Today we’d like to introduce you to Carly Grief.
Carly, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was about a year out of college, living and working in NYC. I was starting to lose interest in my job at the time and was looking for a way to incorporate my interest in fashion with something that would also fulfill me as a businesswoman. This is when I started playing around with the idea of an online boutique. I quit my job shortly after and invested a little bit of my own money into Luxe Cartel’s first batch of inventory.
I built the website (and everything else) myself, and from there I bootstrapped it completely. I struggled a lot the first couple of years, and eventually realized I needed to pivot to something more niche, which is when I began to focus on swimwear. I left New York and came back to my hometown of Miami which was naturally a much better fit for a bikini business, and this is when things really started to come together!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As I mentioned, things got off to a slow start after we first launched. But I was able to pivot and get actionable feedback from our audience and customers, to transition the business into something more niche and curated. I came to realize it would be impossible to compete with the huge established online retailers, and I needed to do something differently and lean into that. Now we focus on having a highly curated selection of designer items, with an edgy but elevated aesthetic. Instead of trying to have everything, we pride ourselves on having a smaller but better selection!
Luxe Cartel – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We handpick each item, and really make sure the quality and fit are perfection, then weed through tons of designers and styles to make sure we only have the best of the best. Personally, as a consumer I don’t enjoy navigating through pages and pages of endless options that don’t appeal to me, so we really made it a point to make those eliminations for our customers.
What keeps you passionate about Luxe Cartel?
As women, of course, we are so much more than how we look in a bikini, but generally the more exposed we are, the more important we feel it is that the fit is perfection, so helping women finding a suit that makes them feel confident and amazing is actually so powerful.
Pricing:
- Prices range from about $40 -150 per piece. Tops and bottoms sold separately.
Contact Info:
- Website: shopluxecartel.com
- Email: info@shopluxecartel.com
- Instagram: @luxecartel
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