The co-lab career stories

Talia Shuvalov is an accomplished Creative Director in the fashion industry and the co-founder of EREDE Official, a fine jewelry line launching in July 2023. Talia was most recently the SVP of Design and Creative at Alexander Wang overseeing all product design for the company. Talia has specialized in knitwear throughout her career, and is well known for her integral role in the growth of this cat...

Karen Santoyo Ruenitz is an accomplished creative director in footwear and accessories, renowned for her ability to create iconic products for lifestyle brands such as Soludos, Loeffler Randall, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Tory Burch, and Helmut Lang. Along with her creative vision, Karen is a passionate advocate for sustainability, as demonstrated by her leadership in pioneering the Soludos Sustainability C...

Monica Botkier is a pioneer and leader in the accessories space Founder and Creative Director of Botkier New York. Exited 2018 Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Chosenwoven luxury merino lingerie. Author, Harper Collins Design. On this episode, Monica speaks with her co-founder Olga Kapustina about the gamble she took to start her own handbag company, parting ways with it and the lessons she's put t...

The Belarusian born, Brooklyn raised designer started her eponymous line in 1999. Her work was featured in Barneys for a decade along with numerous exclusive boutiques across the US.  Her clothes have been worn by celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Kim Kardashian, Katie Holmes, Brittany Spears and Rachel Bilson, among others. And her work was featured in major publications including El...

For 23 years, Greg Baratte has been a notable leader and innovator in the Digital, e-commerce and CRM space of the luxury goods industry. Greg is currently working in the newly created  Global Open Innovation  team of Chanel, focusing on investing and supporting existing start-ups or building bespoke ventures; prior to this role he led  http://Chanel.com  globally and created the house’s first  Gl...

Iwona Waluk specializes in Beauty, Wellness, Fashion, Interiors, and Hospitality. Her creative process is to develop brands and their visual identities with a personal, contemporary sensibility, informed by the multicultural identity, a love for nature, arts, and the evocative power of objects. She serves fearless entrepreneurs and companies to help them move in the direction they want. She wants...

Emily is the co-founder and CEO of modern French pharmacy skincare brand, Doré. After 5 years of working with her current business partner Garance, she became her business partner and COO of the media company Atelier Doré in 2016. Her previous experience includes working with both brands and publications such as Lucky Magazine, WWD and Oscar de la Rent across production, editorial and public relat...

As Senior Vice President of Global Direct Sales, Jennifer Parker was responsible for the strategic sales planning, execution and management of Peloton’s 140+ retail locations and inside sales representatives. Her team of more than 500 employees cultivate Peloton’s direct sales business of in-store experience, phone and chat introducing new customers to the Peloton Bike, Bike+, Tread, Row, Digital,...

Lilly Liu Minkove is a consumer-obsessed marketing and strategy leader with over 20 years of experience leading and advising luxury, retail, consumer and technology brands. She is the founder of boutique strategy consultancy ArtLogica Group, and has been an advisor to brands like Spanx, Timbuk2, Kohl’s, CVS, Birdies and Invisalign. A quant geek turned luxury retail operator and strategic marketer,...

Stephanie Davila is an award-winning Creative Director with a focus on brand storytelling, content creation and creative strategy. She helps brands cultivate deeper connections with their customers through engaging content that converts. She has led copy, creative and social at some of America’s top fashion brands like Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch, Banana Republic, and Express. Prior to going brand si...

Kimara Mitchell is an award-winning creative director, photo art director, brand strategist, and designer. She’s worked on the agency side, at design firms, and in-house for brands large and small like Gap, Banana Republic, Grey, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Levi’s, Quay Australia, and Walmart. In addition, she is a content creator whose blog j’adore couture has been featured in The New Y...

D’IYANU is an exciting up and coming African inspired brand based in Norristown, PA. Seeing a void in the market for a modern African inspired fashion line, her Nigerian roots inspired her to launch D’IYANU in Jan 2014. Both the brand and Addie Ajayi have been featured on the New York Times, Forbes, CBS, and Fox. She currently works with her brother and business partner, Dara Ajayi along with 15 o...

Duke & Winston is a brand for bulldogs, their people & those who live with The Bulldog Spirit. Launched originally 2010 - 2016 as a trunk show, retail & wholesale business (sold through Urban Outfitters and over 80 national/international accounts) with no real target market & too many skus, Seun revived the brand in 2020 & with a renewed focus on what he loves most, bulldogs &a...

Charlotta Hellichius is a passionate brand strategy leader unlocking change for C-suite clients across categories in the US and abroad. She has a proven track record of improving companies from the inside out, shaping product and services to customers' and employees needs, as well as crafting compelling comms and creative that strikes a chord. She began her career as a product designer,...

Gina Ciancone is an in-house creative at Vespa, working between Milan, Italy and New York City. Her work focuses on concepting and managing the creative for global brand campaigns that help push Vespa into the future. Trained at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gina has worked in different areas of the creative industry, always applying a cross-cultural and strategic mindset to design challe...

Pamela has a rich and storied career with over 20 years of experience in luxury retail.  Prior to launching Collab Society, she consulted for Arhaus, managing a freelance creative team, creating seasonal concepts, and working closely with the founder and his product development team, and for Roman and Williams Guild, helping to develop the brand’s merchandising arm.  Berick co-found...

Abby is a creative strategist and communications expert, sometimes known as a “PR lady” and always relied upon as a connector of dots and people. A natural Ideas Person and Strategic Planner, Abby founded her consultancy, Common Point while living in France in 2012 to bring unique skills and knowledge of international business, communications, journalism, creative writing, brand design, and relati...

Hilary Jochmans is the Founder of PoliticallyInFashion, a community for all those in fashion – designers, manufacturers, artisans, retailers, models, lawyers, reporters, consumers – to learn about legislative and regulatory issues of key importance to the industry. The mission is to educate individuals on public policy; and empower them with this knowledge; to then engage with elected representati...

Yoana Strateva is a European attorney, who has lived in five different countries, at present based in Seattle, WA. Yoana holds a law degree from France and an LLM degree from Queen Mary University of London. Yoana specializes in Competition law, Intellectual property and has a special interest in Fashion law. Yoana obtained several certificates in Fashion law, and she is an alumna of the prestigio...

Kristen is the Founder of Luminate Brand Advisors, a consultancy that helps brands and retailers accelerate growth with a focus on omni-channel expansion, merchandising, and go to market. Kristen held roles such as President of The Americas at Marc Jacobs, EVP/Chief Merchant at Saks Fifth Avenue and President/Chief Merchant for several start-ups. Kristen partners with purpose driven brands to meet...

Katie Irving is a Whitespace Forecaster and the founder of MOONSHOT, a consulting agency that works with fashion brands to uncover first-to-market product opportunities that are deeply rooted in customer insights - not popular trends. Formerly the Consulting Director of Fashion at WGSN and Head of Concept at Abercrombie & Fitch, Katie delivers best-in-class advisory projects for leading brands...

Christiana Mavromatis has over two decades of experience leading marketing and creative for iconic brands like Cartier, MAC Cosmetics, COACH, Peloton, W Hotels, L'Oreal, and Compass. Christiana began her career as a creative in the advertising agency world before going brand-side, where she is now. She's passionate about using data to develop marketing strategy and to ensure creative efficacy, tak...

Jessica Quillin, PhD is the Co-Founder and Principal for It’s A Working Title, LLC, a boutique agency and think tank focused on content strategy and research for fashion, luxury, and the experience economy. Jessica is an experienced content strategist, published author, and the former Fashion Editor for Glass Magazine. She has an extensive background in fashion, luxury, and retail, including strat...

A pragmatic leader and idealist entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in business development and merchandising and collection management in the luxury and contemporary fashion industry in NY and Paris, Emily’s focus and expertise is to take a company to their next dream phase, whether through re-positioning or building a product from the ground up. Today, as co-founder and CEO of female-l...

Rachel Hall Danes is a sales & solutions consultant for manufacturers and designers. Previously, Rachel co-founded The Danes, a brand that solves construction and fit issues for women and has remained a top sell-through collection in Bergdorf Goodman’s couture department every day since 1993. The collection is also available at Boyd’s Philadelphia and select Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue...