Designer Charles Harbison on challenging the established fashion system: ‘It’s bringing about negative outcomes’

“I’m building a brand with more authenticity,” Harbison said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “I’ve tried to do it before in the way that everyone said I should do it. And it just was not for me.”

Harbison was thrust into helming a fashion brand in 2013, when he launched Harbison Studio after an unexpected chain of events while between jobs: To avoid holes in his portfolio, after working 7-8 years for brands including Michael Kors and Billy Reid, he created and photographed a small fashion collection. He showed those to two advisors, who showed them to Vogue editors, which led to placement in Vogue’s September issue and an order from Ikram, Chicago’s influential boutique. 

“In some ways, the cart was before the horse,” Harbison said. “I hate to say that because, in my perfect world, talent, craft and a love of fashion is the horse. But in our world now, with fashion, money’s always the horse. And that is what I quickly learned over those two years of making clothes that I love, but not really building a business.”

Eventually, Harbison decided to step away from the brand, which had already gained fans including Michelle Obama and Beyoncé. But he’d always planned to return: “I moved to L.A. to regroup and center my wellness, but the thing that never left me was the fact that women love what I do. And there are so many people in the world who relate to it. [I knew that] one day, I’d come back and resume my conversation with them through clothes.” 

Shortly after New York Fashion Week, in early October, Harbison met with Glossy to share how his return to fashion is playing out. Along with hinting at a new Bergdorf Goodman partnership, he promoted an active friends and family funding round. He plans to use the funds to expand his team and the brand’s product categories — it’s recently inched into jewelry and handbags, and shoes are next. 

Below are additional highlights from the discussion which have been lightly edited for clarity.

Scaling sustainably

“This idea of repurposing and deadstock, and using materials that already exist to make something more beautiful — all of that is just inherent to who I am as not only an artist, but also culturally. I come from poor, blue-collar, working-class people. And so reuse and sustainability are core principles of our world. And so when I started Harbison the first time around, I was always looking for what was in existence. And logistically, that’s best for a small brand — to not have to opt-in to large minimums or hold lots of fabric or hold lots of inventory. Also, to do custom [styles]. All of these tenets of building a business are actually the most sustainable ones. It’s whenever fashion enters the world of corporate scaling that thoughtfulness around the environment is next to impossible. So, with the re-emergence of Harbison, I’m basically incorporating the things that I cared about the first time around.”

The importance of direct customer relationships

“[Selling through] wholesale [partners] has really shown me the importance of having a custom and client business. I can’t put all my eggs in someone else’s proverbial basket or proverbial store. It’s important that I’m also building out this cult following of clients who come back to me over and over again for things that they love and work with me to make things that are particular to them. … And that is important because that is a direct relationship. I’m able to pivot and learn, and those clients become my learning lab. And then I’m able to take those learnings back to a store — but you really don’t get those learnings as much through a store. There’s a filter of merchandising and store associates, and all those sorts of things. And eventually, you get some messages. But I’ve found that it’s most important to learn them on my own and then take those learnings back to the stores.”

The challenging fashion system

“There’s a big challenge in utilizing [available] resources in new ways because there is a really established system in this industry — and in most industries, there are established systems. And, frankly speaking, almost every system around us is bringing about a negative outcome for all of us. And so, it’s really important that all of us who are entering industries and worlds and institutions that we care about are doing the work to really press, so that we’re looking at these systems with a fresh eye and we’re critiquing them — with love and with kindness, but effectively critiquing them, and figuring out how to make things better. It has to be a concrete decision that is made, and concrete actions have to be taken. … You could give me a million dollars — and I will get it, by the end of the year — for Harbison. But then there’s the added challenge and need for support around infusing those resources to pivot systems in a direction that benefits the bottom line of the business and also benefits the world. Because both can happen.”