All products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
This week I spoke to journalist Marisa Meltzer about her new book Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier. Emily Weiss started her career at Teen Vogue and Vogue, and we have covered the rise of her blockbuster brand Glossier since its infancy. I even wrote a piece about her and the brand in the context of a group of so-called “unicorn” beauty brands—venture capital-backed, direct-to-consumer beauty companies with billion-dollar valuations. Everyone is talking about the power of the “female dollar” this summer (between Barbie, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé), but the women running megalith beauty companies were hip to that buying power early.
The book not only tracks the ascent of Glossier, but also manages to deftly examine the wider cultural trends that the company epitomized in the 2010s—from the terribly coined “girlbosses” to communities built through social media; venture capital-backed beauty start-ups to the reckoning many brands faced in the summer of 2020. It was great to chat with Marisa about the book and the story of Glossier, but also about the moral dilemma involved in writing about someone who isn’t sure they want to be written about.
Next week, gear up for a lot of The Run-Through! We’re doing a special New York Fashion Week Shark Week with SEVEN superb episodes. Get ready to dive in—we’re making a splash!
