Call Her Daddy - Danielle Guizio: How to Build a Fashion Brand (Summer Series)

Episode Date: August 7, 2022

This week, Father Cooper is joined by fashion designer and entrepreneur Danielle Guizio. Danielle built a streetwear fashion company from the ground up. Now, her designs are everywhere - from dressing the cast of Euphoria to celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Sophie Turner and Bella Hadid. Danielle discusses her difficult journey to success, which started after dropping out of fashion school and overcoming a health scare. Danielle explains how she went from running a company out of her parent’s basement to earning a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

what is up daddy gang it is your founding father alex cooper with call her daddy we're just getting into it danielle guzio welcome caller daddy yes hello alex thank you for having me how are you feeling um i'm feeling nervous stressed happy. Don't worry. I'm not here to ruin your life. We're gonna have fun today. I remember the first time I saw you was on Forbes 30 under 30 list. Yes. And I just have loved you ever since. I think you're so talented. So thank you for coming on Call Her Daddy. Thank you. Thank you so much. For my listeners who don't know much about you, I'm just going to give a quick rundown. Danielle built a streetwear fashion company from the ground up. She started her clothing line in her parents' basement.

Incredible. And now celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Sophie Turner, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Bieber are wearing her designs. so we're gonna start from the beginning how did you fall in love with fashion i always loved fashion ever since i was little. Like I would have like little t-shirts and like underwear and I would like bead them and like embroider them like when I was very little. And I wasn't the best student but my dad I pretty much like negotiated with my dad at literally like age like 12. And I was like if I get like a B or higher can you take me to the mall and going to the mall was just like this rush so we would go to like limited to I would get like only one piece but like it was like holy like holy I remember like the sequins and the glitter and like dude limited to when you walked

into limited to it was like you were in a different world I came alive in limited no like it's a high like I want to reach that high again did your mom or your dad or any of your siblings have looks that you would want to borrow like what was everyone in your family was anyone in fashion no no one was in fashion my sister she had lived in we're from New Jersey I'm originally from New Jersey so my sister she had lived in New York City and she was like my outlet for everything cool like she put me on to like nirvana when i was little and like she was always coming home and wearing like these crazy outfits her hair was so sick like she had like bleach blonde hair piercings i remember just being like enamored like whoa like

she's so cool yeah so she would be going to like more jacobs events like sneaking in like i remember like hearing like oh my god like tell me more so i think like it started from her but like a lot of it just came natural like just from even reading magazines and like that feeling of discovering even like the olsen twins you know like when you were really little of course how do you describe your style back in the day when you were first able to start like picking out your own clothes yeah so I essentially went through every single era like from emo server girl scene like literally every single like preppy um and then I would do like a mix-up of like preppy like seven jeans like polo but also like have converse on and at the time

that was like a weird thing or I would wear vans yeah yeah yeah um so I guess a lot of it was just like kind of like punk yeah I remember Avril Lavigne like changed my life yeah and like blink 182 like changed everything when she would like wear like the ties and stuff yeah the choker yeah which is now way to come back and now it's out again yeah do you remember when like you first started dreaming of having your own clothing line yeah for sure I mean even when I was little I was um cutting out magazines and re-merchandising like I would have like these stack of papers and I would cut out magazines and I would re-merchandise like the outfits of like how I wanted to see them and like when I was really little like I was probably like 13. After high school so you kind of from a young age just clarifying you were like kind of making

stuff with beads and you started to kind of make things on your own and then after high school you moved to New York for fashion school but you ended up leaving after one year what led to that decision? I essentially for lack of better words it's like it felt like I pulled up in the industry and it was even just college and I was like oh hell no I'm not doing like this one this is hard two people are so mean yeah fashion school was hard for me I just it something just wasn't clicking. And I was also just like scared and vulnerable and so stressed out about my future that it was totally distracting. So you leave school. What was your plan after leaving school? That's like a pretty ballsy

move to just be like, you know what? This isn't for me, but to do a plan, like what was the goal? Yeah. So I moved back in with my parents and um I was like okay I'll just take business classes like I love sales like for me like I love selling like that's like one of my passions aside from obviously fashion um so I was like okay like I'll try that like I love PR and marketing so I just took straight up business classes I enrolled in community college um down the street from my house and I was taking psychology classes, which I loved. And like, yeah, like I found such like a love and passion for psychology, which is such an important aspect of what I do today. Wait, can you explain how that comes to play?

Because I bet people are like, wait, you're a fashion designer. Like, what does that have to do with anything? Yeah, I think like consumer behavior, like when someone for instance is on your website and how many times are they clicking around until like they get to the main page how many times are they clicking around until they actually check out are they continuing with the checkout and why like why are you at your cart and you have yet to like check out is it like the shipping rate is it you know so it's all like psychology and what everyone's thought process is as they're going and even when the moment they try on one of my garments like what is that feeling that they're feeling they feel

really good about themselves so they feel like you know so some of it like so much of it is like human interaction and feeling so you're at community college you're trying to figure it out what were the first steps that you took to start the danielle guzio brand so i was in class like in fucking what the hell is it even called like psych like uh science like what like what is it called like a science class yeah what's like the what is it even called like psych like uh science like yeah what like what is it called like a science class yeah what's like the what is it like um maybe like physics or there's all different types of courses but you were in a science class I was in a science class and like we were supposed to like dissect like a frog or something that day biology oh my god I was so bad at biology

so we were literally supposed to like dissect a frog and I was just like I'm sorry but like I really don't think this pertains to like anything I want to do in the future and it felt like I was just like a waste man like I was just like I was trying to get any job I'm so grateful for going to school like I was in school for so long I literally was in for like six years it felt like yeah so it's like I should have graduated but um so I'm obviously grateful to be in school but I was just like what the hell is going on man this is weird as fuck like I'm not supposed to be here so um I had a pretty crazy health scare. One night I just like really didn't feel well. And I was just like, mom, I don't feel well.

And then a couple hours later I was like, mom, I swear I think I'm going to die. We have to go to the hospital like immediately. And she's like, babe, are you sure? Like have a banana. Like my mom, like anything wrong, my mom's like babe are you sure like have a banana like my mom like any anything wrong my mom's like eat a banana like you're you're depressed eat a banana like it's the cure mom I think I'm gonna die and she's like a banana literally yeah okay um so she's like have the banana babe and just like relax and I was like ma'am it's not sufficing whatever so I was like we got to go to

the hospital um and I wound up I had a like an infection um in my pancreas or something and but in the meantime they found that I had a large tumor on my liver it was kind of like touching everything it was like touching my liver it was touching my gallbladder so they were like you have to go into surgery immediately like we don't like the way that this tumor looks and we have to go into surgery like next week so I was in and out of Sloan Kettering for a few months and I got the surgery and like that week my whole family got the flu so I was like all alone. I had friends that visited me, which I was like super happy about.

And my family visited me too, like once they were feeling better. But my boyfriend, obviously. But yeah, my boyfriend was like carrying like my pee bag as I was like in like a stroller, like crazy. So yeah, I was in the hospital for a few weeks and they had removed like half my liver and they removed my gallbladder obviously like the tumor um and I wasn't they weren't really sure of the outcome yet the results and it was just like a waiting game essentially and that moment kind of changed everything and I was just like shit man like life is so short we genuinely have to do what we love every single day we literally cannot I was

like I cannot wake up like one more day and kind of just feel like I'm settling and that essentially kind of took me to the next like I leveled up from there I was like I'm gonna do And that essentially kind of took me to the next, like I leveled up from there. I was like, I'm going to do what I want to do. I like, I had this overwhelming sense of confidence. And especially like, I was like, if I can get through that, like I can literally do anything. And I get what you mean by that. Like there there's everyone has that like turning point in their life maybe that just kind of made them like more grateful for what they have more grateful for life more wanting to be present and I think that that I mean I'm that's very traumatic to go through that you have that revelation then what happens so I was with my best friend um and she's in the

music industry I was just sitting with her and she's in the music industry. I was just sitting with her and she's like, well, what do you want to do? Because I was even asking her, I was like, I'll work at like, can I work at the reception, like at your job? She worked for Nylon Magazine at the time. And she's like, well, what do you really want to do? And I was like, well, I would die to have my own brand. I would die to start my own business and she was kind of just like well let's do it I was like what do you mean like she's like let's do it right now do you want it to be your name do you want it to be like a brand name um let's build your website I was like I want to start with graphic tees like I have a bunch of ideas and she's like I can help I'll help you

right now like we'll just make it literally we're standing on her couch I can in like uptown and she's like I'll help you do it so we literally made that we like literally got like takeout food and like we built the website and we sat right next to each other and I gave her like my ideas for the graphic tees and she helped me just kind of bring everything to life and then when we got the t-shirts in I was kind of like okay like how am I actually gonna fund this but I had saved $400 from working in retail from my tax return so I had always like just had that literally like in my underwear drawer like just like chilling Like I like cashed it. I'm going to use that one day. I'll know what it's going to be for, but it's going to be good.

Right. And so my first PO, I use that money. A PO is a purchase order. So if I'm ordering X amount of t-shirts, it is pretty much your first order. You make the t-shirts. And then what do you do with the t-shirts? So I was like, okay, we need to like photograph them. We need to put them up on the site. And my best friend, I didn't even have a camera. Like I didn't have a nice Canon or anything like that. So she helped me do like flat lays of the shirts. And we put them up on the website.

Like my brother, he's a copywriter he's a writer so he helped me make all the descriptions for the products and I gathered up like the photo shoot inspo I grabbed some friends and we shot it in my um my boyfriend's uncle's house yeah my best friend helped me on the shoot they both helped me so much like because we were just doing our thing how did you market like how did you even begin to get people to know that there was a website instagram i had i had a little bit of a following and i essentially was just like posting and posting and marketing however i could like wearing it myself you know really like anything that I could do like low budget obviously no budget and then you saw people starting to buy it so the day I

launched I was just like well here goes nothing baby and um I remember sitting in my bed in my childhood bedroom and I'm sitting on the bed and the orders just start like coming in and I'm just like seeing like money you know I've never seen like you know like just money like coming coming I was like what the fuck what the fuck because you know I had like a set launch date and a time so like we prepped it pretty nicely and I'll just never forget that feeling like how many t-shirts did you make at that time it wasn't a lot it was probably like maybe like 60 okay oh yeah okay yeah that's like I guess that's a lot for the time then low for now yeah maybe like 50 right but then there was a big moment everything shifted when a celebrity

was wearing one of your t-shirts yes and her name is Kylie Jenner yes what happened so still I was you know living at home we had all of our fulfillment we were picking and packing shipments out of my parents basement I had essentially just aimlessly sent Kylie the pieces then one day I was just getting like text messages and like my phone was blowing up like I don't even know what like at that time it was almost like Twitter I think and I was sitting in my bed again like holy shit this is insane like have you ever spoken to Kylie about that moment and how it impacted your career no I haven't I've never um I haven't thus far had the opportunity to really talk to her about it but obviously like I'm so grateful like forever grateful of those moments and that goes for every celebrity model supermodel customer that wears my pieces like I'm forever in debt to literally anyone who purchases or wears my garments what was the

biggest mistake that you made early on and what did you learn from it I guess it's funny because I really don't ever look at anything as a mistake. I think it's more so just a milestone and a learning lesson. I really can't pinpoint things. Like, I've of course gotten scammed by factories and kind of let people take advantage of me and not sticking up for myself not spoken up and I think those are probably the biggest mistakes I would say um but there would absolutely be no way of preventing them if they didn't happen so I don't necessarily like look at it as a mistake or anything bad like even if I take an L and someone a factory had scammed me for like $30,000 it kind of is what me I don't ever happen again I hope as someone who was like self-taught did you face any judgment from other people in the industry

I've heard people say oh she's not a real designer like people I'm close with I've heard even I had like family members say like I don't think like you should do this like I have friends that that said like I don't think you should start a brand I feel like I'm very confident in who I am as a person especially like I'm sure you feel the same like when you build your business you just become essentially like the best version of yourself and it's super empowering and it's like yeah we may pick ourselves apart like in little ways but we should be proud and I feel like same for you like you probably feel so proud like of what you've made there's absolutely in the beginning stage and even still now like there's moments that I'm faking my confidence to like convince myself like I deserve to be here you know what

I mean like sometimes it's like believing in yourself and like everyone else can talk shit but like you're gonna succeed if you know what you're doing is right and no one else's noise matters so you kind of just got to like stick to what you believe in and like let all the noise just like drown out in the background it's so true there was a recent Vogue article titled the euphoria girls can't get enough of Danielle Guzio did you get to collaborate with the costume designer on the show i worked really closely with them and their team's amazing like even from my warehouse team they're like we love the euphoria team because like they'll literally package everything so perfectly like they're so respectful everything is on time like it's

they're so great to work with so it's more just like it makes it even more fun and enjoyable which of the cast members has your favorite style i know i know um i i i really love alexa demi's style like on camera off camera like i feel like she embodies her characters so well and I don't know her personally but I feel like she's just like that bitch I agree who is one person you're dying to see in your clothes for me it's like I like Madonna yeah like Kim K has never worn my pieces um there are so zoe kravitz i would just mel what fashion trend are you not a fan of right now give us a tea um come on honestly like i was thinking about it i feel like really recently i don't know people have been wearing backwards hats and this is like

only in the past like two week thing which is like cute and I've obviously done it in the past but I guess that's why it's like triggering to me because it reminds me of like um the old days yeah yeah I really hate like drop crotch like kind of we would or drop crotch like you know when like the pants are tight yeah and and then the crotch is really obviously all my oh yeah no pieces are like you know baggy but like you know when like the the the legs are tight and then the crotch is down gross yeah no I would never in jail time that's not good I would never be caught dead in that okay that is a good one yeah I think like in a way it's funny because the fact that I'm wearing cargo pants right now like I remember I shit on them for so long so I think there's a lot of trends in a funny

way that like people threw out a lot of their stuff that now they're I remember I have so many things in my closet that I should have fucking kept like I had Juicy Couture sweatsuits I threw those out like shit like that you're just like damn things are coming back but things that should never happen or the swoop uh what is it called drop crotch I didn't even know it's a thing yeah my dad just growing up like he would always have like cargo pants car so like I kind of grew up just like wearing his stuff yeah um going to like Cabela's you know like I don't know if you guys know what that is like pretty much like a fishing hunting store um so I was always interested in camo always like wearing baggy stuff yeah yeah do you have a trend

that you don't like I I guess I didn't even know I don't know I'm not in the fashion world enough like I'm trying to think of something. I'm like pop polos. I don't think people are popping polos though. But I do see it. I don't. I remember though back in the day when you would double pop the Abercrombie polo. Yeah. Like if that comes back, I don't think I'll partake.

I'll partake in the cargos, but not the double pop polo. Although remember when you did the double like camisole. I was just going to say just right you want to show like the one out and then the one's a little above it so you can see both and one is a little lace you know what i saw on your site that i actually was kind of living for was it's the polo with then the long sleeve coming out of it yes i was like and it but it's kind of like a crop yeah it's like reminiscent of what we're talking about and i remember I saw you wearing it on your story and I was like, okay,

that looks fire. But I guess cause it's a crop. It's not like a big pull out a long sleeve underneath. Yeah. Okay. So it's almost like we're just kind of like refining the old and we're making it. We're like taking it,

but we're just like fixing it like a crop. So much is like from my childhood that I'm just like, let's bring it back. It's fun make it different it brings good memories yeah do things yeah okay what is your favorite fashion trend for the summer my favorite fashion trend for this summer is probably just like very like white poplins like very like airy kind of like whimsical. Like you right now. I guess. Yeah. No, you're bringing the fashion trend to the set. Wow. Thank you. But yeah, I just love like the

airy, fresh, like sexy kind of feeling. Wrapping up, what advice do you give to young designers or even just like young entrepreneurs that are trying to make it? There's like days and days of advice, but I really think it's about finding what you love, pedal to the metal, no matter what anyone's saying, drown out the noise. As long as like you know what you want to do

and you know what you love what you want to do and you know what you love you have to do that because so many people want to start a brand and it's so hard it's so so so hard and I know you feel the same exact way about your business um you have no other option but to truly love it and feel so insanely deeply passionate about it um because you're gonna have to work really fucking hard and you're gonna cry and there's gonna be like so much that it won't be worth it if you aren't truly if it isn't something you truly love and if it is then you're only gonna excel more honestly congratulations on everything like it's been so cool to watch your brand I feel like every single year I've seen like it just continues to grow I remember when it was yeah you were doing more t-shirts and then all of a sudden I'm looking at you in boots like you had never done shoes

before right yeah and then you just like randomly was it just you just decided to venture out and start yeah I wanted to essentially um get into footwear we had a collaboration with Reebok and it was like wildly successful thank god and then I wanted to get into like heels and boots and it's just like a lot to take on at first so I was like okay like I'll dip my toes in literally and and kind of collaborate with someone first to like test the waters. And it was just like super successful. And I learned so much along the way. Danielle Guzio. I cannot wait to see how massive your brand gets.

I hope someone feels inspired from this episode and go start shit. Because look where you can go. Literally. Life is short, baby. Thank you so much. Thank you, Alex. I appreciate you. Queen.