The Assemblist Letter 09 - Lord & Taylor
TODAY I'M EXCITED TO SHARE A LITTLE BEHIND-THE-SCENES SNAPSHOT INTO OUR RECENT SHOOT WITH THE FASHION TEAM AT LORD & TAYLOR, WHO HAVE BEEN BIG SUPPORTERS OF OUR VISION.
Our relationship with Lord & Taylor started very organically. I first met Stephanie Solomon, who is the Fashion Director (former Fashion Director of Bloomingdales for about 20 years) through my first life, as she had been a huge supporter of all the brands I had worked for. When we launched our first really big LA trade-show, she came out with her team and we ran into one another and she expressed a lot of excitement over Brand Assembly's mission and fresh point of view. Stephanie had just started at Lord & Taylor about six months prior and they were in the process of renovating the second floor, where she was looking to do a concept shop and gave us the opportunity of a lifetime: to curate a section of emerging designers.
Retail had always been a part of our (5 year!) plan, so jumping right into the first season was definitely a learning experience as we got together a group of brands to launch with. Fast forward to today, where we just shipped our third season main season and at this point we really understand the customer and the vibe. It's been great to discover the shop-in-shop's core customer who is genuinely excited about the product. Despite any price resistance (as we are introducing a new price-point within the store) I believe people really like how unique the pieces are, which is something we've strived to do and provide in our merchandising strategy. We want fun, quirky, standout pieces that you're not going to find anywhere else. That's the whole point!
AS WE'RE IN THE MIDST OF PREPARATION FOR OUR UPCOMING EVENT WITH LORD & TAYLOR AND RACHEL ANTONOFF (MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR 11/17!),
we're excited to introduce more events into the mix. Currently, we try to do at least one event per season season - in fact, when we first launched we had a grandiose idea of doing trunk-shows with emerging designers throughout the season which I still think is a great idea, it just comes down to resources (we're working on it!). But for now we hope you join in the fun with us and stay tuned as we introduce more community-based events for the holidays and the new year. We're ready to take "assembling daily" to a whole new level. Until then...
- HILLARY FRANCE, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF BRAND ASSEMBLY
DISCOVER WHAT WE'RE ASSEMBLING DAILY IN REAL-TIME @BRANDASSEMBLY