Julie Gilhart

Julie Gilhart is featured in style.com's Future of Fashion series.

Some of the highlights:
"We don’t need so many things…I’m being very frank. The runway collections actually come late in the season, and the reality of the way American retail is set up, things go on sale not that long after the runway pieces come in. So there should be less pieces in the runway, and our buys shouldn’t be weighted in the runway. They should be weighted into the pre-collections, so you have longer to sell, and you can put a mix together and it looks like a more edited exclusive product in the store."


"If I’m going to work in fashion, I don’t want to be part of the things that are contributing to a worse environment. I want to be part of something that’s contributing to a better environment, and so whatever little we can do, I’m going to try to do that. So it means supporting people that you believe really want to try to do a better job in that way, and actually it goes back to some of the things that the customers really want. They want things that are made well, that are made in a conscious way, that have long-term values, that are beautiful."


"One of the things with the big brands right now is that the customer is really reacting to them in the sense that they’re so over-marketed. [Customers] don’t want that anymore. They don’t want to see what they’re buying everywhere. They want to be able to buy something that is more special."

 [About the importance of fashion shows] " If you were just to look at it in a store, it’s just a dress on a hanger."

"Things like the recession can only help. It makes you think about what you can do with only a small amount of resources, and sometimes some of the best creativity comes out of that."