When Monica Zwirner and Lucy Wallace Eustice joined forces to start their own company in 2000, they were on a mission to create beautiful, functional, luxury bags. After carefully sourcing their materials and manufacturers, the pair chose to launch their brand, MZ Wallace, by opening and operating a store, which in turn gave them direct access to the customers and their feedback. Just a few short years later, in 2004, the brand launched its e-commerce operation, continuing to operate as a direct-to-consumer brand years before the concept became buzzy. Now, almost 20 years later, MZ Wallace is continuing to build on its direct roots. It now gets customer feedback largely from Facebook, versus face-to-face; it still believes in brand transparency; and it's kept physical retail a central component of the business. On this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sits down with Wallace Eustice to discuss how MZ Wallace has evolved since 2000, why the brand won't be sold anytime soon and how technology has impacted the larger fashion industry.

When Sandra Makarem was working in the buying department at Bloomingdale's, she began to see a discrepancy between shoppers' and retailers' behavior. So she decided to create The Collective Child. The Collective Child's model is similar to that of  other clothing subscription companies: Subscribers share their preferences, they receive a curated selection of items to suit their needs, and then they keep what they want and send back what they don't. What makes The Collective Child unique is that it targets a very specific audience: moms wanting to buy luxury children's clothes. On this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sits down with The Collective Child's founder and CEO Sandra Makarem to discuss why she wanted to create a product for high-end moms, how important a unique curation is for a subscription business and how she grew a waitlist of 1,500 people without any paid marketing.