Jamie Banks is the Founder and CEO of Change of Scenery, a luxury sustainable swim and resortwear collection. Debuting in Spring 2022, Change of Scenery was quickly named one of Oprah’s best sustainable swim brands to watch. Jamie founded Change of Scenery because she wanted sophisticated, tasteful, and uncomplicated pieces and could not find them. Her passion is designing for real women and inspiring confidence through product.
Jamie holds a BC in Textiles and Apparel Design from Cornell University and proudly earned an MFA in Fashion Design and Knitwear from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2005. Her graduating class was the first to present at New York Fashion Week under the guidance of Simon Ungless. Her graduate fashion collection earned her a prestigious internship at 10 Corso Como in Milan, working for fashion legend Carla Sozzani. Jamie’s 20+ years of industry experience includes overseeing design at iconic brands such as L.A.M.B by Gwen Stefani, Milly, and Shoshanna. She spent over 10 years at Kate Spade New York, launching their RTW collection in 2007, childrenswear in 2014, and ultimately overseeing 20+ lifestyle categories across full-price and outlet.
She currently lives in Long Island, NY with her husband and three children.
In this episode you’ll learn about:
- Pros and cons of working in the corporate world vs. entrepreneurship
- How to run a successful bootstrapped business
- The importance of having a community within your business
- Creating a product to solve a problem.
- Why followers are not the most important metric for a brand in fashion
- Focusing on a solid brand DNA.
- Why the best marketing is word of mouth
- The seasonality of paid ads in swimwear
- The best influencer platform to use if you want real partnerships
- How to use social media to get your name out there
- Learning to ask for help
Resources:
- https://shopchangeofscenery.com/
- LTK Influencer Marekting Platform
- https://www.10corsocomo.com/
- https://www.gwenstefani.com/
- https://www.katespade.com/
- Fall Line Digital
Connecting with Jamie Banks:
Connecting with the host:
- Rebecca Babicz on LinkedIn
Quotables
- 3:35 “Just staying true to a brand, creating product that a very specific audience was looking for.”
- 4:35 “I want Change of Scenery to be a brand that also has a very distinct point of view in the swimwear market, the way that Kate Spade does.”
- 10:30 “I am realizing that I’m not Kate Spade, I spent over 10 years of my career at Kate Spade and we did have these giant teams, teams for everything.”
- 11:05 “You have to be scrappy. So I’m calling in every friend and every favor.”
- 13:19 “I know what’s missing from the swimwear, there’s a lot of very sexy swim out there, and there’s a lot of very modest swim out there. But there’s not a lot of swim sort of in the middle. Which is swim that makes you feel sexy, but is comfortable, and covers the bits that you want to be covered, and sort of shows off the bits that you still feel great about.”
- 15:58 “The more that you speak up when you’re starting a business, and say ‘Right now I’m going through trying to find a website designer.’ ‘Right now I’m trying to learn what to hire for social.’ The more you bring it up in any conversation you’re ever in or any contact at a play date, a business meeting, it doesn’t matter. The more you have a chance of someone coming back with a really great suggestion.”
- 17:06 “In swimwear, pretty much every brand looks the same. It’s leggy, blonde models, on a non-descript island, that you’ll never be on, in a situation you’ll probably never be in. And I knew that I wanted my customer to see herself on the Change of Scenery website.”