 What's a trend now that you see that you hate? Probably fanny packs. You can make a franny pack. Elise Arons, founder and CEO of Francis Valentine. Are you ready to answer some questions? Yes. So a few years after selling Kate Spade, you created Francis Valentine. What was it like to start fresh? We had the luxury of doing it slowly and it wasn't based on what anybody else wanted. It was based on what we wanted to do. Where did the idea come from? We really liked accessories, handbags and shoes. It was what we knew already. So we wanted to do that and then we started a pair all later. Where did the name come from? We worked on so many different names and we had a lot of different names to start with, mostly to do with flowers or floral arrangements. And we ended up thinking it needed to be more personal. So it was my partner's old family names of different sides of her family. When you're a brand, we're the clothing, the design. It's not like people wear Francis Valentine big, right? Right. It's a small tag. How important is the name then and the color of the words and the font of Francis Valentine? We're really specific about how we use our logo. If it's stacked, if it's long, if it's just the FV, the smaller, the better, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not really logo driven. I think it's a good thing for brand awareness, but I think the clothes and accessory pieces are really what should sell. You could have been here today with any other name. I suppose. We'd have to really like it though. There's something about Valentine that's really special. Sure. No, no, and Scott, the name does create a feeling. What I love about your brand is that I get a feeling it has nothing to do with the name. It's just the items themselves. Yes. It's really about the product. I don't know the history of fashion well enough, but I do know that like when we talked about the FV, you see brands that do the LZ and the H's and the this and the that's become very popular. Is that something you ever had to consider of how you'd use it or that was a niche niche? You know, we haven't ever wanted to do that because that's really logo driven thought. The reason that we have FV at all is because it's short and sometimes you need it to be super small. Like on a jewelry tag, it has to just say FV. What's missing in fashion that you knew you could fill? Really a joyfulness about finding something you love. You know, you just find that piece that you really love and you have to have it and we wanted our whole collection to be that way. When you're a fashion brand, is your brand created in the house? Yes. How many designers do you work with? Three. Who decides what's on brand and what's not? I do. From my understanding, Kate was the one behind the design and you were the one behind the business. How do you stay true to her vision? We really worked on everything together. Even though we would answer questions for our specific areas, we worked on design together. We worked on the business together always at Kate's Bade and Francis Valentine. If you had one marketing dollar to spend, where would you spend it? Catalog. Part of my area. When you say catalog, what does that even mean? We do a lot of different marketing. We use digital. We use our catalogs, which we just started last year. We were lucky enough to plan a catalog before we even knew about what COVID was. When we launched the catalog June 1st last year, everybody was home. So the catalog really took off and our creative and photography really lend itself to print. So it was a really nice way to gain a lot more brand awareness and exposure for the brand. All right. We are at the Flowcode Flowcard. So this season, Flowcode is sponsoring. I'm with the brand. They are a revolutionary new QR technology that makes a beautiful QR code that allows people to connect directly with your brand. So right now, people are seeing a customized Flowcode for Francis Valentine on screen. When they hold their phone up and put it over the code, it will take them to a customized Flowpage for you. What would you love for Flowcode to program into your Flowpage? I would love for it to open onto our catalog. Given how much you love that catalog, I think that would do very well for you. So yeah, that's not a problem. How do you make sure your brand resonates and doesn't just check boxes? I think our brand is so different than anything out there. It's more of an authentic inspirational brand and the products that we make. Some people make certain things like handbags or shoes or apparel, but we do all of these as really a lifestyle brand. I think that's what makes us special. Do you have to constantly look at what everyone else is doing or do you keep your heads down and make whatever you think is gorgeous? I think a little bit of both. People ask about inspiration all the time and I think it's really in people you see every day. It could be a product that doesn't have anything to do with fashion that is inspirational, but I think it's just out in the world. And I do look at other things, but I'm not a slave to it. I watch a show called The Marvelous Miss Maisel and it's got such incredible wardrobe. Do you take inspiration from shows? I take inspiration from that period of time in history. A lot of our apparel pieces are based on characters from Dick Van Dyke's show, Laura Petrie. We have a Petrie pant. We have a raincoat from Singing in the Rain that is called the Lockwood because his name was Don Lockwood. So we have pieces like that that are really inspired by vintage pieces. That's really where a lot of our brand comes from is the past. It seems like many fashion brands have a hit item and build from there. What's your hit item? I think it's more of a feeling than it is one item. People really come to us, I think, for authentic, creative product and a lot of color, and it just inspires happiness in people and I think that's why they come to us. Do you think at some point you will have a staple, a hit? Is it still TBD? We know we have best sellers. The cardigan sweaters, the Petrie pants, and then our calf tants were really known for those. I've heard stories about brands that would lose money on retail stores in highly trafficked areas as a means of brand building. Is that something that you consider doing? We did do it. I think the first many months of our first pop-up on Madison Avenue, we did not make money. And I think that's typical with any business starting out and certainly it's a big, huge part of marketing to have a retail store. Thank goodness they're profitable now and we were able to open to more. Is that something that you would still do? I would. I think it's important to have a home for your brand that when people walk in, they really feel the whole breadth of your assortment and they can really understand the ethos of the brand. They get it when they walk in the door. Is Instagram crucial to the success of your business? It's an important component. I wouldn't say it's crucial, but we definitely use Instagram a lot. What's been harder than you anticipated? You know, at the beginning it was brand awareness. Because it was a new name and even though it was the same old team, we really had to step into a different world because we had sold Kate Spade in 2006 and we were starting this in 2016. And so it was brand awareness and then for me personally, it was really learning more about digital. Work from home or office? Office. What's your kryptonite? I probably love work too much. Who's on your Mount Rushmore? RBG, Mary Tyler Moore, Diana Vreeland. What's been the coolest moment so far? I suppose when our first catalog came out last June. What's a trend now that you see that you hate? Probably fanny packs. You can make a franny pack. Well, I know they're really useful and especially if you're going hiking or someplace where you can't have a bag and people have asked us to make them for them before, but it's something we'll never do. Off-brand. What do you worry about? You know what I really worried about was during COVID the first few weeks I had really an agonizing week thinking I was going to have to furlough people. I lost a lot of sleep over that and luckily we didn't have to do it, but that was probably the worst week I've had in, you know, years. When will you know you've made it? Because I've been down this road before. There are so many small successes along the way and it's just a slow building feeling. I don't think there's one particular point in time when I'll feel that. Elise Arons, founder and CEO of Frances Valentine, thank you so much for coming on and answering some questions. Thank you for having me. I'm Ian Wishingrad and I'll see you next time on I'm With the Brand. Thank you.