This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify
President of the contemporary fashion brand Derek Lam 10 Crosby since July, Danielle Alalu has big plans for the company, which include growing its annual revenue from $35 million to $60 million over the next three years and hosting its first New York Fashion Week presentation next week.
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Podcast, Alalu discusses her strategies for developing the brand, growing its sales and expanding its global footprint. She also talks about the brand perks of being under the Public Clothing Company umbrella, the way forward following creative officer Derek Lam’s departure from the company, and the business challenges she’s navigating under the Trump administration.
Highlights from the discussion, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
The state of the contemporary market
“It’s a really interesting time in the market. Over the last five years, we hit Covid, and then we saw a huge influx in handbags and accessories and a lot of luxury and also activewear. Whereas advanced contemporary got a little bit stagnant during that timeframe because people were sitting at home in their black leggings and working remotely. And I feel like, in the last two years, there’s been a resurgence. As luxury brands’ prices have risen, there’s a really wide open space for advanced contemporary. There have been some interesting things that have been happening in the market — players that may have started out in the advanced contemporary realm have now moved into more of an opening price point designer [brand] — I’m thinking of Nili Lotan or Ulla Johnson or Toteme. So, from my perspective, for those of us that really, truly stay in that advanced contemporary world, this opens up space to come in and work with that consumer and show her a point of difference and some newness in the market.”
The brand’s NYFW debut
“One of the things I thought was really important as I was laying out the strategy for Derek Lam 10 Crosby was to [focus on] top-funnel marketing and talking to our customer, which we haven’t done in the last couple of years. Anything that we’ve done from a marketing or a campaign standpoint has been super-focused and then we’ve kind of moved on, and I haven’t necessarily seen the ROI that I would want to see. And so I thought that it was important because, No. 1, Derek Lam 10 Crosby has never participated in New York Fashion Week before — so why not go back to Crosby Street to the Crosby Street Hotel, which is where we will be having our presentation on February 5? We really felt like we wanted to tell the story of the collection, which is based on a French film, and we’re going to have vignettes that will be absolutely gorgeous. We just did the style-out yesterday, and the clothes look absolutely beautiful. So we’re very, very excited. We also have a fun footwear collaboration that we’re going to tease a little bit during the presentation. … We’re excited about all of the content [that will be captured by attending] influencers and editors and, of course, all of our retailers that will be joining us, as well. And then, we’re actually doing a quick follow-up with a dinner at the Crosby Street Hotel that evening with some celebrity and influencer guests that will be attending and celebrating the launch of the fall-winter 2025 collection.”
The impact of the new administration
“From a tariff standpoint, about six months ago, we all sat down as a senior leadership team, and I said to my director of sourcing and production, ‘We have to diversify.’ And we’re lucky because we’ve got 30 years of relationships, from a factory standpoint, that range from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh to Turkey to Peru. So, we started diversifying early on to make sure that if, in fact, we had a change in leadership, which we did, we were ahead of the curve. … As a brand, you should always be paying attention to your factory base, diversifying yourself, making sure that you’re giving the best quality and making sure, from a category standpoint, that you’re getting the best out of each factory you’re working with. So I feel like we’re in a good spot, and we’ll continue to adjust and pivot where we need to as things go on. The tariff piece is a big one — but I also think about DEI. There’s been a lot of news this week, in particular, about the changes for federal employees. And I think that a lot of publicly held companies have also made changes to their DEI, and one thing that is nice about being a private company is that we can operate business as usual, when it comes to that. What’s important is team and making sure that we have resources and address every person and personality that works within the company, and we create a community and a culture. And I very much intend to continue that.”
