Citizens of Humanity Group’s Amy Williams: We’re a ‘wholesale-first’ company

“The L.A. denim industry has grown up in a lot of ways,” Williams said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “While, of course, there are all of the well-known L.A. denim brands, there are also [brands] from Europe that are doing denim in Los Angeles, and YSL is a good example of that. … The L.A. denim industry was started because the attention to detail in both manufacturing and laundering was superior to any location around the world.“

Still, Citizens of Humanity Group is working to integrate more innovation into its production processes. Case in point: Its spring collections mark its first use of cotton stemming from its regenerative agriculture program. 

On the podcast, Williams discusses Citizens of Humanity Group’s sustainability progress, as well as its wholesale-focused distribution and differentiated approach to marketing. “We don’t buy customers through social media marketing purchases,” she said. Additional highlights from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity, 

The importance of retail partnerships

“We’ve always thought about being wholesale-led and wholesale-first because we think very highly of the wholesale partnerships we have. That’s everyone from Net-a-Porter to Bloomingdale’s and specialty stores like Stanley Korshak, … Holt Renfrew I was on a call with yesterday. We’re really proud of the retail partnerships we have, and some of them are e-tailers. We know that they do a lot of things well that we couldn’t do. … Like any good relationship, when you know what you’re good at and you can find people who are good at other things, that’s when the best partnerships are formed. So we get excited about leaning into EIP programs with folks or in-store shops and things of that nature. At the same time, we know that customers want to see the full range of our products. And when you go to even our e-tail partners, you see a very small selection of what we offer. So our ecomm business, which is full-price all the time — there are no discounts if you sign up for our newsletters — is the place that customers can go to see the full range of products for both men’s and women’s. We have one store for Citizens [of Humanity] in Aspen — and we’ll have more news to share on the retail front — but we don’t have a retail strategy. And we don’t buy customers through social media marketing purchases. We want people to find us organically, and we do that through a variety of relationship types.”

Marketing that resonates
“First and foremost, we lead with a style message. We lead with and we believe that we can now outfit people from head to toe in every category. We do woven shirting and we do non-denim bottoms.… We love the two-piece kind of look. We think the easiest way to get dressed in the morning is with two things that match each other but are cool and effortless. So in Agolde, that might be a trouser denim shape with a matching denim shirt. In Citizens, that might be non-denim tops and bottoms or a more dramatic leg shape, like the Ayla jean or the horseshoe jean, the latter of which is still quite strong. So, spring is a lot about head-to-toe dressing and that ease and sophistication of getting yourself pulled together wherever you want to go. … And then the second piece of [our spring marketing] is more [along the lines of], ‘Let’s be good citizens of humanity.’ For the first time, we’re working with someone for more of a traditional campaign: Shalom Harlow. Our creative director has long admired and respected her because of her early thinking and thought leadership in regenerative and sustainable people and planet practices. So she is part of our campaign, for lack of a better word, and our educational series around regenerative [agriculture]. And that’s gotten a lot of attention because of her participation along with the quality of the program.”

The perks of being privately held

“We’re privately held. We did a management buyout six or seven years ago. … I have a tremendous amount of respect for the group that we were with: Berkshire Partners out of Boston. But we decided at the time that, … while there were a number of very interested parties, because we saw so much growth and we saw a quality of a business operation that we wanted to maintain, … we were the ones that were best equipped to do that. And we had the great fortune of having a private individual who knew the company well say, ‘I would like to do this with you.’ And sometimes I think, ‘for you,’ because he’s that generous of heart. And so, that’s really what has allowed us to make a lot of the thoughtful decisions that we make and has allowed us to take on projects like this regenerative [agriculture] project — and not just talk about it, but actually get it done and lean into that work, regardless of what it would take. So we feel really fortunate. The business has more than doubled since that time. And … we think about top-line and bottom-line in tandem. We’re not a group that likes to say at a cocktail party, ‘Our business is X size,’ and then it’s, like, falling apart under the covers. So, we feel optimistic about the future and grateful, frankly, for that elegant transition a couple of years ago.”