Welcome to Executive Action Items, a Glossy+ member-exclusive series driven by monthly focus groups with subject matter experts. The bi-weekly series offers immediately actionable takeaways for workers navigating the rapidly evolving beauty and fashion industries.
This month, Glossy brought together a group of executives from the fashion industry to talk about issues related to product development and manufacturing. The executives compared notes on topics like balancing between creative vision and the realities of manufacturing and tariffs. Below is a recap of a part of the discussion focusing on pricing strategies and expanding into new product categories.
Focus group members:
Melanie Travis, the founder and CEO of the 8-year-old swim brand Andie Swim. Travis has shepherded Andie’s growth from an upstart indie brand to one now carried in major retailers like Nordstrom and REI.
Athena Wrann, the creative director and vp of design at Parade, the DTC underwear brand that was acquired by Ariela & Associates International in 2023. Wrann joined in 2024 and was previously svp of design at Victoria’s Secret.
Mallorie Dunn, the founder and designer of SmartGlamour, a fashion brand focused on inclusive design. SmartGlamour recently made the switch from being a DTC e-commerce brand releasing batch collections to a fully custom, made-to-order brand. Dunn is also an adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design.
Expanding into new categories
Travis: “We have expanded categories but not in a huge way. We launched with swim and it remains about 99% of our business. We do have swim extensions like cover-ups, and that’s a growing category. It’s a basket builder. You pick up a swimsuit and you add in a matching cover-up. We also do accessories like hats and sunglasses, but that’s all third-party drop shippers. It’s actually a surprisingly big part of the business now, and it’s just pure margin dollars, an AOV booster.”
Wrann: “I’ve launched other categories in my past life at Victoria’s Secret. In this instance, Parade being acquired is what really gave the foundation to be able to launch into a new category, [wire bras]. The company that acquired Parade has a long history in core bra products and sells the country’s No. 1 styles for brands like Fruit of the Loom, so they have an existing base of supply. And from a talent perspective, I came on from working at Victoria’s Secret. So that made launching into a new category really swift.”
Travis: “When we think about category expansion, some products that are synergistic to the customer like swim and sunglasses are not synergistic from a manufacturing perspective. Even swim and linen cover-ups require two very different suppliers. Sunglasses, I wouldn’t even know where to start. Going forward, we’re thinking of a build vs. buy kind of thing. Does it make sense to launch a new category from scratch and build it from the ground up? Or does it make more sense to acquire a company that’s already doing it and fold it in?”
Pricing strategies
Dunn: “I made the pricing really transparent to customers. I didn’t do any sales, but I kept my margins low and talked about it in marketing and social media. I would be very clear, like literally showing an actual breakdown of costs and materials and the end result price. An educated consumer is going to be a happier consumer. They’ll give you fewer returns, fewer negative reviews, because they feel like they’re part of the business. And so when I expand into new categories, I leaned heavily on customer feedback, directly asking them what they’re looking for, in what colors, in what shapes, what kind of prints. They’ll give you the best information.”
Wrann: “Pricing really varies depending on the model. We’re very traditional. We try to understand the margin, the category and where it’s going to be produced. And all of that affects how you design.”
Dunn: “Before I switched to doing fully custom work, I would do everything made-to-order. And people could order off the size chart, but I also offered some customizations like shorter sleeves and such. And I would do fit sessions. At first, I did them for free, but that was a terrible idea. So I started to charge for it, but I let them get that money back as store credit once the measurement session was done to ensure they actually show up and I’m not wasting my time. And it correlates with them actually buying something.”
How costs affect design
Travis: “Costs and design are linked. The number of trims and embellishments on a swimsuit will increase the costs to produce it. When we launched, everything on our site was the same price, but now we have more complicated products at a higher price point.”
Travis: “We had a vendor in on Tuesday showing us samples that we really liked, but it was clear we couldn’t really make that design work affordably. And so the supplier, the designer, our supply chain persona and I sat and talked about ways to adjust the garment, like removing a trim here or losing the collar here, to bring the price down a bit. So that’s a very direct example of designing a garment to hit a certain price point.”
The biggest challenge in product isn’t product
Wrann: “The biggest challenge outside of tariffs right now is around customer acquisition and paid media. How do you continue to establish yourself as a brand without a retail footprint? Personally, it’s a big shift coming from a retailer with over 1,000 stores. It’s a completely different world to stay relevant, and it’s really expensive. It’s as important as the product.”
