Renegades | Elizabeth von der Goltz on Building Business Around Fashion
As a seasoned Executive in the global, luxury fashion space, Elizabeth takes us through her perspective on the future of fashion
Welcome to Renegades, Gold House’s newsletter series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week, we sat down with Chief Merchandising Executive, Elizabeth von der Goltz. As the Spring/Summer 2025 shows come to a close in Paris this week, Elizabeth talks to us about her journey from Buyer to Chief Merchandising Officer, her approach to leading large teams in a space as ever-evolving as women’s fashion, and how she’s working to improve inclusivity in a gate-kept industry.
What did you want to be when you were growing up and how does that compare to where you are now?
Veterinarian, then an artist painting in Montmartre. I was a dreamer and romanticized the life of the creative. I had a brief moment of wanting to be a lawyer; I was obsessed with the TV show “LA Law” in my early teens. But I grew up with a mother who was a physicist and a father in banking and venture capital, and I guess it rubbed off on me. I finally discovered that fashion merchandising was an actual job; the balance of creative with business and financial, plus the fast pace and constant evolution of the industry suited me perfectly. My first job was as an assistant buyer at Barney’s NY and that was in 1997. So here I am almost 30 years later, and I still love what I do!
Can you share a little bit about the journey that led to you becoming one of the most prolific, Asian Pacific forces on the business side of fashion?
I started my career as an assistant buyer at Barneys NY, where I grew to be a buyer for Sportswear before moving on to be the designer buyer at Henri Bendel. From there I was poached to Bergdorf Goodman with a new team to modernize the store - I spent 16 years there helping drive the strategy behind the renovation of each floor and redefining the brand mix and curation, ultimately helping make Bergdorf Goodman the global destination for all things luxury it is today. In my last few years there I spearheaded us taking over our own website from Neiman Marcus group; this sparked my interest in e-commerce and the belief that it was going to be a huge part of our future. That’s how I ended up moving to London to be the Global Buying Director for Net-a-Porter, was at the time the best global luxury digital pure play site.
Post pandemic a new challenge and opportunity came my way, which was the Chief Commercial Officer at Matches Fashion. What I loved about MF was the balance between loved and well known brands with new emerging brands that our customers loved to discover on our site. Post Matches, I took a small break and enrolled in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School - an experience I absolutely loved and will always treasure. We just had our first class reunion this past July in Lisbon. Lastly, I joined the luxury London boutique Browns as CEO as well as Farfetch in a new role as the Chief Fashion and Merchandising Officer. I left FARFETCH this past March and have been taking time off to spend time with family and travel.
As a Chief Merchandising Officer, you’ve designed the buying strategy and coordinated the complexion of brands, styles, and trends at a host of major multi-brand retailers such as Net-a-porter, FARFETCH, Browns Fashion, Matches Fashion and beyond. How do you approach identifying what women will be wearing tomorrow while also understanding what they’re wearing today?
It’s this constant search for a point of difference that will spark that joy and emotion in someone - That’s what you’re looking for. Understanding what is happening in popular culture is also so important - what are people interested in, what are they doing with their time, how is everyone living, what is important to them at that moment; this all helps to understand what the customer will want to purchase. There is also lots of data you have from purchasing history, what’s trending, what’s selling at the fastest rate. All this data helps inform what you buy first. But a lot is also not in the data or written in history yet - it’s this balance between gut/instinct and data. That’s the magic.
You’ve helmed massive teams across multinational institutions as a C-suite executive at both public and private institutions. What’s your secret to building stellar, high-functioning teams in a space as subjective and ever-changing as luxury fashion?
This industry is not an easy one. The consumer is ever-evolving, and there is a need for constant change and agility to be able to move into the future and stay relevant. So you need to find people who are absolutely passionate about luxury fashion, who live for it and who have a true interest and curiosity in what is going on in the world all around them. You need to understand people and what drives and excites them, not just in your own backyard but globally. They need to be open, agile and flexible, able to change directions quickly.
But it’s not just about having a great eye for fashion, these are huge companies that are under constant pressure to grow not only top line revenue but profitability. So being able to balance creativity with business acumen is extremely important. There is a lot of hardcore negotiating happening in the background to ensure that when risks are taken, they are mitigated and that you’re hitting your sell-through and margin goals. At the same time you have a responsibility to your designers to help them grow their own businesses and not just squeeze everything out of them. Your team needs to be willing to work together, help one another, understand and embrace that there is a common goal. Bringing everyone together and aligning them to be on the same mission is the most important.
You founded RAISEfashion, an incredible organization that connects Black-owned brands and individuals to fashion industry professionals for strategic, creative, and tactical support. What’s the biggest hurdle you tend to see facing young designers of color trying to enter a notoriously gate-kept industry?
We realized we were the “gate-keepers” and that it was up to us to help drive this needed change to support more young designers of color. So much is visibility and pipeline. It’s about getting these brands in front of everyone as well as ensuring that the talent is diverse. The other biggest challenge is finding capital to help these young designers get off the ground and then sustain their businesses. These insights are what guided us to our 2 annual programs: One is an internship program partnered with HBCUs and fashion companies. The other is our Brand Fellowship which supports brands with an 8 week Masterclass with industry experts on every aspect of running a successful fashion brand plus grant funding.
The concept of “micro-trends” (think Quiet Luxury, Cottage Core, Office Siren and more) have flooded our social media feeds. Some celebrate the far more segmented and accessible approach to fashion, while others lament the individuality of personal style. How do you feel micro-trends and their prevalence will come to evolve over time?
Living in the age of social media and probably an increasing number of platforms for people to share content, I only see micro trends coming faster and dying faster. But I think in a positive way, people will experiment a lot more to find their own individual styles and I hope they’ll be more playful with fashion and not take trends too seriously.
What project are you currently working on that excites you the most?
Myself - right now I’ve been working on myself and what I want to do with my next chapter and what my next step is professionally. It’s now my time to follow my passions and build something important so I am very excited for how my future unfolds.
Lightning Round
Morning Routine: Start morning with probiotic drink, lots of natural supplements and 20 minutes of Vedic meditation.
Rising Asian Pacific Name to Watch: Kamala Harris of course! And in fashion - Laura Kim and Peter Do.
Hidden Talent: Well all my friends know I am obsessed with food but not everyone knows that I have my own curated list of restaurants for almost any destination one can think of
Favorite Snack: Almond butter filled pretzels or Marcona almonds and I also can’t resist a great charcuterie or salumi plate.
Comfort Movie: Howards End, Notting Hill, Clueless and most of John Hughes‘ movies