Opinion
Chilewich Forces Retailers to Drop Knockoff Competitors or Lose Her Inventory
“In America, we don't have any competition, to be honest. I mean, within the stores that we're in, if they carry somebody else's, we've told them, If you carry this, we're pulling out, and nobody lets us pull out.”
Insight
Sandy Chilewich Attributes Success to Endurance and Negative Feedback Over Luck
“I don't think luck had anything to do with it. I don't. I think it has to do with Endurance. It's constantly testing yourself, being open-minded, hugely listening to negative feedback. You've got to be able to listen. You have to listen, and you have to make s…”
Disclosure
Sandy Chilewich's Father Lent Hue $300,000 to Capitalize the Business
“I can be quite specific. My father had lent us 300,000 dollars and he gave it to us as we needed it.”
Insight
Brands Must Kill Product Lines During Growth to Dominate Retail Categories
“You have to kill a bunch of things while you're growing, in my opinion, and a big one that we did was, back then, there were two sections in a women's, if so, if a woman wants a sock or a tight or a pantyhose, back in those days, there were different sections …”
Disclosure
Hue Was Sold in 1991 Because the Co-Founders Could Not Stop Fighting
“I think my relationship was, With Kathy, she and I both, I think we're both kind of, it was just hard to work together, and I, you know, so it was time, and we were together, we were doing this for a long time, so it was time to move on. I would say it was a l…”
Insight
Sandy Chilewich Warns That a Great Product Is Not a Sustainable Business
“And a product is not a business. The Ray Bowls was a great product, and it was not a business.”
Assertion Supported
Chilewich Aggressively Sues Large Competitors Over Design Infringement
“And we've sued people, and we've made big companies stop when they get too close to our designs.”
Opinion
Vogue Openly Welcomed Unknown Designers in the 1970s Unlike Today
“They encouraged and wanted to see new stuff. You know, now it's like very, it's not quite the same way. You kind of have to be more established and so forth.”
Assertion Partly supported
The MoMA Design Store Launched Its First Website Featuring the Ray Bowl
“They saw it, and they launched, literally launched their whole website with an image of that ball.”
Assertion Partly supported
Mass-Market Apparel Generally Only Came in Black or White Before 1980
“Well, this is a time, seriously, where things were not available in a lot of colors. This was before, or around the same time, that for the first time you could get a t-shirt in 12 colors. Like, Canal Jeans, which was one of the forerunners of this, was just a…”
Assertion Contradicted
Bergdorf Goodman Bought Sandy Chilewich's Shoes to Satisfy Vogue's Editorial Requirements
“And they can't take a credit unless their customers can buy it in a store, so we went to Bergdorf Goodman, we told them we had a credit in Vogue, but they look at this product, and Would they buy it so that we can cover the credit? And they did.”
Opinion
Hue Changed the Legwear Industry by Inventing Stretch Cotton Tights
“We did a couple of things like that that kind of changed the world of legwear. That was one of them.”
Assertion Supported
Sandy Chilewich Sourced Her Tabletop Material From an Alabama Furniture Mill
“And I found this factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama that made outdoor furniture upholstery. So I got some of the material. I'm looking at this material and it's pretty ugly and yet it's waterproof. It's stain resistant. It's like, it's woven.”
