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Mark Badgley and James Mischka launched their eveningwear-focused fashion brand, Badgley Mischka, 35 years ago. In the years since, the company has expanded to various product categories, largely through licenses. Most recently, it entered the prestige fragrance space through a partnership with Horizon Beauty Group — the first fragrance debuted at the brand’s Fall 2024 fashion show on Saturday.
On this New York Fashion Week edition of the Glossy Podcast, Mischka discusses the evolution of the business, including its marketing strategy that now centers on influencers. He also talks about the brand’s beauty ambitions, which include rolling out products in categories beyond fragrance. Highlights from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
The new front row
“We had a lot of influencers [at the show]. That’s the most important thing to us right now: getting [the collection] out with the influencers. It used to be that there were only three or maybe four voices in fashion that really mattered. It was the usual suspects: the glossy magazines and then the trade publications, as well. Now there are so many voices. So many people have an opinion, and [the images] get out there so readily and so immediately that it’s really kind of amazing. So we try to get a nice cross-section of people. Besides traditional press, it’s influencers, some celebrities and some notable people that other people follow. People want the opinions of all these influencers ”
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Product diversification as a business safeguard
“[Diversification] has been super important — during the pandemic, especially. Our shoe business is tremendous — it’s a huge part of our portfolio. And people kept buying shoes. Even if they weren’t buying clothes during the pandemic, they were buying shoes. As for the other categories, if something has a blip for some reason — like it’s a warm winter, so no one’s buying coats — it’s OK. Because if we don’t have a good coat season, we’ll have a good swimsuit season. All these things kind of counteract each other.”
Buying back the brand
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“We bought back the company with some partners about eight years ago. It’s great because we can make our own mistakes. If somebody makes a mistake, it’s us, and we don’t have anybody to blame for it. We really take ownership of everything that happens with the brand now, which is really important and really crucial to keeping the brand on track.”
