A pragmatic leader and idealist entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in business development and merchandising and collection management in the luxury and contemporary fashion industry in NY and Paris, Emily’s focus and expertise is to take a company to their next dream phase, whether through re-positioning or building a product from the ground up. Today, as co-founder and CEO of female-led fashion tech startup Etelier, Emily is excited to share her journey.

On this episode, Emily speaks with Rachel Hall Danes about how she went from working in finance in New York City to co-founding a tech startup that's based in Israel.

Rachel Hall Danes is a sales & solutions consultant for manufacturers and designers.

Previously, Rachel co-founded The Danes, a brand that solves construction and fit issues for women and has remained a top sell-through collection in Bergdorf Goodman’s couture department every day since 1993.

The collection is also available at Boyd’s Philadelphia and select Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue locations.

On this episode, Rachel spoke with Emily Meridor about getting started running a fashion startup with her boyfriend, and how one particular sale led her down the path to her starting a brand focused on construction and fit.

A storyteller at heart, Phil is dedicated to supporting the LGBTQ community. Thus, they make use of their skills, talent, and experience to help others tell their stories. In that spirit, they lend their voice to narrate other people's messages as a voiceover artist. Hoping to help listeners connect with the moving stories, They are committed to telling each story with authenticity, honesty, and grace.

Phil has always been interested in celebrating stories that connect people and ideas on multiple levels, but at the same time, challenge the way we think. As a black and trans individual, Phil had an intense desire to share their own journey and in 2018 began hosting their first podcast, Transition of Style, highlighting conversations about how some queer people use clothing to navigate the journey to an identity that feels most authentic. Phil is also the co-host of the I’m From Driftwood podcast, an organization collecting and sharing first-person LGBTQ+ video stories for over 12 years now.

Phil continues to participate in and moderate many panels, fireside chats, and trainings where they lend their insight on topics such as gender identity, style, diversity in technology, and podcasting. Currently, Phil is the senior producer with FC podcasts, a podcast production agency, and the creative force behind the New York Life Podcast, Love Takes Action, Pivot with Purpose with Meghan Houle and In Scope - The Healthcare Security Podcast.

In this episode, Phil speaks with Meghan Houle about the major career pivots they experienced to become a podcaster, and how they have arrived at their own definition of success.

Meghan Houle is a one-stop-shop for all things career pivots and personal development. She's a globally recognized Senior Executive Recruiter, an ACC accredited Professional Career & Business Master Coach, and host of the Pivot with Purpose Podcast.

Meghan has spent the past 20+ years working in the luxury, specialty, and consumer retail industries, placing high-achievers in their dream jobs and building high-performing executive teams. Her clients include globally recognized corporate retail brands to solopreneurs where she uses her credibility and expertise in the industry to help create profitable businesses by getting the right people on their teams with her expert talent development strategies

As an Executive Recruiter with The Bowerman Group, Meghan is engaged with some of the top global brands in the Luxury & Specialty retail space. She is an expert in finding talent to fill retail, corporate and wholesale positions across all of North America. She prides herself in providing exceptional service to both our valued clients and candidates in the recruitment process with a mission to find the right mix of talent, partnering with our clients to understand their job needs and provide talent solutions in a timely manner.

Meghan established her MHM Career and Business coaching platform as another offering to work with her should you be looking to navigate a meaningful career pivot or build strategic hiring plans for business owners. In her podcast, Pivot with Purpose, Meghan shares inspirational stories of incredible humans who pivoted their lives or careers to align living with more purpose and joy, sharing with listeners how they can do the same.

Meghan speaks with Phil Corin about what service means to her, and how she found her way from broadcast journalism to retail to recruiting and back to media.

Holly Cole is a retail executive with $3B in sales volume across companies including Neiman Marcus, Victoria’s Secret, Rue Gilt Groupe, as well as helping launch a DTC fashion startup. She has 20+ years’ experience driving merchandising strategies for eCommerce, DTC, brick & mortar, catalog and mobile.

Holly has been able to transform businesses and drive multi-million-dollar growth through strategy and implementation, building fashion-right assortments, focusing on target markets and delivering unique shopping experiences. She has overseen businesses from $25M to $300M and teams of 6 to 40.

In this episode, Holly talks with her friend and colleague, Kate Sheldon, about how her career started, the importance of customer centricity and how inspiration can be found nearly everywhere.

In 2007 Kate Sheldon founded Fashioneering LLC;  a management consultancy working internationally across classifications advising brands, retailers, investors, and service providers in the luxury goods, affordable luxury, and sustainability spaces.

Kate formally launched the Fashioneering Lab in January 2022.  A new division of her management consultancy comprised of a global team of industry leaders built to future-proof the fashion industry. 

The Fashioneering Lab is a comprehensive growth hub,  working globally with purpose-driven luxury brands (and those who hope to be)  providing advisory and tactical services, curated think tanks, collection audits, to fractional c-suites. 

Leveraging three decades of success, deep industry knowledge, and an extensive network in the world of luxury fashion; Kate currently works as a Fractional Brand President and Chief Merchandising Officer and through the development platform, The Fashioneering Lab to help emerging to heritage brands develop collections, assortments, and businesses that are both profitable and responsible. 

Kate got her start in Luxury Fashion as a designer with Victor Costa; notoriously known as “the knock-off king.” 

Eventually, Kate found her way to Neiman Marcus. After that, she would go on to spend over a decade as a merchant in Fine Apparel, and Couture Foundations buying the likes of CHANEL, DIOR, Ungaro, Christian Lacroix, PRADA, Etro, Missoni, Roberto Cavalli, Moschino, Alberta Ferreti, Nina Ricci, Donna Karen, Pucci, La Perla, SPANX, Carine Gilson, Wolford, Vera Wang, Reem Acra, Richard Tyler Couture, Badgely Mischka, Monique Lhullier, Oscar de la Renta and many more for the then 43 store chain and online business. Equally passionate and skilled in both the creative and business sides of the industry she describes her unique approach in three words... Creative   Thinking    Fashioneering

In this episode, Kate talks with Holly Cole about how powerfully the word "no" influenced her career path from designer to merchant to entrepreneur.

Emerald Carroll is a New York based creative director and brand strategist driving desire and growth on a global scale. 15 years of expertise in storytelling, strategy, and brand-building across media for legacy and new brands in luxury, CPG, fashion, beauty, retail, and lifestyle.

She has guided numerous disruptor brands through launch and lent counsel to heritage players such as Coach, Amazon, Revlon, Maybelline, Christie’s, Barneys New York, and more.

Driven by curiosity, intuition, and data, Emerald embraces new strategies and technologies while pursuing whitespace innovation. She currently consults on brand development, creative direction, and Web3 marketing.

In this episode, Emerald talks with Elizabeth Welborn about how she entered the world of entrepreneurship as a teenager, and where that early start has led.

Originally from Louisiana, Elizabeth studied International Business at Spring Hill College in Alabama and Spanish in Latin America. She resides with her children in Marin County, California, where she combines her business acumen, love of design, sustainability, fashion, food and horses in her luxury lifestyle brand, Stick & Ball.

On this episode, she talks with Emerald Carroll about the inspiration for Stick and Ball, and how she went about starting the business.

Kathryn Shah is the co-founder of Spring & Mulberry, a food-meets-wellness brand exploring a world of sweet beyond sugar. The company’s inaugural line our date-sweetened chocolate bars are topped with beautiful & fantastic-for-you ingredients, from mango with Urfa Chili to lavender with bee pollen, all with 0g added sugar. Kathryn was inspired to start the brand after a cancer diagnosis in her early 30s led her to quit refined sugar. Previously, Kathryn led global marketing at Pantone and held marketing positions at LVMH (Veuve Clicquot) and Unilever (Dove, Axe, Ragu). She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from The University of Michigan. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and baby girl.

On this episode, Kathryn talks to Allison Henry Aver about how studying economics led her to a career in brand management, and ultimately to starting her own company.

Allison is the founder and creative director for Letter A, an all female-brand building agency based in Portland, Oregon.

Allison’s love of branding comes from over 20 years of leading top tier, in-house creative marketing teams that were integral to capturing the essence of the brand from A-to-Z.

Allison was the founding Design Director for the cult favorite brand, Kate Spade Saturday, led the re-brand of the heritage label Ann Taylor, was the first digital Art Director of Vogue.com, a Design Director at the prestige hair care brand Bumble and bumble under Estee Lauder and an art director for Mother’s Day at Hallmark Cards.

Allison received her Master’s Degree from the Designer as Entrepreneur Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and her BFA from Miami University in Ohio.

In this episode, she speaks with Kathryn Shah about how vests catapulted her into the fashion world, and eventually to the creation of her own branding agency.