Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jeremy Pelkey, a professional with key experience in the beauty and fashion world. He came up in his career as the rise of social media in fashion and beauty became more personalized and mainstream. His roles as VP of customer experience and merchandising director at hair color brand Madison Reed, paired with his senior merchandiser position at Levi Strauss, give him a unique perspective on the industry today.
Dexter Slinn: I want to start off with what made you want to transition from fashion to beauty?
Jeremy Pelkey: So, I think there are a couple of factors for me. I really enjoyed fashion; I was always in the middle market portion of it, and never on the luxury side. And so with Abercrombie and Levi’s, you know, those are very famous, huge brands to work for, which was an incredibly fortunate position to be in. But it also was not. I would say that neither one was looking to push the envelope or anything, so I wasn’t working at the craziest growing brands or the coolest brands; I was working at the very established, amazing American heritage brands. But I think I had just gone through enough cycles at that point. If I was gonna stay in fashion, I would probably want to go for something a little different. But frankly, working and living in San Francisco, my options were pretty limited. I could go to Gap, you know, but that’s a very similar brand to the ones that I’ve worked for in terms of size, scope and market. When I became interested in beauty, I felt like the world was just starting to wake up to beauty in a different way. It felt like a really good way to get a foothold into an industry that was getting a lot more attention. I think what was interesting was that was right around the time that Glossier was launching, and I think that company became famous for giving the world of beauty the same space and time as the world of fashion. Street style in terms of beauty versus street style in terms of fashion. Of course, I was in hair color cosmetics, which is different, but it’s still a way that people were figuring out a different way of expressing themselves. And so when I made the leap, it felt like I was getting into an industry that was really about to explode. I was in beauty when Fenty launched and Kylie’s luxury line and glossier launched. It was an interesting time to be in there when it felt like fashion was not taking a backseat, but it wasn’t at the forefront of the conversation as much as it was. So I don’t know. It felt like a good transition at the time. That said, I would go back into fashion potentially.
Slinn: Do you think that after leaving the fashion industry and beauty industry, it would be easy to rejoin after taking a step back?
Pelkey: Probably beauty only because of the recency. And I think the reality of it is that it does move quickly. So, from every standpoint, it sounds silly, but even thinking about the technology systems that fashion retailers use now are totally different than what I had. And that starts to matter when you’re interviewing people because hiring companies get a little nervous about taking on somebody who’s been out of the business for a while. Beauty just has a little bit more recency for me.
Slinn: How do you compare the work cultures of beauty and fashion?
Pelkey: My experience in fashion was at incredibly established companies, and my experience in beauty was for a startup. Both had a lot of amazing points about their culture, but that was the bigger difference. Being a startup is just a whole different world; you’re part of the group that’s creating the plane as you’re flying it, versus in fashion, I was at companies that really had a good rhythm. They had really established supply chains and processes versus going to a beauty startup; I was part of the group that created the process, helped find new suppliers, helped launch new products, and created new product categories, which felt very different. I was very fortunate to be there through different stages of maturation for that company, which was really cool to see.
Slinn: After the pandemic and working from home, do you think that the beauty industry is still mainly localized in the main hubs like New York, LA, San Francisco?
Pelkey: My experience at the company I was at during the pandemic is that the hiring process really changed. I think there was a big openness to hiring. This wasn’t specific to the company I was at; it was just this global trend where everybody was open to hiring in different locations because it was pandemonium in the world. So it was kind of like, what the hell, what’s the worst thing that could happen by hiring somebody thousands of miles away? But I think as the worst parts of the pandemic were dying down, people were becoming much more comfortable with seeing each other again and meeting in person. And what I hear a lot of other people saying about their experiences is that there’s just a bigger demand to get people back into the hubs. Some companies are going as far as clawing people back and saying no, you’ve got to move back here. Others are making demands like you can live wherever you want, but you have to be in the office three days a week, which sort of sets a certain ideal. I would be pretty curious to see where people are actually located now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s shifted that much away from the major hubs, even now.
Slinn: Texas and Houston are becoming the new tech and finance centers right now. Can you see beauty and fashion migrate down there?
Pelkey: Well, I mean, there is a lot of production in Dallas, in the beauty world, so there are kind of major production hubs that exist outside of the big cities for these industries. So it’s possible. I think if there were new companies starting now, there’s possibly a recognition that a lot of talent has potentially moved to other places. And it might be a lot easier to start there than then it historically has been. The problem is that the labor pool is always localized in certain cities. Even people graduating from school were thinking, I guess if I want to be in fashion, I should just move to New York and hope for the best. So you had these major pools of people localized in those areas. Now, people have moved out, and you’re starting to see, you know, like you said, tech is becoming a major hub in other places. Tech is such an important part of every company. I suppose it’s totally possible that newer companies can start to pop up there. I think you’d be surprised. I would be surprised, though, if established companies decided to relocate.
Slinn: Yeah, I think you’re definitely right. Graduates really gravitate towards places like New York, and personally, I think that I will most likely end up there. That’s where most jobs are; I’m not going to decide to relocate to Texas or Ohio in the hope that there is going to be fashion there just because I know that’s not where the industry is based.
Pelkey: I mean, it’s like going into film and television, probably going to move to LA, maybe New York to some degree, because most people are not fortunate enough to have a job coming out of school and immediately have that all buttoned up. So, you have to take a gamble. I was very lucky to have a job before I graduated, but that job took me to Columbus, Ohio. So, I realized that I was locked into this company if this was where I wanted to live. When I moved over to Levi’s, it was, in my mind, a great stepping stone of, oh, okay, now there are other things there. There are other opportunities. I definitely thought that I would move to New York, at some point, or LA after San Francisco.
Slinn: Do you think that specializing in something more industry-relevant would have changed your career trajectory at all?
Pelkey: Oh, possibly, I feel like I’ve often thought that I may be doing or have used my majors from college more than I anticipated as a Marketing and Economics double major. Really, merchandising was kind of that. It was sort of equal parts creative and analytical. So, I think that I did end up using what I studied. I was never as interested in being in the hardcore creative side. I was never as interested in being a designer, whether it was for clothing itself, packaging, advertising, or anything like that. That level of specialization never appealed to me. So, I don’t know if it would have. I would say that I ended up getting the job that most closely fit with what I wanted to do and what I had the skill set for. So, I was actually pretty happy with that. I think it would have made a bigger difference if I had opted to apply to some of the companies that weren’t represented there. Really cool fashion labels aren’t going to career fairs, right? They’re expecting you to come to them. I think if I had gone that route, that would probably have been the bigger difference in my trajectory.
Slinn: Do you think that after stepping back from the industry, you find it harder to keep up with trends because you aren’t in that environment anymore?
Pelkey: 100%. I was like a sponge for each of the areas that I worked in, whether it was denim, other garment production, or chemical hair color. As soon as I left, it was like somebody wrung this sponge out, and I think what it is is that you will completely immerse yourself in your field; you tend to know everything about how you engage digitally based on where you’re working, right? It’s like what blogs you read, who you follow, what videos you watch, everything. It just sort of centers around that world if you’re into it. And there’s not enough room in your life to do other stuff. And so, when I was in beauty, it’s not like I could really be as immersed in fashion anymore, either. It’s just too hard. There’s too much to keep up with to be able to do that. Now, being out of it, it’s really difficult to prioritize that in my day. If you’re working in the industry, you’re probably spending at least an hour a day just kind of perusing. I mean, most people are constantly scrolling on their phones, in between meetings, or in meetings, looking at what people are posting, looking at their brands, looking at influencers, and it’s just really hard to do that if my day is about, you know, doing laundry and taking care of kids.
Slinn: Would you recommend entering the industry through fashion or beauty?
Pelkey: I only have one path to compare, so I was very happy with my path of fashion and then beauty. I don’t know, having done a lot of interviewing over the years, and in both places, I think it tended to matter less to me, or a hiring manager, where or what the product somebody worked on. Instead, it is much more what they did with that product. My hunch is most people would say that if you are in digital acquisition or paid acquisition, you can probably do that for any product; it doesn’t really matter if you have a background in color cosmetics or athleisure. They’re very transferable skills. I don’t know if it matters what you start in. I think it matters a lot more how much experience you get yourself into within that field. Because of that, I ended up working with the creative team a lot more and figuring out how to copy and tweak language. That became an additional passion of mine; those skills were kind of transferred, regardless of the product. The other thing is, for these industries, you do have to be able to be passionate about the product. If you’re in finance, maybe you don’t have to be as passionate about the product category itself to be engaged in the company. If you’re on the more creative side, if you can’t get into the product, even if it’s not something you’re gonna wear or use, if you can’t understand why people are passionate about it, that is tough. You’ve got to be able to understand who you’re really selling to and why they would love it and be interested and intrigued by it. Then that matters so much more. Personally, I was working in hair color and running Customer Service at one point, and most people contact customer service when there’s something wrong. Sadly, very few people contact to say oh my god, I love you so much. So my job was about kind of helping clients, helping my team help clients through these issues. I realized, well, actually, I don’t really know what that’s like. So I decided to make a very dramatic change and bleach my hair to white and just go for it and see it. The first go was kind of terrible. It just did not look good, and it was right before a huge New Year’s Eve party. So I had to go to this party, not feeling amazing about my hair choice. I got it redone, and I felt great about it. I did it as a full empathy experience, just to say I want to know what these people are experiencing. I want to know what it’s like to have a terrible hair color experience, and I want to know what it’s like to have an amazing hair color experience. It’s about finding a way to connect with the product if you like. You’ve got to figure it out. Otherwise, you’re gonna get bored.
Interview by Dexter Slinn
Graphic by Aubrey Lauer
Special thanks to Jeremy Pelkey for sitting down with us