The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
When Gia Kuan moved to New York in 2010, the fashion landscape still operated on a fairly traditional model: Print magazines dominated as the only media placement that mattered, and multi-brand stores like Opening Ceremony provided a necessary conduit to reach consumers. Since starting her own PR firm in 2019, Kuan and her agency, Gia Kuan Consulting, have helped define a new style of PR that fosters a holistic cultural relevance beyond simple media placements.
“We offer traditional press in a sense of communication strategy. But we also work on community strategy, which is a huge part of PR now. [It’s about] creating brand value through people conversations versus creating brand value through media conversations,” said the Taiwan-born PR agent. “That could mean a Substack. That could mean completely something else — a TikTok, whatever.”
That type of success is harder to quantify but you know it when you see it: When Beyoncé returned to New York Fashion Week in February after a long hiatus, she sat front row at Luar and only Luar, the fashion brand founded by Raul Lopez and one of Kuan’s longtime clients. Beloved for its boxy leather bags, Luar has gone from insider favorite to established name. The label won American Accessory Designer of the Year at the 2024 CFDA Awards.
“All of these clients and fields are vessels for cultural shifting. For me, and our agency at large, that’s what we’re looking for when we’re thinking about new projects,” said Kuan. “A product is a product, and that’s great. But we’re looking to see if it’s culturally dynamic or if there’s potential for it to, kind of, micro-shift culture or open up a conversation in some way.”
The fact that Kuan represents many of the new vanguard of fashion creatives — like Luar, Telfar Clemens’ namesake brand and Dua Lipa-endorsed knitwear designer Rui — is no accident. Kuan, whose own wedding was featured in Vogue, is perhaps more of a public name than your traditional PR agent. But her own style and taste are part of what makes her a fit for her clientele. Her agency represents more than just fashion, after all, working with the likes of the Museum of Chinese in America and the Criterion Collection. While Kuan is at the forefront of those partnerships, she attributes much of her success to the synergy between not just herself and her clients, but also her team.
“I’ve been in business for about five years as a team of 10. More than half of them have been with me since the very beginning,” said Kuan. “From a team-build, company perspective, that’s something that I’m quite proud of. Because it is really hard to balance client and team culture as an independent company.”
