The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
As the CEO of the independent luxury fashion brand Altuzarra since early 2020, Shira Sue Carmi has managed to strike a next-to-impossible balance: She’s accelerated business growth while also maintaining the special qualities that differentiate the brand from its mega-conglomerate-powered competitors. Along with remaining privately owned, family-run and designer-led, based on the creative vision of Joseph Altuzarra, the brand has kept its strong culture and values intact, Carmi said. At the same time, it’s expanded its store footprint and product categories, partnered on lucrative collaborations, and become profitable.
“We are in an environment that favors large companies, and those large companies are getting bigger while the small companies are getting smaller,” Carmi said. “But we’re going against that trend. We want to keep our identity as an independent, family-owned company, which is very much in the tradition of luxury. … Building a beautiful, sustainable, profitable business around a singular creative vision is what this industry is all about, at its best.”
Much of Carmi’s year was spent on a fundraising mission to support the brand’s ongoing growth plans: “We want to solidify where we are in the market, grow with our existing customer base and expand our reach,” Carmi said. Among other steps, that will involve opening stores, the brand’s most profitable sales channel. Altuzarra currently has three stores — on NYC’s Madison Avenue, in East Hampton and in Palm Beach — all opened since 2020.
“The growth of a small business like ours is always limited by the availability of capital,” Carmi said. ”So having a partner — especially one that brings strategic value and aligns [with the brand] from a values perspective — is really important. And it’s pretty rare in this industry right now.”
In October, Altuzarra announced a minority investment for an undisclosed sum from the new venture capital fund P180. “Getting a deal done in this environment is an achievement in and of itself, and It’s a testament to how well Altuzarra is positioned,” Carmi said. Altuzarra’s last investor was Kering, which had a stake in the company from 2013-2020.
Throughout the year, collaborations buoyed Altuzarra’s business while also providing connectivity to new customer bases. The brand’s collaborations that kicked off in 2023, with home furnishings company West Elm and footwear brand Larroudé, remained in swing. And the brand entered its first beauty collaboration, with hair-care brand Aveda, in October.
“Collaborations can be quite helpful for a brand by financing all the growth of its core categories,” said Carmi, who formerly held the CEO role at handbag brand Mansur Gavriel.
Also in October, Altuzarra introduced its first line of jewelry, a category it may eventually grow through a license or partnership, Carmi said.
But don’t expect the brand to lose its distinction. “We’re really focused on the business that we are, and we are a luxury ready-to-wear and accessories business — that’s the center of gravity [for Altuzarra],” Carmi said. “Additional categories, including leather goods, will always be secondary to ready-to-wear, but we do anticipate growing them more.”
However, plans can easily change, Carmi said, noting the industry’s increasing unpredictability since the start of the pandemic.“My job is to set the company up to withstand whatever fluctuations happen going forward,” Carmi said. “The most important thing is to be prepared for anything. You have to expect the best and prepare for the worst so that nothing comes to you as a surprise.”
On December 2, Altuzarra announced that Joseph Altuzarra will step into the company’s CEO role on January 1, with Carmi stepping down from the CEO role and assuming a position on the company’s board of directors.
