The pros and cons of having a famous or outspoken face at the helm.
In the fashion world, there are a smorgasbord of founders and designers we read and hear about. There's the celebrity designer, which could either mean a celebrity-turned-designer or a designer-turned-celebrity; the socialite designer; the influencer designer ; the millennial 'Girlboss' founder; the mythical, legendary designer whose name is everywhere but whose personal life and personality we know little about.
Such is the power of celebrity, and it wasn't long before designers themselves began chasing fame and using their personas to market their products. "Today's designers coming up…[self-promotion] comes natural to them," she continued, in "Hijacking Fashion." "We don't have to tell them they need to use their social media or they need to be comfortable with press. That's how they are. This is today's way of communicating. There are some who are better than others, and that has to do with their own personalities.
"The fall of what retail was and the rise of social media went so hand in hand that bringing those two industries together in a direct-to-consumer platform seemed like a no brainer," co-founder Karl Singer tells me over the phone. "The brands in our portfolio, having talent behind them really allows you to build into an audience that already exists.
Whether it's a celebrity, an influencer, or simply a designer or founder that made a name for themself in the press and/or social media, the benefits of giving consumers a public face to latch onto can't really be denied. "In the past, it was very important to these bigger brands to hire someone who had good press coverage and recognition and been nominated for awards," Burke explains. "Today though, they want to know how many followers that designer or person has." It's also something investors are now taking into consideration, he adds: "It's very attractive to them when it works, it's their biggest nightmare when it doesn't.
"If you are a founder who wants to be public facing, we suggest building an image on what makes the most sense based on the business, its positioning, and the consumer," she continues. "Their content, while it can be personal, must support the heart and soul of the brand." When it does work, Smith Hernandez says, an active founder can make the brand "more appealing to press" in addition to fostering brand awareness.
Meanwhile, all three of the millennial fashion startup founders mentioned earlier have, to varying degrees, been the subjects of public backlash from former employees in the media, with all of them stepping back from the companies they founded in some way. "You have to be aware of your responsibility and using voice, using your platform and really wanting to engage with your audience in a way that goes deeper than just talking about clothes," says Jeon. "I know that's what brought us all to this industry, but I think what keeps us here are the things that are so much more human and so much deeper than that."
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