The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
With her 22-year-old eponymous fashion label and 3-year-old beauty brand Oak Essentials, Jenni Kayne is building a lifestyle empire.
In September, after entering retail via Shopbop and Nordstrom, Oak Essentials announced its first round of funding, from Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures, for an undisclosed sum. With the funding, the brand will invest in category expansion, product development, new retail partners, increased marketing efforts and broader distribution, Kayne said. For its part, the Jenni Kayne brand has surpassed $140 million in revenue and is profitable.
“We’re evolving,” Kayne told Glossy. “We always want to be the brands that people are inspired by, so [we’ve been experimenting] with content and the way we’re delivering that content, as well as the customer experience.”
To Kayne’s point, this year, both Jenni Kayne and Oak Essentials doubled down on creating one-of-a-kind, immersive customer experiences.
“Creating unique connections and experiences is what sets us apart. It gets us closer to our customer and lets them feel the essence of what the Jenni Kayne [lifestyle] brand is,” Kayne said.
Kayne said her personal highlight of the year was the launch of the combined Jenni Kayne Farmhouse and Oak Essentials Wellness Club, in Upstate New York in July. The experiential lifestyle and wellness retreat and showcase initially welcomed brand VIPs, editors and influencers before opening to the public this fall. Kayne said the project built on the success of the Jenni Kayne Ranch, a similar hospitality experience she opened in Santa Ynez, California in 2022.
“Doing something on the East Coast was a challenge,” said Kayne, whose businesses are headquartered in L.A. “But we created an incredible environment for customers and friends of the brand to come and experience the lifestyle, from the furniture to the table settings to the food to the Oak Essentials [products] in the bathroom.”
The Wellness Club offered cold plunges, saunas, facials, pilates and massages, all featuring Oak Essentials products. Likewise, The Farmhouse’s interiors were completely shoppable.
Since its opening, the Farmhouse has hosted over 90 invited guests and a public-facing, ticketed event attended by over 120 guests, Kayne shared. It’s generated over 1.45 million social media impressions across Jenni Kayne’s channels and 2.18 million social media impressions across influencer and media channels.
Moving forward, Kayne said the company will be focused on profitability, retail expansion and the next Farmouse-style activation.
“I just want to keep seeing [the brand] grow,” she said.
