Author:Tyler McCallUpdated:Sep 3, 2019Original:Sep 3, 2019Here at Fashionista, we're passionate about covering all the ways that the industry is changing for the better. That's why we wanted to honor the forces working tirelessly to reshape what it means to work in fashion and beauty. With our new annual series, Fashionista Five, we'll be doing just that by highlighting five people whose work we've admired over the past year.
Foyle had been at Aerie since 2010 and was drawn to the opportunity that the nascent intimate apparel side of the business presented to her. She saw a chance to reach a different customer than the more established, sexed-up lingerie brands had been courting previously, so she says she hit the reset button at Aerie, tweaking the platform and firming up the creative and marketing teams. Still, though, something felt like it was missing.
When Aerie signed with Lawrence, she had fewer than 100,000 Instagram followers; today, she's a bona-fide superstar with 4.5 million., but she's still as committed to Aerie as she was when she first started working with the brand. "She'll go by a store if she's off duty and be like, 'I'm here,'" Foyle explains. "She really means business, and that's who we look for. We don't want just a pretty girl — that's not what we're doing here.
"It took time. It's not like I came in and got rid of people; I came in and developed people," Foyle says, choking up. "It is about, as a leader, listening to people and seeing what their needs are, not just giving up on a team. To me, it was like building a family almost, and that has been something that I'll never forget in Aerie. It gets me emotional because it's been a work of love, this team.
At the end of the day, though, much of Foyle's mission comes back home. She gets emotional recounting a story about the time the mothers of two other girls in her daughter's class reached out because their daughters were struggling with body image.