Speaking for her corner of the fashion industry -- luxury denim -- Warp+Weft founder Sarah Ahmed said that discussions around racial issues should only be beginning. "If everyone was always receptive to this -- to racial equality -- we wouldn't be having these problems," Ahmed said on the Glossy Podcast. "We all need to take a look: maybe the joke that we make, the model choice that we made -- why did we make that?" she said. Warp+Weft is progressive on other fronts. Its manufacturing process consumes a fraction of the water that jeans -- a notoriously resource-intense garment -- typically do, according to Ahmed. And because of the impact of the pandemic, Ahmed hopes to make the family-owned businesses she's a part of (Warp+Weft is one, DL1961 is the other) smarter about human resources. Ahmed said the company saw a spike in e-commerce sales -- yes, even though they're jeans, not sweatpants. But it still had to make layoffs. For the future, Ahmed said, "I talk to people on the team and tell them 'Listen, let's make you and this role irreplaceable -- and so key to the company that you feel needed, and we need you, and you're pandemic-proof.' I think that's how employers need to be looking at their roles."

Womenswear brand Knix has already gone through the painful transition to DTC that other clothing companies are being forced into during the pandemic. "I feel for those brands," Knix CEO Joanna Griffiths said on the Glossy Podcast. "But I also know that it's possible." Griffiths founded the company in 2013 to make and market leakproof underwear. At the time, the business model was entirely about wholesale. "I did trunk shows at every Equinox location in the United States, I think," Griffiths said. But in the 2016, she decided to pull out of more than 700 retail locations across North America and shift to direct-to-consumer, out of a concern for size inclusivity. "A lot of the traditional retailers wouldn’t carry our size assortment," Griffiths has previously told Glossy. On the podcast, she described it as a "really scary decision" to "basically cut our revenue in more than half and start over," she said. That decision is panning out. This past May, sales were up 135% year-over-year, in part thanks to Knix's categories -- wireless bras and loungewear -- being in high demand in an age of social distancing.