YouSaid · the spoken record

Polina Veksler

lines on the record: 55
first: 2022-08-11
most recent: 2022-08-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yes, I love universal standard as a brand, but we never set out to be the sole source of size inclusive clothing. We wanted to change the way that fashion has looked at women and women have looked back on fashion. And so since inception, we tried to lead by example and work with other brands to consistently keep moving this conversation forward. So in the future, we hope to continue to partner with other brands. We hope to continue to show and lead from the front that inclusivity could be done in a way that not only supports the customer, but is also profitable for the brand.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was really, really important to us because we didn't want to separate women into two different groups. Traditionally, it has been separated for so long. And we thought it would be really, really important to provide that equal access to everyone and give everyone the same exact experience. And even though using the term plus size might have been beneficial in terms of SEO value and search, we wanted to revolutionize the shopping experience and we wanted to see if we could create something and show other brands that it could be done in this way and not have to alienate one part of the population or another.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Representation is really, really important and allowing the customer to see themselves is really, really important. What we're doing is we're Change that traditional definition of beauty that most of us have grown up with by what we see on billboards or televisions or in magazines and by helping change that definition. Hopefully it allows the world to be a much more inclusive place.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They have a second life and a third life is we work with organizations like First Step and Dress for Success. And so it kind of creates the circular economy of the clothing and at the same time builds loyalty with our customer base as they know they can buy for the woman that they see in the mirror and not have to worry about what might happen if their size changes.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think the main thing that we do is we make quality garments, garments that last, wash after wash after wash. So you can wear a t-shirt 50 times and not just two or three times before it's relegated to that sleeping drawer. And one of the other programs that we have that is part of our sustainability efforts is our FitLiberty program. So what we do is we allow our customers to buy for the size that they are today. And then if their size happens to go up or down, we allow them to exchange for a new garment for free. And what we end up doing with the garments that we get back because they're well-made clothing.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like many other companies, we were definitely impacted by COVID as it relates to office and brick and mortar closures and delays in product. But being a direct-to-consumer brand and still being relatively small at the number of people in the company, we were able to pretty quickly pivot in terms of what we were offering. So we focused a little bit more on athleisure, on lounge. And we were fortunate to have a very strong e-commerce presence. So while we did definitely see an impact, the majority of that impact was in March 2020.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not sure what they did wrong, but I do believe that in five years or ten years from now, these brands that are venturing into inclusivity and trying this, they will get it right because fashion is only moving in this direction and inclusivity is the future of fashion. So those brands who I think do it early try it, try it again, I think will be the ones who are going to be positioned to win in the longer term.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Inclusivity in this space has definitely increased, and I think that's a wonderful thing. I think that there's still a long way to go. The majority of what's still on offer for double digitizing is still fast fashion. We have seen a lot of brands entering the space and expanding their size range. And I think that compared to still what's on offer in the more traditional straight sizing, it's like pond compared to an ocean.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They don't. They're just a plain t shirt that costs on their website $50, and we were giving them away to customers for free to give them the ability to try a product that was really focused on fabric, quality, fit. And then we were able to get those customers to experience it. And then they would come to the website and try something else.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And we also believe really, really strongly in our products. So in the early days, and we still do this sometimes, is the way that we really got new customers is by giving out free product. So our main way for probably two, two and a half years of acquiring customers was giving out free t-shirts. Do they?”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That means growing a bit slower. So we were still growing at about 60% year over year since we started, but we were never one of those startups that focused a lot on customer acquisition, where we focus most of our efforts was on building loyalty with the customer base.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, we recently reached profitability. When we started this business, we were very, very focused on building. A profitable business, and we were steadfast in that approach.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there was a lot of fake it till you make it at that time. And thus the various personalities that we concocted in order to seem to be not just the two of us.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We partnered with some of the local universities, local fashion schools. We did partner with Nordstrom as well. We reached out to local influencers. And then also by that time, we did have a very small customer base and just ask them to spread the word. And actually it was a very funny story of how Nordstrom reached out to us at that time. both Alex and I had a number of jobs at the company. Mine was Picker, hers was Packer, mine was customer service agent, and I was taking customer service call at the time. And it was a buyer from Nordstrom. And I answered the phone and I didn't use my name as customer service. I used a random name called Lucy. I said, hi, this is Lucy. Can I help you? And the Nordstrom buyer said, Hi, I'm a Nordstrom buyer. Can I speak with Polina? And I said, can you hold on one second? And I got Polina on the phone.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would just rent any space, the cheapest space that we could find in a decent location. And we would spend about one or two days in each location. So we would in the morning unload our truck. And in the evening load back up the truck and drive.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, so what we did was we decided to do some of the gorilla marketing and grassroots marketing by doing a tour around the country and doing pop-ups at both Nordstrom locations, but also our own pop-ups also in 13 different cities. And we literally...”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we did a little bit of both so the technical designer helped us perfect our fit in our patterns and really allowed us to start fitting on all different sizes, not using the traditional grading rules that have always been used in the industry. And Alex was still the main designer at the time in terms of the styles themselves. And we just continued down the same path in terms of making clothing that she always wanted to have in her wardrobe. And also because we had this lull in product, we were able to really use that type to think about the business and brand that we wanted to be and what was most important for us as we continued. Building the business.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was definitely not the response I wish. The response was that this is going to be really difficult. And look, they're not wrong because inclusive fashion has traditionally been very difficult, but that it was going to be very costly the inventory was going to be impossible to manage. Consumers are not going to understand something different and it would require a lot of education. Wouldn't it be easier if you are going to do this? Just do a plus size brand.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think we made any money from it as our cost to produce it and then investing in PR and social and the website. And also we had to shoot the collection. I think if anything, we probably. Lost someone.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We definitely started looking for funding and then it took us quite a bit of time. We didn't know we were going to sell out. We didn't know if this was going to be successful. So we didn't have our second collection planned or what we were going to do next.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was the article it got picked up by other publications as well. We started getting some more press, but I think also it was the consumer themselves searching us out because of the lack of availability in the market. And also we quickly realized our thought process of this actually being lacking was confirmed by how quickly the adoption rate was.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We reached out. We were reaching out to a lot of different publications. And I think through like a connection of a connection of a connection got connected to a writer at Refinery 29 who did an amazing article on us at launch. And we actually ended up selling out of that first collection.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So what we were able to do was get some press. And I think that's what helped the most. We were lucky enough to get an article published by Refinery 29.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I actually took classes on how to set up a website. And I took classes on how to run an ad on Facebook and what Google Analytics was and how to send an email. Because at that time, I barely knew how to turn on my computer, of course, exaggerating a little bit, but definitely did not have. The expertise in consumer or Building websites.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, in order to be able to have a democratic, competitive price point to the consumer, we wanted to go direct to consumer. So we were going to try and distribute everything by just building our own website and getting traffic to that website.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. It was extremely important for us to look at blended costs and blended pricing and charge the same for each garment. And we were able to do that by kind of resetting the size curve. So for majority of fashion, the sample size or even looking at a size medium would be a size eight. And what we said was, look, the average woman in America is a size 18, so that should be our medium. And we would then Manufacture clothing up and down from that and then making that size 18 are medium, we were able to blend our costs from the very beginning.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we wanted to make elevated essentials. We wanted to make clothing that someone could put on a pair of jeans, a plain white shirt, maybe a jacket, go to the store, buy their milk, buy their bananas, and feel comfortable and feel like they felt good about what they were wearing and were part of. The World of Fashion”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we said go big or go home. We really wanted to see if we could make this into a true business. So we actually, our first collection was about 3,000 pieces”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It took us about probably six to eight months all in to manufacture the original eight pieces. And we not only ended up working with Peru, but we also worked with some of the factories in New York and then also in China as well.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, there's a lot of infrastructure constraints that we ran into, both in Peru and in China. When we went to China to make sweaters, there were certain factories that said their looms were not big enough to make the type of sweaters we wanted to make. Fabric widths when we found the perfect fabric we loved in Italy, the width of that fabric was just not wide enough for some of the garments that we wanted to make. And then there's also the lack of expertise in terms of mannequins and pattern makers and different grading rules. So there's a lot of challenges that we encounter with all the original factories that we went to.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was very difficult, as you can imagine calling various factories in Peru or emailing them and saying that you are a new brand wanting to do all these sizes, having no experience, and wanting to work with them, no one was banging down our door to work with us, but one way or another, we actually made it down to Peru.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we picked a capsule wardrobe, a kind of Lego pieces that would fit together. We did A pieces that could be part of someone's closet that would kind of click in together and make different outfits. And it was pieces that Alex has always wanted to have in her wardrobe. So that was the start.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, yeah, what we actually did was we went back to Bloomingdale's and we started looking at clothing that we liked, fabrics that we liked. And because we didn't even know where clothing was made at the time. And what we realized was every time we touched a piece of cotton that we liked, it happened to be from Peru. So we decided that, look, the best cotton's must come from Peru. So we are going to manufacture our nits in Peru.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There wasn't a need for much convincing, if anything. Alex was very, very keen to do this. She has wanted access to this type of clothing her whole life. She is someone who has a very strong aesthetic and point of view. And she was our original designer of the garments themselves as she wanted to make clothing that she could wear.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it was an evolving process, but not being employed at the time definitely helped. And we over the next six to eight months decide that what we wanted to do was we wanted to create a brand where size was completely irrelevant, where any woman, be that a size two or a size 32, could shop and ask herself, do I like this? Not does this come in my size.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's right. I definitely think that one of the reasons this has been the norm in the fashion industry is the fashion industry saying that it's too expensive. But I also think it's what has been considered beautiful and people's definition of beauty and representation.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And I'd love to tell you that on that eighth floor of Bloomingdale's or whatever floor we were on, Universal Standard was born. And we started the company, but that would be a complete lie. I think what happened was Alex and I started talking. And she started sharing all her experiences in terms of shopping, in terms of access, in terms of she was also a fashion journalist and how difficult it was for her to even attend these amazing fashion shows and not being able to participate, but just look. And those conversations led to myself starting to do some research. And basically what I uncovered was what I thought was a tremendous business opportunity.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And it also is very much binary. So there's brands that offer plus-size fashion. There's brands that offer Clothing that goes up to a size 14. And once you have those binary experiences, you always have the have and the have-nots. And what would have been awesome was for Alex and I to be able to shop together in the same section, in the same store and not have those completely different experiences.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think so. I think most brands go up to about a size 14. But if you look at high fashion brands, those brands probably end even lower than that.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“70%. Can you believe that? And the average woman in the US is a size 18, and that what was on offer was dismal in comparison to what was on offer in single digit sizing.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And not while fitting, not lasting, and not the type of styles with all the options that a straight-sized woman has that someone would choose if they had the choice.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, for the longest time fashion has been extremely exclusive and fashion's exclusive by nature. And I learned this in the process, what was available to her. In her sizes, the vast majority was fast fashion.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, she happened to wear double digit sizing. I happened to wear single digit sizing. And as a result, her access to style, fabric fit was very, very different her entire adult life.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was, I guess it was that plus size section at the time, but I didn't realize how different her shopping experience has been her whole adult life compared to mine until that moment.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, what she ended up doing was she said, let's go to Bloomingdales. And we walked by all these beautifully merchandised floors. And she took me to one of the top floors. I think it was the furniture floor or something like that. It had couch cushions, pots and pans, maybe like some last year's bikinis. And there was a small little section where she said, okay, let's shop for me here.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, exactly And a couple days before the event, Alex said to me, I'm now going. And I said, Why not? And she said, I just have nothing to wear. And I looked at her and said, look, you live a couple blocks away from Fifth Avenue. Let's just go shopping. And she looked at me and said, do you know that there's not a single store on Fifth Avenue that I could walk into and buy clothing for myself? And that didn't really register with me. I didn't really understand what exactly she was saying, nor was I really concerned about it. I was very focused on not going to this event by myself and I said, look, I don't care where we go shopping. Let's just go wherever you want. And you can come with me.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I was unemployed for probably a year and a half, maybe a little bit longer. We were friends throughout this entire time. I was invited to go to a networking event. And I finally thought I needed to get a little bit more serious about finding employment. I did not want to go to this event by myself. And Alex graciously said she was going to come with me.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She worked about seven years in Russia. She's also immigrated. She was actually born in the Ukraine and immigrated when she was young. So we had so many things in common and both had a very, very small network in New York. So we basically just gravitated towards each other and became pretty close friends”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For finance jobs. And then I actually, in one of my reach outs, someone said that a woman by the name of Alex Waldman, who had also worked a majority of her career abroad, also just recently moved to New York and she was working in marketing for a hedge fund. And she was someone that I was connected to. So I reached out to her and sent her my resume.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was working abroad for about six years in Russia and in Africa and I felt like it was time to come back to the States. I moved back to New York simply because my background is in finance and I thought that was a smart place to go to help find a job. But moved back without a job, without a network, with maybe one friend in New York at the time and wanted to kind of start this new chapter of my life in New York.”
2022-08-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT