Alumna heads trend-setting fashion empire
If the world seems to be getting juicier, it may not be due to global warming. It may be due to global wearing鈥攐f Juicy Couture, the white-hot fashion empire launched by a Carnegie Mellon alumna.
Juicy Couture is everywhere. It鈥檚 casual and cocktail; sunglasses and shoes; men, women, and children. It鈥檚 equal parts class and sass鈥攁nd stores can鈥檛 get enough of it. Reese, Gwyneth, Madonna, Brad, Kevin, and Ben all wear Juicy. But Juicy鈥檚 more affordable than many other labels, so the soccer mom next door wears it, too.
It began modestly. Gela Nash-Taylor鈥攚ho was Gela Jacobson when she graduated from Carnegie Mellon as a drama major in 1978鈥攚as pregnant and couldn鈥檛 find maternity clothes she liked. So she and her good friend Pam Skaist-Levy bought loads of plain vintage jeans. Using their design sense and a lot of hard work, they transformed the jeans into a successful line of maternity wear.
By 1997, having learned the basics of the fashion business, they were ready to tackle something larger鈥攂ut they didn鈥檛 go the standard route. Nash-Taylor recalls, 鈥淧eople say you have to go to a bank, do a business plan, and borrow $60,000 to $100,000. If I鈥檇 started a business $60,000 in debt, I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to get up in the morning.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 the difference between men and women, or between business majors and acting majors鈥攂ut Pam and I didn鈥檛 want that kind of debt.鈥�
Instead, the entrepreneurs launched Juicy Couture with $200 of their own money and a revolving line of credit. They didn鈥檛 take a salary for two years; they plowed profits back into the business; and they repaid loans almost instantly. 鈥淭he bank was irritated,鈥� says Nash-Taylor wryly. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 make much money from us.鈥�
Juicy Couture is different from many companies in another way: it does no formal market research. The founders create and sell what they want to have in their own closets, and in the closets of their husbands and kids. (Nash-Taylor is married to Duran Duran bassist John Taylor; he designs the logos for the Juicy men鈥檚 line.) "We know what we like," says Nash-Taylor.
And clearly they know what their customers like. Juicy Couture鈥檚 lines have expanded quickly, but thoughtfully. Women loved the casual "lifestyle clothes," so the company added men's and kids鈥� lines鈥攁long with accessories, swimwear, and watches. The founders didn't want to wear other designers' clothes at night, so they launched Couture Couture鈥攂asically "Juicy after dark" cocktail and evening wear. This summer, their first fragrance will debut. And this year, 17 new free-standing Juicy Couture stores will join the four already open. "We have so many ideas and plans," says Nash-Taylor.
In 2003, Liz Claiborne bought the company for a reported $53 million and a percent of future sales, but Nash-Taylor and Skaist-Levy are still the heart of Juicy Couture, with responsibility for creative direction as well as day-to-day operations.
"We get letters from young people who want to be designers, but they don鈥檛 know if they can make it. We always say, 'Yes! We did it; you can, too.' We started with $200 and some t-shirts, and ended up succeeding and providing employment for people in our own communities. There鈥檚 always room for entrepreneurs who want to work hard. It鈥檚 an old-fashioned business model, and most people don鈥檛 do things that way anymore. But it works."
And it works well. An informed "guesstimate" puts Juicy sales at about $200 million this year. Vogue magazine noted the company's growing鈥攅ven exploding鈥攑opularity, saying "The time may have come when Seventh Avenue鈥檚 lofty vantage point suddenly seems less relevant than the ground-level perspective of the designer as consumer."
Even Mattel has hopped on the Juicy juggernaut: it created two new 鈥淕ela鈥� and 鈥淧am鈥� Barbie dolls鈥攖hat鈥檚 probably unique among honors given to Carnegie Mellon alumni.
Do the Barbie dolls and Juicy's flirty short skirts and playful slogans ("Live for sugar") get in the way of the founders' being taken seriously? "Not for long," replies Nash-Taylor. "Sometimes in a board room they don鈥檛 quite know what to make of us, and, to be honest, sometimes we play to that. But very soon they see that we know what we鈥檙e doing. "
And did a Carnegie Mellon education play any part in this success story? Nash-Taylor says it did: 鈥淵our major in college may not turn out to be what you do in your life鈥攂ut what you learn gives you a foundation. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 important. I think a lot of people feel very pressured to decide early what they want to do with their lives. I wanted to be an actress from the time I was 5, and I majored in acting at Carnegie Mellon. But of course that鈥檚 not what I鈥檓 doing now, and I鈥檓 the happiest girl in the world.
"Being a drama major is competitive and intense and stressful鈥攂ut eventually you learn how to just follow through and not be afraid of competition; you don鈥檛 look over your shoulder.
"That's worked very well for me in business. I think you come out of a program like Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 with a sense of accomplishment and even security. It was a great experience for me."
Then she laughs and鈥攖rue to her L.A. roots鈥攁dds, 鈥淲ell, except for the weather.鈥�
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