Tuesday night’s WWD Honors was filled with poignant acceptance speeches, pledges that many fashion and beauty companies are on paths to even greater success, an invitation to Barcelona, and a presentation from Oscar-winning actress
Reflecting back on his career, Gennette said he was most proud of being able to navigate the pandemic and help Macy’s “reset, get back to financial health, get back to a clean balance sheet, and be a more agile and customer-obsessed organization with new services and new platforms that would serve our diverse customer base.”
Britt Olsen, general manager of the Americas, accepted the award for Best Performing Fashion/Retail Company Large Cap, saying that when she started as employee number three in Portland, Ore., nine years ago, sales were under $10 million, and this year will hit $2 billion. “This award goes to a team full of challengers, designers, creative thinkers and planet caretakers,” she said, “and we’re only getting started.
They started their company in 2020, and said as “an entrepreneur and fashion designer,” they strive to “produce work that defies industry norms and to make sure that I am pushing my own ideas and dreams as far as I can reach,” they said. They concluded: “The One to Watch award is permission for all of us to believe in ourselves, to be unabashedly authentic and to stay true to our purpose.”Jean Paul Gaultier, Rabanne and Charlotte Tilbury. The company grew 40 percent in 2022 to more than 3.6 billion euros.
Westman Atelier, a five-year-old independent beauty brand started by makeup artist Gucci Westman and her husband, entrepreneur David Neville, won the award for Best-Performing Beauty Company, Small Cap. Sales are said to be in the $100 million range, and that’s without killer categories such as lipstick.
Accepting the Corporate Citizenship Honor was Chloé, which is collaborating with Angelina Jolie on her new clothing brand, Atelier Jolie, and also remains on the forefront using planet-friendly fabrics, lowering its carbon footprint and sourcing responsibly. Last March, Chloé became a mission-driven company under French law.