How Who What Wear cofounder Katherine Power turned an online fashion community into a brand factory.
This past May, Target debuted Versed, a 19-piece skincare line free of 1,300 toxic ingredients, priced at less than $20 per item, and packaged in sleek mint-green, teal-blue, and pink tubes and bottles. It’s the latest brainchild of Katherine Power, the co-founder and CEO of Clique Brands, which includes 16 million–person online fashion community Who What Wear and a number of retail lines. Power began her career as an editor at Elle magazine, but found a new media-business model in turning reader insights into e-commerce and products. In 2016, she cocreated the Who What Wear clothing line, sold exclusively at Target. In 2017, she partnered with Target on its in-house activewear brand, Joylab. Now she’s applying her trove of consumer insights to Versed, the first spin-off company of Who What Wear. Here’s her playbook for launching affordable, breakthrough brands.
TALK TO YOUR (FUTURE) CUSTOMERS
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Fast Company.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Fast Company.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
How's This for a Cliffhanger?
That poor henchman over there has a hammer stuck in his forehead.
CREATOR ECONOMY
Carpe DM New platforms monetize intimate\" bonds between creators and their fans.
MEDIA
Inside Cesar's Palace NBCUniversal News chairman Cesar Conde's empire was rocked by a recent revolt.
CULTURE WARS
IN 2013, RODZ AND GORE FOUND themselves chatting in a tent in the wilds of northern Utah, attendees at a conference at which guests reportedly paid up to $12,000 to do yoga, fish, and kibitz with fellow entrepreneurs, would-be investors, and the author and psychotherapist Esther Perel.
CULTURE WARS
Tipping Point Stephen Miller's nonprofit is suing a startup over racial discrimination. The diversity of American business is at stake.
WORK LIFE
Nancy Reyes, CEO of the Americas at BBDO, answers our career questionnaire.
POLITICS
The Color of Money ActBlue has become the default fundraising machine for the Democratic Party. Here's why that's dangerous.
PODCASTING
The \"Great Men\" Theory of Podcasting Listen up, the 21stcentury frontiersmen are talking—a lot.
WORLD CHANGING IDEAS
FROM THE TINY SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND OF NIUE то THE BUSTLING STREETS OF PARIS, FROM GUINEA TO SAN FRANCISCO, PEOPLE ARE DEVISING SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD'S GREATEST CHALLENGES.
THE PERPLEXITY EFFECT
WHEN YOU GOOGLE THE TERM \"PERPLEXITY AI,\" YOU GET A FAMILIAR-LOOKING RESPONSE: A LINK TO THE COMPANY'S WEBSITE FOLLOWED BY FOUR OTHER RELATED POPULAR QUERIES, A HANDFUL OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES, RELATED SEARCHES, AND AN ENDLESS SCROLL OF LINKS THAT IF PRINTED OUT MIGHT EXTEND FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO AUSTIN.
