The Glossy 50 celebrates individual changemakers. Explore other honorees in The Accelerators, The Changemakers, The Heavy Hitters, The Icons, The Innovators, The Leaders, The New Class, The Newsmakers and The Trendsetters.
The transactions of these business leaders transformed fashion and beauty.
In August, Tapestry, Inc. announced its $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri Holdings Limited, expanding its brand portfolio beyond Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman to also include Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Versace. The merger was led by Tapestry CEO Joanne C. Crevoiserat, who had only landed in her role in 2020 but had already made a big, positive impact on the business. For example, based on a digital transformation plan she’d implemented, the company’s 2022 e-commerce sales tripled, compared to pre-pandemic levels, growing from $600 million to $2 billion.
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One could argue that no company is better positioned to ride the waves of both new and pre-owned watches like the 1916 Company. Danny Govberg co-founded the online watch marketplace Watchbox in 2015, but this year, Watchbox merged with traditional jewelers Govberg Jewelers and Hyde Park Jewelers to form the 1916 Company. 1916 is one of the few companies chosen by Rolex to be an authorized seller of its new Certified Pre-Owned watches.
This year was difficult for the IPO market, given the economic uncertainty for consumer-facing public companies. But Oddity was the one pure-play beauty company that was able to successfully make its public market debut and sustain Wall Street’s initial enthusiasm. But Oran Holtzman, CEO of Oddity, said the company’s real accomplishment was its acquisition of biotech firm Revela in April for $76 million, which helped to expand Oddity Labs. The 2-year-old lab employs 20 people and uses AI to generate a molecule discovery process, which can be used in new beauty products.
When Jean Madar, CEO of fragrance conglomerate InterParfums, goes to the office, he does not wear fragrance, he said. The reason is so he can test the latest products in the works. InterParfums holds the fragrance licenses for numerous household brands including Donna Karan/DKNY, Guess and Ferragamo. This year, InterParfums continued to grow both its portfolio and its sales by acquiring the licenses for Lacoste fragrances in March and Roberto Cavalli in July. It also added 100 employees to its corporate offices in New York and Italy. InterParfums surpassed $1 billion in annual sales in 2022.
Since taking over the reins of Australian skin-care brand Aesop in 2003, CEO Michael O’Keeffe has been on a mission to grow the brand from an indie, salon-driven company to a luxury skin-care giant. Twenty years in, Aesop is on the growth path O’Keeffe had always envisioned for the company. In April, the luxury skin-care brand made headlines when its then-parent company, Natura & Co., signed an agreement to sell the brand to cosmetics company L’Oréal. The acquisition, valued at $2.53 billion, made history as L’Oréal’s biggest acquisition to date, and the deal was completed on August 30.
Ken Suslow, founder and managing partner of Sandbridge Capital has carved out a special and successful niche within consumer private equity over the last 12 years. Investments in the past 12 months include Ariana Grande’s R.E.M. Beauty and Tina Craig’s U Beauty skin-care brand, plus the first outside investment for Michelle Pfeiffer’s Henry Rose fragrance brand.
In August, when Susan Yara sold Naturium to E.l.f. Beauty for a $355 million cash and stock deal, she became one of the first true content creators to sell a brand. That’s excluding expert-founded brands like Jen Atkin’s Ouai, which sold to Procter & Gamble in 2021.
Explore all of the 2023 Glossy 50 honorees here.
