Me+Em’s Clare Hornby: We’ve maintained our ‘price-quality equation’ by only selling DTC

“It was when I started building out the team that you started to see the [business’s] acceleration,” Hornby said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. It’s worth noting that MatchesFashion investor Highland Europe bought a minority stake in the company in early 2022.

Me+Em, which specializes in “flattering, functional, forever” women’s clothing, has opened seven stores in the U.K., where it is headquartered. But now, its focus is on U.S. expansion. Starting in March, it will open two stores in NYC, followed by one in the Hamptons, in rapid succession. The plan is to follow those up with fourth and fifth locations soon after.

“We like you to bring in your dog, bring in your kid and bring in your partner, and we like you to dwell,” Hornby said. “As a result, our stores [form] communities, all by themselves.”

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

The perks of DTC

“We’ve really stuck to the direct-to-consumer model. So direct-to-consumer, as you know, is [where] you own the data, you own your own channels, you own your own timing and you own your own pricing. You’re not selling through a third party — everything you’re making is going directly from you to the customer. I have lots of conversations with people [who say], ‘You’ve got to do wholesale.’ And never say never — but, thus far, we haven’t ever sold through a third party. And that’s how we keep very strictly to the price-quality equation.” 

Store expansion in the U.S.

“So when we look at the data, the data tells us that we should start in New York and then we should look west. We’ve just employed a company now to look at our entire location strategy so that, when we open the stores, we’re ready to move on to [opening] our fourth and fifth stores quite quickly if we see the economics working. And the economics around those stores won’t just be based on the stores — they’ll be around the omnichannel customer, because we know that an omnichannel customer spends three times more than a single-channel customer. The strategy is very similar to what we’ve employed in the U.K.: We love stores because they are great recruitment centers. For a brand that puts its money where its mouth is and says, ‘We’re all about quality,’ the best place to test that… is where you can touch it, feel it, try it on and understand the thought process that’s gone into the product. So actually, stores are a really big part of the customer journey. And because you’re busy, we like to put stores where you live and build out communities from there. If we can make it work in the U.S. through stores, then we will roll out [stores] in a similar way to how we have in the U.K. It’s just that [the U.S. is] so much bigger! — so there are so many more opportunities.”

Hiring for growth

“It was when I started building out the team that you started to see the [business’s] acceleration. … The first key hire was my CFO. [After that] I never had to worry about staying cash flow [positive], getting ready for board meetings, P&Ls — all of that was taken care of, and that was a big part of my brain that I could switch off — though I do see the numbers, obviously. The other key hire was the production director. Supply chain management was a huge [responsibility]. But now I can have an idea, and she’s able to make it happen. Also, we had a head of design, but then we brought in a very senior design director, and she manages a big team of designers. … So when the knitwear designer is designing a vest, the blouse designer is making sure that everything lines up, and that the top is the right length for each trouser — outfit-building became possible. And then we brought in a growth director, and he focuses on the digital channel performance. And then we brought in a brand director, and so on. So, yes — these businesses are not built single-handedly. It was the team that helped me to accelerate the growth.”