Spirit of 608: Fashion, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability + Tech
192 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsStories, tips and advice from women at the intersection of fashion, entrepreneurship, sustainability and tech. It's F.E.S.T., and it's the future. Hosted by fashion journalist Lorraine Sanders.
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Episodes
Putting Brand DNA Before Dollars with The Fashion Business Plan Author Bako Rambini
April 24, 2018 06:00 - 58 minutes - 66.5 MBIn this week's episode, we have the first princess to grace the Spirit of 608 podcast - and the first guest with a finance background to tell us to stop and think about something more than numbers and money in order to build a brand that will attract enough of an audience to, you know, produce impressive numbers and money. Not sure how that works? Curious why this week's guest says locating brand DNA matters even more with a fashion business than in other industries? Want to know how you get...
How Karla Mora Launched Sustainable Fashion's New Eileen Fisher-Backed Venture Fund to Fuel the Future of Fashion
April 17, 2018 06:00 - 58 minutes - 66.9 MBWhat is the future of sustainable fashion? Ask this week's guest, and she's likely to tell you it's about a lot more than consciously-made clothes. In fact, as the founder of a new venture fund backed by none other than Eileen Fisher herself, the FEST-ive voice we'll be hearing in this episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast is quick to explain how - and why - innovations that go beyond what's hanging on the racks are the drivers of change she and the fund she started earlier this year are focu...
My Green Closet Vlogger Verena Erin Polowy on Working with Ethical Fashion Influencers the Right Way
April 10, 2018 06:00 - 54 minutes - 50.1 MBHow can brands work with ethical fashion influencers? This week, we have insight and advice from a YouTube vlogger and blogger who's grown an enthusiastic following with her sunny, approachable style and spot-on tips for capsule wardrobes, slow fashion and conscious shopping. With her easygoing attitude and streamlined approach to style, you might mistakenly think this week's guest just breezes through her business. But behind-the-scenes, this sustainable fashion influencer is hard at work f...
Getting Real on Starting Up, Figuring it Out on the Fly and Finding Mentors with Organic Baby Brand Founder Monica Royer Monica + Andy
April 03, 2018 06:00 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBWhere do you find great mentors? Heck, where do you even find a basically-okay-most-of-the-time mentor? It helps to be the founder of one of the most talked-about baby brands around, one with a thriving fan base that not only scoops up its organic apparel and layette sets, but also comes to hang out with the company and connect with other moms in person through retail Guideshops that double as hubs for community events. Wait a second, you're probably now saying...Guideshops...where have I he...
How Perrin Paris is Reinventing Ethical Luxury for the next 100 years with Instagram Influencer Olga Pancenko
March 27, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 57.8 MBLuxury is changing. How it used to be: big names, recognizable logos, It girls carrying It bags. But technology and a swelling desire on the part of shoppers to know what's happening behind the scenes of the brands they sink their dollars into are opening the doors for a new scenario, one where luxury isn't simply about brand reputation and price, but also intimately connected to how something is made, the team who makes it possible and why it's being made in the first place. You might say, ...
Silicon Valley Vet Mauria Finley on Finding the Joy in Stress, Structured Living and Standing Out in a Crowded Market
March 20, 2018 06:00 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBWhat's it like to found your first startup in your late 30's after a successful Silicon Valley career where you've worked at someone of the biggest names in tech, then watch that company get acquired for $50M and next - instead of just kicking back and enjoying the fruits of your labor - going on to launch yet another startup in what is arguably a pretty crowded space? You'll get that story, plus a lot more in this conversation with the founder of Allume, an on-demand personal shopping servi...
Power CEO Tina Sharkey on Brandless, Brand Tax + Building Exclusive Products at Inclusive Prices
March 13, 2018 06:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBCan a brand every truly be brand-less? On the show this week, we're talking to one of the most accomplished female founders out there today about her attempt to build a company that does just that - all while bringing low-cost, yet high-quality food, beauty, household and personal care products into your home. Yes, we're stepping away from fashion and apparel this week to explore the story behind one of the most talked-about ecommerce startups out there at the moment, one seeking to bring or...
132: Why Running a Fashion Business Isn't as Glamorous As it Seems And What You Can Do About It with Successful Fashion Designer's Sew Heidi
March 06, 2018 07:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIn rethinking goals news, we have an episode this week diving into a different way to be a fashion designer than we typically talk about on the Spirit of 608 podcast. Yes, it's true, we're so often focused on building a business that involves a standalone brands with its own products and services. But this week's guest is here to tell us how she uses her designer skills to get freelance work that allows her to do her job anywhere she wants (even in a few gorg tropical locales) while also bui...
131: Third Love’s Heidi Zak on Taking Entrepreneurial Risks to Change How Lingerie is Bought and Sold
February 27, 2018 07:00 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MBIt’s been nearly four years since Heidi and I first met in the original Third Love offices in San Francisco. In this week’s episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast, I get to check in with the innovative fashion tech startup’s founder and find out what’s happened since they set out to upend the women’s lingerie market – spoiler alert: a lot. Dubbed one of the fastest growing startups in America last year in the media, they have amassed fans around the world for their different approach to the ag...
130: Talking Chat Bots, AI, Sustainability & the Future of Fashion with Epytom's Anastasia Sartan & Marianna Milkis-Edwards
February 20, 2018 07:00 - 56 minutes - 51.1 MBChat bots don't sound inherently stylish, but today's guests are betting these conversational marketing tools can use artificial intelligence to change the face of personal styling. If that weren't interesting enough on its own, learn from the co-founders on this episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast just how sustainability prompted them to begin exploring a tech-enabled way to cut waste from the consumer shopping experience and build a solution for brands at the same time. Plus, hear behind-...
129: Building Fast Fashion’s Ethical Virtual Factory of the Future with Soko’s Gwendolyn Floyd
February 13, 2018 06:00 - 47 minutes - 65.7 MBWhen is a jewelry business not really a jewelry business at all? Today on this episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast when we get to know a stylish startup company whose underlying technology and way of working with over 2,500 artisans in Africa is almost more eye-catching than the on-trend jewelry the site now sells online and in partnership with more than 400 retailers around the world. Almost. We dare you not to fall in love with their collections of ultra-giftable earrings, necklaces and b...
PressDope Minisode: The Art of the Bite-Sized PR Pitch
January 25, 2018 06:14 - 12 minutes - 17.2 MBIf there’s one thing that’s classically entrepreneurial, it’s the idea of more. More ideas, more customers, more press, more growth, more reach, more everything. While that hunger for and drive toward more so often serves business owners well, there are times when focusing on the more can actually detract from your most pressing goals. You’ve likely heard about choosing one thing, the lean approach to business building and entrepreneurial minimalism in books like this one and this one and ...
PressDope Minisode: How to Find a Journalist's Email Address
January 23, 2018 18:04 - 9 minutes - 13.5 MBHave you ever found *exactly* the right journalist or influencer - someone you're dying to tell about your brand - but you can't for the life of you find a reliable email address to use when reaching out? While most bloggers and influencers with online personas should be relatively easy to contact (after all, their business depends on connecting with others), many members of the media and especially staffers at national media outlets with large audiences make their email addresses intentio...
128: Solo Episode
December 26, 2017 07:00 - 32 minutes - 37.7 MBWhat does a year talking to FEST founders, creating a media startup and heading in an entirely new direction from your previous professional day-to-day teach you? A lot. For the final Spirit of 608 podcast episode of the year, I'm sharing a solo episode with 10 takeaways I wrote down in recent weeks that sum up what I've learned in 2017. These aren't your typical lifehacks. Because life is messy and strange and full of hard decisions, especially when you're trying to build your own thing. An...
127: Live Media Strategy Session with Althea Simons of Grammar
December 19, 2017 07:00 - 1 hour - 85.5 MBWhere do you go next after getting great press? Getting solid coverage in national media outlets - in the case of this week's guest, we're talking WWD and Fashionista - is difficult for a new, independent brand to do. It's all the more impressive if you nabbed that coverage during your crowdfunding phase, which is one of the hardest times for an early stage business to convince journalists and fashion writers to publish a story. But say you pulled that off. What then? How can you sustain the...
126: Knowledge Drop with The Brightly Co's Laura Alexander Wittig on Successful, Sustainable Side Hustling + Productive Productivity
December 12, 2017 14:29 - 59 minutes - 54.6 MBSo you want to side hustle, but you're struggling to balance a budding fashion business with your main gig? Whether that's a full-time job, family commitments or both, this week's guest is here to talk about how she conceived, built and launched not one but two FEST-ive brands while spending her days forging ahead with her career at Amazon, then Google and - most recently - Sephora. Yes, really. Meet this week's guest, Laura Alexander Wittig, founder of The Brightly Co and Kennebecker. Wh...
125: Three Different Looks at Fashion Entrepreneurs Fighting Human Trafficking & Modern Day Slavery
December 05, 2017 06:00 - 1 hour - 74.7 MBCan entrepreneurship and the business of fashion make headway in the complex web of injustice fueling the global engines of human trafficking and modern day slavery - a dark and dangerous industry thought to generate some $150 billion a year? In a special episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast, we're approaching what is hands-down one of the most complicated and hard-to-understand criminal problems facing the modern world through a very tight lens, one focused squarely on fashion entrepreneu...
124: Melissa Gonzalez of Lionesque Group on Parting Ways with Her Past Career to Become Pop-Up Retail’s Leading Lady
November 28, 2017 06:00 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBNearly a decade after bursting onto the scene as retail's latest innovation, pop-up shops have become the standard way for fashion brands and independent businesses to test new markets, new products and product-market fit. Not surprisingly, pop-up shops have gotten increasingly complex as household name brands roll funds into temporary retail experiences that set the bar higher and higher. With that in mind, it's no wonder FEST founders today are constantly asking about the value of investin...
123: Making Big Changes After a Decade in Sustainable Business with Proud Mary’s Harper Poe
November 14, 2017 14:17 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBIs direct-to-consumer the best way to build an ethical fashion brand today? This week's Spirit of 608 podcast guest is betting yes - and while many founders building conscious companies today bypass wholesale and go directly for the leaner, ecommerce-driven model just based on watching well-known success stories like Everlane and Warby Parker, there are very few entrepreneurs around today who can talk about the pros and cons with the benefit of nearly a decade building a business founded wit...
122: Digital Marketing 101 for FEST Brands with Jay Stampfl of Blackbird PPC
November 09, 2017 09:21 - 1 hour - 56.3 MBBefuddled by Facebook ads? Scared of SEO? Listen in for a special episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast featuring a digital marketing expert who's worked with some of the most FEST-ive brands around, including Cuyana, The RealReal and Sephora. With so many independent brands and fashion startups relying on paid and sponsored content to get the word out about their products today, many founders know they need to invest in digital marketing as part of their strategy forward. But at the same tim...
121: Live Media Strategy Session with Sharmon Lebby of Ethical Fashion Brand Blessed Designs
November 09, 2017 08:46 - 1 hour - 63.9 MBHave you been thinking about your media strategy in the busy weeks leading up to the holiday season? On this week's episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast, we hear from a FEST founder whose burgeoning brand is about to launch product after a successful crowdfunding campaign. What next steps should she take and how can she manage doing her own small business public relations and media outreach while holding down a full-time job in a scientific field? We'll get into that - and a lot more - when ...
120: Investing in the Next Billion Dollar Female-Led Businesses with XFactor Partner Aubrie Pagano of Bow & Drape
November 09, 2017 08:31 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBBillion dollar businesses, anyone? That's what this week's guest and a cohort of female entrepreneurs are on the lookout for as part of a new microfund aiming to seed promising startups with at least one female co-founder. Meet this week's guest, Aubrie Pagano Founder of Bow & Drape and Investment Partner at XFactor Ventures. Wait, wait, before you shrug it off like, oh, no, that's not me, midway through my conversation Aubrie, you need to hear how she demonstrates a way to think small ab...
119: The Power of Doing Your Own Thing with TARA's Annette Lasala Spillane
November 09, 2017 08:10 - 55 minutes - 51 MBIn our noisy-beyond-belief world, it's unusual to find an emerging brand truly doing things differently. But every once in a while, we find a founder with a radically out-of-the-box approach that challenges the fundamental assumptions at play in an age-old industry. Meet this week's guest, Annette Lasala Spillane, Founder of The Artisan Row Accessories: TARA. Creators of modular jewelry that high-profile fashion publications have likened to the legos of fine jewelry, TARA releases single ...
118: Creating A Cutting Edge Career with Futurist and Biodesigner Natsai Audrey Chieza of Faber Futures
November 09, 2017 08:00 - 55 minutes - 51 MBThe fashion trend of the future? Microbes. That's if our latest featured guest has anything to say about it. In today's conversation, you'll hear from a multidisciplinary designer whose unconventional path has landed her at the intersection of fashion, sustainability and science in the most fascinating way. Meet this week's guest, Natsai Audrey Chieza, Founder of Faber Futures A graduate of the forward-looking program in material futures at Central Saint Martins in London, Natsai is curre...
117: Meet the Filipino Beauty Brand Fighting Poverty, Supporting Startups and Winning Eco Awards with Human Nature’s Camille Meloto
October 03, 2017 06:13 - 47 minutes - 43 MBYou don't need us to tell you that true beauty comes from far below the surface. With this week's podcast guest, we're seeing that old adage played out in business with a family-owned beauty brand whose entire structure is set up to deliver organic and eco-friendly products to consumers while fighting poverty, providing stable sources of income to rural farming communities, winning numerous eco awards and distinctions and changing the way global consumers think about what it means to be made...
116: FEST-ive Style Perspectives + Shopping Intel from a University Campus
September 26, 2017 07:01 - 1 hour - 63.9 MBFor anyone building a brand today, one of the biggest questions you're likely to face is: what do my customers really want? There are umpteen million ways to get at this with digital tools. And yes, there is valuable data to be gleaned from A/B testing your heart out, surveying customers and experimenting with different marketing tactics online. But there's a tried-and-true way to learn what customers think that's often overlooked in our hectic world: sitting down in person and asking them...
115: Knowing Your Why and Wholesale’s Past, Present + Future with Brandboom’s Amy Zhou
September 19, 2017 06:10 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBWholesale can feel like a gamble for emerging, independent and startup brands today. With all the talk of direct-to-consumer companies capturing the hearts of fashion fans, how's a FEST founder to decide whether to pursue the old-school route (one that incidentally, is crucial to many successful brands' bottom lines)? To get to the bottom of the wholesale vs. direct debate, we needed an expert with a 360-degree window into wholesale's role in today fashion and apparel landscape - and what ...
114: How A Bad Night, No Experience & Getting Fired Were Everything Packed Party’s Jordan Jones Needed to Succeed
September 12, 2017 06:24 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBFor a lesson in taking risks, going with your gut, standing by your vision and how to turn a very bad, no good bummer of a day into the biggest aha moment of your young life, pull out your earbuds and settle in for a conversation that will make you laugh - and get you inspired to do work on even the most challenging days. Meet this week's guest, Jordan Jones, Founder of Packed Party. In this episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast, twenty-something founder Jordan tells us how one of her earl...
113: How Slow Fashion Pioneer Natalie Chanin Built Alabama Chanin + Where She’s Going Next
September 05, 2017 06:39 - 1 hour - 55.4 MBNatalie Chanin didn't set out to build one of the most recognizable and beloved (not to mention multi-faceted) sustainable fashion brands out there today. In the beginning, all she wanted to do was produce 200 handsewn t-shirts. Soon, the longtime stylist was orchestrating a multimedia project that led her away from her career in New York and back home to Florence, Alabama to create the 2001 documentary Stitch and, next, her eponymous brand Alabama Chanin - and she's been there ever since. ...
PressDope Minisode: How to Find Time for DIY PR & Media Relations
August 02, 2017 11:04 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBWouldn't you love to have more time? Not having enough time is the most common challenge for any entrepreneur - and when it comes to carving out time for DIY PR and media relations, well, it's often even more difficult. That's because reaching out to the press about your brand involves far less instant gratification than social media, where you're likely to power through the annoyances, FOMO and irritating pics you love to hate amid a positive feedback loop of likes, follows, comments and ne...
112: Understanding the Media with Journalist & Ethical Fashion Champion Whitney Bauck of Fashionista.com
July 25, 2017 06:57 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBCollaborating with media - whether through "earned" press coverage or paid sponsorships and advertisements - is crucial to brand-building today. I'm hellbent on helping FEST brands do that well. One thing that's key to building great relationships with the media: really understanding who you're talking to when you reach out. For this week's show, the last regular episode before our summer hiatus, we'll be hearing from one of the most FEST-ive journalists around, one who's not only cultivated...
111: Dia&Co’s Nadia Boujarwah on Building the StitchFix for Plus-Size Shoppers + Persevering Even When Others Just Don’t Get It
July 18, 2017 16:14 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBEthics in fashion is about more than how clothing is made. It's also about who it's made for. I've always thought the disparity in clothing options for women outside of the 4-12 size range was ridiculous - an injustice even. It's both economically baffling considering the average size of women today, as well as head-numbingly disappointing to watch fashion brand after fashion brand bypass a customer population based on outdated aesthetic perspectives - and all too often using manufacturing c...
110: Impact Investing + Digital Marketing Musts for FEST Founders with GlobeIn’s Liza Moiseeva
July 11, 2017 15:48 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBAre you confident that more digital marketing would help grow your audience and expand your FEST brand, but you're not quite sure where to start? Then this Knowledge Drop episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast is oh so for you. Today's conversation brings a FEST founder onto the show to talk not only the inspiring story behind the badass ethical subscription box company she and her co-founders are building to show off artisan wares from around the globe, but also to dig into her digital market...
109: Building Great Consumer Brands & the Power of Non-Conformists with Rebecca Kaden of Maveron
July 05, 2017 15:25 - 49 minutes - 45 MBWith Silicon Valley awash in troubling news about the treatment of female entrepreneurs by powerful venture capitalists and investors, I can't imagine a better guest to have on the Spirit of 608 podcast this week than the one we have lined up for you. She's a leading investor in consumer-facing startups who's made a name for herself by betting big on brands doing things differently. Meet this week's guest, Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Maveron. Not only is Rebecca working with some of...
PressDope Minisode: Three Reasons You’re Not Getting Press Coverage
June 29, 2017 17:49 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBWhy aren't you getting the press you know your brand deserves? I'll walk through three common barriers FEST founders tell me stand in the way of their media outreach in this PressDope minisode - and what you can do about it, or not do about it, as the case may be. Listen in for: - Three extremely common challenges faced by FEST founders who want to do their own PR - The thing FEST founders think they need - and probably don't - to start their media outreach - Why building a media...
108: Developing the Nailbot at the Intersection of Beauty and Tech with Pree Walia of Preemadonna
June 27, 2017 04:24 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBIn today's episode, you'll hear a conversation largely focused on beauty tech after a number of shows with an emphasis on media and sustainable fashion. And it makes sense that we'd tack back this way: as you'll know if you listen to the show with any regularity, I'm a huge believer in technology's ability to move fashion, beauty and so much more into a better place. Meet this week's guest, Pree Walia, Founder of Preemadonna. On this week's show, Pree and I dive into the story behind her ...
107: LIVE MEDIA STRATEGY SESSION with Dina Chavez of Ethical Fashion Brand SixChel
June 20, 2017 13:02 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBIn today's episode, you'll hear another live media strategy session with a FEST founder and PressDope member who needs help building a path to press coverage for her new Austin-based sustainable apparel collection in the midst of her very first crowdfunding campaign. Like many ethical fashion entrepreneurs, she comes to the conversation with an incredible story - one that could bring you to tears - and lots of hustle, but next to no previous media experience. Meet this week's guest, Dina C...
106: How This Smart Swimwear Startup Created An Unfair Advantage + Turned Press Into Digital Marketing Gold with Andie’s Melanie Travis
June 13, 2017 05:11 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBIf the swimsuit try-on experience leaves you flutter kicking for joy because it's just so awesome, you should probably skip this episode. Actually, no, don't - because even if you don't think this week's guest's mission to revamp the road to finding the perfect one-piece suit is as splashy as I do, you're going to be glued to her strategy for combing earned and sponsored media to grow her new company's audience - and sales - with enviable precision and efficiency. Meet this week's guest, M...
105: Saying I Do to Game-Changing Ecommerce with Zola’s Shan-Lyn Ma
June 06, 2017 06:37 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBWith wedding season in full swing, there's no better time of year to sidestep from our usual focus on fashion for FEST inspo from a founder who's spent the last four years turning a revolutionary idea with an uncertain future into a reality that - not unlike the hundreds of thousands of romantic relationships fueling its growth - is based on solid partnerships and teamwork. Meet this week's guest, Shan-Lyn Ma, CEO and Co-Founder of Zola. On this week's show, Shan and I talk about how she ...
104: How USA-Made Ethical Fashion Really Happens with Industry Vet Kathryn Hilderbrand of Good Apparel + Good Clothing Company
May 30, 2017 07:57 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBHas conflicting information about made in the USA apparel left your head spinning? There are so many varied opinions and arguments for and against the true feasibility of domestic apparel production and what it means for emerging brands that I knew it was time to bring on an expert who's not only helping apparel companies produce ethically and sustainably in Massachusetts, but is also building a fashion forward brand of her own. Meet this week's guest, Kathryn Hilderbrand, President & CEO ...
103: Legal Basics Every FEST Founder Needs to Know Now with Attorney Maria Spear Ollis, Founder of Spear IP
May 23, 2017 05:46 - 1 hour - 69.2 MBLaws of fashion? So not on our radar. But legal basics for FEST founders? Gimme a seat at that table. In the latest Knowledge Drop episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast, we get the rundown on the legal concerns every FEST founder should know about as she's building her business from an intellectual property attorney located in one of the most creative towns in the U.S.A. Meet this week's guest, Maria Spear Ollis, Attorney & Founder of Spear IP. On this week's show, I talk to Maria about he...
102: How Clothes Get on TV with Hit Series Costume Designer & Vegan Fashion Advocate Cynthia Summers
May 16, 2017 12:56 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBWe see it all the time, but how many of us really know how clothing ends up on TV? For emerging and ethical designers, landing a piece of clothing or an accessory on a hit television show can be a major media moment, but how to make it happen? That part was far from clear to me until I got to speak to a television industry veteran who does exactly that in her exciting, ultra-creative career. Meet this week's guest, Cynthia Summers, Costume Designer for Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, Netfli...