← The Glossy Podcast
The Glossy Podcast
Naked Wardrobe's co-founders are projecting 50% growth in 2025, following a rebrand
00:44:16
Loading summary
Transcript120 lines
- [00:00]
Sheeta Shereen
Foreign.
- [00:05]
Jill Manoff
Thanks for tuning in to the Glossy podcast. I'm your host, Jill Manoff, and today I'm sitting down with Sheeta Shereen and Sheeta Caviani, the sisters and founders of the LA based apparel brand Naked Wardrobe. Since launching 13 years ago with Body Conscious Basics beloved by celebrities including the Kardashians, Naked Wardrobe has expanded to also sell suiting, outerwear and special occasion dresses. In 2024, the brand underwent a relaunch resulting in sales growth of 30% year over year. Now it's planning to hit the gas on growth by opening its first flagship store and expanding internationally. So I wanted to ask the sisters what the successful relaunch entailed. I also want to ask how they plan to further scale the business without straying too far from its DNA. Welcome you guys. How are you?
- [00:59]
Sheeta Shereen
Thank you, thank you.
- [01:01]
Sheeta Caviani
How are you?
- [01:02]
Jill Manoff
Oh my gosh. Good. Full house. I don't know if we've ever done a podcast with three guests before, but I mean, love it very.
- [01:10]
Sheeta Shereen
A lot of female energy, a lot of successful women.
- [01:14]
Jill Manoff
We are going to no shortage of energy here. We're going to have our fun.
- [01:18]
Sheeta Caviani
Thank you so much for having us by the way.
- [01:20]
Jill Manoff
Oh my gosh. Of course. I was mentioning before we started recording, we last talked in 2020 if there was a different era for the brand. I mean at the time you were 80% direct to consumer. You are expanding your relationship with Macy's. There was a lot of talk about how you are leveraging celebrities but never paying celebrities. Would love to hear if that's still a go. But also this is a self funded, your family funded brand. Anyway, I'm going to jump around. Let's start there quickly before we jump into the newness. I think your mom is part of the business and maybe an investor along with you guys. Tell me about the ownership and if investors have come into the mix in the last four years.
- [02:03]
Sheeta Shereen
Yes. No, I love that you touched on that. Female founded, no debt business, Family owned and operated. And we finally reeled mom in full time. Yeah, she is officially our CFO now and our cio. She didn't know she was signing up for that part, but she has such incredible background in technology as well as financial and accounting. And at her last job that was really what her basis was. She was a project manager for Oracle software and implementation. So right when she joined our team she was like, hold on, we got to get the technology to the right place. And so she implemented Oracle Netsuite. I think in like her first six months. She also helped With a huge migration of platforms she was signing up for. But she's. We've kept her nice and busy, but she's kind of the. The biggest change, I think, internally.
- [03:03]
Jill Manoff
Yes. That's fantastic. No doubt. And you guys are just consistently growing too. Like, tell me where you fall in the market. I remember last time it was like, we're not fast fashion. And that's clear. With, like, the quality of your clothing, your price points as well. Do you consider yourself in the contemporary market or where do you guys land?
- [03:22]
Sheeta Shereen
We always felt kind of. We didn't know exactly where we landed and where we were supposed to be positioned because we dropped, like, fast fashion in terms of our cadence and our calendar and even our production, but truly our quality has never been. And even esthetically our visuals. And so I think for us, we hold ourselves at a contemporary caliber, I should say. And I think that for us, it's. It's so important for. For us to be aligned with the luxury brands without you having to pay the luxury price, which has always been the DNA of. Of who we are. So I think this. This rebrand to kind of jump right into it was very much triggered because coming out of COVID and being an elevated basics brand for so, so long and. And being one of the pioneers and using social as our driving tool and so forth, you know, we realized that there was such a influx all of a sudden of lounge and basics, and even brands that had never even dabbled into these categories, they were now introducing them during COVID Right. It was like work from home. It's. It's as they would say, business up top and party on the bottom. You know, you're wearing your pajama pants or your lounge pants or your leggings.
- [04:33]
Jill Manoff
Yes.
- [04:34]
Sheeta Shereen
So there was definitely a spike in competition, I should say, when it came to elevated basics or just basics in general. And so I. Us just really taking a look at the landscape and, you know, just even ourselves, we launched the brand 13 years ago, and we were different. Thirteen years ago, I was 25. And so at 25 to now, 30, 38, I should say almost 38. So much has changed, personally for myself and for my sisters. I'm sure they can. They can speak on this too, but so much had. Had evolved, I think, for us, and then also realizing that. Realizing that the customer had also grown with us. And so g. The new grown and sexy version of naked wardrobe is really what kind of triggered us to go down this rebrand. What should I call it, Roller coaster? Because going through a rebrand is nothing shy of chaotic and challenging and beautiful.
- [05:36]
Sheeta Caviani
At the same time.
- [05:37]
Jill Manoff
Oh, for sure.
- [05:38]
Sheeta Shereen
Well, you know, this is so cliche, but you always hear like, good things, like you have to work at them, they don't come easy to you. And so I think this was no different for us. You know, being in the business for 10 years and really having a solid foundation for the business really gave us the resources so that we could go out there and represent ourselves in a new light. And so I think for us, it really always started with the basics and our elevated basics in particular. And so it was a matter of how can we elevate those more. So, and then of course, internally we talk a lot about elevating the basics, which is the layers that kind of come on top. And so it's always the foundation of your work wardrobe that never changes. But then it was a matter of introducing new categories and kind of extending our product line. And so the rebrand was very much, you know, down to our logo. Like things of that nature were shifted. And then of course, we touched a little bit on migration. We. Shane, do you want to talk a little bit about our platform and, and, and how far we've come?
- [06:44]
KK
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, starting from our logo, you know, we, we. It was such a. It was our baby and it was well known and we felt like we kind of needed a new, fresh, timeless change movement. So that kind of triggered the rest of our rebrand and then our developing out our back end. You know, we were on. When we first started, we launched on our own. It was a custom built platform. And then we moved over to Magento, which is a really robust platform. And then they changed internally themselves and they developed and went to a new platform, Magento 2, which we had to remigrate there and then.
- [07:25]
Sheeta Shereen
Yeah.
- [07:26]
KK
And then with that came a lot of bugs. So we just found ourselves just constantly having to make these changes, put out lots of fires. Right. It wasn't helpful for our growth. So, I mean, she didn't, she'd have been trying to get me on Shopify for a very long time.
- [07:43]
Sheeta Shereen
But I would say to your point and to your side, she was resistant to move from Magento onto Shopify because Magento really is for huge corporations. It's really a source that has no ceiling. And so you can build and build and scale and scale. I think the Nikes of the world are even on Magento. And so it's a huge, as you mentioned, Shane, a robust platform. So the opportunity for scaling is endless. It's Limitless. It's a limitless platform. Those are the words and the connotation behind it. And so we found because it's so robust that it challenged us. We needed a bigger team to manage the IT side. It was because it was so savvy. It takes a village essentially. So for us, we didn't, you know, being a small team and being, you know, a family owned and operated business, we didn't want to necessarily pour millions of dollars into tech resources when we didn't have to. And so that's when you know the conversation of Shopify and just how user friendly and savvy. And we had some great conversations with Shopify as well, just going through the process and those motions. And so we quickly reeled Shirin in and that was the second migration that her and my mom, KK led in two years. It was not easy. It was a heavy lift to say the least. But we're all, yeah, all about building good practices and good foundations. Because when you talk about scaling, you have to have a rock solid foundation, otherwise things just begin to crumble. Right. And so I think this rebrand really triggered all these different elements. Our logo, our product line, the migration and moving on to Shopify overall, even, you know, just in terms of our quality, we were challenged for ourselves. How do we improve quality? How do we improve fit? You know, a lot of people don't know this about us, but we are fully vertical company. We have our own in house sample room pattern team. You know, we develop our own textiles in Korea, which at our price point is really unheard of. You know, we've talked to a lot of our competitors that are even more luxury than we are and they have the price points to match it. And they're like, we don't even develop our own textiles. Why are you guys taking these extra steps? And we're like, this is what matters, right? This is what counts. You know, being born dtc, being born online, we needed to instill that trust in our clients. And so for us it was very much we want to give them the best experience when it comes to quality and fit. And you that starts with fabric. It really does.
- [10:15]
Jill Manoff
That's amazing. You, because you're vertically integrated, doing everything yourself, you mentioned prior to the call that you, your new office I was asking about or your new headquarters in Calabasas, it's huge. That's because you're doing everything internally. Like there will be production happening in house.
- [10:31]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh, absolutely. Production happens in house. You know, we've even been, been dabbling the, the concept of our current warehouse. We're also, you know, we're super blessed and thankful to say that real estate is our second business. And so we own the buildings that we occupy and, and the building that we'll be leaving, you know, that we, we've outgrown so very much. You know, we've been dabbling the concept of, of creating a factory there, an in house, real production line. So these are, these are things that we're definitely thinking about in terms of scaling.
- [11:02]
Jill Manoff
So smart. Well when it comes to like the size of the company. We've interviewed you a couple of times along the way. I used to have a reporter, Katie, who talked to you in 2019.
- [11:11]
Sheeta Shereen
Looking at that.
- [11:12]
Jill Manoff
Yes, you had, you drove a million in sales the first year and then you had this trajectory where it was like 40% year over year growth.
- [11:19]
Sheeta Shereen
Yeah.
- [11:20]
Jill Manoff
Then by the time of 2021, we talked to you as 30% year over year growth. Have you maintained that growth? Where do we stand now?
- [11:26]
Sheeta Shereen
We have, you know, we've, we've ran into some, some, I don't want to say hiccups, but definitely the struggles. You know, last year economically was tough. I think across the board out, you know, we speak a lot about in our sector, there was a huge hit to it. But you know, as a whole, I think, you know, globally, economically we've had some challenges, you know, just getting back to a normal state after Covid coming out. And of course, you know, right out of COVID or I should say towards the end of it, you know, government was giving out a lot of money. So there was a lot of spend a lot of higher spending power at that point. And so I, we always say in the industry that year wasn't real. Right. And so you saw these fluctuations and then it kind of just went and balanced itself out. And so we've been really lucky. We had an amazing second half this last year. And that's, you know, because of our new product line that we launched and the new categories that we've introduced such as outerwear, accessories and really creating a moment for the basics that made you need the basics, essentially. Right. Going back to the basics. And so especially, you know, coming out of all that competition of lounge, we really wanted to diversify our product line and be impactful with what we put out. There is a lot more competition nowadays, so just making sure that we're putting our best foot forward, I think is, is really key. Did I touch on your question? I can't.
- [12:52]
Jill Manoff
No, that's perfect. The size of the company yeah, Your ups and downs. But we're in a good place in terms of.
- [12:57]
Sheeta Shereen
And we're really lucky to say that we're on track this year for 50% growth this year, which you don't hear a lot of people talk about, given our times. And, you know, our whole brand DNA has been built off of our product line and, you know, essentially zero marketing and not paying celebrities and even not going into the influencer program realm. We really are about letting our product speak for itself and word of mouth and people just truly having an appreciation for what we do. We put a lot of love into every element of it. And I think that's really a testament to us three sisters. And even in kk, our fourth sister, our mom, we put everything, you know, our family values really are the core of the company.
- [13:43]
Jill Manoff
Yeah.
- [13:43]
Sheeta Shereen
And so for us, it's just a reflection. Once the consumer is able to have the product in their hands to touch, feel, try on, and fall in love.
- [13:51]
Sheeta Caviani
With and fall in love.
- [13:53]
Jill Manoff
Who have you found is effective at like, moving the needle in terms of celebrity or influencers? Is it still like the, I don't know, Khloe Kardashians of the world?
- [14:02]
Sheeta Shereen
She's so awesome. She's been such an awesome support for us over the years, you know, and we've had an incredible, incredible feedback from everyone that's really come across our brand at that caliber. I think for us it's interesting to talk about, you know, be transparent about the industry as a whole. You know, you look at influencers and celebs and it's, you know, there was. Gone are the days where you used to post something and then it would sell out overnight, you know, or in that, in that hour. The impact is just not what it used to be. It's a different time. Right. I think with TikTok and just seeing the organicness of influencers and the micros being more valuable than some of the big key players. And I think that's again, a testament to organic growth. I mean, someone that's not getting paid to promote a product is going to give you their genuine, you know, feedback. And you want to trust the genuine feedback. Right.
- [14:56]
Jill Manoff
For sure.
- [14:57]
Sheeta Shereen
It's changed. You know, we've had these discussions. We went to a founders dinner a couple, couple weeks back, Shereen and I, and we heard a lot of the same thing where, you know, a lot of founders were saying influencers impact is just not what it used to be. And I think there's, there can be instances, instances where they still could be as impactful as, as they were once upon a time. But the landscape is changing, changing very quickly. I think the people, the viewers are very savvy, savvier than they used to be. I even see, you know, clients, I see people on social media like, oh my God, that's polyester. Like, how could you be charging these prices with polyester? And you would never hear about consumers caring. You know, they didn't even look at the contents of fabric. Once upon a time it was the world of fast fashion was just like, go, go, go. I need it, I want it, I'm gonna have it. And so it's really breathtaking to see how people are really, really enjoying the quality behind product and taking the time to educate themselves. Most importantly, because we take so many steps ourselves personally with our brand and we're not very vocal about it, to be quite frank. We probably should be.
- [16:09]
Jill Manoff
Yes.
- [16:10]
Sheeta Shereen
You know, a lot of people don't know that we're a vertical brand and that, you know, we're involved with every, every piece and just even from creative direction to product conceptualization, like we are so hands on as three founders and it's, it's quite untraditional, I would say, but it's the secret sauce. It really is this the secret to our success.
- [16:32]
Jill Manoff
That makes sense. I wonder if you and I saw the same TikTok this morning about the polyester for $250.
- [16:39]
Sheeta Shereen
I'm sure there was a brand.
- [16:40]
Jill Manoff
We won't name names, but tell me, tell me what percentage of your sales is direct to consumer now? And if you're still working with the Macy's and the Nordstrom's of the world.
- [16:49]
Sheeta Shereen
Sure, sure. Direct to consumer right now is about 70% and 30% of our business is wholesale. We did see last year a difference. We had 50% wholesale, 50% DTC.
- [17:01]
Jill Manoff
Oh, interesting.
- [17:02]
Sheeta Shereen
We've kind of flipped that it that way. We like for DTC to really be the lead because no one's going to, you know, represent our brand the way that we would intend to. Although we are so, so lucky and blessed to have an amazing partnership in Nordstrom. And they are our current only exclusive domestic partner. And we are proud to say that they are an incredible department store like they are just for the future of fashion and just seeing, you know, brands and social media and just what power they really have. Nordstrom has always been ahead with taking chances, taking, you know, leaps of faith on these smaller brands. And also their technology, they're very quite advanced with technology in comparison to their competitors. And I think that's something interesting and unique to call out. And the reason, I would say, for their success. Right. And now that, you know, they've always been family owned and operated and so they're kind of taking the reins again in that regard. And it's incredible. I mean, it's. No one's going to put as much thought into the company as, as, as the founders and the family behind the brand. So it's incredible to see what they've built and we're just so lucky to be be partnered with them. But yes, in regards to our other partnerships, you know, for us it was really about having a really strong partnership that was aligned with our vision, our brand's DNA and vision, and the road that we're going on, which is much more elevated. And so just staying that course has, has been important for us. Yes.
- [18:36]
Jill Manoff
Do you have a shopper in mind that you're, you're targeting? And also, I feel like at one point you dabbled in menswear and maybe children's wear, and now are you kind of 100 focused on a certain woman girl now instead?
- [18:48]
Sheeta Shereen
I mean, we, we always say internally we are, we are designing for all women, but I think certainly our goal is to bring the sexy out of every woman. It's, it's to bring out that side of her. You know, our director of fit, our fitting director. I'm sorry, our tech design director, I should say. She comes from an incredible background and she, you know, we joke internally that she puts our clothes on and she's like, I just, I didn't know I was this sexy. Like, I didn't know I had this in me. And I love to hear that type of feedback. It's why we do what we do. It's making women feel something. And we've said that from, from day one because that's really what it's always been about for us. It's making women feel empowered, making them feel like they have the confidence to go out and do whatever it is they want to do that day. And I think for us, it's, it's always front and center.
- [19:43]
Jill Manoff
Yes. Talking about the relaunch and a new direction with your products, new logo, new things. What was the feedback from your core customer, your existing customer? Did they question a lot? Nobody likes change.
- [20:00]
Sheeta Shereen
I would say so. You know, to be quite transparent, at the beginning of the rebrand, we had brought on an external coo and she was amazing in so many ways and taught us so many things from an operational standpoint. But truly the vision behind the brand is very much us three sisters, and that's reflective across the board. And I think once we had brought on our previous coo, we realized, you know, through that rebrand, it was like this direction. And then our customers, when we launched the rebrand back in April of last year, the customer was like, what is this? We don't like this. We missed the old naked wardrobe and we were like, oh, my God, we're going through an identity. We felt like we were having an identity crisis almost, right? And she, you were pointing out so many, like, comments and messages, and she was like, they don't like it. Like, what are we doing?
- [20:53]
Jill Manoff
Oh, my gosh. So, yes, they got used to it.
- [20:57]
KK
I mean, we gave them really good product, right? We had. We kind of pushed through and just kind of gave them visually. And we had to adapt and kind of learn what they want to see and kind of force beloved through.
- [21:10]
Sheeta Caviani
Through this. Agility was definitely key.
- [21:13]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh, for sure. No, I think our strong suit, because we are a family owned and operated business is that we're so gritty and we're so reactive and adaptive when we need to be. And I think for us, when we launched the rebrand, our product line had not caught up to the rebrand just yet. Because I think also something to put out there for any founders is that going through a rebrand is so, so challenging because getting everything to align, down to your packaging, down to your website, down to just all that, there's so many moving parts. We had long conversations about, oh my goodness, like, it's not going to all launch together, like, this is not going to be a good look. And we had so many other founders tell us, like, don't put that pressure on yourself. Like, once the packaging is ready, you roll that out too. And once the product line and it just all kind of just naturally starts to set in place. And so in the rebrand launching in April and the product line not catching up until September, which was really the beginning of the new product line for us, there was a disconnect. And that was when we were hearing it from our clients. And they're like, we don't like this new naked wardrobe. We want the old you. And now that they have the new, they're like, we love it, like, we want more of it.
- [22:25]
Jill Manoff
That's awesome. And I'm sure you've attracted some new customers as well in the process.
- [22:29]
Sheeta Shereen
For sure, for sure. We, we have an amazing clientele. They are so loyal and communicative, you know, and I think for us, something that we've learned over the years is the importance of listening to our clients. And so Shereen and I and she, like, we're all day long seeing what are they gravitating towards, what content are they gravitating towards, what product lines are they gravitating towards. And just being really receptive and adaptive if we need to, to kind of make sure that we're giving the consumer what they want to see from the brand ultimately for sure.
- [23:01]
Jill Manoff
I have to ask, I'm going to bother everyone here. How are you juggling responsibilities, sharing roles? Sherene, you seem to be the tech mind, the digital savvy. I don't know. I think you're all digital. You tell me. What's your.
- [23:14]
Sheeta Shereen
They call me analog. I don't know.
- [23:16]
KK
I don't know if I'm managing her digital life. Life is a second job, a full time job.
- [23:25]
Jill Manoff
Is it necessary to have like the title, like Chief Digital Officer or Tell me.
- [23:31]
KK
Yeah, for me, no titles. We're all found.
- [23:34]
Sheeta Shereen
We'd have 19 each.
- [23:35]
Jill Manoff
Totally. And what was your background ahead of. Ahead of the company?
- [23:39]
KK
Me, I did. I studied a lot of things, but I ended up studying graphic design in the end. And then I went to after college, worked at a engineering company and business system analyst. And I kind of learned the corporate world there and how they function and how everything moves. It was a huge company with like 400,000 employees, so.
- [24:01]
Jill Manoff
Oh my God, I bet they were on Magento. Was it a brand?
- [24:04]
KK
They were definitely using Oracle, so.
- [24:06]
Jill Manoff
Oracle.
- [24:07]
Sheeta Shereen
Yeah. Shereen and my mom actually work together. They work together for one of the like the top three engineering firms in the world.
- [24:15]
Jill Manoff
Oh my gosh. Amazing. I love that Mom's involved.
- [24:19]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh yes, she is. And then Sheeta, of course you want to touch on your background and we all play a role.
- [24:26]
Jill Manoff
I feel like you have a large following. Sheeta too. Are you an influencer for the brand? But anyway, you talk about.
- [24:31]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh, yes, that is so well said, Jill.
- [24:35]
Sheeta Caviani
Me? No, not me. Let's see my background. I dabbled into Getty Images and I love the entertainment aspect of that prior to starting at Naked Wardrobe. And I was a songwriter for many years. And once we launched Naked Wardrobe, it totally took me left field, which is totally beautiful and such a blessing. And I did get my feet wet at Capitol Records, Warner Brothers Records on the PR side of the spectrum. So it was beautiful to learn the ropes in that regard and to be able to put everything I learned into Naked Wardrobe. Pretty much. So it's just been a. It's Been beautiful to do that.
- [25:14]
Jill Manoff
So you're really hands on when it comes to the talent that you're working with, I would assume.
- [25:19]
Sheeta Caviani
Yes, yes, absolutely. I love it. I breathe it. And working with stylists and handling our HR side, I mean, we all wear a lot of hats. At the end of the day, we can tell you everything we do, but there's so much more that we add to that, so it's beautiful.
- [25:36]
Sheeta Shereen
Titles don't matter here, Jill. I'll tell you that. We leave our ego at the door and we do it all. And, and I think that's what makes it, again, so unique is that we are. The level of involvement that we do have as founders, I think it's, it's untraditional, I should say. As, as you know, even our team members that have come from, from huge corporations, they. They love the intimacy and the dynamic that we have and the company culture that we've built. And I think it's, again, such a reflection of our, of our values from, from a family standpoint.
- [26:09]
Jill Manoff
Yes. And I'm sure working with family has its own challenges. How have you guys managed this and not killing each other, I guess.
- [26:18]
Sheeta Shereen
Well, you know, we have our days. The one and only time, which I always love to remind Shereen of, is once we did the migration. It was the second migration or the first migration we did to Magento too. Things were falling through the cracks and I was like, oh, my God, you know, I'm losing my mind. And she's like, relax. You know, truly, we all wear such different hats. You know, I'm. I'm all things product development and creative. And then of course, as she done mentioned, she's all things PR and external to the business, and then Sherene's all things operational and it. And I think the fact that we all have different expertise and, you know, even my mom being cfo, we all have such different expertise and it's allowed us to come together and really bring different insight. And I think we really love leaning on each other when we don't have a solution. And it's nice to have that support system for sure. But I will say the biggest challenge is how do you turn work off when you get home? Right. And I think Shereen and I live together and so, you know, sometimes we even carpool to work and it's all we talk about. So for me personally, sometimes, I'm sure you bring your own car to work today. And that's my, that's my me time. I don't get to talk about work for the 30 minute drive and I turn the music up and I zone out. But otherwise it's all business. It's a beautiful thing. It really is a beautiful thing. We have such a good time, I think just even taking a step back when we do get a chance to look at the growth and look at how far we've come, it's such a testament to our family. And I'm sure our parents are so proud of us. They remind us every day. But they've been such a great support system and they were both entrepreneurs in their prime. And so I think for us, getting a lot of insight from them and just learning how to mitigate challenges and maybe even getting ahead of challenges that were due to experience. I think that's the beauty of having each other to rely on.
- [28:16]
Jill Manoff
Truly nice. Well, you hired mom. I think you said you hired a CEO like you're in your new stage of growth. What other hires are necessary or were necessary?
- [28:27]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh, yes, we're doing a whole, a whole revamp right now really. And just not even a rebate revamp, but growing and bringing on more expertise. We have visions of scaling this business to become a billion dollar company and we've set the foundations in order to do so. And so I think for us, you know, of course, as we mentioned, you know, we've done this with no outside investment and no outside capital and no debt, you know, but as we're learning, you know, some debt is necessary and healthy actually. So those are kind of the motions that we're going through now. And I think for us, you know, just continuing to develop great product and continuing to put our best foot forward requires more expertise. And as we always say internally in the office, I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to be surrounded by people that know more than I and can teach us a thing or two. That's very much the stage that we're in. We really check our egos out the door. You would never know that we're the founders when we're in the building. We are just as much a part of the team and we are so open minded and have such an open door policy to wanting to hear our team members, no matter what role and no matter what position they sit in. I think that's kind of the beauty of being surrounded. But you know, I would say that the biggest challenge in 2025 is getting people that want to be in office. Right. I think this remote work has, has not to touch on this, but it's a Touchy subject, I agree. But that's a challenge because it's about being in a room and bouncing off ideas and just getting the vibrance up and running. It's such a amazing feeling, and we love to be at work. We're home today. The exception was you.
- [30:10]
Jill Manoff
Oh, sorry, guys. Thank you.
- [30:13]
Sheeta Shereen
But truly, thank you for having us. But being around people and being around energy, creative energy, strategic energy, it's. It's how we thrive and. And our biggest joy, I would say so Growing the team is always a part of the process for us.
- [30:29]
Jill Manoff
Ah, I hear you. I love. I love going to the office. I miss it so much. Oh, my gosh.
- [30:34]
Sheeta Shereen
That's our office.
- [30:36]
Jill Manoff
I'm coming to Calabasas, y'all.
- [30:38]
Sheeta Shereen
I love it. I love it. We'll have an office ready for you.
- [30:42]
Jill Manoff
I love it. Well, not only do you have a new office, I hear you're a new store is coming. Is this for sure? Are we. Are we scouting locations? What are the plans there?
- [30:51]
Sheeta Shereen
This is for sure. Do. Do one of. I feel like I've spoken so much, but I know they said I was Beyonce of the group.
- [31:01]
Sheeta Caviani
We are currently scouting the perfect location. We have an amazing demo in New York, Louisiana. But we are currently looking both in LA and New York, and hopefully we'll find our flagship store in one of those locations soon. Sooner than later.
- [31:15]
Jill Manoff
Amazing. What makes a perfect location? Is it a certain size? Is it a certain, I don't know, corner Accessibility, I think, but I think.
- [31:23]
Sheeta Shereen
All of the above. I think all of the above. Location, location, location. Right? That's the first thing they teach you in real estate. So that, of course, is, you know, the first thing we look at. Just even in speaking with our. With our realtors. You know, in New York, it's. It's like, particularly in soho, there's three streets that he mentioned are super, you know, more elevated than the rest, I would say, and have the most foot traffic and all the things. And so. So he was talking about, do you want to pay X amount of money versus X amount of money? And, you know, we're very much big picture girls. And so after that takeaway, it was like, okay, do we want to spend a little bit more money to be on a street that has the higher foot traffic, that's more aligned with the brands you want to be positioned next to? The answer is yes. Right? And I think you have to have that mentality as an entrepreneur where you think about the bigger picture. Whereas, you know, maybe someone that's financially directing you is like, no, let's go here. Like this is, you know, in the budget and sometimes you have to push those boundaries to align yourself with the growth that you have planned. And I think for us again, location is key. But as Sheeta touched on our demo, we have the biggest demo on the East Coast. Our biggest market is New York. The girls just love and appreciate the product and I don't blame them. I think in our own search of fashion when we've been in New York, the prices are just outstanding and the quality can sometimes be mediocre. And so I think a brand like ours that's about, you know, positioning ourselves for the most affordable quality that you can have. It's a no brainer almost for our east coast girlies. They appreciate what we're doing and so when we think about our first location, it feels right that it should be New York. Although we are born and bred LA Valley girls, it's different. You know, you think about the consumer overall and just their habits. And the New York girls are always out and about, they're always out shopping. And you know, we even say internally here because kk, you know, our CFO and mom, she's like, you know, LA is easier to start. We can get the logistics like get in motion and just kind of, you know, we're iron out all of the challenges, you know, close to home. But I challenged her, I said, you know, truly New York versus la. I said kk, if we launch a new collection this, this week. I said New York versus la. I picture the LA girl online shopping and buying it on our website. Website. I picture the New York girlies lining up outside and they're excited to get out, they're excited to be, you know, in the store. Touch, feel, try and not to say that the LA girlies don't have that level of, of, of shopping. Truly New York is just, it's, it's different and it really is that way. And, and so I think for us being the biggest demo, being that the foot traffic is, is far more intense in New York, I think it just feels the most right for us. So we are scouting. Hopefully you'll see one flagship pop up before end of this year. And then our plan for 2026 is to roll out at least two to four more stores throughout Miami, Atlanta, hopefully Texas and then of course LA as well in the near future. I think LA will be second. I think it feels like that should be our second home for sure.
- [34:44]
Jill Manoff
Makes good sense. And you've tested the waters with pop ups, right? Like what are Some learnings that you're going to take from your pop up into your new location.
- [34:52]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh, with our pop up, we were like, we're going bigger, we're going. We, we had spent like flagship money on our pop up. Yes. We invested in.
- [35:02]
Jill Manoff
A real lesson learned is no pop up anymore.
- [35:06]
Sheeta Shereen
Well, you know, there's such an amazing process and strategy behind popup. Right. You don't know if it's going to be a hit until you try. And you also don't want to sign yourself up for 5, 10, 20 years of, of a lease. And so just being cautious, obviously with New York, it's, it's been tried and true for us in the past. And also being in Nordstrom stores all over the country, we've gotten really great data behind where our biggest demo is when it comes to in store experience. And so just setting up in those markets, you know, in the outskirts is really going to be key for us. And just making sure that we're there to amplify our partnership with wholesale. We're there to amplify, you know, our brand presence. And so just making sure that we spread ourselves out. But not too thin, of course.
- [35:51]
Jill Manoff
Right on. And then after that, like world domination. I know. You went international expansion. Is that already in the works as well?
- [35:58]
Sheeta Shereen
Yes, yes, it is. Sheeta, do you want to touch on international? Yes.
- [36:03]
Jill Manoff
What markets are you targeting? Go ahead.
- [36:05]
Sheeta Caviani
We are planning to roll out throughout Europe and the uk. We will be starting our new partnership with flannels throughout the United Kingdom this year, which we're very excited about. And hopefully in 2026, Canada is on our radar as well. So we have.
- [36:19]
Sheeta Shereen
Although, let's talk tariff. Oh, thank you.
- [36:22]
Jill Manoff
You knew I was gonna bring it up. I was just gonna bring it up. We have to. What's happening?
- [36:28]
Sheeta Shereen
That kind of feels like the same as our store flagship launching in la Canada just felt so right as, as our biggest second, you know, home. When it came to international like the first place, we wanted to kind of tackle. We have such a huge audience in Canada. But these, these taxes and these tariffs and these duties, they really, they're, they're hard. They're hard on a business model like ours because we like to give the incentive to the consumer and give them, you know, the lowest margins possible and the best price point possible for the quality. It's challenging for us. I think if we were more like a common business in terms of industry standard margins, I think it would land differently. We'd have the room for these extra duties and things. And I think for us, just learning the balance between DTC and wholesale and then the international wholesale part, it's a dance you really have to kind of go through all the motions to see. But it's been challenging. I've been hearing things about Canada and you know, it's tough hearing things because for us, they're our neighbors, they're our friends. And so it's been challenging to say the least for sure. But hopefully we'll see some positive changes over the course of the next. Hopefully maybe after four years or sooner. Or sooner.
- [37:52]
Sheeta Caviani
We're hoping, but we'll be prepared when that day comes.
- [37:56]
Jill Manoff
Right on. Well, you knew I was going to ask about challenges, so you mentioned the tariffs, you mentioned people wanting to work from home. Anything else that you're grappling with at the moment, that, that's plenty. I would say those are, those are.
- [38:08]
Sheeta Shereen
The biggest things that, that we've been experiencing challenges with. Of course we are so ready to hit the gas. Like as, as big as our brand is today, we have a vision that is far bigger. And so just making sure we put everything in place and plant the right great seeds is really the road we've been on and the road that we've been going down. So I think come 2026, we'll see a little bit more of the fruits of our labor. But. But we're excited about all the progress we've made and we're so passionate about what we do. So hopefully we make our clients proud.
- [38:43]
Jill Manoff
Yes. Well, I'm excited to see and I love that you said grown and sexy. Do you know that that was the theme of my 30th birthday party?
- [38:49]
Sheeta Shereen
Oh, good.
- [38:50]
Jill Manoff
That's a long time ago now. Oh my gosh. No, no, no, no. We're not going there. But tell me, five years from now, like where do you envision the brand? Like where will you be?
- [39:02]
Sheeta Shereen
Global empowerment, Just world domination, as you said. World domination.
- [39:07]
Sheeta Caviani
World domination.
- [39:08]
Sheeta Shereen
We are a lifestyle brand and so we want to be a part of all of our clients journey. For sure. I know you touched earlier on kids and men's and so we've taken a step back from those things after testing. But I think once we really feel like we are cemented within our, our new product line, we by all means you will see those things pop back up and in a new way, a refined way, I should say. And, and we're excited about all of the, the opportunity in front of us.
- [39:37]
Jill Manoff
Oh my gosh. It's such an exciting time. You guys excited to follow along and see all you do, and hopefully we'll talk more in the years ahead.
- [39:46]
Sheeta Shereen
Absolutely. We'll see you at our. Our launch. Launch for our flagship and. And hopefully you'll come out for the launch of our new headquarters.
- [39:53]
Jill Manoff
Yes. All the things. Oh, my God. I would love to you guys.
- [39:56]
Sheeta Shereen
Absolutely.
- [39:57]
Jill Manoff
Thank you for being here. It was a joy.
- [39:59]
Sheeta Shereen
Thank you for having us.
- [40:01]
Sheeta Caviani
Thank you for having us.
- [40:01]
Sheeta Shereen
Thank you so much.
- [40:02]
Jill Manoff
Thank you so much. That's all for this episode. Our theme unit music is by Otis McDonald. Be sure to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to the Glossy Podcast. See you next week.