How old is violet lepore

Caught in the growth vice, Lepore wanted to grab more main-floor space in department stores. It was a far cry from the Lower East Side. After the world emerged from the financial crisis, fashion shows became more expensive and elaborate as New York Fashion Week competed with weeks in Milan and Paris.

The waste was spectacular — pairs of shoes for 20 models. Meanwhile, consumer moods began to switch after the Great Recession. Lower priced stores such as Zara churned out similarly romantic looks at a fraction of the price of a Nanette Lepore frock.

Lepore noticed that starting salaries had stopped growing over the decade, and young women could no longer afford designer clothes and rent. Suddenly, she was paying markdown money to department stores, eroding her profit margins. Under pressure to cut her prices, Lepore began to listen to store buyers who advised her to design dresses to their prices.

Committed to manufacturing in New York, she cut materials costs rather than move production overseas. The couple closed stores, laid off 75 people in New York in one day, mortgaged their Manhattan townhouse, and eventually sold their beloved Hamptons beach house. Lepore brought in a crisis manager to advise her, and focused on licensing accessories for new income streams.

In , headlines announced that she had sold an 80 per cent stake in her company to Bluestar Alliance, a New York firm that owns and manages more than a dozen brands from Brookstone to Bebe, and recently closed an acquisition of surf brand Hurley. Soon there was a new secondary line of apparel called Nanette Nanette Lepore, sold primarily at outlets such as Nordstrom Rack, as well as licensed swimwear, shoes, handbags, jewellery, perfume and household products.

Covered extensively in contemporary news reports , the lawsuit claimed she had been unjustly fired after a dispute over her September show, and that she had been receiving complaints from customers about licensed products that were falling apart. The lawsuit claimed some luggage was made from carcinogenic materials. Private equity famously has a rough five-year investment window.

But if your goal is to be in business until you retire, profit is the goal. Quality and integrity of the product is the goal. To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. Comments, questions or feedback?

Email us at feedback voguebusiness. New York Fashion Week is going to vastly change. How Ralph Lauren does diversity. Make better business decisions Sign up to our newsletter for a truly global perspective on the fashion industry. Read More. It's been really fun because since Violet's getting older, I don't see her as much! I really get to interact with Violet and work on the designs, and see her tastes and what she likes and appreciates.

Violet: I came in once to the studio and tried some things on with a friend, and we told the team how the clothes looked and our opinions on them. For a while, my mom was bringing home sketches and shapes and different prints and asking me what I thought about them, so I gave her my opinion on a lot of the stuff.

Nanette: Here's what I will do, I'll put on something that I think is really cool and I'll stand around in the kitchen and wait until she reacts.

I'll just strike different poses until she notices. Nanette: I won't immediately run inside and put on my sweatpants if she has a house full of friends. I'll sort of strut around in my outfit to see their opinions. And I have to say, I don't really ever get too many criticisms from them. Violet: My style is more casual, but I still like to dress up. It's so fun to do that.

I'm always attracted to dark colors, which is why I like having her as my mom, because she's always there to bring in the bright colors. Nanette: Well, you like dark colors so much because you're a native New Yorker! Violet: Yeah, a lot! If I can't get into my room because we have family sleeping over, I'll just turn to her closet.

It's like, "Oh, wow, there's all this stuff I didn't know about! My cousin is living with us now and she's 21, so I borrow her stuff a lot too. Since you've grown up as the daughter of a fashion designer, do you remember a specific point when started to get interested in fashion, or has it always been a part of your life?

Violet: I remember not being that interested in it until I turned I thought shopping was just awful, and I wouldn't want to wear anything but sweatpants to school. Then, in the 5th grade, my mom told me I had to go shopping for new clothing. I went, and all of a sudden something clicked and it was interesting. It was sort of a surprise for me, because I had never liked doing that. That's when I began experimenting with things I was wearing. Violet: I hope that with whatever career happens, I'll do something that's still going to be surrounded by fashion.

I'm not sure if designing will be what I want to do, but definitely something in that area, whether it's being a stylist or something like that. No matter what, fashion will be a part of my life, especially with my mom, but I'd still like to have it in my everyday work life. I wouldn't want to have to wear suits to work! Nanette: I was studying to be a buyer in college when a professor who'd studied in New York City told me about the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Before that, I thought there was only Parsons, and I couldn't afford Parsons, I had to go to a state school. So, I did a portfolio, and got accepted. After FIT, I worked a couple of jobs, and after about three years of working for other people I started my own line.