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Business of Fashion
4 days ago
- Business
- Business of Fashion
How Tuckernuck Went From Fashion Outsider to E-Commerce Darling
Tuckernuck has always been an anomaly in fashion. For one, the online retailer's home base of Washington, DC is decidedly not a fashion capital. Its preppy, Americana-inspired assortment — shift dresses, cable knit sweaters and floral-printed linen pants — is more likely to appeal to a Congressional staffer than a fashion insider. Tuckernuck's biggest distinction, however, is that it's growing in the midst of a multi-brand e-commerce slump. Farfetch was sold in a fire sale in 2024 and has yet to recover its once-dominant stature in the space. Net-a-Porter too was offloaded last year at a much depleted value, while Matches Fashion has folded altogether. While Tuckernuck is a smaller business, over the past three years, it's managed to increase sales by a double-digit percent each year, and expects to do the same in 2025. Named after an island off the coast of Nantucket, the ultra-preppy, ultra-wealthy destination near Massachusetts' Cape Cod, Tuckernuck caters to exactly the customer who summers there or dreams of doing so. It usually draws comparisons to not luxury e-tailers like Net-a-Porter, but its business model is a combination of the two: 60 percent of its product offering comes from third-party brands, while the rest are from its private labels. Combining Tuckernuck's preppy aesthetic with a hybrid assortment has proven to be a successful formula: In 2021, it hit $100 million in sales. At the same time, its loyal and growing base of customers has made it an increasingly attractive partner for the sort of blue-chip labels that were once wary of the indie platform. In the past 18 months, it's onboarded a handful of brands including Rosie Assoulin, Altuzarra, Erdem in addition to the already stocked Emilia Wickstead, Zimmermann and Polo Ralph Lauren. It also sells pre-owned bags from the likes of Chanel, Gucci and Dior. 'A lot of amazing third-party brands were always skeptical of coming onto our platform. They wanted to be on the majors or nothing at all,' said Jocelyn Gailliot, Tuckernuck's co-founder and chief executive. 'But as there's been disruption with the majors, they've really started coming to us.' And unlike other online retailers, Tuckernuck has opted for a slower, more sustainable trajectory of growth. Since its launch in 2012, Tuckernuck has not raised any venture capital funding. It operates one store, a 700-square-foot shop that opened in 2016 in Washington, DC's Georgetown neighbourhood. But that's starting to change. The company, Gaillot said, is at 'a big inflection point.' This month, Tuckernuck is opening its second brick-and-mortar location, a shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side, located at Madison Avenue and 84th Street, with more stores in the works as well as plans to boost its tech infrastructure to support growth in e-commerce. Tuckernuck's path offers a new blueprint for what it takes to stand out in a sea of multi-brand offerings online: Start with a defined point-of-view, rather than the generic for-the-masses approach; build and develop tastemaker relationships over the years; and sell a mix of aspirational and attainable products, including private labels that boost the bottom line. Entering the Fashion Mainstream Tuckernuck's first viral moment in fashion carried a trace of controversy. Last year, its private label's popular Jackie Dress, a tweed shift with gold buttons and a braided collar, made headlines after it became something of an unofficial uniform for young female staffers at the Republican National Convention. Given its headquarters, Tuckernuck has long had fans on 'both sides of the aisle' on Capitol Hill, said Gailliot. But Jackie's ubiquity is just a sliver of Tuckernuck's story. When they launched Tuckernuck in 2012, Gailliot and her co-founders, her sister Madeline Grayson and longtime friend September Votta, struggled to raise capital, getting an infusion of less than $500,000 from a small friends-and-family round and a grant from incubator 500 Startups. None of them had a background in fashion or retail. Grayson and Votta had co-founded a short-lived social commerce startup for college students called UScoop, while Gailliot had spent a decade in investment banking. What they did have was a deep understanding of their core customer: a woman who may not keep up with runway shows, but 'wants to still feel confident and stylish in a classic Americana way,' said Gailliot. 'We were all doing our shopping at big single-label retailers like and we'd show up wearing the same things from head to toe,' Gailliot recalled. 'We just really felt like there had to be an in between, a one-stop shop for busy women, curated with new brands and big names styled all together delivered in a really fast, easy way.' Tuckernuck's approach to brand curation is less about courting the biggest names possible and more oriented toward discovery, allowing consumers to stumble upon new labels that align with their idyllic coastal lifestyle. This assortment includes both legacy names like waxed-jacket maker Barbour and New York-based designer Ulla Johnson, but also Colombian brand Agua by Agua Benita and London-based resort label Juliet Dunn. Tuckernuck's founders, Jocelyn Gailliot, Madeline Grayson and September Votta (Courtesy Tuckernuck) Clothes for the Modern Prep This brand matrix formula has attracted both new shoppers and wholesale accounts. Brands have increasingly been drawn to its 'unique way of blend approachable fashion with a clear point of view,' Lela Becker, president and co-founder of Mother Denim, which is stocked at Tuckernuck, said in an email. 'Their effortless aesthetic and strong connection to their customer makes them stand out in a crowded retail space,' she added. Influencers, particularly preppy bloggers like Carly Riordan and Mackenzie Horan, served as some of the retailer's earliest — and most important — advocates. This was partly out of financial necessity, as influencers were a low-cost way to market back then. But Tuckernuck's founders also saw the power of word-of-mouth, tapping friends and nearby Georgetown students early on to serve as models, who would tell everyone from their classmates to their moms about the brand. 'A lot of more traditional brands were reluctant to adopt influencer marketing and Tuckernuck was the opposite of that,' said Riordan, who today counts Tuckernuck as her top-performing retailer via affiliate links. 'They saw that this is where the modern young customer is going for shopping recommendations,' she added. Influencers remain a major buzz-building tactic for Tuckernuck, rolling out collaborations with creators like Blair Eadie and Shea McGee. Above all else, the three founders make decisions driven by their own preferences and taste. In 2019, they launched their first private label because they saw a lack of brands catering to their modern preppy consumer that hit below a $300 price point. The idea was to create items that complimented rather than competed with their third-party brands. Best-sellers include a $298 eyelet shirt dress, $248 cashmere cardigans that can be monogrammed and a $138 gingham golf dress. Representing 40 percent of its assortment and 70 percent of sales, it's resulted in a higher profit margin for the business. 'Once we launched that complimentary relationship between the third party and the private label, we were able to really start to scale in a profitable way,' said Gailliot. Tuckernuck Goes to New York While private label represents the bulk of sales, Gailliot said her company is committed to being a multi-brand retailer first, with third-party brands making up 60 to 70 percent of the total assortment. 'Maybe the margins would say you should [focus entirely on private label], but that's something that we'll absolutely never do,' she said. 'The third party brands are so important and exciting.' The focus remains on providing value. Tuckernuck may sell $2,000 designer dresses for a customer looking to splurge for a special occasion, but 'you won't see us putting $400 T-shirts on the site,' said Gailliot. Retail expansion will play a major role in Tuckernuck's next chapter. Its 700-square-foot Georgetown location was a way to test out brick-and-mortar, but the new Upper East Side location will offer a different experience, meant to emulate an old-school neighbourhood specialty store with in-store personalisation and eventually, same-day delivery for local shoppers. Store associates will be encouraged to develop close relationships with top clients. It won't take another nine years for the next shop to arrive, with plans to open at least one more retail location in 2026. Beyond D.C. and New York, top markets include Chicago and Dallas. Success on the Upper East Side is not guaranteed. Tuckernuck enters a competitive shopping destination that has attracted top-tier tenants like downtown cool-girl brand Khaite, Brazilian label Farm Rio and Tuckernuck-stocked Staud. Gailliot, who now lives in the neighbourhood, said she is confident Tuckernuck will appeal to both locals and tourists. Perhaps its advantage lies in its multi-generational appeal: while consumers 25 to 40 years old make up its key demographic, its customer base ranges from recent college graduates (a growing cohort) to retirees. 'They're just getting more and more in touch with their customer base, and drilling deeper into that,' said Riordan. 'They've embraced this beautiful editorial style, while also staying true to who they are.'
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
JD Vance's wife Usha stuns in VERY affordable midi dress to meet Pope Leo
On Monday, Second Lady Usha Vance accompanied husband Vice President JD Vance in a meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican - and wore a black dress that was surprisingly affordable and not made by a fancy designer. For their first meeting, Usha opted to wear the Black Jacquard Puff Sleeve Midi Darcy Dress from Tuckernuck that is currently on sale, marked down from $218 to $131. The dress featured an embroidered jacquard pattern all over it, with dramatic, layered puff long sleeves. It hits below the knee, along with a cinched waist and round neck. Usha paired the elegant dress with a pair of black pumps, along with a black mantilla, a traditional Spanish veil symbolizing reverence, modesty and piety. It's quite fitting that Usha chose a dress from Tuckernuck, as the brand is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a storefront in Georgetown. The brand tends to attract those with a preppy style, as they sell items from brands like Veronica Beard, Ralph Lauren, and Weekend Max Mara, as well as their own private label collection. It seems to be a popular store for the ladies of the political circle, with First Lady of Georgia Marty Kemp sporting a green floral gown from the store last month, and First Lady of Mississippi Elee Reeves wore a pink tweed gown by the brand's private label last year. Typically, Usha tends to opt for a designer dress while she's on the road with her husband. Some of her seemingly favored brands have included Saloni and Oscar de la Renta, whose items retail for hundreds of dollars. She's also accessorized with shoes from Manolo Blahnik, often opting for pumps or boots while she's working. In an interview with The Free Press last month, Usha broke her silence on what life has been like since her husband entered the office as Trump's vice president. 'Obviously, our lives are not normal, and it feels almost absurd to say that they are,' she said in an interview with writer Peter Savodnik. Savodnik questioned her about the new MAGA world she had joined, where the majority of women are blonde, with 'low-cut blouses and nine-inch heels.' 'People don't seem to care all that much what I look like,' Usha replied laughing. 'I'm laughing, because it would be really hard for me to be blonde ... that color would look totally absurd.' 'I'm laughing, because it would be really hard for me to be blonde ... that color would look totally absurd,' she said in a recent interview After the Inauguration the internet buzzed over Usha Vance's hair, noting she was allowing it to go grey. But she said she felt welcome in Trump's political revolution. 'For what it's worth, my reception into this world — and I'm not from a particularly wealthy background, not from a very fashion-oriented background personally or professionally — has been really positive,' she said. 'People don't seem to care all that much what I look like.'
Fox News
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Look fabulous on your spring break beach getaway with these 8 accessories
Packing for a spring break that includes heading to a tropical destination may require a wardrobe revamp. How you accessorize can make or break your look on the beach. Colorful coverups can take you from the beach to town, and sun hats offer excellent protection that allow you to show off your style. Shoes are another great accessory you can play with. Optimize your beach look with the right accessories that you can wear anywhere. Here are 10 items to help you build the perfect beach look: Original price: $148 This nautical look from Tuckernuck is the perfect coverup for confidently going to and from the beach. It is made of medium-weight cotton and adorned with charming details like deep blue stripes and wide ties to accentuate the V-neckline. The Kaylee Dress Sky Chartreuse by Solid & Stripe is the ultimate maxi tank dress for effortless beachside style. It is made from a sheer, gauzy knit and is perfect for sunny days by the shore. The dress is available in black and white. This By the Shore Oversize Top by Free People is about effortless vibes. It's bohemian-inspired and super soft. Wear it over a swimsuit and pair it with shorts or a skirt. The Shoreline Cotton Boyfriend Beach Shirt, $89.50 by Tommy Bahama, is a classic look for effortlessly elegant coverage. Original price: $39.99 These wide-leg, gauze pants from Old Navy are the perfect beach accessory. They are made of double-weave, gauze cotton with an elasticated waist for easy pull-on. The high waist makes them a flattering fit for all figures. Pair the pants with a flowy shirt to take your beach look out into town. The designer's most popular coverup is Cupshe's Blue Tropical Floral Wide Leg Pants, $28.99. The pants feature a vibrant floral print and a flowy wide-leg design. The Terra Hat by Nikki Beach at Revolve has a wide brim for good sun protection and a fashionable silhouette you'll feel confident wearing off the beach. This straw fedora, $25.99 on Amazon, is more affordable and looks chic. Pair this Sandy Woven Market Tote with any of the beach dresses for a perfect laid-back look. This slouchy tote features a braided-net exterior topped with knotted leather handles. Bog Bags, $90 at Bog Bag, are a must-have accessory if your beach trip includes carrying stuff for a family. These spacious bags are very on trend and are super practical for carrying all of your goods and keeping them dry. Plus, it is washable, so you won't have to carry sand home or back to the hotel. These pearl-embellished Jimmy Choo slides are the ultimate in beach sophistication. These canvas and leather slides are available in pink, black or white. Birkenstock's Madrid Big Buckle High Shine Sandals, $150 at Anthropologie, are comfortable, but the patent leather shine and big gold buckle elevate them. For more deals, visit Try the Scottie Raffia Flatform Sandals by DV Dolce Vita, which feature woven raffia for a total beachy vibe you can pair with almost any look. These boardwalk slides by Steve Madden, $89.95 at Nordstrom, have a woven construction that gives this staple slide sandal an earthy sophistication.
