nyc-fashion
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How CARAA Turned One Fussy $400 Bag Into a 10-Year DTC Brand - By Letting Its First 100 Customers Complain
CARAA did not begin with a giant catalog or an ad blitz. It began with one convertible Studio Bag, a test run of 100 real customers, and enough complaints to turn product feedback into the company’s operating system.
Judy Duzich
Judy Duzich is the merchandising chief at Century 21 Stores, the lower-Manhattan off-price retailer famous for stocking designer labels at 40 to 65 percent off. She joined Century 21 as an assistant buyer in 1990, spent roughly three decades climbing to vice president and divisional merchandise manager, left after the chain shut down in 2020, and returned in 2022 to help rebuild it. When Century 21 reopened at 22 Cortlandt Street in May 2023 - 100,000 square feet across four floors, down from 250,000 across seven - Duzich was the one deciding what actually went on the racks. Her stated brief was to make the assortment more curated, more elevated and more relevant, organized by brand and by style instead of piled into bins, with fresh deliveries arriving constantly so that the store's famous treasure-hunt logic still worked. A Fashion Institute of Technology graduate in marketing and fashion merchandising, she is one of the few people who has bought for Century 21 in three separate decades.
GUIZIO
GUIZIO is the New York womenswear label founded by self-taught designer Danielle Guizio in 2014. Built around signature corsets, structured suiting and form-fitting silhouettes with asymmetrical cut-outs and custom hardware, the brand grew from a $400 graphic-tee project in a New Jersey basement into a direct-to-consumer fashion house with a SoHo flagship, international showrooms and a celebrity following that includes the Hadids, the Kardashian-Jenners, Rosalia, Blackpink and Lady Gaga.
Lafayette 148 New York
Lafayette 148 New York is a privately held, vertically integrated luxury womenswear house founded in SoHo in 1996. Named for its original address at 148 Lafayette Street, the brand designs, produces, sells and fulfills clothing, footwear and accessories under one roof - from its Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters to its owned atelier in Shantou, China. Known for intelligent, understated tailoring, luxurious fabrics and inclusive sizing across petite, missy and plus ranges, it serves professional and style-conscious women through its own boutiques, e-commerce site, AtelierDirect styling service and select luxury retailers.
Leland Kass
Leland Kass is a New York based marketing executive and the Chief Marketing Officer of Lafayette 148 New York, the Brooklyn Navy Yard luxury womenswear house led by Deirdre Quinn. Kass built a career at the intersection of luxury retail and storytelling, with senior roles at Maria Tash, rag & bone, Saks Fifth Avenue and Conde Nast, plus an independent consulting practice, LKK Advisory. The through line is brand narrative, digital and e-commerce growth, and customer engagement for premium consumer brands.