Catrina Reingold has spent the past 15 years of her career in the fashion industry. She is an innovative creative strategist adept at transforming brands through insightful product strategy in order to create long-term brand value.

Her experience includes trend forecasting & marketing at Jones apparel, Director of Licensing for Isaac Mizrahi, Vice President of Design at C.Wonder for QVC, and the Creative Director at Lori Goldstein.

Listen as Catrina describes her career journey and how her experience at QVC both enabled and influenced her decision to pursue brand storytelling through ethics, culture, and sustainability.

For almost two decades, Jamie has consulted with globally recognized fashion, beauty, technology, and e-commerce companies to find and place the best talent at all levels. From filling specific roles in the C-Suite to staffing entire departments, she has built a much-deserved reputation for not only knowing everyone in the industry, but helping her candidates feel fulfilled and successful in their careers.

Join us as Jamie humorously describes how she parlayed her marketing experience into a successful career in recruiting, and how successful recruiting is akin to matchmaking. Interviewed by Catrina Reingold.

Today we hear from Camila Gomez Wills, a Business and Human Rights Program Manager who develops bespoke strategies for Fortune 500 companies to address high-risk ESG business issues — interviewed by fellow co-lab member, Janet Gilbert. Camila cares deeply about human dignity and agency and is dedicated to finding solutions for responsible sourcing as well as best practices to ultimately put an end to modern slavery in our supply chains. Join us as she describes how a personal tragedy in high school led to spend a year in India before starting college in Colombia, ultimately setting her on a path to her current career. 

Janet is a researcher and collaborator in corporate social responsibility and private sector engagement in apparel industry value chains, with a keen focus on modern slavery and other social compliance risks. A lifelong seamstress, she has a strong affinity toward garment workers. Listen to how, in sewing, she found the resilience to persevere through personal tragedy and ultimately enroll in business school to pursue a career in sustainability.

Today we hear the career story of Saskia van Gendtsits, Head of Sustainability at Rothy's — interviewed by fellow co-lab member, Ariele Elia. An environmental scientist with more than a decade of experience in sustainable manufacturing and design, Saskia is head of sustainability at Rothy’s, a San Francisco-based company transforming sustainable materials into modern shoes and accessories. After working at the EPA, Saskia now develops strategies to minimize the environmental impact that Rothy’s supply chain has on the environment. Join us as Saskia discusses her work at the EPA and method, and how her parents influenced her choice to focus on sustainability.

Ariele Elia is currently the Assistant Director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law. Previously, she served as the Assistant Curator of Costume and Textile at the Museum at FIT for seven years, where she curated or co-curated a number of exhibits including: "Faking It: Originals, Copies, and Counterfeits," “Global Fashion Capitals,” and "Black Fashion Designers.” Elia recently developed the course Cultural Awareness, Design Responsibility, and the Law at FIT. She has lectured internationally at the United Nations, Oxford, and Columbia Law.

Listen along as Saskia van Gendt chats with Ariele about her career.

American-born Swati Argade is the Founder and Creative Director of Bhoomki, one of New York City’s leading destinations for sustainable fashion since 2012.

Swati began her fashion career in South India while working on a documentary. In 2006 while in Calcutta, Swati was shocked to see children on factory floors producing $5,000 leather bags—the kind found in glossy fashion magazines. She decided to take a break from producing fashion collections to study the apparel supply chain and identify solutions for change. In 2012, Swati opened Bhoomki Boutique to provide a space for customers to discover brands committed to social and environmental responsibility.

Swati has Bachelor’s degrees in Art History and Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master’s degree in South Asian Studies with a concentration in film from the University of California, Berkeley. She has also studied garment construction at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Swati is a founding faculty member of the School of the New York Times where she is the lead fashion educator. In 2017, she was chosen as one of four women entrepreneurs by technology giant Intel in their campaign #SheOwnsIt. Her work has been featured in such publications as Elle, Lucky, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Associated Press, Brooklyn Magazine and The Nation.

Toral Patel Hughes is a corporate lawyer turned business consultant and fashion entrepreneur. A graduate of UCLA, Wash U Law School and Georgetown Law, she practiced at law firms for 8 years before moving in house to be a general counsel for a hotel holding company in New York City. In early 2020, right before COVID (eek on that timing), she decided to take a leap and take a break from law. While the world was on a COVID pause, she found her way to consulting for start-ups and also started a passion project based on her love of Indian textiles and artisan-made embroideries - a clothing line for children called Little Choli. Toral is excited to share her career journey, chat pivots and what it’s like to leave a prosperous career to follow your passion.

Kelsey Linnartz is a New York City based Assistant Designer for private label swimwear company, Trimera Brands, and she is the founder of LinnArtzy, where she designs greeting cards and fashion illustrations. Join us as she opens up about the challenges of navigating the start of her fashion career during the pandemic, moving back home, then back to NYC, networking, and launching her own brand. When Kelsey is not designing swimwear and greeting cards, she enjoys exploring New York, and connecting with fellow creatives.

Lauren Cook is a marketing and social media guru with a background in the retail and hospitality spaces. A graduate of Baylor University, Lauren started her career working in sales and marketing for Hilton and Marriott hotels, and has recently made the switch to retail as a part of Lovesac's Social Partnerships team. Listen along as she shares her best career advice, and how her spontaneous move to NYC has shaped her career today.