buying-and-merchandising
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Heather Gruccio
Heather Salvatore Gruccio is Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer for Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Factory, the KnitWell Group brands headquartered at 7 Times Square in New York. A Wake Forest communications graduate, she built her merchandising career over nine years at Coach, sharpened it in mid-luxury at Tory Burch, and joined Ann Taylor in 2016 as Senior Director of Merchandising for non-apparel. She moved up to Vice President of Merchandising in 2017, SVP and GMM in 2020, and was elevated to EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer in 2025 after leading a product-and-perception reset that turned a 70-year-old mall brand into a name fashion press started writing about again. Her thesis is unfussy: women still want to look pulled together, they just want to be comfortable while doing it, and heritage is an asset rather than a liability if you actually know how to cut a jacket.
Style Arcade
Style Arcade is an Australian-founded software company that builds a buying and planning workspace for fashion brands and retailers. Its platform pulls together sales, stock, orders, imagery and web data into one visual source of truth, then uses analytics and AI-driven recommendations to help merchandising teams plan ranges, forecast demand, optimize size curves and reorder inventory. Founded in 2018 by Michaela Wessels and Tristan Hoy, the company serves thousands of teams globally - including Ralph Lauren, David Jones, Princess Polly and Tibi - and positions itself as a faster, more visual alternative to spreadsheets and generic BI tools.