. And her brand, Audra, held a spot on the official NYFW runway calendar for nine seasons. But this year, she’s taken business behind closed doors, deciding not to host a show but to instead host private appointments with editors, buyers and influencers. Noyes joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss her departure from the runway, how a wholesale brand can still have a direct and intimate relationship with customers, and what she wishes she had known when she was first starting out.

Taking his company public was a longtime goal for Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn. But a week before he was about to sign a private equity deal to raise more capital for the menswear brand, he got a call from a friend: Preston Bottomy, the vp of fashion group business development at Jet.com and Walmart.com. Now, in addition to being acting CEO of his brand, Dunn is the svp of digital consumer brands at Walmart. Dunn joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss life since the acquisition, his new position, and how he convinced customers and employers alike that he had made the right decision.

Three years ago, designer Mara Hoffman went through what one could call an existential crisis. After running her eponymous label for 15 years when she hit a wall. Feeling like all her brand was doing was adding more “stuff” to the world -- and causing harm to the environment -- she knew she had to completely overhaul her business, or walk away from it all together. Hoffman said the process to make her company fully sustainable is still ongoing, but the challenge has been an exciting one. She joined the Glossy Podcast to talk about why she felt the need, as a creator, to recreate herself, why she left New York Fashion Week and what's to come for open-source sustainability.

At The Fashion Institute of Technology, staff and students are focused on fixing the industry. That’s a big ask. As Michael Ferraro, the executive director of the Infor Design and Technology Lab at FIT, puts it, “industry problems” and how they can be solved were at the center of a recent collaboration that brought together students, faculty, IBM executives, Infor employees and representatives from Tommy Hilfiger that centered around artificial intelligence and where it fits into the design process. Fifteen FIT design students were asked to create pieces of clothing that would be designed using AI: one would incorporate wearable technology, the other wouldn’t. Students from other departments were asked to incorporate AI into manufacturing and production cycles, as well as marketing initiatives. McCarty and Ferraro joined the Glossy Po

Glossy senior reporter Hilary Milnes discuss Rent the Runway's in-store strategy, data and unlimited subscriptions with Hampton Catlin, senior director of engineering at Rent the Runway.

Katie Finnegan is shaping the future of Walmart’s relationship with technology. As the principal of Store No. 8, an incubator that’s owned by Walmart but operates as an individual LLC, Finnegan is playing the long game. Her company acquires businesses that are at the forefront of the next generation of retail technology, mastering capabilities like personalization, virtual reality and robotics in the supply chain. Finnegan said it’s realistic that the technologies won’t be viable for another five, 10 or 15 years — but when they are, the goal is that Walmart will have the leading edge over the competition. She joined us to recap Store No. 8’s first year in business, share her predictions around how the relationship between customers and retailers will evolve, and explain what should be at the forefront of fashion brands’ work with technology.

This year on the Glossy Podcast, we discussed the forces of change, driven by digital technology, that designers, brand founders, and the agencies who work with them were forced to adjust to. We explored topics including how Instagram is changing the way people interact with brands online, the rise (and fall) of see-now-buy-now and designer burnout, what the digitally native brand market looks like now that the space is matured, and the elephant in the retail room: Amazon. Here's our end of year edition to capture the biggest conversations we had this year with guests like Tim Coppens, Hilary Swank and Rachel Zoe.

Rachel Shechtman is the founder of the concept store Story in Chelsea, a neighborhood in New York City. Story changes its inventory and physical layout every few weeks, and each new remodel is based around a theme. The merchandise carried by Story is usually sourced from small businesses who get facetime with both potential customers or other retailers that are looking for new merchandise. According to Shechtman, 15 percent of foot traffic is from B2B companies. Shechtman joined the Glossy Podcast to share more about how Story operates, how new retailers are (or aren’t) reinventing the wheel, and how department stores are faring in the new landscape.

Scott Tannen, the founder and CEO of Boll & Branch, has experience on both the brand side and the investor side of the DTC startup world.

Designer Dan Liu, who owns both his namesake label as well as the fashion brand Tatsuaki, needs fellow designers to pick up the pace. Designers used to have months to design new collections, and that window has been dwindled down to about two weeks. It’s not just designers who are in jeopardy, either — department stores, according to Liu, are at risk of going extinct thanks to the institutions navigating digital advancements in the industry like dinosaurs. Liu joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss how designers are dealing with the new crushing pace of the industry, what changes are coming next year, and why see-now-buy-now isn’t the answer.

Luke Grana, the founder of the apparel startup Grana, joins the Glossy Podcast to discuss the state of digitally native retail, why he decided to launch his business in Hong Kong, and what defines a modern, successful brand.

Nadine McCarthy Kahane, founder of online jewelry marketplace Stone and Strand, joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss her company's experiments offline, its influencer partnerships and how it has tried to compete with Amazon.

Rachel Zoe launched her brand in 2011, as direct-to-consumer businesses were booming online. But even though she already had a following from her time spent working as a celebrity stylist and sending out her then-newsletter, The Zoe Report (now a media company), Zoe targeted traditional retailers first. Zoe didn’t launch her own e-commerce site for the brand until 2016, in fact, but since finally coming around to selling direct online, she and her brand have been much more experimental. She’s also become more entrepreneurial: In addition to her fashion line, she’s in charge of The Zoe Report as well as Box of Style, a subscription box of clothing and other lifestyle products chosen by her and her team. Zoe joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss the perks and downfalls of traditional retail, her take on see-now-buy-now, her plans to open Rachel Zoe stores and how she uses customer data to her advantage.

AYR, the direct-to-consumer brand for women’s apparel, has an origin story that sets it apart from the sea of other digitally native brands selling women’s clothing without the middleman. For its first two years in business, it was incubated by the more mature direct-to-consumer brand Bonobos. When Bonobos decided it needed to focus on its core business in 2016, AYR spun off into an independent brand, raising two rounds of funding and hiring a full team of employees in the business development, fulfillment and finance departments to pad out what Bonobos’s infrastructure had been supporting. More than a year into running her brand independently, Winter joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss the benefits of being bred by Bonobos, the lessons she’s learned so far and the opportunity that still remains for direct-to-consumer brands.

Brooke Taylor Corcia, the founder of online fashion and lifestyle store The Dreslyn, wanted to launch her own company to get a more accurate representation of West Coast fashion into the e-commerce lexicon. Three years after launching The Dreslyn as an online destination for access to the chic side of West Coast style, Corcia spoke to Glossy about the art of restraint in building an online store, the key to building two-sided brand relationships and the importance of data.

Bando, the e-commerce site selling kitschy office supplies and accessories designed for the Instagram generation, has struck a balance between mass and niche. The brand’s strong, mostly pink aesthetic, cult-like customer following and best-selling items — like agendas that say things like “I Am Very Busy” — have become its biggest signifiers, and the brand has grown to around 50 employees after a near-shutter in 2012. Instead of closing, it sold to licensing company Lifeguard Press, and grew a network of wholesale partners that included Anthropologie, Nordstrom and Macy’s. Those mass retail partners sell its agendas and other everyday items like tumblers and notebooks to a wide audience. That pays the bills. Bando’s online store, then, is an opportunity for co-founder and creative director Jen Gotch to experiment with her more wild design side, even if the results don’t sell as much. Gotch joined the Glossy Podcast to share how she grew a side business selling hair accessories into

When Elaine Kwon realized just how much fashion and luxury brands don’t understand retail’s new digital world order, she started her own e-commerce management firm, Kwontified, to help them figure it out. Kwon had been working at Amazon, helping luxury fashion brands find success on the platform once they'd signed on. She joined us on the Glossy Podcast this week to talk about focusing on shipping and return structures, online customer service, and -- of course -- whether or not to work with Amazon.

James LaForce started his career hand-delivering printouts of press releases that highlighted the biggest news and best gossip from parties the night before. He would drop them off at the home of the society reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and return to his office by foot. Things have changed. LaForce joined us on the Glossy Podcast to discuss that mindset, the separation of social media and e-commerce, and the one industry that can’t tell a good story on Instagram.

Designer Daniella Kallmeyer got her first internship in the fashion industry when she handed Luca Luca designer Luca Orlandi her resume at age 15. She went on to more internships with brands including Proenza Schouler and Alexander McQueen, but by the time she decided to launch her namesake ready-to-wear brand, the path to getting a new label off the ground had changed. In Kallmeyer’s words, “there is no traditional way to becoming a designer” anymore. Kallmeyer joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss her biggest regret around launching her brand, the power shift from brand to consumers, and her brand's next milestone.

Hal Rubenstein, one of the founding editors of InStyle magazine, joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss retail's "too much stuff" problem, the crime of athleisure and why he's skeptical of all influencers, except maybe Selena Gomez.

Adriana Marie started her production company, Amco NYC, with the perspective of a fashion designer. Marie had been designing her own line of T-shirts and other items for the 10 years prior, and wanted to transition that experience into a business that supported other up-and-coming designers. Today, she coordinates fashion shows, manages influencer and brand partnerships, and runs an e-commerce marketplace to drive sales of her clients’ designs. She’s a big believer in see-now-buy-now, as well, with the mindset that if emerging designers build their businesses with this model in mind, it will eventually become par for the course. Marie joined the Glossy Podcast during New York Fashion Week to talk about scaling new businesses, the importance of the customer relationship, and how her production agency also manages to pull off e-commerce operations.

Ahead of the madness that is fashion month, we invited Rony Zeidan — the founder of the luxury agency RO NY, who spent time at Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren — to join our New York Fashion Week podcast to share his predictions for the upcoming season, and speculate on questions like whether or not social media has been a blessing or a curse for luxury brands, and if see-now-buy-now is truly dead.

As brands shut down brick-and-mortar stores and dedicate resources to e-commerce, many see Amazon as a constant elephant in the room and look to its strengths to drive their own strategies. But Jenny Baike, co-founder and CEO of Orchard Mile — a luxury marketplace — says her company is not competing with the retail giant. Baike joined us on the Glossy Podcast to share what brands should know before selling online, why luxury brands are keeping their distance from Amazon and what a marketplace offers shoppers that other retailers can't.

When brands try to act like customers’ friends, they typically fail. Even so, Of a Kind has made it its ongoing mission to feel like an “in-the-know best friend” to those who receive its email newsletters and visit the site. Behind the brand are Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo, who had the idea in 2010 to launch an e-commerce site for exclusive, limited-edition goods made by independent designers. Co-founder Claire Mazur joined us on the Glossy Podcast to share more about what makes Of a Kind work.

With the fall issue of GQ Style, featuring cover celeb and modern man Aziz Ansari, now on shelves, Welch joined the Glossy Podcast to break down how he built a magazine for the digital and mobile era, tracing the evolution of GQ Style as a GQ spin-off, and

It was the Coach saddle bag that first made Liz Kaplow realize that brands needed to do a better job of communicating their stories to customers. Kaplow, who launched her PR and communications agency Kaplow Communications in 1991, joined the Glossy Podcast to reflect on why storytelling is as relevant as ever, while brands are being forced to evolve.

Marissa Vosper's brand, Negative Underwear, wants to offer a different take on the lingerie market with her made by women, for women bras. 

Poshmark co-founder Tracy Sun appeared on the Glossy Podcast to discuss how her company identified an emerging market in social selling on mobile and built that niche into a full network for individual seller boutiques.

Tara Foley, the founder and CEO of clean beauty retailer Follain, joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss the growth of the organic beauty and skincare industry, and why she put her degree in public policy toward raising awareness around the lack of industry regulations.

As The Limited has since filed for bankruptcy, its former plus-size brand Eloquii has raised $21 million in funding and expanded into brick-and-mortar. Chase joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss the plus-size fashion landscape, why it’s still thin on competition, and how ‘body positive’ brand messaging isn’t always so positive. 

Eric Korman, CEO and founder of the direct-to-consumer, sustainable perfume brand Phlur, joined the Glossy Podcast to share what he's learned about the opaque fragrance industry and supply chain, and how he created a company for the modern consumer.

Mejuri is a direct-to-consumer brand for fine jewelry, which cuts out the middlemen retail partners and focuses on a new marketing message supported by a transparency strategy. Founder Noura Sakkijha joined the Glossy Podcast to discuss the problems riddling the traditional jewelry industry and how to sell jewels online.

Johannes Leonardo founding partner and creative director Ferdinando Verderi wants brands to think beyond their Instagram feeds. "Media consumption is something that brands have imposed on themselves," he said on this week's Glossy Podcast.

Anna Lecat, the founder of sustainable clothing line Les Lunes, is hoping her global brand can help take down the idea that Chinese-produced fashion is cheaply made and low-quality. The brand’s factory, which it opened in 2012, is located in Shanghai and makes all of Les Lunes' collections, from lingerie to evening gowns. Lecat joined us on the Glossy Podcast to discuss slow fashion, the complicated relationship between American companies and Chinese manufacturers, and the fact that a sustainable fashion brand can work on a 12-week production cycle.

For Hilary Swank, launching her line of high-performance luxury apparel was a crash course in starting and running a business. She learned every detail, down to the minutiae of how long you can hold someone’s credit card online before you have to reach out and ask for it again. Swank joined the Glossy Podcast to share more about those fabrics, where the idea for Mission Statement came from and what a typical day in the life looks like when balancing a brand and an acting career.

Liz Bacelar has been straddling the line of fashion and technology since 2011, when she launched Decoded Fashion, an event series that connects entrepreneurs with fashion brands and designers. Now, she has a new business, TheCurrent, a platform that matches brands with technology solutions. She joined us for the Glossy Podcast to discuss the evolution of the fashion-tech space, the conundrum facing fashion CMOs and what brands have that Amazon doesn’t.

M. Gemi is hoping to get as close to on-demand retail as possible. The two-year-old brand, known for handmade Italian shoes, promises high quality without the middleman markups and launches new styles of women’s and men’s shoes (the latter of which it launched in 2016) every Monday. Thanks to a closely monitored production network of workshops in Italy, M.Gemi is nimble enough to act on customer response that same day, deciding which styles to invest in further and which to scale back. Cheryl Kaplan, M. Gemi's President, joined us for an episode of the Glossy Podcast to discuss on-demand retail at scale, how to respond to customer reactions in real time and moving into brick-and-mortar.