Ladies First

Leading fashion executives share hard-earned wisdom from their rise to the top—and the ways they’re lifting others up with them

- Rosana Lai

ELIZABETH VON DER GOLTZ

Global buying director for Net-a-Porter

When Elizabeth von der Goltz began her career as an assistant buyer at the now-closed luxury department store Barneys New York, it was “the fashion industry as you’d imagine it in the nineties— egotistical and hostile”, she remembers. “Assistants were asked to do things people would never be asked to do today.” Specifically, one of her managers at the time, though talented at her job, was so disrespectful to those around her that Von der Goltz quit the business for two years. “I thought to myself, ‘If that’s the kind of person I’m meant to aspire to become, I don’t want to do this.’”

The experience, however, was a turning point for Von der Goltz, who vowed to leave a different sort of legacy when she re-entered the business. At her next role, at Bergdorf Goodman, owned by Neiman Marcus Group, Von der Goltz worked under CEO Karen Katz, whose eloquence, confidence and ability to hold her own on a board dominated by men taught her the value of having positive female role models. It’s one thing to know it’s possible, she says, but it’s so much more impactful to see a tangible example.