PORTIA & LORI THE POP GROUP

Interview

by

QP STAFF WRITER

Ladies, it’s so awesome to finally meet our favorite British duo: Lori you just flew in from London and Portia you’re based in Hollywood. You’re the founders of The POP Group, which is London and Los Angeles leading fashion agency. In short, you’re responsible for bringing UK, European and Asian brands to the USA and vice versa. You also happen to be the brains behind IN-HOUSE, which is fashion's fastest-growing PR & media placement platform connecting brands with editors and stylists.

PHOTOGRAPHER: TOM FRAUD @tomfraud

The POP Group recently celebrated 12 years of being in business, as female entrepreneurs who launched in a recession and managed to retain it through a global pandemic, what advice would you give anyone who also holds an entrepreneurial torch? We won’t sit here and tell you it was easy. Being an entrepreneur is the more challenging road. The advice we would give is to surround yourself with a team that will pick you up along every turn and bump as there is a lot. Having people and clients you respect and enjoy being around every day can be the make or break of your motivation and drive. Protecting your energy and surrounding yourself with a positive influence in the madness is the key to keeping your sh*t together.

You are well known at London Fashion Week; your firm has handled over 200 runway shows so at this point you must be able to organize events blindfolded with your arms tied behind your backs. What’s the biggest challenge when putting on events and how do you manage client expectations?

The biggest challenge when it comes to events is to accept, it’s not if something will go wrong, but when something will go wrong. With that many moving parts, it is scientifically impossible for it all to go smooth sailing. Whether it's collections being stuck in customs, invitations printed the wrong shade or staff falling sick. After doing this for so long, we recognize that clients hire us because we are the calm in the storm and will find a solution to any issue that arises. Transparency and honesty with our clients have always been the key reasons they trust us time and time again with their events. They know we won’t leave any stone unturned and will move mountains to make their event every bit of the success. Talk to us about your app, it’s called IN-

HOUSE, you launched it just over a year ago in June 2022. What does your platform do and what role does it play within the fashion industry?

IN-HOUSE is a digital platform built as an alternative and more affordable option for brands who want a PR service. Through the relationships we have built over twelve years, we are able to redirect product requests from The POP Group’s physical showrooms (London and Los Angeles) to IN-HOUSE. The goal is to build exposure for independent brands rather than being tied to a showroom.

In a nutshell - we generate media coverage (magazine, celebrity dressing and influencer press) by connecting brands with trusted Stylists, Editors and Influencers in the US and UK.

IN-HOUSE’s functionality streamlines the entire pulling process for stylists and editors because it is built with an e-commerce navigational system, making product searches from brands as easy to use as ASOS, Net-a-porter etc. Instead of stylists having to send multiple request emails to brands, download copious amounts of lookbooks and pick up from several locations. They can put their request into multiple brands in one go –click, click, pull.

You often use the phrase community and tribe when referring to members of your platform. How important is it to you to retain a community spirit at your company and why is that?

Equally how do you instigate this?

PR is all about relationships. We have loved this industry because we love working with creatives and have always held a company culture surrounding a personable service. We take our jobs seriously but ourselves … not so much.

We want to attract like-minded individuals to work with, this goes with clients to stylists. To do this, we stay true to our DNA, which is honest, fearless, personal, and fun. This identity is weaved into everything we do. For our team, our job is more than coming into an office and ticking boxes. Our core team has each been with us for longer than 4 years, so we know a lot about one another. We also care about one another, we know each other’s sensitivities and needs, and we use this with our members at IN-HOUSE as well. It also helps that there is an application process for both brands, stylists, and editors with us where they get on a video with us to walk them through the system, so we really know our tribe better than most platforms.

Our business has been growing at a rate of 10% month on month organically, we do very little marketing right now and when a member has a suggestion or change, we try to see if it’s feasible. Built for the industry by the industry.

Right now, how many people use IN-HOUSE and what results are members benefiting from? It must have caused quite a scene in your industry as it essentially provided the same service many PR agencies were offering but at a fraction of price.

We have nearly 1000 members actively using IN-HOUSE as of the time of writing this, and that number grows every day. We’re sure other agencies have raised questions about our new approach, and everyone’s thoughts and feelings are fair. As entrepreneurs we focus on our goals and keep pushing. We just got wind of dressing Lady Gaga yesterday for some of the brands on the platform which we are over the moon about, the results speak for the benefits of the brands on the platform. For the stylists and editors, they can literally do a day’s worth of pulling and visiting showrooms in less than 30 minutes, our inventory is 4000+ and changes often as brands add new products and designs.

Where do you see the future of IN-HOUSE going and how do you hope to get there?

What we’re seeing coming to us is many early adaptors who prefer to handle their requests online and brands who want to be independent thinkers when it comes to the PR and marketing of their businesses. If we had our own label, we’d want to be all handson deck, and not being passed from Account Manager to Account Manager. We’re looking at additional showrooms across major cities and there are some exciting changes happening to our technology to make the pulling process easier. How are we going to get there? Through sheer hard work, determination and the fact we never take no for an answer.

Let’s circle back to your own personal fashion, we’re loving today's looks, from your personal closets, what labels do you wear in and out of the office?

Portia – I feel like my style has changed since moving from London to LA, I’m less about the high heels and all-black outfits. Currently, I’m obsessed by Carmen Molina, Dress, Pyrrha, Rick Owens, Diesel, Commando and Norma Kamali for key pieces. I know I can whip something out the closet by any one of those labels and team it with something else I have and I always get women asking me where something I’m wearing is from … which let’s face it is the highest compliment. I also have a weird glasses obsession which usually makes an outfit and all my bags/clutches are vintage from Hermes to unsigned labels.

Lori – I feel like my style has remained classic and tailored with a pattern play twist always thrown into the mix. I love a big shoulder moment so I’m currently obsessed with blazerwear by YOMI, my jewellery favourite will always be Pyrrha, wide brim hats by Lack Of Colour & my weekend uniform - activewear by Adanola.

Do you feel pressure to look a certain way given what you both do for work?

Portia – I don’t feel pressure at all, I love that almost anything goes, and I am always inspired by the stylists that come into our studios. I think there is value in ageing within our industry, with age comes knowledge, contacts, and skills,

I wouldn’t turn back time for all the tea in China.

Lori – Zero pressure. Our office is very laid back and we encourage everyone to embrace their own style and be comfortable (I do have office uggs under my desk – but don’t tell Portia that.) I find so much joy in dressing, so figuring out my outfit every day is my favourite part of my morning. What’s the biggest faux par that brands do within the fashion industry and what can they do to try and overcome this?

So many brands go to market without a strategy or even thinking who their ICP (ideal customer profile) is. Sometimes this scattergun approach works, but once you figure out who your client is, where they shop, what they do and what their lifestyle habits are then you can really narrow down where and on who your designs need to be seen to generate sales and make the business viable. Fashion can have a churn rate where brands crash and burn due to finances running out. Stop, breath and think for a hot minute if you want longevity. We noticed you recently did a pop-up in New York with some of the brands you guys represent. Tell us a little bit about what that was and is the Big Apple in your roadmap anytime soon?

New York was fabulous to us; a working women’s shout-out to all the faces we saw there! We presented a selection of the brands under our wing and invited industry experts to come by and see their designs in person. This also gave us a chance to demonstrate our technology in person and really connect on a whole new level. We’re coming in hot for you New York!

Let's do a little London and LA comparison. Ladies which is better and why?

Comparing London to LA is like comparing apples to oranges, they are both so different and yet both so perfect. London has the best pubs, it’s a fashion capital and is so diverse with its culture. LA has insanely good food, you naturally adopt a healthier lifestyle, and the weather is incredible for nearly the whole year. If we could squish those elements together and rename it Los London, then we would have our perfect city.

Can you give us a rundown of a day in the life for each of you?

Portia – I get up around 5am, I start with a celery juice, a mushroom coffee, and a good old dry brushing session before showering and getting ready for the day. I walk my dogs and aim to be in front of my laptop between 7am-8am. I work from home a few days a week and on those days, you can find me on zoom connecting with new potential community members as well as answering customer-based enquiries from the brands already online. The first person I speak to is Lori via WhatsApp. On the days I am in the office, I sit in the middle of the showroom and make it my mission to gossip with every stylist that walks through our doors. I love seeing people in person, particularly after the pandemic. It’s also important for me to be sat with our LA team in case they need to connect with me rather than the formalities of an email.

Lori - I start my morning with a reformer pilates class followed by a strong black americano and a podcast-filled commute to the office (My Therapist Ghosted Me is the current obsession.) Office life starts off with a banging playlist and checking our stylist appointments for the day. The madness then kicks in with samples flying in and out of the showrooms and press checks. My day is filled with client strategy meetings, event planning from press dinners to collaborations, creating content for our IN-HOUSE & POP channels, putting out client fires and making inappropriate jokes with my London copilot Angus, whose response to everything is “stunnin’". Always ending my last hour with a FaceTime to Portia handing over the torch to LA to continue in the pursuit of world domination.

And finally … what are your biggest regrets ….

Portia – I regret nothing, except for not shouting “I said what I said” after I said something shocking. Don’t believe in regrets, everything you do eventually leads you to wherever you need to be so just go with the flow and do it in comfortable shoes that aren’t hideous looking.

Lori – I wouldn’t say I regret anything as I feel like every hard lesson learnt has made me a better person and professional. If I were to regret anything it would be in the beginning of my career, running myself into the ground with trying to achieve unrealistic client expectations and feeling defeated when not conquering the unattainable. I feel like I have grown so much in now trusting my expertise and having a voice to set those boundaries, even when it comes to clients. I think the pandemic, although brutal has massively reshaped the way we prioritize work-life balance, which has nurtured a company culture we are very proud of.