On rebranding Aligne
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Taking an established company and turning it into a cult international
label is not an easy transition. But Ginny Seymour, CEO of ALIGNE,
knew she’d find the solutions with a clear vision and sheer grit.
Here, as part of our Women Who Win series, she talks to Penny Goldstone about manifesting, building momentum and making room for rising talent.
“Turning away revenue is hard when you are self-funded and it feels really daunting”
“I moved to New York at 21 to pursue a career in fashion, starting at Saks Fifth Avenue in its Executive Excellence Program as a buyer. I instantly fell in love with retail, and being the CEO of a women’s fashion brand became all I dreamed of. New York raised me in this industry and I spent the better part of my career at big companies. It wasn’t until I moved to the UK with my British husband that I pivoted into direct-to-consumer brands, first at Astrid & Miyu, then ALIGNE in 2022.
I was in the right place at the right time when the company went through a transition in the spring of 2023.
[My appointment as CEO] was not expected and I had to pitch what the next chapter could look like. There’s certainly been hard moments, but exiting wholesale was the easy part – the real challenge has been building ALIGNE into a globally recognised brand. This journey has brought highs, lows, sleepless nights and constant problem-solving, but every day presents a new opportunity to innovate. I will always acknowledge our shared history, but over the last 24 months ALIGNE has evolved into something new, with a new vision, community, and approach that’s entirely our own.”
Talk us through your career and how you came to head up ALIGNE…
‘Karlie’ gold dress
£115
Ulysses Broderie Shirt
Henrietta
&
Orlagh
McCloskey
and finding her voice
Rix
Ginny
“This journey has brought highs, lows, sleepless nights and constant problem-solving, but every day presents a new opportunity to innovate”
“I am an optimist and overachiever, and I have large aspirations for what I believe ALIGNE can be. When planning the business I wanted it to be a vertical climb, always taking one step in front of the other. What I quickly learned is that [this business] is a roller coaster, with peaks and valleys, especially at the beginning. We were learning so quickly. Every high came with a low of running out of stock and not being able to meet the demand. I had to learn to celebrate the highs, without seeing the low as a failure. The valley only came because we exceeded our goals and that is a positive, even if in the minute it feels like a negative. Each bump has made us bigger and contributed to building the brand.”
What has been your biggest challenge to date and what lessons did you learn from it?
“I attend weekly fit sessions and get the team involved in wear-testing products too.
If we don’t love wearing them, how can we expect our customers to?”
“When we pivoted the brand I wanted to change a lot of things – the design handwriting and price point being the largest two. To do that successfully I wanted to exit the existing wholesale partners. It was risky to exit over 70 percent of the revenue and restart, and the scariest thing I have done in my career. There were many moments of self-doubt and manifesting what ALIGNE would become. It still feels a bit surreal what is happening: the momentum behind the brand in both the UK and US is unbelievable. In the last two weeks both of our new partners referenced ALIGNE as being the next big contemporary brand – something I dreamed would happen. I could not be more proud and I truly believe it was that single first decision that allowed us to build such a strong brand in a short amount of time. I love it when I see people refer to ALIGNE on social media – our style is recognisable in the market because of the brand work we put in, versus focusing on wholesale from the onset. Now that we have done that work it feels the perfect time to reintroduce a few key partners and scale the brand.”
What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
Henrietta: “In the early days we had a lot of people giving us advice and conflicting opinions. But we never compromised. We stayed true to our gut and made decisions that we always felt were right for the business. Ultimately, the product is what we haven’t compromised on. Orlagh leads the design team, so the DNA over the past nine years has stayed true to RIXO.”
Orlagh: “The fit of our product is something we are constantly reassessing and working on. With fit being so important, we [added] an in-house alteration service to our King’s Road store, which helps us to identify areas for improvement in the design or manufacturing processes. Liudmyla [Kirk] is our in-store Alteration & Repairs Specialist – she has been with the business for years and helps perfect every garment at RIXO.”
What is one thing you’d never compromise on when it comes to your business?
“I would never compromise on authenticity; on staying true to the brand’s values and vision while achieving long-term success”
“I’ve faced many challenges along the way, but the biggest was launching our handbag line. The key lesson learned was to trust my instincts and have confidence in myself – sustainable, healthy growth for any product takes time. Today, our handbag line ranks among the top three best-selling categories at Les Benjamins.”
What has been your biggest challenge to date?
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Leo Long Waistcoat
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photographs: Silvia Olsen
“I love ‘Char’ – a simple boucle striped top with fringe bottom. It is one of our opening price-point pieces, but it sums up ALIGNE for me: confident and understated – the piece you grab from your wardrobe and always makes you feel ready to conquer the world. I love its simplicity; how it can be styled so many different ways and elevate every look.”
Do you have a favourite piece in the current collection?
“The product. As a scale-up we have started using the mantra ‘progress, not perfection’ – except for product. It is our commitment to the customer that every piece of ALIGNE is curated with purpose. It is not about building the biggest monthly drops or rushing out products. I need to love every piece, without compromise. That’s why I make a point of attending weekly fit sessions and get the team involved in wear-testing products too. If we don’t love wearing them, how can we expect our customers to?”
What is the one thing you’d never compromise on when it comes to business?
“I am trying to get better at it. We’ve hit some large milestones in the last six months, and we have a few ahead in the next six months, too, like opening our first physical retail store in NY, adding a new warehouse in the US to support our growing business, plus two new exciting partner launches marking the evolution of our business from DTC (direct to consumer) to omnichannel – I want to enjoy each of them before running to the next. We opened our new office, doubling our space, a couple of weeks ago. The night before the team moved in, I had a glass of wine there alone to reflect on what I have built over the past two years. Our new offices feel grown-up. I needed to mark the moment and absorb how much has changed and how quickly.”
How do you celebrate success?
“We grew really quickly and started adding roles to keep up, but everything was happening real-time. We were plugging holes with freelancers and there was too much changing internally while growing externally. We brought in too many new hires at once; we had not established our culture yet and it became chaotic, overwhelming and disruptive to the original core team. We rushed hiring decisions to get people in to support asap as it felt like we couldn’t keep up. I take some grace in reading this is a common mistake that happens from start-up to scale-up, but it still hurts. We now have a much more considered approach to hiring, looking at what our long-term needs are and ensuring no more than one new hire per department can join a month. I want to go slow and steady. New joiners are an investment of time and, with our growth plans being aggressive, we need to match the time the existing team has invested in onboarding and setting new members up for success. It is not just about adding more people.”
Any big mistakes?
“I would love to see women really champion women. Women have made great strides in supporting each other, but there are still challenges around unconscious bias and competition. I’d love to see a world where we consistently champion each other in every aspect. I love celebrating the success of other women, and love seeing women live their lives on their own terms. We are not threats to each other. We can all be successful together – whatever that looks like.”
What would you want to change for women?
“I feel everyone needs to define what that looks like for them – there is no magical balance. It also can look different at different stages of your life. My work/life balance would not be something many others would want, but I love it. I have an incredibly supportive husband and two little boys that cheer me on and are so proud of ALIGNE. They inspire me to keep going and it’s OK that, right now, at this stage, especially with our US growth being off the charts and juggling time changes, it’s more work and less personal life. I do believe in a few consistent things, though: I always leave the office at 4pm to get home while my kids are having dinner and I work from home on Fridays to do drop-off and pick-up. Just those two acts amongst the craziness make me feel balanced. I know this is a stage and I embrace it that way, knowing I am doing what I love and have the support behind me. I don’t fight it and feel guilty over it. Addressing the notion that we need to have this illusive balance is part of the challenge.”
How can you achieve a healthy work/life balance?
“It was actually negative, but I will never forget it and it has shaped me. When I was 25, I had another female buyer (who wasn’t so thrilled that I was progressing quickly in my career) pull me into a room to share that although senior management thought I was the young shining star I should watch my back as there would always be someone younger behind me. It was a short, brief interaction that I will never forget. I’ve never disagreed with any statement more and, from that moment, made a commitment to always embrace the shining stars. I have had many assistant buyers go on to do amazing things in the industry and I loved encouraging them, feeding their talents and helping them get to the next steps. I love seeing people on my team grow at ALIGNE. I embrace all the stars and surround myself with a team smarter than I am. It will always be the best advice (although unintended) I ever received.”
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“We opened our new office, doubling our space,
a couple of weeks ago. The night before the team moved in, I had a glass of wine there alone
to reflect on what I have built”
“When we went through a rebrand last summer it felt like the culmination of the transition from Aligne to ALIGNE. We learned so much in our first year. In fashion you are designing and making products six to eight months out. We were running not walking into this next chapter, learning in real time, and establishing our values, like championing women in sport and growing our community. It also took me six months to really find my voice and confidence, and the rebrand felt like the end of that process. It also corresponded with the moment I became CEO, something that I had talked about with my parent company through the transition, but didn’t feel right the first year as we were pivoting the brand and evolving. It marked the end of the journey to establish what ALIGNE ‘2.0’ was, and it was a huge weight off my shoulders. Now, there is no confusing Aligne with ALIGNE. The larger ALIGNE gets, the more people want a founder.”
What has been your proudest moment so far?
“A black Prada nylon pencil skirt from the early 2000s. I wore it to my first day at Saks. I can still vividly remember that day – walking in, what I wore; that day will always be imprinted in my mind. I was 21 and that skirt will never fit me again. I have two sons and no one to pass it down to, but it has still moved with me across three different countries and multiple homes. For a non-sentimental person, this is the only item I cannot part with.”
Tell us about your most treasured fashion item…
Bubala in Shoreditch. It’s around the corner from our office and I love its tasting menu for a working lunch. Freak Scene in Parsons Green is another. It’s Scott Hallsworth's hidden gem and does amazing Asian dishes – I love the tuna sashimi pizza and chilli crab wonton bombs. Selfridges is iconic too. You can get lost in there but it brings experimental retail to life; I love seeing our alterations and repair partner SOJO in real-life operation and there’s always something new to stumble across.”
Any favourite spots in London?
“I love celebrating the success of other women, and love seeing women live their lives on their own terms. We are not threats to each other. We can all be successful together – whatever that looks like”
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£215
£99
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On rebranding Aligne
Silvia Olsen
and finding her voice
“I moved to New York at 21 to pursue a career in fashion, starting at Saks Fifth Avenue in its Executive Excellence Program as a buyer. I instantly fell in love with retail, and being the CEO of a women’s fashion brand became all I dreamed of. New York raised me in this industry and I spent the better part of my career at big companies. It wasn’t until I moved to the UK with my British husband that I pivoted into direct-to-consumer brands, first at Astrid & Miyu, then ALIGNE in 2022. I was in the right place at the right time when the company went through a transition in the spring of 2023. [My appointment as CEO] was not expected and I had to pitch what the next chapter could look like. There’s certainly been hard moments, but exiting wholesale was the easy part – the real challenge has been building ALIGNE into a globally recognised brand. This journey has brought highs, lows, sleepless nights and constant problem-solving, but every day presents a new opportunity to innovate. I will always acknowledge our shared history, but over the last 24 months ALIGNE has evolved into something new, with a new vision, community, and approach that’s entirely our own.”
Talk us through your career and how you came to head up ALIGNE…
“I love ‘Char’ – a simple boucle striped top with fringe bottom. It is one of our opening price-point pieces, but it sums up ALIGNE for me: confident and understated – the piece you grab from your wardrobe and always makes you feel ready to conquer the world. I love its simplicity; how it can be styled so many different ways and elevate every look.”
Do you have a favourite piece in the current collection?
“I am an optimist and overachiever, and I have large aspirations for what I believe ALIGNE can be. When planning the business I wanted it to be a vertical climb, always taking one step in front of the other. What I quickly learned is that [this business] is a roller coaster, with peaks and valleys, especially at the beginning. We were learning so quickly. Every high came with a low of running out of stock and not being able to meet the demand. I had to learn to celebrate the highs, without seeing the low as a failure. The valley only came because we exceeded our goals and that is a positive, even if in the minute it feels like a negative. Each bump has made us bigger and contributed to building the brand.”
What has been your biggest challenge to date and what lessons did you learn from it?
“I am trying to get better at it. We’ve hit some large milestones in the last six months, and we have a few ahead in the next six months, too, like opening our first physical retail store in NY, adding a new warehouse in the US to support our growing business, plus two new exciting partner launches marking the evolution of our business from DTC (direct to consumer) to omnichannel – I want to enjoy each of them before running to the next. We opened our new office, doubling our space, a couple of weeks ago. The night before the team moved in, I had a glass of wine there alone to reflect on what I have built over the past two years. Our new offices feel grown-up. I needed to mark the moment and absorb how much has changed and how quickly.”
How do you celebrate success?
“When we pivoted the brand I wanted to change a lot of things – the design handwriting and price point being the largest two. To do that successfully I wanted to exit the existing wholesale partners. It was risky to exit over 70 percent of the revenue and restart, and the scariest thing I have done in my career. There were many moments of self-doubt and manifesting what ALIGNE would become. It still feels a bit surreal what is happening: the momentum behind the brand in both the UK and US is unbelievable. In the last two weeks both of our new partners referenced ALIGNE as being the next big contemporary brand – something I dreamed would happen. I could not be more proud and I truly believe it was that single first decision that allowed us to build such a strong brand in a short amount of time. I love it when I see people refer to ALIGNE on social media – our style is recognisable in the market because of the brand work we put in, versus focusing on wholesale from the onset. Now that we have done that work it feels the perfect time to reintroduce a few key partners and scale the brand.”
What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
“We grew really quickly and started adding roles to keep up, but everything was happening real-time. We were plugging holes with freelancers and there was too much changing internally while growing externally. We brought in too many new hires at once; we had not established our culture yet and it became chaotic, overwhelming and disruptive to the original core team. We rushed hiring decisions to get people in to support asap as it felt like we couldn’t keep up. I take some grace in reading this is a common mistake that happens from start-up to scale-up, but it still hurts. We now have a much more considered approach to hiring, looking at what our long-term needs are and ensuring no more than one new hire per department can join a month. I want to go slow and steady. New joiners are an investment of time and, with our growth plans being aggressive, we need to match the time the existing team has invested in onboarding and setting new members up for success. It is not just about adding more people.”
Any big mistakes?
“I would love to see women really champion women. Women have made great strides in supporting each other, but there are still challenges around unconscious bias and competition. I’d love to see a world where we consistently champion each other in every aspect.
I love celebrating the success of other women, and love seeing women live their lives on their own terms. We are not threats to each other.
We can all be successful together – whatever that looks like.”
What would you want to change for women?
“I feel everyone needs to define what that looks like for them – there is no magical balance. It also can look different at different stages of your life. My work/life balance would not be something many others would want, but I love it. I have an incredibly supportive husband and two little boys that cheer me on and are so proud of ALIGNE. They inspire me to keep going and it’s OK that, right now, at this stage, especially with our US growth being off the charts and juggling time changes, it’s more work and less personal life. I do believe in a few consistent things, though: I always leave the office at 4pm to get home while my kids are having dinner and I work from home on Fridays to do drop-off and pick-up. Just those two acts amongst the craziness make me feel balanced. I know this is a stage and I embrace it that way, knowing I am doing what I love and have the support behind me. I don’t fight it and feel guilty over it. Addressing the notion that we need to have this illusive balance is part of the challenge.”
How can you achieve a healthy work/life balance?
“I attend weekly fit sessions and
get the team involved in wear-testing products too. If we don’t love
wearing them, how can we expect
our customers to?”
“It was actually negative, but I will never forget it and it has shaped me. When I was 25, I had another female buyer (who wasn’t so thrilled that I was progressing quickly in my career) pull me into a room to share that although senior management thought I was the young shining star I should watch my back as there would always be someone younger behind me. It was a short, brief interaction that I will never forget. I’ve never disagreed with any statement more and, from that moment, made a commitment to always embrace the shining stars. I have had many assistant buyers go on to do amazing things in the industry and I loved encouraging them, feeding their talents and helping them get to the next steps. I love seeing people on my team grow at ALIGNE. I embrace all the stars and surround myself with a team smarter than I am. It will always be the best advice (although unintended) I ever received.”
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“When we went through a rebrand last summer it felt like the culmination of the transition from Aligne to ALIGNE. We learned so much in our first year. In fashion you are designing and making products six to eight months out. We were running not walking into this next chapter, learning in real time, and establishing our values, like championing women in sport and growing our community. It also took me six months to really find my voice and confidence, and the rebrand felt like the end of that process. It also corresponded with the moment I became CEO, something that I had talked about with my parent company through the transition, but didn’t feel right the first year as we were pivoting the brand and evolving. It marked the end of the journey to establish what ALIGNE ‘2.0’ was, and it was a huge weight off my shoulders. Now, there is no confusing Aligne with ALIGNE. The larger ALIGNE gets, the more people want a founder.”
What has been your proudest moment so far?
“A black Prada nylon pencil skirt from the early 2000s. I wore it to my first day at Saks. I can still vividly remember that day – walking in, what I wore; that day will always be imprinted in my mind. I was 21 and that skirt will never fit me again. I have two sons and no one to pass it down to, but it has still moved with me across three different countries and multiple homes. For a non-sentimental person, this is the only item I cannot part with.”
Tell us about your most treasured fashion item…
“We opened our new office, doubling our space, a couple of weeks ago.
The night before the team moved in,
I had a glass of wine there alone to reflect on what I have built”
Seymour
WORDS: PENNY GOLDSTONE
SENIOR ART EDITOR: ANA OSPINA
Chief Sub-Editor: Nicola Moyne