The Glossy Podcast

Fashion is opening up. Old gatekeepers are moving on, being replaced by a new breed of consumers who double as fashion editors (and influencers.) Keeping this change in her sights, Alexis Maybank launched in April Project September, a new app that links brands with shoppers.

The twist: They shop via photos uploaded by users, who get a cut of the revenue each time a purchase happens.

Luxury brands have long resisted change, but a changing consumer mindset is forcing a revolution.

That revolution needs some handholding.

Lyst is a fashion e-commerce aggregators that lets people shop from brands like Proenza Schouler, Valentino or even Asos is one of those guiding lights — helping brands make sense of e-commerce and build marketplaces to appeal to a new type of consumer.

A shifting consumer mindset has forced the fashion industry to try to adapt, but the effect of those adaptations on the designers themselves hasn’t completely been understood. But digital pressure — symptoms include a new show cycle and a more complicated logistics process — has certainly affected designers. In fact, a string of high-profile departures from creative directors last year were caused, say observers, by the increasing “designer burnout” in the industry.

In two years, Kit and Ace, the technical apparel -- don’t call it athleisure! -- brand founded by Chip Wilson’s wife and son, Shannon and JJ Wilson, has grown at a breakneck speed, with 63 locations in two years. It came in hot, arriving just after the functional-but-stylish clothing boom in the U.S. Lacey Norton, head of retail at the company, joined this week’s Glossy Podcast to talk about growing too fast, creating a brand’s own identity and if athleisure can really scale.

The world of trend forecasting has a special place in fashion — the traditional fashion calendar runs, after all, anywhere between six months to a year and is based on both macro and micro trends in the economy, the workplace and on the ground.

Behind many brands’ decisions to show capes or culottes on runways and in shows is WGSN, or World Global Style Network, a trend-tracking and research tool whose designers, buyers and merchandising clients use it to decide clothing and apparel choices from color to cut to fabric.

Billie Whitehouse is in the business of creating an “enchanted” future.

A lot of what the designer and founder of Wearable Experiments says sounds like something right out of “Minority Report.” But Whitehouse says she envisions the connected future as being closer to Harry Potter in reality. Whitehouse, the brains behind Durex’s “Fundawear” connected underwear and the creator of soon-to-be-launched smart yoga pants (they correct your form), joined us this week on the Glossy Podcast.

When it comes to in-store tech, the industry often points to the Rebecca Minkoff brand as a success. Its smart mirror technology and emphasis on bringing the online shopping experience to its five retail stores is widely touted as proof that it is possible for fashion to be tech-forward.

The tech brains behind the operation is Uri Minkoff, brother to designer Rebecca and CEO of the brand, who last year also launched his own eponymous ready-to-wear mens collection. Minkoff, who is a special executive in the sense that is actually embodies his own customer — young and digitally savvy — joined this week’s podcast.

Susan Naci loves to talk about fear. The 32 Laight Street Partners investor is struck by how many decisions by VCs, startups and big brands are all driven by that most crippling of emotions. People are so afraid of not seeing scale or growth, that they often miss out on the best ideas. Naci, formerly the CEO of lux beauty sub-box Glossybox, joined this week’s episode of the Glossy podcast.

John Varvatos is the epitome of cool — and it’s Nate Poeschl’s job to keep it that way. The director of digital marketing at the hip men’s brand joined this week’s Glossy Podcast to talk men’s fashion and the need for a more logical fashion production cycle.

Trey Laird’s only “wearable” is a bracelet from Africa. It’s telling because the rest of Laird’s points of view on luxury and fashion are pretty traditional. Makes sense: Laird, the creative director and founder of Laird + Partners and the former head of brand at Donna Karan is part of a stable of fashion branding greats who remember when outdoor advertising was considered avant garde in fashion.