After being let go as executive chairman of Men’s Warehouse, the company he founded, in 2013, George Zimmer founded Generation Tuxa year later. Generation Tux offers convenient and low-stress suit rental services exclusively online. “In lieu of going [to the] store, there are many advantages through Generation Tux, particularly for the bride who has so much going on around her wedding. Gen Tux is a load off her mind,” said Zimmer on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. With 50 years of experience in the suit industry, Zimmer understands the desire to order your own wedding tuxedo from the comfort of your living room. Generation Tux's concise shipping timeline —it delivers customers’ suits three weeks before an event — is also advantageous since it allows for last-minute changes. But even with the online spending spree of the pandemic, the company has faced challenges. When the pandemic first hit, Generation Tux temporarily shut down until it received government aid. Two years later, it is reaping the benefits of the pandemic’s demand for accessible online fashion, withyearly revenue of $5 million.
On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, Glossy’s senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff discuss and break down the biggest fashion news of the week. This week, Gap CEO Sonia Syngal abruptly stepped down on Monday, signaling further troubles within the American apparel giant. Elsewhere, Dior demanded compensation from Valentino for lost foot traffic, only to retract the demand later in the week. Finally, brands are starting to charge customers for returns.
With economic and consumer trends constantly in flux, Imaginary Ventures co-founder and managing partner Nick Brown wants to ensure his VC firm stays ahead of the curve. Brown created the venture capital firm alongside Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet in 2018. It is now one of the largest VC funds sitting at the intersection of technology and retail. The company's portfolio includes well-known brands, platforms and founders, including Glossier, Skims, Everlane and Farfetch. The firm has grown funds under its management to$1 billion. In April, it announced its third fund, of $500 million, across late- and early-stage businesses. According to Brown, part of Imaginary's success has been its ability to find the diamond startup with the potential for global reach. "Our approach to investing in brands was always brand lead and product lead," Brown shared on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. Brown added that the company prioritizes brands at the forefront of innovation in technology and those that can adjust to an ever-changing ecosystem. While Imaginary has found success in investing in later-stage businesses, it also values early-stage brands and founders shaping the future of the consumer experience. "If you're an early-stage founder, it's less about the detail of [a 5-year plan] and more about the vision of how you're going to hit scale, because that's the hardest thing for everybody. I would say that, for every 20, 30, 40 companies we see, [only] one of them has the ability to hit that [$100 million] kind of scale. So you want to be really thoughtful and really confident in your articulation of how you achieve that," said Brown.
Digiday Media is proud to present The Return, a podcast about what the return to the office can look like as corporate America adapts to the new, not quite post-pandemic normal. The Return follows the staff at one Atlanta-based advertising agency through Covid outbreaks, as well as the highs and lows of transitioning to hybrid work after two years of pandemic lockdown and working remotely. While the future of work is still under construction, employees across the country are forging their own paths to determine what that future looks like amidst parenthood, corporate mandates, long commutes and an ever-looming pandemic. The Return is hosted by Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter at Digiday, and produced by Digiday audio producer Sara Patterson. Listen to The Return on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff discuss some of the biggest fashion news of the week. On this week's episode, brands are pulling out of China after facing increased competition from local brands and retailers, Klarna's valuation is reportedly dropping from $45 billion to as low as $6 billion, and fashion brands are launching Hamptons activations as the summer kicks off.
Historically, fast-fashion retailers have dominated clothing designed for tween and teen girls. Yet, Gen Z, more than any other generation, is known for its environmental consciousness, leaving young shoppers torn between buying affordable, trendy clothes or staying true to their eco-conscious values. With a mission to provide socially and environmentally conscious clothing at a more affordable price point than designer teen labels, Woodley + Lowe was founded in 2020 by two moms, Rachel Thebault and Neda Talebian Funk. “We try to be mindful of who our customer is and that her hard-earned babysitting money needs to go a long way,” said Thebault on the latest Glossy podcast. After experience shopping for their own daughters, the co-founders were frustrated with the archaic sizing recommendations for teen girls’ apparel. “The problem we especially saw with tweens was that these girls are growing at very different times from each other and they're growing in different ways,” said Thebault. The pair developed a proprietary sizing scale, which bridges the gap between teen and women’s clothing and allows consumers to grow into the brand at their own pace. To resonate with its Gen-Z target demographic, Woodley + Lowe created a robust ambassador program, consisting of brand representatives in high school and college. The ambassadors work to foster a community of fans who are educated on buying quality, long-lasting products and are encouraged to think about how and where their apparel is made. The brand has notably found success in the athleisure space, with the pandemic boosting sales for the entire industry. However, Thebault and Talebian Funk see category expansion in Woodley + Lowe's future, while continuing to take a thoughtful approach to teen fashion. Talebian Funk said the brand is planning to build content libraries based on how Gen Z consumes information, including providing interactive and video-based options. And, a potential brick-and-mortar store and brand collaborations are on the docket to continue to drive brand awareness. “From the early days, we’ve thought, ‘How do we become a Goop for this generation?,’” said Talebian Funk.
On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff discuss some of the biggest news of the week in the fashion industry. This week, Marc Jacobs held a show at the New York Public Library, showcasing the ways the brand has stuck to tradition while growing and flourishing. Elsewhere, controversy around how the Sustainable Apparel Coalition communicates sustainability led to the group pausing its labeling efforts, and StockX laid off 8% of its staff.
After returning from a trip to South Africa, The Folklore’s Amira Rasool was often stopped on the streets of New York and asked where she purchased her clothing, which she scored while abroad. “I knew that African and Black-owned brands were the future because people were getting bored of the same old [stuff],” said Rasool, founder and CEO of The Folklore, on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “These brands have a cultural and heritage point-of-view that shines through in their products.” With research, Rasool discovered that most African brands did not have direct-to-consumer e-commerce platforms of their own and were not stocked in retail stores outside of their home country. Rasool launched The Folklore in 2016 as the first B2B wholesale e-commerce platform exclusively focused on Black-owned and African brands. “Combining my interest and knowledge of Black history and uplifting Black people in our socio-economic condition with my love for styling and telling stories, I created The Folklore,” said Rasool. “We built this product with African and Black-owned brands at the forefront and not as an afterthought." The company’s designers are based in South Africa and Nigeria, but The Folklore is also developing relationships with brands in Ghana and Morocco. In addition, by September, the company is working to launch Folklore Connect, a B2B wholesale e-commerce platform that empowers global retailers to discover and shop for African and Black-owned fashion and lifestyle brands. The company’s current focus is on apparel, accessories, home and beauty, but will soon expand to new product categories and price points. “With our curation, we still have the potential [to on-board] thousands of brands to the platform,” said Rasool. “We haven't even scratched the surface.”
On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest news in fashion from the week. This week, Gucci announced a collection co-designed by Harry Styles and Alessandro Michele called Gucci HA HA HA. Harrods managing director Michael Ward revealed that the British department store was delaying its annual summer sale due to slow shipments of inventory. Finally, NFT.NYC went down in New York, and fashion brands continued their embrace of NFTs even as prices for NFTs are dropping.
After launching and selling her namesake maternity wear brand, Liz Lange began to long for her entrepreneurial days. To that end, she bought New York-based women's luxury label Figue, acquiring the 10-year-old brand in 2021 from founder Stephanie Von Watzdorf. Lange is currently CEO. "I wanted to be the entrepreneur. I didn't want to be the advisor or the investor," said Lange on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. Lange learned Figue was available for sale after spending years wearing and admiring the brand's clothes. "I knew [Figue] had 10 years of reputation-building [under its belt], which is very hard to accomplish. So I thought, 'Aha, maybe this is my next meant-to-be moment'," she said. Along with its direct-to-consumer e-commerce site, the brand now sells in over 50 retail locations, including at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. Lange classifies the brand as accessible and affordable luxury — its prices range from $73-$1,572. "I knew the brand was much more than a summer and vacation brand, and that we could get there by doing more than dresses," said Lange. She said that Figue plans to grow sales by expanding to product categories including swim, shoes and accessories.