As a part of New York Fashion Week Friday, Visa teamed up with ‘The Talks,’ and a group of female fashion entrepreneurs to present the “Fashion is Changing” panel. With a roster of of big names rising in the fashion industry, the panel came together to discuss inclusion, supporting each other, and avoiding having their voices stifled.
Included on the panel was, Heather Philp, a Senior VP at Wells Fargo, supermodel/founder of swimwear brand ‘Tropic of C’ Candice Swanepoel, co-founder of Rent the Runway Jennifer Fleiss, and Aurora James, founder and creative director of Brother Vellies.
“Its hard to talk about money and convince people why your product is great, especially for me, in all the meetings,” said Swanepoel, “It’s hard for women to talk about money, I’ve been on the other side of it for so long so now I’m learning every day to be stronger and be more confident.”
Aurora later emphasized that in order to increase representation there needs to be a change in perception. “As women, we’ve been taught so much that there can only be one final rose it’s part of the culture. How can we get rid of that? We’re not competing for anything there’s enough capital for all of us. We just haven’t stood up and been willing to take it.” She continued, “We need to change that stereotype that women are frivolous with money yet we are controlling 80% of household purchasing decisions.”
“How can you stretch your mind to think of the full market potential?” Jennifer Fleiss asks of aspiring business owners,” “You really need to have the guts and the confidence. We all need to push ourselves more if we want to compete in this landscape of men who are doing that.”
