In 2019, Charnas raised $10 million from Silas Chou and other investors to start a lifestyle brand headed by Scanlan. Charnas has a minority stake. Among the brand’s investors were Beliade Ventures, L Catterton, Vanterra Capital, Box Group, Jenny Fleiss, Silas Capital, Third Kind Venture Capital, SWAT Equity, Black Jays Ventures and The Seed Lab, among others.
Sources close to the company said Scanlan wasn’t the right business partner for Charnas and mismanaged the company. Charnas reportedly has been been talking to a couple of potential replacements but needs to have a new apparel or licensing group in place before making the hire. Something Navy has been experiencing some challenging times the last few years in light of the difficult economy challenging many ready-to-wear firms. Employees have been let go and Something Navy is reportedly operating with a skeleton staff. One source close to the company said the brand is going through a “pause and hiatus” and not shipping new merchandise. The brand’s website currently states: “Attention: We apologize that we are experiencing longer than usual order processing times.
The 36-year-old Charnas, who is also an influencer and has 1.3 million followers on her personal Instagram, started Something Navy as a style blog in 2009. She worked with Nordstrom on a Treasure & Bond x Something Navy collaboration in 2017 that sold more than $1 million a day. The following year, Charnas and Nordstrom exclusively introduced a stand-alone Something Navy line that sold more than $4.4 million in 24 hours.