September 23, 2025 • 54 mins
Ever wonder how a personal story becomes a global brand? Peter Gryson, co-founder of Joy Gryson, shares his journey from corporate fashion to building a handbag label that stands out in a crowded market. From retail floors to a VP role at Calvin Klein, his path reveals how determination, adaptability, and vision can turn obstacles into opportunity.
"I wanted to be successful, and that became my objective." That drive fueled Peter’s rise—and later, the creation of Joy Gryson with his wife, Joy. Together, they built a brand rooted in design passion, sharp market awareness, and an ability to evolve with consumer demand.
Key Takeaways:
- Resilience Wins: Fashion is full of setbacks, but perseverance and adaptability open new doors.
- Power of Partnership: Collaboration with designers and manufacturers is the backbone of quality and innovation.
- Market Awareness Matters: Tuning into consumer shifts is essential to staying relevant worldwide.
🎧 Tune in now for insights on building a brand that balances creativity, strategy, and global growth.
Our Guest:
Peter Gryson is co-founder of Joy Gryson, a handbag brand with strong traction in Asia and beyond. With decades of experience in trend forecasting, brand development, and fashion leadership, he brings a unique perspective on how creativity and business acumen can drive long-term success.
Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the “Handbag Fairy Godmother,” Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.
Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at emilyblumenthal.com.
Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner
TikTok: / Handbagdesigner | Twitter: / Handbagdesigner
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our online business went through the roof and
everybody in Asia was buyingJoey Gryson product non-stop and
just our brand awareness spikeddramatically.
And as things got more settledwith a career, we started to
build out and build out.
And now we have, we havelaunched, ready to wear, we have
launched shoes uh, next month,shoes that we're launching,
(00:23):
launch jewelry.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, emilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert and the handbag fairygodmother.
Each week, we uncover thestories behind the handbags we
love, from the iconic brands andtop designers to the creativity
, craftsmanship and culture thatdefine the handbag world.
Whether you're a designer,collector or simply passionate
(00:47):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all.
Welcome, peter Greisen, toHandbag Designer 101, the
podcast.
I have just learned that I'myour first podcast, so, to a man
who probably doesn't have manyfirsts left, I'm excited to Win
the Podcast.
I have just learned that I'myour first podcast, so, to a man
who probably doesn't have manyfirsts left, I'm excited to be
(01:09):
this one.
So welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, so we'd spoken like we ironically go back in a
very bizarre way, but I know ourlast conversation, which to me
was very enlightening and Ithink I knew so much about you.
But you contextualized more.
So you started out 100 yearsago working.
You were at Calvin Klein or youdidn't start at Calvin.
(01:36):
Like what did you study incollege?
Like what leads someone likeyou into men's accessories?
Like how and the why and thehuh.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
No, I went to the school at Boston University and
studied literature.
I wanted to be a writer.
It had nothing to do withfashion or apparel whatsoever.
Moved to New York in thenineties.
Like everybody else, once yougot out of school, they're
trying to find a job.
I always worked in retail, infashion.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
You always had retail jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I always did that just to pay the bills.
So my first opportunity for acorporate situation was with
Guess Guess Jeans.
So I went into the GuessAccessories license family with
a company.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Was Signal part of that back then?
No, this is the MarcianoBrothers vintage.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
No, no, it was just when licensing first started to
become a big thing.
So it was actually with GuestBelts, a company called Daylor
Creations.
Oh my God, sort of an offshootto Signal, which is the handbag
with Jeffrey Mack on those guys.
So I knew those guys very well.
So I worked with the Guestfamily of licenses and I went to
(02:39):
Guest Sunglasses and worked inthe optical and sunglass
division, became national salesmanager, I guess sunglasses-
Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I got to ask you something, so here you are, kind
of hot shit.
Went to BU a hard school to getinto.
Lived your best life in Bostonliterature I mean, anybody who
goes to college in a school likethat finishes feeling like they
have moved mountains just withthat degree alone.
You got a job in belts Was thathard for your ego?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, it was.
Honestly, I had tried to applyfor copywriting jobs and things
with the newspapers andjournalism, but I wasn't a
journalism major, I was anEnglish lit major and I didn't
want to be a writer.
So when I got my job in beltsand then sunglasses, I continued
to write, but then it justbecame something that wasn't
(03:31):
realistic for me to maintain anylonger, and the passion I had
for it.
I still like to write.
I enjoy that, I enjoystorytelling, but I'm not really
actively involved with it, andI was 24 years old, living in
Manhattan, needed to make moneyand move on with my life, so
(03:51):
that became my priority and myfocus.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So you had no ego going into belts Because, listen
, I've dealt with a lot ofpeople, a lot of fashion people,
a lot of people who findthemselves to be beautiful
people, and you know they seethemselves of what themselves to
be beautiful people.
And you know they seethemselves, of what they're able
to accomplish, and they're like, oh my God, I should be doing
this, I should be doing that.
But here I am in belts, beltsales, and I'm going to
(04:15):
department stores that are noton a high end, like, hey, how
many units do you want to buy?
We'll change this color, thatcolor, this buckle.
And then you have to throwyourself into it because you're
dealing with seasoned people whothis is their livelihood.
Like, was that like an attitudeadjustment?
Like, okay, I'm in it, I'mpassionate?
Or was it like, okay, this ismy job for now?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh no, it was, it was .
I'm in it, I'm passionate, Imean, I wanted to be successful,
frankly.
So that became my objective.
It wasn't really about, youknow, it wasn't about art and it
wasn't about, you know, meetingmy life goals at that time.
But it was a transition fromwanting to be a writer and to
just wanting to be a successfulperson as a young man, you know,
living in the city and tryingto start my life.
(04:57):
Just like we were just talkingabout my daughter, she's about
she's going through the sameexact situation, so she's just
getting started.
So I was looking for whateverthat great opportunity was.
I was always involved in fashionand retail, so I had a
proclivity for it and I had ataste level that worked.
I definitely have an ego, but Ididn't have an ego that
prevented me from doing whateverit took to pay the bills and to
(05:20):
be in business.
And then I became very driven,you know, to become successful
and move up the food chain, soto speak, from an executive flag
right.
So I went to Viva Sun, whichwas acquired by Marchand
eventually I was national salesmanager of, I guess, sunglasses
and I left there and I went toCalvin Klein, warnico, which was
you know, warnico was thelicense for Calvin Klein
(05:42):
underwear, calvin Klein jeansand Calvin Klein accessories.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
That's a flex, because to get into Warnico back
then even back then was tough,like going from guests where
they're, you know it's corporate, but they are scrappy corporate
, they don't care.
And then going to Warnicothat's like buttoned up, white
walls, clean everything Like nocursing, like everything is like
A to b clean well, there wasdefinitely cursing.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
But, um, I went there .
They had just acquired thelicense for calvin klein denim
from the company that had itbefore, arnie simons designer
holdings, and they with thatcame the accessories license.
So, and they had just sort ofrebooted the whole accessories
and they hired Ivy Ross, whocame over from coach and Mark
(06:30):
Cross and she was.
She had basically been chargedwith reinventing the entire
Calvert Klein and CK accessoriesbusiness for men and Ivy hired
me to be a national salesmanager and within about six
months hired me to be a nationalsales manager.
And within about six months Ithink it was about six months
Ivy got an opportunity to go toMattel and relaunch Barbie.
(06:55):
This was in 96, I think and soshe left and went to California
and reinvented Barbie, iconicBarbie.
So great opportunity for her.
The decision makers at Warnickodecided that they weren't going
to replace Ivy, they were justgoing to elevate me.
So I, as a 26 year old kid,became vice president of Calvin
(07:19):
Klein men's accessories andstarted reporting directly to
Bob Mazzoli, who was thepresident of Calvin Klein
underwear, and Danny Gladstone,who was president of Calvin
Klein jeans, and then directreport to Linda Walkner, who was
the chairman of Warnico.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Oh my God.
So had she not left, your lifewould have been totally
different.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, very much so.
Ivy hired me, mentored me.
I learned a lot.
She also hired an entire designstaff that came with her from
Coach and Mark Cross, and one ofthe designers that she hired is
my wife, joy Grison, which isour brand.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Well, it wasn't Joy Grison then.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
No, it was Joy Bleschner.
Joy's Korean, but she's adoptedby a lovely family in Queens.
So she's my little Korean Jewfrom Queens, joy Bleschner, yeah
.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Was that just off the record?
Well off topic, was that?
A bit of a scandal to startinterdating, like you know.
Ooh, I like the designer andhere I'm in sales Like oh, look
at this.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It wasn't really like that when we were working
together, we were just workingtogether and we did not start to
date until I left and, frankly,we were about to start to date
and I knew that was a conflictand also, frankly, as a 26,
27-year-old guy, in thesituation I was in and I started
(08:46):
flying around on the corporatejet with Mrs Walkner and the
C-suite team at the end of theorder to make the numbers for
Warnico, which was very highpressure, incredible learning
experience and great exposurebut, frankly, a little bit over
my head and somewhat terrifyingat times.
I was the youngest guy by 20years.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'll bet.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, but again great experience.
But I got an opportunity to goto another company to launch
DKNY Men's Accessories, calderand Klein Accessories.
Ck Accessories was doing very,very well, really sort of
kicking ass in that space.
Ck Accessories was doing very,very well, really sort of
kicking ass in that space.
Dkny was about to launch alicensed business with John Idol
(09:30):
who was the CEO of DKNY at thetime, and he started licensing
out all the classifications.
So Cipriani Accessoriesacquired the license.
They hired me to come in as thepresident of DKY Men's
Accessories and launched thatline for them.
So I left, calvin Warnicko,went to Cipriani and DKY and we
(09:52):
launched DKY Men's.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Accessories at a super young age.
I mean speaking to someone who,also, at 26, had done more than
most people and he was usuallythe youngest person in the room.
And when people said, alwaysask what was your weakness?
(10:14):
My answer was always I don'tknow how to play golf because I
didn't know what else to say.
How were you able?
Because sales and design it's avery interesting partnership and
I fashioned so much of this tolike an ad agency because I also
work there too.
I feel like I've worked ineverything, because ad agencies
go back and forth, where theywill have the entire team design
, copywriting, you knoweverything sales in one buying,
(10:38):
and then they'll shift, and thenall the design.
All the copywriters are here,all the salespeople are here,
all the design, all thecopywriters are here, all the
salespeople are here, all thebuyers are here.
Working for an accessoriesbrand is so different because
sales and design have to work intandem, because you're the eyes
and ears of what the market isdictating, but you can't do
everything that the market saysand the design team can't create
(11:02):
everything that they think theyshould be there.
So how are you so young at thatstage in life, especially going
on private jets where I would belike probably crapping my pants
, like where they're likenumbers and this and that, and
you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah,me too, uh-huh, uh-huh.
Take these kinds of experiencesand have, because obviously you
(11:23):
had to be bold and say, okay,we're going to launch this and
it's never been done, or we'regoing to bring that and that
hasn't been done.
Like, how are you able to likewhat were the things that you
were like?
Okay, as someone who's fairlynew, I can see things that other
people can't, and how were youable to bring those out?
Like, what were things that youwere able to make happen that
you were like, oh, this hasn'tbeen done.
(11:44):
I hope it's received okay.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Sure, sometimes I had an innate ability to forecast
trend.
That's probably.
My superpower in my businessalways has been both in men's
and women's and acrossclassifications.
It still is.
That's probably what I do best.
And when you're in sales, ifyou can figure out what the next
thing is going to be beforeit's there, then you can direct
(12:10):
your merch team, your R&D team,your design team, to develop
towards that end.
That's great.
It also helps to have reallytalented designers that you work
with.
So I was very fortunate that atCipriani we had a really
talented designer that I workedwith to launch DKNY who had come
from DKNY corporate.
She and I were in lockstep inregards to sort of direction and
(12:31):
intention for what we weregoing to do.
So we launched that brandlaunch like gangbusters, like we
killed it.
We killed it with that and thenJohn Idol left DKNY, went to
Michael Kors and we applied thelicense for Michael Kors and
then we launched that, that too,and we killed it with that.
So we continue to just acquirelicenses and build out that
(12:51):
whole portfolio for Cipriani,which became Lee Fong, which
became Global, which becameEccentric and they still do it,
and the guys over there are thesame guys in some cases that run
it and do great with what theydo really great business people.
At the time that I was there,they were a family-owned
business that was run by familymembers and that sort of had, uh
(13:16):
, different pillars ofresponsibility, and one the
gentleman that was in charge ofdesign was one of the owners and
he was just a big free spiritwho loved creativity, loved
design and let his designers doa lot of great stuff.
So I had really talenteddesigners to work with, so a lot
of credit goes towards them.
They did follow directionreally, really well.
(13:38):
I'm pretty good at forecastingtrend and analysis from that
standpoint.
And then I know how to make thenumbers work from my experience
at Warnico.
You can be at Warnico and notbe able to-.
No, that's all numbers.
Yeah, you got to make thenumbers work.
You got to make it happen froma budgetary standpoint, from an
execution standpoint and bottomline make it happen, make the
month, make the quarter andunderstand what that pressure is
(14:00):
all about.
But it is a lot easier when youhave great product and a great
brand right.
So I had great brands, I hadgreat products, I had great
partners.
So you know, my success is allon the shoulders of others.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
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(14:35):
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Thanks for your support.
So, in the midst of all this,you and Lady Joy start to
continue your relationship.
At which point because the wholething, like you know, grayson,
joy, grayson, as a handbag brand, it is one of those
institutions.
For those who can remember theearly 2000s of the pillars of,
(15:01):
you know, monica Bach here,minkoff, like all these brands
that were at their height, Imean I could go through my book
and think, like all these brandsthat were and no longer and
then had been resold and resoldlike Cuba, you know that the
height of that time I believe somuch obviously, is product.
You have to have the rightproduct.
(15:21):
For someone who knows how tomake good product, you have to
have the right pricing.
Obviously, you knew how to dothat.
You had the factory connections.
You knew how to make it deliveron time.
But really, at the end of theday, it comes down to timing.
The market is not what it usedto be, but you have to sniff out
like okay, because what I teachmy students is that you have to
(15:43):
be the fastest, the best or thefirst Right.
So you know, at this point Ifeel like Joy Grison as a brand
was probably the fastest tomarket because there was a space
to take.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, so it's interesting.
So when we so, joy and I, afterI went to DKNY and Cipriani and
she left, Went to Mark and shewent to Mark Jacobs.
She went to Mark and she wasdesign director for accessories
for Mark when all those iconicMark Jacobs it bags the Stella,
the Stam all those bags wereoriginally designed and
developed underneath Joy's watch, mark by Mark was just.
(16:18):
It was also launched underneathJoy and her friend that she had
hired to bring in.
So she had a lot of successwith that.
So she had been working nonstopdeveloping a great line for
Mark and business and spending aton of time in Italy.
I was working nonstop launchingall these brands for Cipriani
and we had just been married andmoved to Tribeca and got
(16:43):
pregnant with our daughter,olivia, and we had the baby and
we decided we needed to make alifestyle change because we
really weren't around a lot, weweren't able to spend time
together or with our youngfamily.
So Joy resigned and then Iresigned shortly thereafter.
And this was Was thatterrifying?
So Joy resigned and then Iresigned shortly thereafter and
this was terrifying.
Yeah, it was terrifying becauseI was trying so much.
(17:06):
The intention was that we weregoing to be very responsible,
young adults and like, move tothe suburbs and I'd get another
corporate job and do that.
And instead we launched our ownhandbag line and consultancy
firm.
So we started designing consultfor other brands to pay the
bills, you know, go to market.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
How did you find those clients?
Were people like you know, likehey Peter, I hear you're on the
market, come help.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, sort of that was part of it.
And then once we did launchGryson, we launched with a lot
of fanfare, like people, thebiggest handbag line at the time
was Marc Jacobs, Like it was,you know, the biggest thing you
know globally, you know, in 2005.
And Joy was responsible for alot of those designs.
So when we launched Joy or welaunched Bryson, as the
(17:55):
ex-design director for MarcJacobs, we launched with Stephen
Allen Showroom and oh, my God,yeah, stephen Allen.
They also had our press at thetime, so we had a full page
article in Women's Wear andHarper's Bazaar Vogue.
Everybody picked it up.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Why did you pick your last name?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
You know, that was actually so full disclosure.
We weren't really sure what wewere going to do, but the whole
idea of doing this business wasa little bit of a fever dream,
like we were thinking about itand talking about it.
We had a couple ideas inregards to designs at Washington
(18:37):
Market Park in Tribeca and shewas playing with another little
boy and his father came over andwe introduced ourselves and
that was Stephen.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, that's how we met.
So Stephen, stephen Zillow andI met because our kids were
playing together, so then wewent to have a little Only in
Tribeca.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Would that be a strategic meeting being like?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah right, so then we went to Tribeca.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Would that be a strategic meeting, being like
like?
I met Alicia Silverstone at theplayground in Tompkins Square
Park and her kid threw sand inmy son's face and I'm like, and
he would?
My son was crying and I waslike you're okay.
My daughter was like he'scrying, I'm like you know, I'm
talking to her Like we're goingto be best friends, like I don't
care that he punched him in theface, he'll be fine.
He'll be fine If he goes totherapy.
He won't remember that.
We'll cover everything.
(19:25):
Well done.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, it was very funny.
So we went to lunch, we sharedwhat each other's did and he
said that's interesting, I justlaunched a brand Botcare and
they're actually going to goin-house so I have a space.
So then we started talking.
So then Steven and I actuallyformed a partnership.
So Steven was originally apartner in Gryson not just a
(19:49):
showroom, but actually a partnerin equity.
So, we built the line, builtthe whole plan.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So he was the one that said Gryson, or you were
like whatever I can't think ofanything.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Back to the question.
Yes, he was the one that saidGryson or you were like whatever
, I can't think of anything.
Back to the question.
Yes, he was the one whobasically suggested Gryson.
So I was thinking Joy orsomething to play off the words,
and he was like no, I likeGryson.
It's got a cool name, it's gota cool vibe, it's sort of
androgynous and it feels veryEuropean.
It's got some strength.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Did you call your parents and been like yo?
Our last name's androgynous andEuropean Like that.
All of a sudden it's alluring,but you didn't think of that.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
My father was very proud, and so that's how we
picked Gryson.
And then I had a design partnerfrom my past at Cipriani, who
had moved to Italy and started adesign studio in Florence.
So I got him involved and healso had equity in the business.
So everybody got equity throughsweat equity.
(20:47):
Everybody believed in theproject, they got vested through
performance and I gave themequity because I couldn't pay
them anything.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Right, of course.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
On the first year.
So we'd made the first line ofDreiss and All out of Italy,
produced it out of Italy and, asI said, when we launched, we
launched with a greatdistribution, launched with
Barneys, bergdorf, neemans andIsotan in Japan and it was
exclusive to Isotan in Japan forAPAC.
That was their requirement.
(21:18):
Barneys was mad that I soldBergdorf, bergdorf was mad I
sold barney's but I wanted theneiman's, so I that's why I sold
bergdorf.
I didn't sell sax the firstseason.
I let them come on board thesecond season was that with
lincoln more?
back then.
Yeah, lincoln, who's the?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
best I love him.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, you know he's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He was one of my first people for the Handbag
Awards because he gave CarlosFalchi his lifetime achievement
and the best thing about Lincolnand I love him so much.
But he required hair and makeup.
That was his rider.
I'm like dude, you have no hair, come on.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
That's great.
Yeah, Lincoln was a greatsupporter of ours.
You have no hair, Come on.
That's great.
He's the best Great supporterof ours.
So that was in 2006 that weactually launched.
Then we expanded ourdistribution and our business
became, you know, pretty strongglobally.
And we had an unfortunatesituation there in our second
season when Barney's came in andordered late, you know, but
(22:22):
they're Barneys right so theycame in and they said-.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
They didn't pay you.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Well, no, they paid me, they just ordered late.
So they came in after I'dalready closed the market
because they wanted to see howthe first season performed.
And when it first launched, youknow we shipped in the fall and
you know it sat on the floorfor about a week or two before
everybody knew who we were andthey missed the market day.
So they weren't sure they weregoing to reorder.
But then two weeks later itsold out a hundred percent.
(22:47):
So then they came racing backand said, can we order?
And we said yes, but then theywanted to change all the
deliveries, the color, theywanted to change everything.
That's very Barney's, yeah, butbut they're Barney's.
So I said yeah.
So I tried to do it.
So I flew to Italy, Irearranged my entire production
schedule and we were with thefactory that was making Chloe,
(23:09):
balenciaga and some Dior, as youknow, but mainly they were a
huge Chloe manufacturer and wethought we were in a really good
spot with them.
And then they sold to anotherlarger entity.
So my relationship with theowner of that factory went to
another ownership relationship.
(23:29):
So I had to go back to Italyagain and sort of establish who
I was.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Start over.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, and it's difficult.
We were a young independentbrand working in Italy.
Lots of cash advances that wererequired, et cetera, et cetera,
and then I'm rearranging allthe production flow.
So everything was challenging,right, so that was difficult.
My partners that were therewere American, you know, so they
also didn't have that type ofyou know standing with the
(23:57):
Italians.
Even though they lived ininfluence full-time, they hadn't
established themselves yet as adevelopment house had anybody
at that point tried to acquireyou.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Because I know I've spoken to Monica so many times
and she's like we shot up soquickly, so fast.
We were making so much.
I had buyers courting me right,left and center and then she
said no, no, no.
And then the market dropped andthen she was like oh damn, like
going back to them and they'relike who are you?
I can't help you.
(24:29):
And it's funny because as muchas you were an expert before
running other people'sbusinesses and being who you are
, you took them on as your ownand like you took everything
personally and like down to yourcore, like all the sales, the
Monday numbers.
But when it's your own andyou're like I got a wife, I got
a kid, I got real estate, I gotoverhead, I got this Like it's a
(24:52):
different kind of anxiety.
You get walking through anairport in Italy to go meet an
American in a factory who has nopull, no clout, and you're like
Jesus Christ, like I can'tleave until, like, these dates
change and this new Italian guytrusts me personally, and like
everything was just hinging oneverything.
I mean, people don't knowstress until you go through this
(25:15):
and it's all on your shoulders.
You're like I can't breathe.
What am I going to do?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, 100%.
You're like I can't breathe.
What am I going to do?
Yeah, 100.
And to that, to that end, ourbusiness got so big, so quick,
that we uh, we, we decided wehad to, we had to finance the
production and, with all theseshifts and the advances that
were required, we, we made thedecision to sell our loft in
tribeca and then start to rent aplace instead and get that cash
(25:41):
from that.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So where were you living?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Where'd you move?
We just moved down the streetin Tribeca.
We went from one address onReed Street to another address
on Reed Street, but with thecash that we got from the sale
we were able to finance ourinventory for the first two
production runs and keep itmoving.
But it was a tough decision tomake and there was other things.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You decided to say you had to sit down.
You were like a baby nappingand you're like okay, Joy, I
think we need to sell this andwe'll rent down the block.
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Speaker 1 (27:40):
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There was other situations thatwere involved in it as well,
but that's sort of the way itplayed out.
And then the unfortunate thingwhen we went into that second
season, after I rearranged myentire production flow for
Bardi's and the factory hadchanged hands in ownership, I
(28:01):
was sitting in my design studiowith Joy and we had one employee
at the time and I got a Googlealert that said Chloe Givenchy,
bryson Todd, and it was from theItalian newspaper.
It was all in Italian.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
About the factory.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah, it was about the factory.
I'm like like, oh my god, myname's mentioned with all these
cool brands, that's so cool.
And then when I did the googletranslate, it said all of these
brands have been makingcounterfeit goods with illegal
chinese labor in italy andthey've all been remanded by the
italian authorities.
So then I call my partner inflorence.
(28:39):
I'm like what happened?
What?
What the F?
And it turns out that this newowner because my business was
small had outsourced to like anillegal sweatshop in Florence,
in Scandici, and my goods gotcaught by the authorities and I
had no idea what was happening.
He wasn't telling me that hewas doing that, I didn't
(28:59):
authorize it and then I couldn'tget my production out of.
That was happening.
He wasn't telling me that hewas doing that, I didn't
authorize it and then I couldn'tget my production out of that
because the italian authoritieswere blocking down on that.
There was a real crackdown onthe illegal chinese labor at
that time, right, so I deliveredtwo months late to barnes.
They were god, I already feelsick hearing this, yeah you know
(29:20):
sell through, you know spring,spring season, yeah, everything
was delayed.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You missed your window, period, I missed my
window.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
How did we sell?
Set us back Very difficult.
We continued to grow, but thenwe went into 2007 and 2008 where
the whole you know the economytanked.
You know the recession happened, you know the banking, you know
the whole thing with Fannie Maeand the home mortgage and
everything completely collapsedand to your point, right before
(29:47):
then, lvmh had inquired aboutacquiring the brand.
I met with Delphine Arnaud.
She had seen our product atIsotan Shijinko in Tokyo.
We had a huge play there.
We were doing extremely well inJapan and tons of celebrities
were wearing our product atIsotan Shijinko in Tokyo.
We had a huge play there, wewere doing extremely well in
Japan and tons of celebritieswere wearing our product.
So there was a real interest inour brand from LVMH at the time
(30:10):
.
So we were just starting thoseconversations.
Then the whole economy tankedright.
So we kept pushing throughmaking out of Italy, starting to
diversify the production out ofChina as well to manage margins
, balancing out.
Then I introduced a diffusionline, which was very early to do
so and I didn't really say thatit was a diffusion line.
(30:31):
I just introduced younger,casual, more aggressive.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Was that Joy Grayson?
Speaker 1 (30:37):
That was Olivia Harris.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh, right, right, right, right right.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I did Olivia Harris, which was my daughter's name,
olivia Harris Grisom is her fullname.
Harris is my mother's maidenname and that was a younger
contemporary brand a little bitmore aggressive, like a more
accessible Alexander Wang.
You know lots of hardware andwashed bags, post-construction
stuff like that.
Very cool.
Saks loved it.
Saksincoln and jenniferassinger, who was the buyer at
(31:04):
the time, came in and saidbryson's fine, we love.
Bryson is on the main floor.
We're right next to alaya, youknow, and uh and valenciaga
that's where I sat, uh rightright little alcove.
But the contemporary business iswhere the business is and their
price points are very hard tosustain Because we were like
$800, $900.
(31:24):
Right, right, right.
We were higher than the Coopersand the Bacchieras.
We were in that white spaceJust below right around
Alexander Wang, philip Lim pricepoints Anyway.
So Olivia Harris was more $400and below and so we lost that
and that did great.
So we were really lucky withthat, got a lot of great press.
We didn't say that it was by us, you know.
We didn't say it was part ofJoy Grice's school initially and
(31:47):
that did great and we keptbuilding off of that.
That became a bigger businessthan Joy Grice.
Joy Grice was the Halo product,continued to develop our
business throughout the world,globally.
You know people would kick thetires about acquiring us.
Let's ask us what size thebusiness was, you know.
And so when you get to be 50million, that's when we want to
(32:08):
buy you.
I was like, when I get to be 50million, I don't need you to
buy me.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Right, exactly, I'm just fine at 50 million.
I'm good, I am good, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That was one of those weird things.
But, um, and I'm good, I amgood, I'm good, that was one of
those weird things.
And then we continued todevelop that line.
We continued to consult forother brands as well.
We opened up a showroom, tooksales back in-house, opened up a
big showroom on 180 VarickStreet in the West Village,
5,000-square-foot showroom anddesign studio.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
My God, you're like collecting overhead for fun.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Big time.
But I had like eight differentbrands at that time that we were
designing for, modeling for,and I was licensing as well.
I was taking on licenses and Ihad Gryson, I had Olivia Harris
and I was introducing Tribeca byJoy Gryson, which was a phone
flopping brand.
So I had three tiers of pricepoints.
(33:03):
I had a license with theNellipore, I had contract work
with a lot of different brandsand I had a staff now of about
20 designers and developers.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Right now in sales.
So we did all that and we didthat for about four years in
that model and then I reallywasn't enjoying the wholesale
experience.
Stores were very difficult towork, with lots of consult,
right, as everybody knows.
So then I decided I wanted togo more direct.
(33:34):
So I opened up my own store intribeca, across from steven
allen's store on franklin streetI don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Was Stephen Allen still part of it at this point?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
At that point, stephen and I made an agreement.
I bought him out, so I took100%.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Was that amicable?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, totally, stephen's still a good friend
and he was helpful and remainshelpful to me in any way that I
need.
He just reopened his own storein Chelsea and he's doing great.
So yeah, it was totallyamicable and you know, he got
his money back.
It was all good from thatstandpoint.
But yeah, we were right acrossthe street from Stephen and I
had a storefront showroom and adesign studio in that space on
(34:14):
Franklin Street and we launchedthe Tribeca line, we had the
Libby Harris line, we had theolivia harris line, we had the
joy grice on.
So I changed the branding fromgrison to joy grison at that
point because I had too manybrands underneath the sort of
silo to to explain it.
So I had to explain it throughthe marketing and the brand
positioning.
It's all done by joy.
She's the creative power behindit all.
So it's joy grison, halo oliviaharris by joy grison, which is
(34:37):
our daughter, and tribeca byjoyson, which is our
neighborhood and our communityWas she drained, was Joy's tank
empty?
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Because what you're explaining right now is the
trajectory of and I don't wantto say traditional or basic, but
this is of that time all thatmakes sense.
Like you start out with one,you have a diffusion, then you
have a spinoff, then you privatelabel, then you start
developing, now you'reconsulting.
But, like all of this, at somepoint you hit a wall and you're
(35:09):
like, oh, I don't want, like, no, I'm done, I don't want to
store, I don't want to hirepeople, I don't want product.
It is so much and you'veaccomplished so much, and I know
COVID hit and I know Korea endsup playing a huge part of
what's going on in your liferight now.
But what was your tipping pointmoment to say, okay, I don't
want to do any of this anymore,like I'm good, I'm good store
(35:33):
and launched Tribeca, we decidedwe weren't going to consult for
people anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
We weren't going to do any more consulting and any
more licensing.
We were just going to focus onour own brand and focus more
direct and take the emphasis offof wholesale as well, which was
forward thinking but, at thesame time, super challenging.
We just cut off most of ourrevenue.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Cause that cause you didn't have to front any of that
, Like that was just moneycoming in that you didn't have
to worry about anything.
It's like I'm running somebodyelse's brand and business so
good, bad ugly, I'm stillgetting paid.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Right, exactly, the consulting was incredibly
profitable and very successfulfor all our partners but, you
know, very demanding becausethey're your client and the
client's always right.
You got to do everything thatthey need Need you to do.
The wholesale was notnecessarily profitable but it
still was revenue streams thatwas much larger than our direct
business.
At the time I just saw thewriting on the wall that all the
(36:30):
consolidations, everything else, and I didn't create a good,
you know, dot com business.
I didn't have a retailexperience.
My brand would die.
So I took the leap of faiththat I did that.
I opened up a second store inBrooklyn, in Boreham Hill on
Atlantic Avenue, smallerfootprint but it was also very
productive.
And I was doing pop-up storesin Chelsea as well.
(36:51):
Pop-up shops, you know, hereand there.
As the pop-up shop craze startedto take hold, my business
continued to grow dramaticallyin Asia and my distribution
partners in Japan and Korea bothstarted to position themselves
to become exclusive for all ofAPAC my business.
Frankly, I went with the guysthat were bigger and easier to
(37:13):
work with, who promised more,and that was my partners in
Korea.
Their vision was to open upfreestanding stores, sell
direct-to-cons stores, selldirect to consumer, not a
wholesale model, and notdistribute it to other brands or
other stores and have Joy Gricein stores and shop in shops and
to expand the brand from justhandbags into a lifestyle,
(37:35):
introduced ready-to-wear.
We had already done shoes outof Italy, but they wanted to do
shoes out of Asia, and cosmeticseventually, and jewelry, so I
ended up going into adistribution arrangement with
him for that in 2014.
And then in 2016, I basicallywent into a joint venture with
them and moved all my operationsto Korea, closed my stores.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Was that hard or there was no emotion in business
.
You were like okay, fine, next,Sorry, guys.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
It was really hard because, I mean, I didn't.
There was a couple of factors.
The person who owned thebuilding in Tribeca was selling
the building, so I was going toget relocated, no matter what.
My lease was up and I was goingto get relocated and the new
person that was coming in wasconverting it to condos, so I
didn't have an opportunity tonegotiate and renew my lease.
So that drove a lot of thedecision making.
(38:26):
But when they made theybasically made me an offer that
was financially too good torefuse.
And to your question about beingburnt out, joy and I were both
burnt out from running thebusiness the way we had been
running it.
So this was an opportunity forus to step back and just control
the design of the creative andhave our partners handle all the
(38:48):
operations and executionstandpoint.
And the department storebusiness had basically gone away
at that point anyway, because Iwas turning it away, I didn't
want it any longer.
I really, you know, betterboutiques, which is really just
like netta porte and essence andstuff like that at that time,
because I really wanted betterboutiques, which is really just
like Net-a-Porter and Essenceand stuff like that at that time
, because I really wanted anonline business and strong
online presence and adirect-to-consumer relationship.
(39:09):
I didn't really want to dowholesale, so it wasn't
difficult to turn that off.
It was difficult emotionally toclose the store because it was
my dream to have my own store.
But then I opened up a store inItaewon in Seoul.
Literally the month that Iclosed my store in Tribeca I
flew to Seoul and there's a hugeGeorge Rison flagship store in
Itaewon, so I was very proud ofthat.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Can I ask you, throughout all of this like the
closing of everything and youhave this small family at this,
you have a teenage daughter whoprobably made it just as
challenging as running thebusinesses Did you ever say,
okay, guys, we're going on avacation, we're not going to
look at our phones, We've got tounplug.
(39:54):
Just because we've been throughso much, I mean, this in itself
is so phenomenal and like thiswhole conversation is such a
accomplishment flex.
Were you ever like, okay, wegot to take a breath?
Or like you know, this is who Iam, I'm going to keep going
Like, did you ever have thismoment Like I got to press pause
(40:16):
, at least for a week, a day, aminute?
Did that ever cross your mind?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Of course, and we certainly tried.
We tried to do that and I wouldmake a priority and make sure
that Joy and Olivia would havethat time to do that when we
would go away to wherever thatmight be.
But I always got screwed.
I got screwed in that occasion,you know, but the business was
(40:42):
still running, you know, payrollstill had to be met All those
you know.
The store still had to operate,the production still had to
flow.
So you know, and again, we didit all self-financed.
There was never any outsidemoney.
It was always a challenge and astrain.
So I was always on calls and onwas before Zooms and stuff like
(41:03):
that, but my phone was bingingall the time.
So that was unfortunate.
But the joy of living thosechances to decompress and just
be a mommy and a daughter, whichwas great, and again that
really influenced a lot of thedecisions we made to make that a
priority and that's part of thereason why we ended up into the
JV, that we went with ourpartners in Korea.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Droid Venture yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
At the end of the day , we ended up in a full
partnership with them.
So right before COVID I flew toSeoul.
We had been talking about itfor a while.
They wanted global distributionrights because they only had
APAC previously and I basicallysold them.
You know, basically 50% of thebusiness of the IP, I mean,
granted them global distributionrights.
(41:47):
And that day COVID broke out inSeoul for the first time, it
was like six cases in Seoul andlike, oh my God, you know better
, get out of Korea, get out ofAsia, because you know the COVID
situation it was.
You know, no one even calledthe COVID.
Then they were like this is fluin Asia, we don't even know
what it is.
So I was terrified of that.
So I jumped on a plane with theentire cast of Parasite which
(42:10):
was flying in to get with theOscar for Parasite.
I happened to be flying withthem in business class, which
was very weird, but I signed thedeal and then that happened and
then the world shut down, right.
So all the expansion plans andall the things that we want to
do globally were put on pause.
(42:31):
We had also signed off on amarketing plan for the next two
seasons in Korea in regards, uh,what we're going to do to
really promote the brand?
Because it was, it was still arelatively small brand in the
korean market and just gettinggoing.
We had like five stores at thetime and the marketing plan was
(42:52):
about product placement onkorean k dramas you know these
soap operas and dramas that theybroadcast on prime time there
and it was really heavy-handed.
I thought it was a little,frankly, a little gauche.
It wasn't really my vibe, butmy partner's like no, this is
really effective.
So we did that and because itwas COVID and everybody was
(43:14):
forced to stay at home, thesetwo K-dramas that we placed all
over the product in became themost watched television programs
in the history of Koreanbroadcast and they broadcast in
the China as well.
So our online business wentthrough the roof and everybody
in Asia was buying Joey Grysonproduct nonstop and just our
(43:38):
brand awareness spikeddramatically.
And as things got more settledwith a career, we started to
build out and build out andbuild out, and now we have
launched ready-to-wear.
We have launched shoes Nextmonth, shoes are relaunching
Launched jewelry.
We've you know we're sold inall the better stores throughout
Asia from a wholesalestandpoint now, as well as our
(43:59):
own stores.
We have 54 of our own storesand shop-in-shops throughout
Asia Joy, Grace and boutiquesand the shop-in-shops and online
platforms that we control sothe business is going to be a
very substantial business, readyto where it's just getting
started.
We developed and designed thewine in New York initially at
(44:21):
the end of COVID, sampled ithere, sent it to Korea for
reproduction.
Now we have a whole design teamin Seoul for ready to wear, a
design team for shoes, designteam for jewelry and the design
team underneath jewelry forhandbags and basically we do
Zooms almost every night duringthe week.
Touch base with our team and mypartner was a great guy and his
(44:45):
family are very successful atwhat they do great executors.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Who knew all of this would come full circle?
Speaker 1 (44:51):
Yeah it's crazy.
That's the crazy thing.
She was born in Busan, southKorea, and adopted when she was
three years old, after she wasleft on a train.
Oh my God, when her mother diedin birth, she was left on a
train at an orphanage.
The police brought her to anorphanage six weeks after she
(45:14):
was born.
She was adopted by theBlaschner family when she was
three and nobody in Korea knowsshe's Korean.
They just think she's GeorgeGresham from New York.
They promote the business, notthe designer.
Or if they look it up, they seeher background.
But it's not like in the US,where you promote the designer
(45:35):
as much.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Right right, right, right right.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
So no one even knows.
So we have a store in Busan.
That's wild.
It's a beautiful big store in amall and it's very possible
that her natural family walks bythat store or they shop in that
store.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
That is.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
They have no idea that that's their sister or
their daughter or their niece.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
That's wild.
I mean the full circle impactand it's like that's enough to
make one cry, because it'salmost like cosmic justice that
she's able to come back on herown terms within that.
It's just that's properlymagical.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
It really is, yeah it's like it's made for TV movie
stuff.
Right, it's made for TV moviestuff.
It's crazy.
And then, if you are fortunateenough to know Joy, joy's also
pretty much the nicest person inthe world and there's nobody
who knows Joy or gets associatedwith Joy who doesn't come away
with that impression.
And then she's unbelievablytalented and very beautiful, and
(46:37):
so I'm lucky.
All the things that had tohappen for her to come into my
life and for us to be able to dothis, and then that full circle
thing happening back in SouthKorea, it's really, it's magical
, right.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I mean honestly, peter, this has been such an
inspirational, really movingconversation because you know,
there's so many life lessons toextrapolate from this, like and
I think so many people get sweptup into the ego of failure or
(47:14):
the ego of going to work in aclassification like belts that
they might say, like hold on,I'm better than belts.
But there's no excuse for hardwork and hustle.
And I always tell designers, ifyou have an opportunity to day
job within the field that isremotely of interest, even
adjacent, being able tounderstand margins and
(47:38):
deliveries and factories and howto communicate with the factory
, how to communicate with thefactory that doesn't speak your
language, how to be respectfulof how they need things.
And it's not about you, it'sabout how you give it to them,
because that's the only wayyou're going to get what you
need.
Like I've spoken about thisthat when I had my first
(47:59):
delivery I think it was toNordstrom I had a factory in
India that I did not knowcelebrated Ramadan.
No one told me they celebratedRamadan.
I had no idea.
Why would I know?
I didn't even know they shutdown, but I had deliveries that
were coming and I kept emailinglike I don't have an update, can
you please tell me?
And it got to the point where Iwas.
(48:21):
You know, sounding like a psychodesigner I was still.
I don't even want to use youthas an excuse.
I had a delivery to make.
I didn't know what to do, so Ikept emailing, and emailing, and
emailing and I got thisscathing email in butchered
English basically saying howdare you not be respectful?
As a result, we're going topush you last for production
(48:44):
because they had my moneyalready and I'm like.
So there's all these nuancesthat make you learn that so much
of this is not about you.
If you need to get things frompeople and all of those life
lessons like I can't evenimagine the Google Translate of
saying, oh my god, like what?
I mean no, and then having totry and clear your name.
(49:04):
And is it worth trying to clearyour name for that?
So you know, it's.
That's just so much to gothrough and say, okay, we got to
keep going forward.
We don't have a choice likewe're in this.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
that's it, you don't have a choice and you know I,
always, when I was corporate, Iused to have a screensaver that,
just you know, what does notkill you makes you stronger.
I feel exactly the same waysame we had horrible experiences
running the business on our ownwith production and cash flow
(49:39):
and people stealing from youfactories, taking your money and
disappearing over the night.
Yeah, oh check check, check.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
I had my, my first assistant stole my entire
database and left and then wentcrickets on me and I didn't know
anything about it.
And and the wild thing is, thenI was getting emails from
designers because I'd workedwith hundreds of thousands of
them saying, by the way, youknow, I don't like what you did
to her.
And I'm now with her and I'mlike like I've like I funded her
(50:15):
lifestyle, I was paying hercollege loans, I delivered food
to her when she was sick, youknow, and this was like my right
hand and you know you,unfortunately, you gotta go
through these horrible things tolearn like, okay, I can't show
my cards to people, I need to bethoughtful, I need to be
strategic and it's business,it's all business, that's it.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
It is business, and it's really good, though, to
remain human.
You know about everything andhave perspective, and you know,
treat people the way you want tobe treated.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
You know that's all Exactly.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
But yeah, so lots of really really difficult life
lessons, and then you know, haveno choice, right, so you're
going to get through it.
I probably should have stoppedwhat I was doing multiple,
multiple times and I didn't, andI still haven't, but yeah, so I
mean, so that's where we're at.
(51:10):
We're opening up a new store inhanam in seoul in two weeks.
Joey and I are going to go inabout on october 15th for the
store opening, for the grandopening.
Amazing, yeah, it's a.
It's a multi-floored store.
They're calling it the house ofjoy.
Um, where'd you do our shoeline within that store?
(51:32):
Very small capsule issues, butwe like the direction so far.
Yeah, so we're really reallyreally quite blessed, very lucky
, you know, and everybody'shealthy, so it's good, except
for me.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
There you go.
Oh my god, peter, how canpeople find you follow you?
Should they, if they ever wereinterested, find you on linkedin
?
Is that the place to go, yeah?
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Yeah, go to LinkedIn.
I'm out there.
I still consult for a lot ofother people during the day
because I'm on Zoos at nightwith my partners.
I do a lot of things inready-to-wear, a lot of things
in collaborations, both men'sand women's, so I'm really
interested in that space.
Just because bags are great,but that's where I made my
(52:18):
bedding butter, but I really dolike apparel a lot, so I'm very
interested in that.
So, yeah, linkedin is an easyway to find me.
For Joy Grison, go to our InstaIG, which is joygrison
underscore official, and you canfollow us there.
Our new line just dropped forfall it looks great.
Amazing and then our website isjoygrisoncom, which will link to
(52:42):
our joygrison, korea websitecan you get things shipped from
korea here?
yeah, you could have.
We were doing that before withthe diminutives, but now it's
going to be a little bitprohibitive, but you can.
And then there's a number ofonline sites 29cmCM and WConcept
.
Both have Joy Grison shop andshops that we own and they can
(53:06):
handle logistics of shipping tothe US, but I frankly don't even
know, with the tariffs and thelack of the de minimis being
removed, what the costsassociated would be.
We do plan to reactivate in theUS.
It's actually been the plansince I sold global distribution
rights right before COVID, butbetween COVID, economic
(53:27):
headwinds and expansion in othercategories throughout Asia, it
just hasn't been a priority.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
Right right, right right.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
Yeah, got it.
We keep talking about it likeit's going to happen, like we're
going to do a new flagship indowntown, and I keep looking at
real estate, but we haven't doneit yet, so it's not not evident
.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Things to come, but just for everybody listening,
it's G-R-Y-S-O-N.
Fantastic, thank you.
Thank you so much, peter, forjoining us.
This has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (53:57):
It was really nice talking to you and catching up.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Absolutely.
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
Our online business went through the roof and
everybody in Asia was buyingJoey Gryson product non-stop and
just our brand awareness spikeddramatically.
And as things got more settledwith a career, we started to
build out and build out.
And now we have, we havelaunched, ready to wear, we have
launched shoes uh, next month,shoes that we're launching,
(00:23):
launch jewelry.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, emilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert and the handbag fairygodmother.
Each week, we uncover thestories behind the handbags we
love, from the iconic brands andtop designers to the creativity
, craftsmanship and culture thatdefine the handbag world.
Whether you're a designer,collector or simply passionate
(00:47):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all.
Welcome, peter Greisen, toHandbag Designer 101, the
podcast.
I have just learned that I'myour first podcast, so, to a man
who probably doesn't have manyfirsts left, I'm excited to Win
the Podcast.
I have just learned that I'myour first podcast, so, to a man
who probably doesn't have manyfirsts left, I'm excited to be
(01:09):
this one.
So welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, so we'd spoken like we ironically go back in a
very bizarre way, but I know ourlast conversation, which to me
was very enlightening and Ithink I knew so much about you.
But you contextualized more.
So you started out 100 yearsago working.
You were at Calvin Klein or youdidn't start at Calvin.
(01:36):
Like what did you study incollege?
Like what leads someone likeyou into men's accessories?
Like how and the why and thehuh.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
No, I went to the school at Boston University and
studied literature.
I wanted to be a writer.
It had nothing to do withfashion or apparel whatsoever.
Moved to New York in thenineties.
Like everybody else, once yougot out of school, they're
trying to find a job.
I always worked in retail, infashion.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
You always had retail jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I always did that just to pay the bills.
So my first opportunity for acorporate situation was with
Guess Guess Jeans.
So I went into the GuessAccessories license family with
a company.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Was Signal part of that back then?
No, this is the MarcianoBrothers vintage.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
No, no, it was just when licensing first started to
become a big thing.
So it was actually with GuestBelts, a company called Daylor
Creations.
Oh my God, sort of an offshootto Signal, which is the handbag
with Jeffrey Mack on those guys.
So I knew those guys very well.
So I worked with the Guestfamily of licenses and I went to
(02:39):
Guest Sunglasses and worked inthe optical and sunglass
division, became national salesmanager, I guess sunglasses-
Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I got to ask you something, so here you are, kind
of hot shit.
Went to BU a hard school to getinto.
Lived your best life in Bostonliterature I mean, anybody who
goes to college in a school likethat finishes feeling like they
have moved mountains just withthat degree alone.
You got a job in belts Was thathard for your ego?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, it was.
Honestly, I had tried to applyfor copywriting jobs and things
with the newspapers andjournalism, but I wasn't a
journalism major, I was anEnglish lit major and I didn't
want to be a writer.
So when I got my job in beltsand then sunglasses, I continued
to write, but then it justbecame something that wasn't
(03:31):
realistic for me to maintain anylonger, and the passion I had
for it.
I still like to write.
I enjoy that, I enjoystorytelling, but I'm not really
actively involved with it, andI was 24 years old, living in
Manhattan, needed to make moneyand move on with my life, so
(03:51):
that became my priority and myfocus.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So you had no ego going into belts Because, listen
, I've dealt with a lot ofpeople, a lot of fashion people,
a lot of people who findthemselves to be beautiful
people, and you know they seethemselves of what themselves to
be beautiful people.
And you know they seethemselves, of what they're able
to accomplish, and they're like, oh my God, I should be doing
this, I should be doing that.
But here I am in belts, beltsales, and I'm going to
(04:15):
department stores that are noton a high end, like, hey, how
many units do you want to buy?
We'll change this color, thatcolor, this buckle.
And then you have to throwyourself into it because you're
dealing with seasoned people whothis is their livelihood.
Like, was that like an attitudeadjustment?
Like, okay, I'm in it, I'mpassionate?
Or was it like, okay, this ismy job for now?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh no, it was, it was .
I'm in it, I'm passionate, Imean, I wanted to be successful,
frankly.
So that became my objective.
It wasn't really about, youknow, it wasn't about art and it
wasn't about, you know, meetingmy life goals at that time.
But it was a transition fromwanting to be a writer and to
just wanting to be a successfulperson as a young man, you know,
living in the city and tryingto start my life.
(04:57):
Just like we were just talkingabout my daughter, she's about
she's going through the sameexact situation, so she's just
getting started.
So I was looking for whateverthat great opportunity was.
I was always involved in fashionand retail, so I had a
proclivity for it and I had ataste level that worked.
I definitely have an ego, but Ididn't have an ego that
prevented me from doing whateverit took to pay the bills and to
(05:20):
be in business.
And then I became very driven,you know, to become successful
and move up the food chain, soto speak, from an executive flag
right.
So I went to Viva Sun, whichwas acquired by Marchand
eventually I was national salesmanager of, I guess, sunglasses
and I left there and I went toCalvin Klein, warnico, which was
you know, warnico was thelicense for Calvin Klein
(05:42):
underwear, calvin Klein jeansand Calvin Klein accessories.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
That's a flex, because to get into Warnico back
then even back then was tough,like going from guests where
they're, you know it's corporate, but they are scrappy corporate
, they don't care.
And then going to Warnicothat's like buttoned up, white
walls, clean everything Like nocursing, like everything is like
A to b clean well, there wasdefinitely cursing.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
But, um, I went there .
They had just acquired thelicense for calvin klein denim
from the company that had itbefore, arnie simons designer
holdings, and they with thatcame the accessories license.
So, and they had just sort ofrebooted the whole accessories
and they hired Ivy Ross, whocame over from coach and Mark
(06:30):
Cross and she was.
She had basically been chargedwith reinventing the entire
Calvert Klein and CK accessoriesbusiness for men and Ivy hired
me to be a national salesmanager and within about six
months hired me to be a nationalsales manager.
And within about six months Ithink it was about six months
Ivy got an opportunity to go toMattel and relaunch Barbie.
(06:55):
This was in 96, I think and soshe left and went to California
and reinvented Barbie, iconicBarbie.
So great opportunity for her.
The decision makers at Warnickodecided that they weren't going
to replace Ivy, they were justgoing to elevate me.
So I, as a 26 year old kid,became vice president of Calvin
(07:19):
Klein men's accessories andstarted reporting directly to
Bob Mazzoli, who was thepresident of Calvin Klein
underwear, and Danny Gladstone,who was president of Calvin
Klein jeans, and then directreport to Linda Walkner, who was
the chairman of Warnico.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Oh my God.
So had she not left, your lifewould have been totally
different.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, very much so.
Ivy hired me, mentored me.
I learned a lot.
She also hired an entire designstaff that came with her from
Coach and Mark Cross, and one ofthe designers that she hired is
my wife, joy Grison, which isour brand.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Well, it wasn't Joy Grison then.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
No, it was Joy Bleschner.
Joy's Korean, but she's adoptedby a lovely family in Queens.
So she's my little Korean Jewfrom Queens, joy Bleschner, yeah
.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Was that just off the record?
Well off topic, was that?
A bit of a scandal to startinterdating, like you know.
Ooh, I like the designer andhere I'm in sales Like oh, look
at this.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It wasn't really like that when we were working
together, we were just workingtogether and we did not start to
date until I left and, frankly,we were about to start to date
and I knew that was a conflictand also, frankly, as a 26,
27-year-old guy, in thesituation I was in and I started
(08:46):
flying around on the corporatejet with Mrs Walkner and the
C-suite team at the end of theorder to make the numbers for
Warnico, which was very highpressure, incredible learning
experience and great exposurebut, frankly, a little bit over
my head and somewhat terrifyingat times.
I was the youngest guy by 20years.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'll bet.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, but again great experience.
But I got an opportunity to goto another company to launch
DKNY Men's Accessories, calderand Klein Accessories.
Ck Accessories was doing very,very well, really sort of
kicking ass in that space.
Ck Accessories was doing very,very well, really sort of
kicking ass in that space.
Dkny was about to launch alicensed business with John Idol
(09:30):
who was the CEO of DKNY at thetime, and he started licensing
out all the classifications.
So Cipriani Accessoriesacquired the license.
They hired me to come in as thepresident of DKY Men's
Accessories and launched thatline for them.
So I left, calvin Warnicko,went to Cipriani and DKY and we
(09:52):
launched DKY Men's.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Accessories at a super young age.
I mean speaking to someone who,also, at 26, had done more than
most people and he was usuallythe youngest person in the room.
And when people said, alwaysask what was your weakness?
(10:14):
My answer was always I don'tknow how to play golf because I
didn't know what else to say.
How were you able?
Because sales and design it's avery interesting partnership and
I fashioned so much of this tolike an ad agency because I also
work there too.
I feel like I've worked ineverything, because ad agencies
go back and forth, where theywill have the entire team design
, copywriting, you knoweverything sales in one buying,
(10:38):
and then they'll shift, and thenall the design.
All the copywriters are here,all the salespeople are here,
all the design, all thecopywriters are here, all the
salespeople are here, all thebuyers are here.
Working for an accessoriesbrand is so different because
sales and design have to work intandem, because you're the eyes
and ears of what the market isdictating, but you can't do
everything that the market saysand the design team can't create
(11:02):
everything that they think theyshould be there.
So how are you so young at thatstage in life, especially going
on private jets where I would belike probably crapping my pants
, like where they're likenumbers and this and that, and
you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah,me too, uh-huh, uh-huh.
Take these kinds of experiencesand have, because obviously you
(11:23):
had to be bold and say, okay,we're going to launch this and
it's never been done, or we'regoing to bring that and that
hasn't been done.
Like, how are you able to likewhat were the things that you
were like?
Okay, as someone who's fairlynew, I can see things that other
people can't, and how were youable to bring those out?
Like, what were things that youwere able to make happen that
you were like, oh, this hasn'tbeen done.
(11:44):
I hope it's received okay.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Sure, sometimes I had an innate ability to forecast
trend.
That's probably.
My superpower in my businessalways has been both in men's
and women's and acrossclassifications.
It still is.
That's probably what I do best.
And when you're in sales, ifyou can figure out what the next
thing is going to be beforeit's there, then you can direct
(12:10):
your merch team, your R&D team,your design team, to develop
towards that end.
That's great.
It also helps to have reallytalented designers that you work
with.
So I was very fortunate that atCipriani we had a really
talented designer that I workedwith to launch DKNY who had come
from DKNY corporate.
She and I were in lockstep inregards to sort of direction and
(12:31):
intention for what we weregoing to do.
So we launched that brandlaunch like gangbusters, like we
killed it.
We killed it with that and thenJohn Idol left DKNY, went to
Michael Kors and we applied thelicense for Michael Kors and
then we launched that, that too,and we killed it with that.
So we continue to just acquirelicenses and build out that
(12:51):
whole portfolio for Cipriani,which became Lee Fong, which
became Global, which becameEccentric and they still do it,
and the guys over there are thesame guys in some cases that run
it and do great with what theydo really great business people.
At the time that I was there,they were a family-owned
business that was run by familymembers and that sort of had, uh
(13:16):
, different pillars ofresponsibility, and one the
gentleman that was in charge ofdesign was one of the owners and
he was just a big free spiritwho loved creativity, loved
design and let his designers doa lot of great stuff.
So I had really talenteddesigners to work with, so a lot
of credit goes towards them.
They did follow directionreally, really well.
(13:38):
I'm pretty good at forecastingtrend and analysis from that
standpoint.
And then I know how to make thenumbers work from my experience
at Warnico.
You can be at Warnico and notbe able to-.
No, that's all numbers.
Yeah, you got to make thenumbers work.
You got to make it happen froma budgetary standpoint, from an
execution standpoint and bottomline make it happen, make the
month, make the quarter andunderstand what that pressure is
(14:00):
all about.
But it is a lot easier when youhave great product and a great
brand right.
So I had great brands, I hadgreat products, I had great
partners.
So you know, my success is allon the shoulders of others.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I'm excited to share my new book with you.
Welcome to Savvy Susanna'sAmazing Adventures in Handbags
and the Start of Susanna'sTriumphant Journey to Become a
Young Handbag Designer.
Filled with ingenuity, fun anda hint of steam.
Susanna will inspire childrenand you everywhere to follow
their dreams and put in the hardwork to get there.
Savvy Susanna is available onAmazon, barnes, noble or
(14:35):
wherever you get your books.
Thanks for your support.
So, in the midst of all this,you and Lady Joy start to
continue your relationship.
At which point because the wholething, like you know, grayson,
joy, grayson, as a handbag brand, it is one of those
institutions.
For those who can remember theearly 2000s of the pillars of,
(15:01):
you know, monica Bach here,minkoff, like all these brands
that were at their height, Imean I could go through my book
and think, like all these brandsthat were and no longer and
then had been resold and resoldlike Cuba, you know that the
height of that time I believe somuch obviously, is product.
You have to have the rightproduct.
(15:21):
For someone who knows how tomake good product, you have to
have the right pricing.
Obviously, you knew how to dothat.
You had the factory connections.
You knew how to make it deliveron time.
But really, at the end of theday, it comes down to timing.
The market is not what it usedto be, but you have to sniff out
like okay, because what I teachmy students is that you have to
(15:43):
be the fastest, the best or thefirst Right.
So you know, at this point Ifeel like Joy Grison as a brand
was probably the fastest tomarket because there was a space
to take.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, so it's interesting.
So when we so, joy and I, afterI went to DKNY and Cipriani and
she left, Went to Mark and shewent to Mark Jacobs.
She went to Mark and she wasdesign director for accessories
for Mark when all those iconicMark Jacobs it bags the Stella,
the Stam all those bags wereoriginally designed and
developed underneath Joy's watch, mark by Mark was just.
(16:18):
It was also launched underneathJoy and her friend that she had
hired to bring in.
So she had a lot of successwith that.
So she had been working nonstopdeveloping a great line for
Mark and business and spending aton of time in Italy.
I was working nonstop launchingall these brands for Cipriani
and we had just been married andmoved to Tribeca and got
(16:43):
pregnant with our daughter,olivia, and we had the baby and
we decided we needed to make alifestyle change because we
really weren't around a lot, weweren't able to spend time
together or with our youngfamily.
So Joy resigned and then Iresigned shortly thereafter.
And this was Was thatterrifying?
So Joy resigned and then Iresigned shortly thereafter and
this was terrifying.
Yeah, it was terrifying becauseI was trying so much.
(17:06):
The intention was that we weregoing to be very responsible,
young adults and like, move tothe suburbs and I'd get another
corporate job and do that.
And instead we launched our ownhandbag line and consultancy
firm.
So we started designing consultfor other brands to pay the
bills, you know, go to market.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
How did you find those clients?
Were people like you know, likehey Peter, I hear you're on the
market, come help.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, sort of that was part of it.
And then once we did launchGryson, we launched with a lot
of fanfare, like people, thebiggest handbag line at the time
was Marc Jacobs, Like it was,you know, the biggest thing you
know globally, you know, in 2005.
And Joy was responsible for alot of those designs.
So when we launched Joy or welaunched Bryson, as the
(17:55):
ex-design director for MarcJacobs, we launched with Stephen
Allen Showroom and oh, my God,yeah, stephen Allen.
They also had our press at thetime, so we had a full page
article in Women's Wear andHarper's Bazaar Vogue.
Everybody picked it up.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Why did you pick your last name?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
You know, that was actually so full disclosure.
We weren't really sure what wewere going to do, but the whole
idea of doing this business wasa little bit of a fever dream,
like we were thinking about itand talking about it.
We had a couple ideas inregards to designs at Washington
(18:37):
Market Park in Tribeca and shewas playing with another little
boy and his father came over andwe introduced ourselves and
that was Stephen.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, that's how we met.
So Stephen, stephen Zillow andI met because our kids were
playing together, so then wewent to have a little Only in
Tribeca.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Would that be a strategic meeting being like?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah right, so then we went to Tribeca.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Would that be a strategic meeting, being like
like?
I met Alicia Silverstone at theplayground in Tompkins Square
Park and her kid threw sand inmy son's face and I'm like, and
he would?
My son was crying and I waslike you're okay.
My daughter was like he'scrying, I'm like you know, I'm
talking to her Like we're goingto be best friends, like I don't
care that he punched him in theface, he'll be fine.
He'll be fine If he goes totherapy.
He won't remember that.
We'll cover everything.
(19:25):
Well done.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, it was very funny.
So we went to lunch, we sharedwhat each other's did and he
said that's interesting, I justlaunched a brand Botcare and
they're actually going to goin-house so I have a space.
So then we started talking.
So then Steven and I actuallyformed a partnership.
So Steven was originally apartner in Gryson not just a
(19:49):
showroom, but actually a partnerin equity.
So, we built the line, builtthe whole plan.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So he was the one that said Gryson, or you were
like whatever I can't think ofanything.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Back to the question.
Yes, he was the one that saidGryson or you were like whatever
, I can't think of anything.
Back to the question.
Yes, he was the one whobasically suggested Gryson.
So I was thinking Joy orsomething to play off the words,
and he was like no, I likeGryson.
It's got a cool name, it's gota cool vibe, it's sort of
androgynous and it feels veryEuropean.
It's got some strength.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Did you call your parents and been like yo?
Our last name's androgynous andEuropean Like that.
All of a sudden it's alluring,but you didn't think of that.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
My father was very proud, and so that's how we
picked Gryson.
And then I had a design partnerfrom my past at Cipriani, who
had moved to Italy and started adesign studio in Florence.
So I got him involved and healso had equity in the business.
So everybody got equity throughsweat equity.
(20:47):
Everybody believed in theproject, they got vested through
performance and I gave themequity because I couldn't pay
them anything.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Right, of course.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
On the first year.
So we'd made the first line ofDreiss and All out of Italy,
produced it out of Italy and, asI said, when we launched, we
launched with a greatdistribution, launched with
Barneys, bergdorf, neemans andIsotan in Japan and it was
exclusive to Isotan in Japan forAPAC.
That was their requirement.
(21:18):
Barneys was mad that I soldBergdorf, bergdorf was mad I
sold barney's but I wanted theneiman's, so I that's why I sold
bergdorf.
I didn't sell sax the firstseason.
I let them come on board thesecond season was that with
lincoln more?
back then.
Yeah, lincoln, who's the?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
best I love him.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, you know he's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He was one of my first people for the Handbag
Awards because he gave CarlosFalchi his lifetime achievement
and the best thing about Lincolnand I love him so much.
But he required hair and makeup.
That was his rider.
I'm like dude, you have no hair, come on.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
That's great.
Yeah, Lincoln was a greatsupporter of ours.
You have no hair, Come on.
That's great.
He's the best Great supporterof ours.
So that was in 2006 that weactually launched.
Then we expanded ourdistribution and our business
became, you know, pretty strongglobally.
And we had an unfortunatesituation there in our second
season when Barney's came in andordered late, you know, but
(22:22):
they're Barneys right so theycame in and they said-.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
They didn't pay you.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Well, no, they paid me, they just ordered late.
So they came in after I'dalready closed the market
because they wanted to see howthe first season performed.
And when it first launched, youknow we shipped in the fall and
you know it sat on the floorfor about a week or two before
everybody knew who we were andthey missed the market day.
So they weren't sure they weregoing to reorder.
But then two weeks later itsold out a hundred percent.
(22:47):
So then they came racing backand said, can we order?
And we said yes, but then theywanted to change all the
deliveries, the color, theywanted to change everything.
That's very Barney's, yeah, butbut they're Barney's.
So I said yeah.
So I tried to do it.
So I flew to Italy, Irearranged my entire production
schedule and we were with thefactory that was making Chloe,
(23:09):
balenciaga and some Dior, as youknow, but mainly they were a
huge Chloe manufacturer and wethought we were in a really good
spot with them.
And then they sold to anotherlarger entity.
So my relationship with theowner of that factory went to
another ownership relationship.
(23:29):
So I had to go back to Italyagain and sort of establish who
I was.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Start over.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, and it's difficult.
We were a young independentbrand working in Italy.
Lots of cash advances that wererequired, et cetera, et cetera,
and then I'm rearranging allthe production flow.
So everything was challenging,right, so that was difficult.
My partners that were therewere American, you know, so they
also didn't have that type ofyou know standing with the
(23:57):
Italians.
Even though they lived ininfluence full-time, they hadn't
established themselves yet as adevelopment house had anybody
at that point tried to acquireyou.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Because I know I've spoken to Monica so many times
and she's like we shot up soquickly, so fast.
We were making so much.
I had buyers courting me right,left and center and then she
said no, no, no.
And then the market dropped andthen she was like oh damn, like
going back to them and they'relike who are you?
I can't help you.
(24:29):
And it's funny because as muchas you were an expert before
running other people'sbusinesses and being who you are
, you took them on as your ownand like you took everything
personally and like down to yourcore, like all the sales, the
Monday numbers.
But when it's your own andyou're like I got a wife, I got
a kid, I got real estate, I gotoverhead, I got this Like it's a
(24:52):
different kind of anxiety.
You get walking through anairport in Italy to go meet an
American in a factory who has nopull, no clout, and you're like
Jesus Christ, like I can'tleave until, like, these dates
change and this new Italian guytrusts me personally, and like
everything was just hinging oneverything.
I mean, people don't knowstress until you go through this
(25:15):
and it's all on your shoulders.
You're like I can't breathe.
What am I going to do?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, 100%.
You're like I can't breathe.
What am I going to do?
Yeah, 100.
And to that, to that end, ourbusiness got so big, so quick,
that we uh, we, we decided wehad to, we had to finance the
production and, with all theseshifts and the advances that
were required, we, we made thedecision to sell our loft in
tribeca and then start to rent aplace instead and get that cash
(25:41):
from that.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So where were you living?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Where'd you move?
We just moved down the streetin Tribeca.
We went from one address onReed Street to another address
on Reed Street, but with thecash that we got from the sale
we were able to finance ourinventory for the first two
production runs and keep itmoving.
But it was a tough decision tomake and there was other things.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You decided to say you had to sit down.
You were like a baby nappingand you're like okay, Joy, I
think we need to sell this andwe'll rent down the block.
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Speaker 1 (27:40):
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There was other situations thatwere involved in it as well,
but that's sort of the way itplayed out.
And then the unfortunate thingwhen we went into that second
season, after I rearranged myentire production flow for
Bardi's and the factory hadchanged hands in ownership, I
(28:01):
was sitting in my design studiowith Joy and we had one employee
at the time and I got a Googlealert that said Chloe Givenchy,
bryson Todd, and it was from theItalian newspaper.
It was all in Italian.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
About the factory.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah, it was about the factory.
I'm like like, oh my god, myname's mentioned with all these
cool brands, that's so cool.
And then when I did the googletranslate, it said all of these
brands have been makingcounterfeit goods with illegal
chinese labor in italy andthey've all been remanded by the
italian authorities.
So then I call my partner inflorence.
(28:39):
I'm like what happened?
What?
What the F?
And it turns out that this newowner because my business was
small had outsourced to like anillegal sweatshop in Florence,
in Scandici, and my goods gotcaught by the authorities and I
had no idea what was happening.
He wasn't telling me that hewas doing that, I didn't
(28:59):
authorize it and then I couldn'tget my production out of.
That was happening.
He wasn't telling me that hewas doing that, I didn't
authorize it and then I couldn'tget my production out of that
because the italian authoritieswere blocking down on that.
There was a real crackdown onthe illegal chinese labor at
that time, right, so I deliveredtwo months late to barnes.
They were god, I already feelsick hearing this, yeah you know
(29:20):
sell through, you know spring,spring season, yeah, everything
was delayed.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You missed your window, period, I missed my
window.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
How did we sell?
Set us back Very difficult.
We continued to grow, but thenwe went into 2007 and 2008 where
the whole you know the economytanked.
You know the recession happened, you know the banking, you know
the whole thing with Fannie Maeand the home mortgage and
everything completely collapsedand to your point, right before
(29:47):
then, lvmh had inquired aboutacquiring the brand.
I met with Delphine Arnaud.
She had seen our product atIsotan Shijinko in Tokyo.
We had a huge play there.
We were doing extremely well inJapan and tons of celebrities
were wearing our product atIsotan Shijinko in Tokyo.
We had a huge play there, wewere doing extremely well in
Japan and tons of celebritieswere wearing our product.
So there was a real interest inour brand from LVMH at the time
(30:10):
.
So we were just starting thoseconversations.
Then the whole economy tankedright.
So we kept pushing throughmaking out of Italy, starting to
diversify the production out ofChina as well to manage margins
, balancing out.
Then I introduced a diffusionline, which was very early to do
so and I didn't really say thatit was a diffusion line.
(30:31):
I just introduced younger,casual, more aggressive.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Was that Joy Grayson?
Speaker 1 (30:37):
That was Olivia Harris.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh, right, right, right, right right.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I did Olivia Harris, which was my daughter's name,
olivia Harris Grisom is her fullname.
Harris is my mother's maidenname and that was a younger
contemporary brand a little bitmore aggressive, like a more
accessible Alexander Wang.
You know lots of hardware andwashed bags, post-construction
stuff like that.
Very cool.
Saks loved it.
Saksincoln and jenniferassinger, who was the buyer at
(31:04):
the time, came in and saidbryson's fine, we love.
Bryson is on the main floor.
We're right next to alaya, youknow, and uh and valenciaga
that's where I sat, uh rightright little alcove.
But the contemporary business iswhere the business is and their
price points are very hard tosustain Because we were like
$800, $900.
(31:24):
Right, right, right.
We were higher than the Coopersand the Bacchieras.
We were in that white spaceJust below right around
Alexander Wang, philip Lim pricepoints Anyway.
So Olivia Harris was more $400and below and so we lost that
and that did great.
So we were really lucky withthat, got a lot of great press.
We didn't say that it was by us, you know.
We didn't say it was part ofJoy Grice's school initially and
(31:47):
that did great and we keptbuilding off of that.
That became a bigger businessthan Joy Grice.
Joy Grice was the Halo product,continued to develop our
business throughout the world,globally.
You know people would kick thetires about acquiring us.
Let's ask us what size thebusiness was, you know.
And so when you get to be 50million, that's when we want to
(32:08):
buy you.
I was like, when I get to be 50million, I don't need you to
buy me.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Right, exactly, I'm just fine at 50 million.
I'm good, I am good, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That was one of those weird things.
But, um, and I'm good, I amgood, I'm good, that was one of
those weird things.
And then we continued todevelop that line.
We continued to consult forother brands as well.
We opened up a showroom, tooksales back in-house, opened up a
big showroom on 180 VarickStreet in the West Village,
5,000-square-foot showroom anddesign studio.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
My God, you're like collecting overhead for fun.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Big time.
But I had like eight differentbrands at that time that we were
designing for, modeling for,and I was licensing as well.
I was taking on licenses and Ihad Gryson, I had Olivia Harris
and I was introducing Tribeca byJoy Gryson, which was a phone
flopping brand.
So I had three tiers of pricepoints.
(33:03):
I had a license with theNellipore, I had contract work
with a lot of different brandsand I had a staff now of about
20 designers and developers.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Right now in sales.
So we did all that and we didthat for about four years in
that model and then I reallywasn't enjoying the wholesale
experience.
Stores were very difficult towork, with lots of consult,
right, as everybody knows.
So then I decided I wanted togo more direct.
(33:34):
So I opened up my own store intribeca, across from steven
allen's store on franklin streetI don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Was Stephen Allen still part of it at this point?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
At that point, stephen and I made an agreement.
I bought him out, so I took100%.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Was that amicable?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, totally, stephen's still a good friend
and he was helpful and remainshelpful to me in any way that I
need.
He just reopened his own storein Chelsea and he's doing great.
So yeah, it was totallyamicable and you know, he got
his money back.
It was all good from thatstandpoint.
But yeah, we were right acrossthe street from Stephen and I
had a storefront showroom and adesign studio in that space on
(34:14):
Franklin Street and we launchedthe Tribeca line, we had the
Libby Harris line, we had theolivia harris line, we had the
joy grice on.
So I changed the branding fromgrison to joy grison at that
point because I had too manybrands underneath the sort of
silo to to explain it.
So I had to explain it throughthe marketing and the brand
positioning.
It's all done by joy.
She's the creative power behindit all.
So it's joy grison, halo oliviaharris by joy grison, which is
(34:37):
our daughter, and tribeca byjoyson, which is our
neighborhood and our communityWas she drained, was Joy's tank
empty?
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Because what you're explaining right now is the
trajectory of and I don't wantto say traditional or basic, but
this is of that time all thatmakes sense.
Like you start out with one,you have a diffusion, then you
have a spinoff, then you privatelabel, then you start
developing, now you'reconsulting.
But, like all of this, at somepoint you hit a wall and you're
(35:09):
like, oh, I don't want, like, no, I'm done, I don't want to
store, I don't want to hirepeople, I don't want product.
It is so much and you'veaccomplished so much, and I know
COVID hit and I know Korea endsup playing a huge part of
what's going on in your liferight now.
But what was your tipping pointmoment to say, okay, I don't
want to do any of this anymore,like I'm good, I'm good store
(35:33):
and launched Tribeca, we decidedwe weren't going to consult for
people anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
We weren't going to do any more consulting and any
more licensing.
We were just going to focus onour own brand and focus more
direct and take the emphasis offof wholesale as well, which was
forward thinking but, at thesame time, super challenging.
We just cut off most of ourrevenue.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Cause that cause you didn't have to front any of that
, Like that was just moneycoming in that you didn't have
to worry about anything.
It's like I'm running somebodyelse's brand and business so
good, bad ugly, I'm stillgetting paid.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Right, exactly, the consulting was incredibly
profitable and very successfulfor all our partners but, you
know, very demanding becausethey're your client and the
client's always right.
You got to do everything thatthey need Need you to do.
The wholesale was notnecessarily profitable but it
still was revenue streams thatwas much larger than our direct
business.
At the time I just saw thewriting on the wall that all the
(36:30):
consolidations, everything else, and I didn't create a good,
you know, dot com business.
I didn't have a retailexperience.
My brand would die.
So I took the leap of faiththat I did that.
I opened up a second store inBrooklyn, in Boreham Hill on
Atlantic Avenue, smallerfootprint but it was also very
productive.
And I was doing pop-up storesin Chelsea as well.
(36:51):
Pop-up shops, you know, hereand there.
As the pop-up shop craze startedto take hold, my business
continued to grow dramaticallyin Asia and my distribution
partners in Japan and Korea bothstarted to position themselves
to become exclusive for all ofAPAC my business.
Frankly, I went with the guysthat were bigger and easier to
(37:13):
work with, who promised more,and that was my partners in
Korea.
Their vision was to open upfreestanding stores, sell
direct-to-cons stores, selldirect to consumer, not a
wholesale model, and notdistribute it to other brands or
other stores and have Joy Gricein stores and shop in shops and
to expand the brand from justhandbags into a lifestyle,
(37:35):
introduced ready-to-wear.
We had already done shoes outof Italy, but they wanted to do
shoes out of Asia, and cosmeticseventually, and jewelry, so I
ended up going into adistribution arrangement with
him for that in 2014.
And then in 2016, I basicallywent into a joint venture with
them and moved all my operationsto Korea, closed my stores.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Was that hard or there was no emotion in business
.
You were like okay, fine, next,Sorry, guys.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
It was really hard because, I mean, I didn't.
There was a couple of factors.
The person who owned thebuilding in Tribeca was selling
the building, so I was going toget relocated, no matter what.
My lease was up and I was goingto get relocated and the new
person that was coming in wasconverting it to condos, so I
didn't have an opportunity tonegotiate and renew my lease.
So that drove a lot of thedecision making.
(38:26):
But when they made theybasically made me an offer that
was financially too good torefuse.
And to your question about beingburnt out, joy and I were both
burnt out from running thebusiness the way we had been
running it.
So this was an opportunity forus to step back and just control
the design of the creative andhave our partners handle all the
(38:48):
operations and executionstandpoint.
And the department storebusiness had basically gone away
at that point anyway, because Iwas turning it away, I didn't
want it any longer.
I really, you know, betterboutiques, which is really just
like netta porte and essence andstuff like that at that time,
because I really wanted betterboutiques, which is really just
like Net-a-Porter and Essenceand stuff like that at that time
, because I really wanted anonline business and strong
online presence and adirect-to-consumer relationship.
(39:09):
I didn't really want to dowholesale, so it wasn't
difficult to turn that off.
It was difficult emotionally toclose the store because it was
my dream to have my own store.
But then I opened up a store inItaewon in Seoul.
Literally the month that Iclosed my store in Tribeca I
flew to Seoul and there's a hugeGeorge Rison flagship store in
Itaewon, so I was very proud ofthat.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Can I ask you, throughout all of this like the
closing of everything and youhave this small family at this,
you have a teenage daughter whoprobably made it just as
challenging as running thebusinesses Did you ever say,
okay, guys, we're going on avacation, we're not going to
look at our phones, We've got tounplug.
(39:54):
Just because we've been throughso much, I mean, this in itself
is so phenomenal and like thiswhole conversation is such a
accomplishment flex.
Were you ever like, okay, wegot to take a breath?
Or like you know, this is who Iam, I'm going to keep going
Like, did you ever have thismoment Like I got to press pause
(40:16):
, at least for a week, a day, aminute?
Did that ever cross your mind?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Of course, and we certainly tried.
We tried to do that and I wouldmake a priority and make sure
that Joy and Olivia would havethat time to do that when we
would go away to wherever thatmight be.
But I always got screwed.
I got screwed in that occasion,you know, but the business was
(40:42):
still running, you know, payrollstill had to be met All those
you know.
The store still had to operate,the production still had to
flow.
So you know, and again, we didit all self-financed.
There was never any outsidemoney.
It was always a challenge and astrain.
So I was always on calls and onwas before Zooms and stuff like
(41:03):
that, but my phone was bingingall the time.
So that was unfortunate.
But the joy of living thosechances to decompress and just
be a mommy and a daughter, whichwas great, and again that
really influenced a lot of thedecisions we made to make that a
priority and that's part of thereason why we ended up into the
JV, that we went with ourpartners in Korea.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Droid Venture yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
At the end of the day , we ended up in a full
partnership with them.
So right before COVID I flew toSeoul.
We had been talking about itfor a while.
They wanted global distributionrights because they only had
APAC previously and I basicallysold them.
You know, basically 50% of thebusiness of the IP, I mean,
granted them global distributionrights.
(41:47):
And that day COVID broke out inSeoul for the first time, it
was like six cases in Seoul andlike, oh my God, you know better
, get out of Korea, get out ofAsia, because you know the COVID
situation it was.
You know, no one even calledthe COVID.
Then they were like this is fluin Asia, we don't even know
what it is.
So I was terrified of that.
So I jumped on a plane with theentire cast of Parasite which
(42:10):
was flying in to get with theOscar for Parasite.
I happened to be flying withthem in business class, which
was very weird, but I signed thedeal and then that happened and
then the world shut down, right.
So all the expansion plans andall the things that we want to
do globally were put on pause.
(42:31):
We had also signed off on amarketing plan for the next two
seasons in Korea in regards, uh,what we're going to do to
really promote the brand?
Because it was, it was still arelatively small brand in the
korean market and just gettinggoing.
We had like five stores at thetime and the marketing plan was
(42:52):
about product placement onkorean k dramas you know these
soap operas and dramas that theybroadcast on prime time there
and it was really heavy-handed.
I thought it was a little,frankly, a little gauche.
It wasn't really my vibe, butmy partner's like no, this is
really effective.
So we did that and because itwas COVID and everybody was
(43:14):
forced to stay at home, thesetwo K-dramas that we placed all
over the product in became themost watched television programs
in the history of Koreanbroadcast and they broadcast in
the China as well.
So our online business wentthrough the roof and everybody
in Asia was buying Joey Grysonproduct nonstop and just our
(43:38):
brand awareness spikeddramatically.
And as things got more settledwith a career, we started to
build out and build out andbuild out, and now we have
launched ready-to-wear.
We have launched shoes Nextmonth, shoes are relaunching
Launched jewelry.
We've you know we're sold inall the better stores throughout
Asia from a wholesalestandpoint now, as well as our
(43:59):
own stores.
We have 54 of our own storesand shop-in-shops throughout
Asia Joy, Grace and boutiquesand the shop-in-shops and online
platforms that we control sothe business is going to be a
very substantial business, readyto where it's just getting
started.
We developed and designed thewine in New York initially at
(44:21):
the end of COVID, sampled ithere, sent it to Korea for
reproduction.
Now we have a whole design teamin Seoul for ready to wear, a
design team for shoes, designteam for jewelry and the design
team underneath jewelry forhandbags and basically we do
Zooms almost every night duringthe week.
Touch base with our team and mypartner was a great guy and his
(44:45):
family are very successful atwhat they do great executors.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Who knew all of this would come full circle?
Speaker 1 (44:51):
Yeah it's crazy.
That's the crazy thing.
She was born in Busan, southKorea, and adopted when she was
three years old, after she wasleft on a train.
Oh my God, when her mother diedin birth, she was left on a
train at an orphanage.
The police brought her to anorphanage six weeks after she
(45:14):
was born.
She was adopted by theBlaschner family when she was
three and nobody in Korea knowsshe's Korean.
They just think she's GeorgeGresham from New York.
They promote the business, notthe designer.
Or if they look it up, they seeher background.
But it's not like in the US,where you promote the designer
(45:35):
as much.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Right right, right, right right.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
So no one even knows.
So we have a store in Busan.
That's wild.
It's a beautiful big store in amall and it's very possible
that her natural family walks bythat store or they shop in that
store.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
That is.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
They have no idea that that's their sister or
their daughter or their niece.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
That's wild.
I mean the full circle impactand it's like that's enough to
make one cry, because it'salmost like cosmic justice that
she's able to come back on herown terms within that.
It's just that's properlymagical.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
It really is, yeah it's like it's made for TV movie
stuff.
Right, it's made for TV moviestuff.
It's crazy.
And then, if you are fortunateenough to know Joy, joy's also
pretty much the nicest person inthe world and there's nobody
who knows Joy or gets associatedwith Joy who doesn't come away
with that impression.
And then she's unbelievablytalented and very beautiful, and
(46:37):
so I'm lucky.
All the things that had tohappen for her to come into my
life and for us to be able to dothis, and then that full circle
thing happening back in SouthKorea, it's really, it's magical
, right.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I mean honestly, peter, this has been such an
inspirational, really movingconversation because you know,
there's so many life lessons toextrapolate from this, like and
I think so many people get sweptup into the ego of failure or
(47:14):
the ego of going to work in aclassification like belts that
they might say, like hold on,I'm better than belts.
But there's no excuse for hardwork and hustle.
And I always tell designers, ifyou have an opportunity to day
job within the field that isremotely of interest, even
adjacent, being able tounderstand margins and
(47:38):
deliveries and factories and howto communicate with the factory
, how to communicate with thefactory that doesn't speak your
language, how to be respectfulof how they need things.
And it's not about you, it'sabout how you give it to them,
because that's the only wayyou're going to get what you
need.
Like I've spoken about thisthat when I had my first
(47:59):
delivery I think it was toNordstrom I had a factory in
India that I did not knowcelebrated Ramadan.
No one told me they celebratedRamadan.
I had no idea.
Why would I know?
I didn't even know they shutdown, but I had deliveries that
were coming and I kept emailinglike I don't have an update, can
you please tell me?
And it got to the point where Iwas.
(48:21):
You know, sounding like a psychodesigner I was still.
I don't even want to use youthas an excuse.
I had a delivery to make.
I didn't know what to do, so Ikept emailing, and emailing, and
emailing and I got thisscathing email in butchered
English basically saying howdare you not be respectful?
As a result, we're going topush you last for production
(48:44):
because they had my moneyalready and I'm like.
So there's all these nuancesthat make you learn that so much
of this is not about you.
If you need to get things frompeople and all of those life
lessons like I can't evenimagine the Google Translate of
saying, oh my god, like what?
I mean no, and then having totry and clear your name.
(49:04):
And is it worth trying to clearyour name for that?
So you know, it's.
That's just so much to gothrough and say, okay, we got to
keep going forward.
We don't have a choice likewe're in this.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
that's it, you don't have a choice and you know I,
always, when I was corporate, Iused to have a screensaver that,
just you know, what does notkill you makes you stronger.
I feel exactly the same waysame we had horrible experiences
running the business on our ownwith production and cash flow
(49:39):
and people stealing from youfactories, taking your money and
disappearing over the night.
Yeah, oh check check, check.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
I had my, my first assistant stole my entire
database and left and then wentcrickets on me and I didn't know
anything about it.
And and the wild thing is, thenI was getting emails from
designers because I'd workedwith hundreds of thousands of
them saying, by the way, youknow, I don't like what you did
to her.
And I'm now with her and I'mlike like I've like I funded her
(50:15):
lifestyle, I was paying hercollege loans, I delivered food
to her when she was sick, youknow, and this was like my right
hand and you know you,unfortunately, you gotta go
through these horrible things tolearn like, okay, I can't show
my cards to people, I need to bethoughtful, I need to be
strategic and it's business,it's all business, that's it.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
It is business, and it's really good, though, to
remain human.
You know about everything andhave perspective, and you know,
treat people the way you want tobe treated.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
You know that's all Exactly.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
But yeah, so lots of really really difficult life
lessons, and then you know, haveno choice, right, so you're
going to get through it.
I probably should have stoppedwhat I was doing multiple,
multiple times and I didn't, andI still haven't, but yeah, so I
mean, so that's where we're at.
(51:10):
We're opening up a new store inhanam in seoul in two weeks.
Joey and I are going to go inabout on october 15th for the
store opening, for the grandopening.
Amazing, yeah, it's a.
It's a multi-floored store.
They're calling it the house ofjoy.
Um, where'd you do our shoeline within that store?
(51:32):
Very small capsule issues, butwe like the direction so far.
Yeah, so we're really reallyreally quite blessed, very lucky
, you know, and everybody'shealthy, so it's good, except
for me.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
There you go.
Oh my god, peter, how canpeople find you follow you?
Should they, if they ever wereinterested, find you on linkedin
?
Is that the place to go, yeah?
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Yeah, go to LinkedIn.
I'm out there.
I still consult for a lot ofother people during the day
because I'm on Zoos at nightwith my partners.
I do a lot of things inready-to-wear, a lot of things
in collaborations, both men'sand women's, so I'm really
interested in that space.
Just because bags are great,but that's where I made my
(52:18):
bedding butter, but I really dolike apparel a lot, so I'm very
interested in that.
So, yeah, linkedin is an easyway to find me.
For Joy Grison, go to our InstaIG, which is joygrison
underscore official, and you canfollow us there.
Our new line just dropped forfall it looks great.
Amazing and then our website isjoygrisoncom, which will link to
(52:42):
our joygrison, korea websitecan you get things shipped from
korea here?
yeah, you could have.
We were doing that before withthe diminutives, but now it's
going to be a little bitprohibitive, but you can.
And then there's a number ofonline sites 29cmCM and WConcept
.
Both have Joy Grison shop andshops that we own and they can
(53:06):
handle logistics of shipping tothe US, but I frankly don't even
know, with the tariffs and thelack of the de minimis being
removed, what the costsassociated would be.
We do plan to reactivate in theUS.
It's actually been the plansince I sold global distribution
rights right before COVID, butbetween COVID, economic
(53:27):
headwinds and expansion in othercategories throughout Asia, it
just hasn't been a priority.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
Right right, right right.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
Yeah, got it.
We keep talking about it likeit's going to happen, like we're
going to do a new flagship indowntown, and I keep looking at
real estate, but we haven't doneit yet, so it's not not evident
.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Things to come, but just for everybody listening,
it's G-R-Y-S-O-N.
Fantastic, thank you.
Thank you so much, peter, forjoining us.
This has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (53:57):
It was really nice talking to you and catching up.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Absolutely.
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
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