Friday, May 30, 2014

The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned It into a Global Brand

Title:  The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned It into a Global Brand
Author:  Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor with Booth Moore
Publication Information:  Gotham. 2014. 256 pages.
ISBN:  1592408095 / 978-1592408092

Book Source:  I received this book through the GoodReads First Reads program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "A true entrepreneur understands the single-mindedness that borders on being obsessive-compulsive. And that the work of an entrepreneur doesn't end with any single business. It's on to the next."

Two girls had a dream, turned it into reality, and watched it disappear. That is the story of Juicy  Couture. Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor created the idea of Juicy Couture and turned it into a multi-million dollar company. The Glitter Plan tells the story of how the two met in the 1980s and how Juicy Couture started. It describes its meteoric rise in the fashion industry, and how it all ended.

This book is part narrative memoir and part business advice similar to Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull. The book takes you behind the scenes of a widely known brand and tell the story of how the brand reached that point. It is interesting as a cultural history - how having clothing with writing across the derriere became a fashion and status statement. It is also interesting as a business history - how creativity in design and marketing created a global brand.

The narrative presents the history of how the brand came to be and the struggles of these entrepreneurs. The conversational writing style makes the book a very quick and a very easy read. The relaxed writing approach seems to go well with the entire Juicy Couture brand - serious business with a comfort look.

Each aspect of their journey is accompanied by clearly identified (by a different printing style) business advice. The advice ranges from "Do what moves you and find your partner in crime" to "Surviving the transition to corporate management." These brief sections include definitions of terms and bulleted lists of do's and don'ts. This book is not a manual on how to start a business, but rather a high level presentation of what worked for them.

The books ends with a new beginning - what the future holds for Juicy Couture and for Pam and Gela. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.


Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

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