How to be fabulous with Charlotte Dallison. Out with the old and
in with the vintage. Each week I chat to a fabulous expert guests on their vintage wardrobe and audit to inspire you to embrace more secondhand style
Hello, welcome to another episode of the how to be fabulous podcast. This week I spoke to the fabulous Elise Erin's Elise is a fashion entrepreneur and CEO based in New York, and in 1993, she co founded Kate Spade, New York with Andy spade, Pamela belt, and the late Kate Spade who she talks about quite a lot in this episode. They all went on to sell the business to Neiman Marcus in 2006. And in 2014, the same team launched Francis Valentine Frances Valentine is a joyous and buoyant brand with a distinct vintage influence. Elise adores vintage and references mid century styles constantly when creating collections for Francis Valentine with her team. Throughout the episode, we chat American Vintage adding modern touches to vintage designs, sustainability practices and wearing what makes you happy. I love chatting to Elise. We actually recorded this a wee while ago. So you'll hear her talking about a few pieces from a collection. And all of those pieces are now available on the website. So if you go to the show notes, you can shop them now, as well as many other fabulous new goodies. I hope you love the episode.
Hello, Elise, how are you?
I'm well, thank you.
Oh, good. It's 8am there. And it's 10pm here, which sort of both times feel kind of inappropriate almost.
I met early birds. This is why I'm a
night owl. It's worked out really well. Well, it's wonderful to have you here. And before we start talking about vintage, I'd love to get to know you a little bit and talk to you about your background and also your career and fashion. I know it's a huge career. And there's so much to talk about, but in a nutshell, but to be able to describe your trajectory
to work. So I'll start at the beginning. I'll try not to be too long winded. But I grew up on a farm in Kansas. I was the last of four daughters, and no sons. So we of course, we all left. No one was there to take over the farm at the end. But I had always had a passion to move to New York City the opposite of where I grew up. Because I loved and you know, I would I would buy for a save my money and buy fashion magazines, you know, all through school in high school. And one of the things my sisters and I loved to do was to go vintage shopping. And back in the day. You know, there were so many different vintage shops and people weren't really shopping vintage back then. So there was so much more out there jewels that you could find that were just amazing pieces. And I've just always loved to shop vintage because they're they were pieces that you know, were just so special and you couldn't find anywhere else. So moved to New York started working in the fashion business. My college roommate moved up here soon after who was Kate Spade, Kate Brosnahan. And we both had jobs in the fashion business. And she started working at Mademoiselle magazine, but during college, we had always wanted to have a business. And her boyfriend, Andy spade, then became her husband said why don't you guys start a handbag business. And we're like, we don't know anything about handbags. And Katie had been an editor at Mademoiselle. So she did know quite a bit about what was and wasn't out there in the market. And there weren't really great American handbag brands then. So we started in their apartment. And it was 1993 met our other partner, Pamela so there were four of us in the business and he still was working his full time job. I left mine to start this. And we started Kate Spade, and it was just amazing was so fun. We added a lot of product categories over the years and it was basically our first child we were with, you know, working 24/7 And it was kind of a dream come true because it really took off. We ended up selling that business in 2006 when we all started having children and you know, took off I it was it was one of those like I'm never gonna have to work again. But you don't realise like I had never not worked in my life and I really missed it. Katie missed it. So we started talking we're out to dinner one night celebrating we start talking about should we get back in Do this again. And so we started Frances Valentine in 2014 and launched it in 2016. With again, just handbags and shoes. After, yeah, yes, it really, really fun. And we kind of had the luxury the second time around of taking it slowly and doing exactly what we wanted. And it was tainted by any retailers or, you know, being broke and timing, etc. You know, this felt a lot easier.
Oh, I love it. It's sort of bags than babies than bags. Again, back to babies.
And my overall teenagers Oh, my oldest is 21. But now they actually love everything, Frances Valentine. So it's really fun to have them come up to the office and see all the samples that we're working on and, you know, get their point of view. And you've
obviously introduced all sorts of other product categories, and to Francis Valentine since launching as well.
Yes. So the end of 2018. After we lost Katie, we're kind of at a crossroads of deciding what to do. And we have a very small team, but we work very hard. And they're a wonderful collaborative team. And we decided we're going to forge ahead, because that's what she would have wanted. And you know, we wanted to keep the brand going. And so we launched a couple of apparel pieces, and they were vintage pieces that were favourite pieces of hers that she'd worn all through college. And you know, we had bought together. And they sold out immediately, like within two weeks. So we reordered them, this that sold out and we just started adding different pieces. And really the whole time before that all of our customers had been looking at our campaigns and saying, Where can I get that jacket? Where can I get those pants? Where can I get that swing coat? And we're like, oh, they're vintage. Sorry, because we styled everything with my vintage pieces and her vintage pieces. And that's how we got started. And our customers basically we're asking for all of those things. Cut to now, apparel is about 60% of our business. How extraordinary. I know it's just great, but it's all based on all the things that are so nostalgic to me. And I'll tell you a funny story came borrowed one of my fisherman sweaters in college, probably when we were seniors and, uh, probably night, or 2017 She hands me this bag of clothes. And she goes, Do you want any of this stuff? I'm getting rid of it. And of course my fisherman's sweater is sitting on I was like, Oh my God, we've had that since college. So one of the things that we my favourite old fisherman's sweater, because it's one of those that you have for your lifetime. It's just, it's a fabulous sweater. It's really great. But we also the other product category is jewellery which we do really fun sort of costume jewellery that really wears well. But if you lost it, it's not going to break your heart. It's like you it will break your heart because it was one of your favourite pieces, but it's not $1,000 You know, piece of jewellery. So we do a really great jewellery businesses a lot of fun and make really lightweight earrings because nobody wants heavy earrings. And just just really fun stuff. Oh, it's
incredible. Sort of how the brand has organically become different to what you initially set out. Set out for it to be but equally it makes total sense. And that is what I personally love about your brand because I have a few of your handbag sitting over there. And also a pair of shoes which I was going to wear but I'm actually wearing slippers right now which is pathetic, but it is 10pm So allow myself that. But um, I love how there's like there's a distinct thread with all of it. And I think the thread is the nod to nostalgia. That's my perception anyway, would you say that's the case?
It is. I think. I think it's about things that make you happy pieces that make you happy and you can really keep forever because I have probably never gotten rid of anything vintage I've bought. I've bought dresses for a party that I've worn a couple more times and then given them away, but the vintage pieces really have a heritage and somebody that somebody lived in that someone went through their life in that piece. And so for me, every piece tells a story. So to have these beautiful vintage pieces and to be able to recreate them. A lot of them we will bring them back will recolor them will make you know give them some modern attributes like pockets. I love pockets and everything and zipper. There may be used to be buttons all the way down the back. Just making them a little bit more modern but they still have that nostalgia Just feel. And, for instance, when people walk into one of our stores, I want them to walk in and say, Oh my God, I want everything in here. Because every piece tells us, every piece makes you happy. And so that's that's how I want people to feel, when they when they buy something of ours, that it's going to be in their closet for the next 20 years or 30 years, or that they want to pass it to their daughter.
And Matt, just say as well, because I live in Australia, I've not had the experience yet, of being in one of your stores, but I still have that experience and feel that energy when I'm on your website shopping. And as a vintage wearer, and nostalgic person at that it's sort of neighbours that very nicely. So thank you for giving us a bit of that energy all the way down under like, and so at least your personal style. How would you describe it today? And how do you incorporate vintage into it today.
So you know, as we have matured over time, I am much more into it, you know, I absolutely have always wanted things to be comfortable. I think everybody does, especially through COVID. Now we've all gotten used to being very comfortable. But for me, that doesn't mean that you can't look chic and have style with being comfortable. So it might mean that the pants I have on right now are their men's French army pants, and we call them the khaki, but they are very, very baggy men's pants. But I love them. And if I'm travelling, and I really want to wear pants, then these are the ones I wear. They're sort of my oh my gosh, I gotta I gotta get to work early pants, and you just throw them on. There anything with that, I suppose my style, I love colour, I love prints. And we tend to do more prints and colour than almost any brand I know of out there. And I think that's what really brings our customers back because they're really happy, nostalgic, beautiful prints. Some of the ones behind me, are for next spring. But they we source all of our prints through vintage artists, or vintage art suppliers. So we'll scour Europe and find a lot of the prints behind me might be from the 20s, the 40s, the 60s, the 70s. So all of ours are usually painted prints. And that's what we make, how we end up making our silhouettes, we might enlarge the scale reduce the scale of you know, each one will recolor them sometimes or make them more vibrant. But generally, the artist's rendering themselves are what we use.
Oh, how amazing well, because you spoke before about making literal replicas of vintage pieces. And now these prints using them in your designs. Are there any other ways you use vintage when designing? Or is it just those two methods mainly,
it's you know, we work there are a lot of things that go into our design process. It's meeting with these artists reps and picking out sort of pieces we love. And then we'll meet we'll we'll go to fabric shows, and we'll meet you know, particularly like for fall will meet with our wool suppliers out of the UK. And the one we use is Abraham moon. They're amazing. It's a very old traditional heritage wool factory, but I pulled some cards from this fall of pieces that we use. So we'll get you know, hundreds of these different board really match our prints back to a lot of the colours in these so that they really work seamlessly together. These are some of the last ones, but they really I love these plants. They're just so beautiful, very menswear inspired pieces. So we'll put all of our materials together. At the same time we're doing that we're going to vintage shows and vintage shops. And I will usually buy 10 to 15 pieces per season for us to look at whether it's a collar we're looking for the cut of a whole jacket I can show you a couple if you'd like to see them. Yes, please. This is one suit that we got it's beautiful suit. I love this jacket because the collar is so special. It's kind of doubled over if you can see. And this one's actually still has its tag on it 1960s suit and just so adorable. So what we did was we used the wool, which was right here this green is green plaid. And we basically remade this made the pockets a little bit better, we refit the shoulders to fit. And this is the skirt. So Oh, I
love it was
one of the clearest uses of one of our pieces. The difference here, the skirts are a little bit different. This one's more a line. And this one's more of a pencil skirt.
Yes, so love that skirt, past the pocket.
Yes, the pockets. And we'll add colourful linings and usually some little details that only the wearer can see. So for instance, on this shirt that I have on, I don't know if I can even show you. But we put a little we embroider a little XO on the cuff so that the wearer can see it. And we have a little heart in the back of the collars. embroidered, or just special details, I think that I don't know kind of send love to the to the customers. And there's
something sort of almost not old fashioned, but there's something nostalgic in that in itself, just those additional details which often contemporary brands lack, which I think vintage whereas long for because there are those beautiful linings, I have your faux mink coat, and it's got the most exquisite, sort of like seafoam green, blue, beautiful silk lining, and it's just the most glamorous thing. And I'd always wanted that kind of coat in the sense that I'm obsessed with old Hollywood and love that look. However, I obviously don't want to wear a mink coat because that feels highly inappropriate role. So I love how you guys made it and it looks like faux fur, but not in a not in a plasticky way and just contemporary fresh kind of way, which I adore. And it still looks expensive. You know,
I actually I think I have one from the winter on the back of my chair. So this one is a Tom lamb that we did, oh, I
love that
the lining really matters because it's what you see every time putting it on. And when you flip something and you're kind of you have to love that. It's better ground lining in they're sort of like, what's the point. But this colour, everybody sees it. And he's like, Oh my gosh, I love that. That's beautiful. And it just makes me happy. That's all. But I love very personal details and things because I think that's why so many of us love vintage pieces because it was it belonged to somebody before they went to parties and never lived a life in that before. And it's all so personal. So to bring that to Francis Valentine in some small way. It makes me just, it's what I love to do.
It's like you're combining the best of vintage and the best of contemporary design in that. And on that note, I'd love to quickly chat about sustainability as well. Do you personally find yourself buying vintage in a bid to be sustainable? And also, what practices are you bringing into Francis Valentine to be more sustainable as we go on?
I guess I've always been a little sustainability conscious. Firstly, because I grew up on a farm. So I was very close to nature growing up. And when I was buying vintage, it wasn't for sustainability reasons, because I wasn't thinking about that as a, you know, young person. However, I think it's fantastic. I love that people are into it. Now. You know, as far as Francis Valentine goes, we consider ourselves the opposite of fast fashion because we make things that are meant to last your life. And I really care about it, you know, if we all don't do our best to make to make this change, then you know, shame on us. But we are so we've done several things. We partnered with a company called Clean hub. So a percentage of every single order we sell through our retail stores and through our ecommerce site goes to clean plastic out of the ocean and we've cleaned out about 20,000 pounds of plastic out of the oceans. It's an a fantastic organisation, check it out if anybody has an opportunity to. So we partner with them. They're, they're terrific. And then about a year and a half two years ago, we got rid of all the plastic and our consumer packaging so it was expensive to do but really worthwhile and I'm really happy about it. started shipping in cornstarch bags that biodegrade in your trash. So if they're really really great, they're almost feel too nice to throw away but you can throw them away. And we're right now working with a sustainability company to go through an internal audit so that we can look at our foot or carbon footprint. And as the company grows, make sure we're reducing it as the company grows. So, you know, the thing I was happiest about was I went to premiere vision, which is the fabric and leather show here in New York a few weeks ago. And as a small company, it's always hard to be able to buy things that larger companies have access to. But I would say 60 to 70% of the vendors at the show had sustainable materials for the first time, I was just I was in heaven, because every time we would stop at a vendor, I'd pull all the sustainable materials, and they were actually getting so much better. So we'll all be able to share in, you know, all of those resources in the future, the you know, because everybody's making it important, which is great. So, there's a lot of vegan materials out there and a lot, a lot more sustainable materials, which is really great,
how great, it's so like, it gives one that sort of sense of optimism hearing that because I think often the messaging around sustainability is a little bit of doom and gloom for obvious reasons. And part of the reason I'm doing this podcast is to showcase vintage in a really positive and aspirational way and accessible way, not making it, you know, like off limits for certain people, anyone's allowed to embrace it. Even if you've never been interested in it before, I think now's the time to get into it. And also look for brands like yours, which not only do they have a classic style to the pieces so you can keep wearing them plus the excellent quality. It's also as I keep saying that the types of pieces that you can combine with vintage and always look contemporary, but timeless, which I think is what one wants, really. And that is antifascist fashion, as you said. Now, back to your style. Again, Elyse, you've told us about your career and your different chapters. Have you had any specific fashion phases? Or have you already have you always stuck to one? Look,
I think when I was 18, and I made a trip up to New York, my mother brought me up here I was 15 1415, which is when I fell in love with it. And I came back up when I was 18. Right before my freshman year of college. And it was a punk era at that time. So of course I had to go via your the parachute pants and the pointy toe boots. And so I think I went through a phase at that point in my life. But really, I've been pretty traditional. You know, with apparel, most of my life, I've gone through a couple little phases, they were probably more in the 80s than than any other time. And they're pictures that know like, oh my god, what was like Pinky with a lot of blackout on there and giant earrings and really big hair. Through those. It's funny to look back now and think of you know, everybody dressed that way then.
Yes, and have you always wanted this much colour?
Yes. Except, again, when I first moved to New York, Black was the colour. Everybody wore black all the time. And I think, you know, 60% 70% of my wardrobe was black at that time, because I had just moved to New York and I wanted to fit in and I wanted to be a New Yorker. So I'm more a navy person. I don't have that much black in my wardrobe. But Black is essential. So I you know, I do have some, but I generally wear colour every day. I'm of the mind that when we wake up in the morning, we get to decide how we're going to feel all day. And when you walk by a mirror, or when you walk into your office or run into friends. And people say oh my gosh, you look great or you're so happy. You're You're I love that outfit. It makes you feel great. And so, you know, colour colour just boosts your mood. And I you know, I think it really makes a difference. So yes, I do I wear colour a lot. It's funny. You're
not the first guest to say that. Last season in season one we had Peter Mathias on and she is a esteemed New Zealand television presenter and she's also a chef, but she has fantastic style and she recently released a book called shed couture in which she kind of got reacquainted with her old wardrobe during the pandemic. And so it was like vintage but she already owned it. And she before she became a broadcaster and a chef. She had been In a counsellor, and she said she wanted to help people, but she didn't kind of want to listen to their problem problems necessarily. She wanted to help them in other ways. And that's why she built those careers as a chef. But in that she gave this piece of advice where she said, if you aren't counselling, if you want to feel happy, just go and put on something fabulous and colourful, and then you will feel better or make yourself a beautiful meal. And it's just a really good piece of advice, and it lasted.
I dressed up a lot during COVID in some of our bright kaftans and I would make dinner and we would, my all my girls were home during that time. So it was really fun to have family dinners again, but I just got dressed up, I would do my hair and put on makeup and we'd have a really fun dinner and dance after dinner. We're listening to when he is that sound. So that's how we kitchen is we put on show tunes, and everybody. Everybody cleans up the kitchen.
Oh, that's so sweet. I adore that. Um, so do you have a most memorable vintage clothing purchase?
Well, I think I brought my favourite here. I have so many good ones. But I brought my favourite just to show you because it's one of our best sellers at Frances Valentine. And it's because it's that sweater I again, I've had this sweater for probably 35 years, I bought it at a vintage store in New York. And I wear it all the time. So this is my original, it's still actually has the Irish mill tag in it. Wow. It's so long ago. And it's just, it's still in amazing shape. There's no holes in the pockets, no nothing. So this is the one my original that I bought. And we made our version for Francis Valentine. And it's one of our best sellers. And so that is our traditional fisherman sweater. The infamous one that Katie had borrowed from me. This is it. But it's I had all the attributes loved for a fisherman pullover, it's got kind of that short roll neck. And then it doesn't have a big waistband here. It's more just up sort of a blocking doesn't pull in at the waist, and shorter sleeves. There. And there's our little XO at the bottom. But these are two of my biggest favourites. I can show you a couple more if you if you have time. Oh, good. I'm sorry, these are Navy, I found these I actually think I found these on Etsy or eBay. They are original schooler sailor pants. Wow, that makes the man who were these was tall and super skinny. But they have you know the pockets. I don't know how they I don't know how they got in and out of these quickly if you had to, but has all the original details on and we we made it a little bit more modern. Because instead of all the buttons that you would have to undo. This is our version. So you still get all the detail. But instead we put a zipper on the side so you can get out of them much. The you know all of this on the back. So it's fun, but they fit great. I love these. They're a little bit softer wool than the original. Just because it's much nicer.
How on earth did you find those on eBay? Which search term did you use?
I have always wanted a pair of Sailor pants and I thought I really want a pair of original ones. But I have looked at Army Navy thrift stores for probably 2025 years to find the right side. I just happened to be on looking for a vintage probably a Darlene sweater. And I saw them when I bought them. I'll give them a try. I usually don't order things like that online if I can't try them on but I did. Yes. And it was amazing. I have one more quick story. Yes, please share. This. Katie and I when we read vintage shop in college, always bought these sweaters. They are This isn't my favourite print, but it's just one that I can show you. So it's called Darlene knitwear. And they made these beautiful cashmere lamb's wool cardigans and they have pro buttons on them. They're just they're so sweet. But every single sweater they made was a different artists like what we do. And they were all copyrighted. And I thought wouldn't it be great to do a collaboration with Darlene? So I investigated I could not locate the company anywhere. The last I'd heard they'd been around really in the 50s 60s and 70s. But they ended they just ended in 1974. So I asked our attorney Nice to find them. They said that we found the same thing hire a private detective. And I was like, Well, I'm not gonna do that. So I kind of dropped it. And we made our own rendition of the sweater. And this is one that we made. This is coming up this fall. It's one of our best, the Darlene darling is one of our best sellers. So in homage to Darlene, we call this our darling. Oh, perfect. So after we sold ones a couple of years ago, I get a letter in the mail. And like, I open it, and it's like dear Elise errands, I was like, Oh my God, they're gonna sue us, made their sweaters and wrote to me, he said, My father owned Darlene NetWare. The company was sold off into pieces in 1974. No longer exists. But I am so thrilled that you're bringing this style back and our type of design back. It made me cry when I saw your sweaters. Oh, by the way, my father's nicknamed me was darling. Like, go wild that know that. So that is one of my favourite stories. And so this is one of our best sweaters. It's really lightweight. It's so soft, and so sweet. And you can wear completely plain clothes. But if you wear one of these sweaters, it just, I don't know, makes your outfit up just pulls it all together.