Transcript - Jordana Guimarães, Bonus
Joshua Williams: Retail Revolution is a special, limited podcast created specifically for "Retailing and Service Design," a unique course that is part of the Fashion Management graduate program at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Each episode features in depth conversations with guest experts in omni-channel retailing, with myriad perspectives: technology, consumer engagement, data analytics, merchandising, and more. We pay special attention to the short- and long- term challenges and implications of COVID-19 and potential opportunities to rethink retail's future. Retail Revolution is produced by Joshua Williams and hosted by Christopher Lacy, both are Assistant Professors in the School of Fashion at Parsons.
Christopher Lacy: Welcome to another episode of Retail Revolution, where we discuss all aspects of Retailing and Service design. I'm your host, Christopher Lacy, and today we have a very special guest. She is the editor in chief of a Cosmo Life, founder of the Nylon Project and co-founder of Fashinnovation, serial entrepreneur, and I'm pretty sure Wonder Woman. We have Jordanna Guimaraes. How are you, Jordana?
Jordana Guimaraes: How are you? Thank you so much for that introduction. Now I feel like Wonder Woman because of you. So, Thank you.
Christopher Lacy: You know what I think about everything, you know, you've done in your career. I'm like, I stepped back and I'm like, okay, I really need to get on it.
So, can you tell us about, you know, you and what you've done? And I feel like there's so much to unpack there.
Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah. So, let's see where to start. So first I was born in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, and it came to the US when I was 12, 13 with not a word of English spoken. So that was a challenge. And then I, really right after high school.
So, during high school, I always found to be someone who was always more intrigued and like, Problem solving and coming up with new ideas rather than really paying attention to the classroom, which is not wasn't the best thing at that time. But you know, it kind of is just the way it was. And then when I turned 18, I decided that I really wanted to work with people, what I wanted to do I wasn't sure.
So, I kind of skipped, I went kind of in untraditional routes. I did not go to college even though I totally respect school. And I think education is super important. But I decided just to kind of throw myself into the workforce and from 18 to 23, I really had every kind of job from teller to bank to blockbuster video to manage your Cohan retail.
I kind of just a payroll specialist, at a hospital, real estate. Like I did everything. And when I got to 23, I realized that from every position that I held in every different job that I had, the one thing that I loved the most was really dealing in communicating with people and also finding a way to make people happy.
So, in a sense, give back. So, with that being said, at 23, I went to Barnes and Noble, sick of every job I had got this huge book of careers and came across Marketing and Public Relations. So, after reading about that, I said, this is what I think I'm supposed to do. So, then I went on Craigslist, which at the time was much I think better than it is now.
Yeah. And I found a job. Which was for it to be a PR director and marketing director for brands like Nina Ricci. Now mind you, I never went to school. I had no idea, but I knew that this was my calling. So, I went, I emailed the president of this company and, I said listen I don't know anything about PR marketing.
However, I think I really can do it. And I said, I would love to meet you and just tell you more about myself. And then I went back to Barnes and Noble about PR for dummies, the book, read the entire book, cover to cover. And I said, okay I'm ready. The guy actually does such a story by the way. So the president of the company emailed me back and he said, you know, you have a lot of B A L L S to, a lot of balls, so apply for this position, but I really want to meet you just to see who you are.
So I went to the meeting, he gave me the job, which was a job that you needed a college degree and seven years’ experience and nothing that I had, but he said, listen, he said, you can read anything from you know, you can learn anything by reading a book or going with school. But passion comes from within.
And when you speak about wanting this position, I see the passion in your eyes. So, I'm going to give you the job. I'm not going to pay you. You're going to work for three months for free. And if you can figure it out, I'll give you the opportunity. So, I took the job. I started working and he would just say, write a press release, no idea what that was.
I would Google it and I would go step by step and boom. Three months later, he offered me the position. I got them in like Vogue and Men's health and Elle and all these different publications. They were so blown away. I even truth be told, like when I was getting all of those results for them, I wasn't sure how it was happening.
I was just kind of going along and just learning as they went. So, when he offered me the position, I said, thank you so much, but I quit. And that's when my entrepreneurial trajectory began. And then I started my own Marketing company. I worked with a lot of brands from like H stern to doing the first San Francisco fashion week in 2007.
Like I just kind of went on like a journey to find, just do my own thing and get new clients. And see what happened from there? So, with that being said, I started doing a lot of Pop-ups during Fashion week where I would get emerging brands to sell their stuff. And then we give the proceeds to a foundation.
So, I would give back to, a few CK cancer, Make-A-Wish, give bones, just all types of charities. So, then I decided about five years ago after doing this for about 12 years to start my own, not for profit, which was The Nylon project. And what I thought of with an Island project is, you know, since the fashion industry, as I saw in like 17 years of what I did.
From 22 on, I've found that the fashion industry is the biggest platform is the biggest industry to really make an impact because everybody wears clothes at the end of the day, everybody, you know, does your makeup, beauty, accessories clothing is the biggest industry in the world to me. So, I said, I really want to start my own, not-for-profit and give back in a big way using the fashion industry. So, I just started just, I started the nylon project, which was to give a face of homelessness using the voices of the fashion industry. So, then what I did is I got a street team together. we gave out meals to thousands of homeless individuals in Manhattan, and we, every person that we gave a meal to we'd sit with them on the street and we would ask them to share us the story of how they became homeless.
I then decided to reach out to the biggest fashion influencers around the country and the world. And they came on board, this project as ambassadors, and I got their stories of struggle. The biggest struggle they've overcome in their lives and how they overcame that struggle. And then I recently wrote a book titled "It can be you."
And that book is really to give a face to homelessness using the voices of fashion influencers, where in the book which is being published this summer. You'll see side by side comparisons of a story of someone who is not homeless and a story of someone who is homeless. You'll see all of the same type of struggle that they've been through.
But the circumstance at the end is separates the two individuals, hence the title, it can be uou. So, after all of that, at the same time that I started this homeless project, I met my husband who is now my partner with a Fashinnovation. And about two years ago, after we had two babies back to back, we said, why don't we start our own thing?
Now my husband, comes from an entrepreneurial background. He's more entrepreneurial technology type of background working at Endeavor for many years, which is one of the largest not-for-profits that allows companies to grow, via mentorship programs from larger organizations. So, when we kind of got together, we said, let's start something of our own.
Let’s put an event together. So, we decided to put a live event during New York Fashion week where we would bring in the entrepreneur component of fashion, but also the technology component of what was happening in fashion. As far as the pain points that were being assisted via tech. And we started doing live summits, where we would bring in CEOs and founders of fashion and tech companies to speak about the pain points and the trends that we were seeing come about in the industry via those technologies.
And then two years after doing that for a summit 200 speakers and COVID hit. And we said, now what. And then we, three weeks ago, we were like, you know what? Our messaging behind Fashinnovation has always been even pre COVID fashion is to love. So we said, instead of just things still, even though we're not, you know, profiting and our company, because it's live events is not really going to grow right now, monetarily, we said, since we really believe in the Fashion is to love slogan of everything that we do now more than ever is when the world needs love.
And so, when we decided three weeks ago to put something together. We said, let's create a huge online summit, bring the whole world together, really evoke the messaging of love behind the summit and see what can come of this. So that was three weeks ago, three weeks later, we just did this event this week, which was two full days, 90 speakers.
We had about 106,000 viewers in the two days, 119 countries out of the 195. Yeah.
Christopher Lacy: No, that was honestly, that was such an amazing story. I’d…honestly felt like it, you know, that I want more. There's t so much that I want to unpack from that. So, I'm going to tell you right now where we're going to have to bring you back on because there are things I want to talk about. In your story from a personal perspective that, I want there to be more of a voice around, especially, you know, the concepts of immigration.
And we talk about, ethics and in the fashion industry and inclusivity. And what that looks like, and the challenges when you have a background that's different from what's considered your normal background and overcoming those. And I think you're a that story, a lot of people need to hear. And you know, when we talk about our student population for the MPS program, especially it is a 68% international.
I'm trying to engage into this space and at, you know, the university at The New School and at Parsons, there's so many people that are coming in. English isn't their first language. And it's scary. It's scary because the fashion industry in and of itself is scary. Right?
Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah.
Christopher Lacy: So, I think your story, I mean, that's something that I'm going to want to bring you back on to talk about.
So, but what I want to hear from you even more, so right now, when you're looking at the innovations that, you know, you've done these things and you see the innovations and the new ways of thinking that are put forward amongst the panelists and the speakers. What is something that you're looking forward to that you heard someone say? And you're like, wait, what? That's going to be cool.
Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah. So, I think the one thing that I saw a lot of people speak on is the 3D right. 3D everything. So from the showrooms, since people are not going to them right now, like there's a lot of companies, there's one that just launches actually today called Boor even, B O O R, which is 3D virtual showrooms, even 3D sampling so that, you know they're not making these samples and then it's going to waste, which then it's not good for them.
Alright, the new environment. So, the 3D sampling, the 3D showrooms there's even an article came out recently on BBC, in regard to even influencers using like 3D, like augmented outfits that are not real to showcase styles, on Instagram. So, I think that's going to be something that's really, but at the same time though, so I have to, I think it's a really cool thing obviously, amazing technology that is going through into all of this.
So make it possible. It's also kind of like a bittersweet thing, because if everything is 3D and there's no like realness to the things that you're seeing, you know, where you can actually touch feel, which there is something about that too. But I think that that's one thing for sure. And then I also think that, just being able to like use AI, technology for just when it comes to, getting your sizing you know, done correctly when you're purchasing something online so that you don't have to purchase something and have it be shipped back and forth 20 times until you get the right size. I think that's another thing that we're going to, we are already seeing and we're going to see a lot more of, so does, it does two things right now to stick out in my head.
Christopher Lacy: I have to agree with you. I'm really, you know, I love the idea of the 3D showrooms. I think if we can limit the amount of time that that merchandising teams are having to travel back and forth unnecessarily, I mean, we talk about sustainability a lot. Right. And we don't think about like the little things like, okay so for flying back and forth to different market appointments, just to see like one vendor or two or three, is that the right way we need to handle this. So, I think when we look at how can we mitigate, you know, the, the amount of travel and how many samples we use. That's amazing. But you and I are both very much on the same page.
I love the craftsmanship that goes into making garments and making accessories. And all I can ever say is when you smell leather yeah. You know, genuine leather.
Jordana Guimaraes: Right.
Christopher Lacy: Or you touched like lace or a true embroidery, there's nothing like it. Like.
Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah.
Christopher Lacy: This is amazing. So, you know, not saying that, you know, I think we can do everything in the right way, and I don't want us to lose some of the artists and impact that the industry has.
One more question for you, which is. What then is your greatest concern about what's happening on the landscape for the industry right now?
Jordana Guimaraes: So, I think that my concern is that, so one thing that I found interesting at the two day summit is that you had such a broad spectrum of speakers saying different things of what they think is going to happen.
So, you had one person saying pretty much fashion industry is that I feel terrible about it. I have no idea what's going to happen. We're all doomed. Like we had voices of film and we had the voices of, you know, like the kind of cool, for example, conversation where he said there is no normal in the fashion industry.
There's always a next normal and this is just another one of them. And it's time to pivot and it's time to innovate. And by innovating is when the best things come sometimes. So, it was a very broad spectrum of voices that I feel we had. And I think that my biggest concern is that a lot of people, because the, some of the people that are doom thinkers, you know, because they think that way, I feel that they're not going to allow us to kind of evolve in the way that we can and we should. And I think that there is so much room right now, as much as everything that's happening is so scary. And there's so many bad things in that world happening right now with the fashion industry specifically, I think that if people just stop for a second and stop looking at, Oh my gosh, like this, you know, manufacturers, like all the bad things and everything that's happening.
If they think of the possibilities and they really use their heads because creatives they have such like potential to really turn this world around right now, because there is time to innovate. There is time to reflect. There is time to pivot. And I think that if done correctly, we can keep profiting. We can really bring sustainability into play and we could find bigger ways for collaboration, which I think is super important right now for a lot of those that maybe weren't doing it so much in the past that through collaborations, there is a way to bring in that small brand that maybe is really, really, really hurting right now. Put them on board with the bigger brand that has more possibility to thrive, do something in collaborative efforts.
Give back. Be sustainable and be profitable. I do believe there is a way to do that. And a lot of people, when I say this, they say, you know, you're an optimist. I am, but at the same time, I think they're like, my fear is also my hope. If that makes sense.
Christopher Lacy: Absolutely, because at the exact same time, a problem arises. So does the solution.
Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah, exactly.
Christopher Lacy: And I think when we love to hold onto a fear and anxiety mindset, because we've become so used to it. But then when you step out of, and you go, well the only reason I have anxiety or fear, because I'm looking at the problem. But if I just turn, you know, to the right, I bet there is the solution. And so, to your point, yeah, we can think of it as gloom and doom. And I'd like you, that makes me sad because fear stops progression and for some people and even if you look at your personal life, I think of things like you look at your personal life, how can you apply it to business? And there are always times that things have happened in your life that have caused upheaval, but you didn't like sit in a corner and stop.
Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah, no, it's totally true. It's like actually Diane Von Furstenberg is an amazing example of that. I don't know if you had a chance to watch her talk.
Christopher Lacy: I didn't I missed it.
Jordana Guimaraes: Oh my gosh. The whole thing is on demand right now and it's free. You just go on a website. You can watch the full two days, but she. Was like, you know, she said this, she said even her mom, I mean, she really took it back, but like her mom, like, you know, in the death camps, like she actually survived it and looking back, like, she just kind of said, you know, there's always going to be problems if you can like, reflect and like think about, you know, how can you be like the change in that problem? How can you make that difference? There's always like solutions. And obviously I'm not saying it's easy at all. And I know it's so much to do right now. And I know the retail space. It's so difficult what's happening right now. And I know like it's going to take time, of course, but at the same time, like, I think that there's always biggest problems in life that have come into fashion industry or in personal life, the bigger dissolution, always.
So, there's always that person. Yeah. Or that company or that institution or organization or whatever it is that you want to think of it of as.
Christopher Lacy: Jordanna I have to tell you, even though our conversation is brief today, this has been so exciting. We can't wait to have you back to talk about other things.
And what I want is for our listeners to start engaging with what you're doing at Fashinnovation. So how can they hear about what's going on? How can they like Twitter, Instagram?
Jordana Guimaraes: So, Instagram is just fashinnovation.nyc. And I'm just going to say this because I know when you hear fashinnovation, a lot of people misspell it, which is common.
So, it was just fash F A S H and then the full word innovation.nyc. The website is the same and whoever miss the talks, it will be on there eternally. So, you just click on worldwide talks and you'll see, 48 hours. Literally of just backstage and amazing talks by incredible individuals, including Christopher.
And then So yeah, Google, everything is Fashinnovation. If you just type in fash FASH innovation, dot nyc on Instagram and Twitter and LinkedIn. and then my personal, because I, you know, my book and everything is just A, C as in cat, L Liza, Lori, B Y Jo Jo, J O J O. So, ACL by Jojo. And that kind of will encompass a lot of the different things that I do.
But thank you guys so much. Honestly, I felt like, I felt like I was talking to a friend that I've known for years. You guys did such a good job navigating and you know, and I would love to like, when does this all over with obviously like have a face to face but thank you so much. I really, really appreciated this.
Christopher Lacy: Thank you. I have to tell you; I really did enjoy this conversation. It was a great way for me to have a start to this Friday. So, thank you so much Jordana.
Jordana Guimaraes: My pleasure.
Christopher Lacy: Take care.
Jordana Guimaraes: Thank you guys. You too. Bye.
Christopher Lacy: Bye. Bye.
Joshua Williams: Thank you for listening to this episode of Retail Revolution. A very special thank you to everyone who has helped make this podcast possible, our guests, our students and fellow faculty at Parsons School of Design, especially in such an extraordinary and unprecedented time. Our theme music was composed by Spencer Powell.
Be well and stay tuned for our next episode.
