The Brand is Female

The New York-based duo has been getting buzz in part because of its famous family connections, namely Neely and Chloe’s aunt, Tory Burch. But the two sisters have built an empire all of their own: Neely & Chloe is a successful line of affordable yet sustainable bags, footwear and accessories that aims to fill the void between fast fashion and luxury without sacrificing quality. You can find their designs in retailers across the US, over 150 at this point including Anthropologie, in addition to their own e-commerce boutique. Neely and Chloe’s success has been fuelled by their authentic approach with their consumer base, or what they call “the founder effect”, as well as the appeal of their wide range of products, with something to fit women’s various lifestyles, no matter their age.Listen to Neely and Chloe’s journey and discover what they’ve learned along the way!This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support.

Connie Lo and Laura Burget are the co-founders of Niu Body, a natural skincare brand they launched in 2017 after being frustrated with the lack of clean beauty options on the market. Starting their company at 23 and with just $4,000 in their pockets, their grit and determination has definitely paid off as today the brand can be found in over 350 retailers across North America, including The Bay in Canada and Kohls in the US. Listen to Connie and Laura’s story of growth as well as the lessons they learned along the way! This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support.

Our first guest of the third season of The Brand is Female is Salima Visram, founder of Samara, a brand of vegan leather goods based in Toronto, founded in 2017. The company is a favourite among influencers and fashion editors and it grew to sell over 70,000 vegan bags last year which were shipped to more than 22 countries. Made of 100% cruelty-free materials, Samara is a spin-off which also helps fund Salima’s first business venture, Soular Backpack, a not-for-profit she created with the goal of providing solar-battery backpacks to children in East Africa, so that they could do their homework at night without needing access to kerosene, an expense their families can’t always afford. Soular Backpack drew attention from the likes of Disney and actress Lupita Nyong’o who both became involved. Originally from Kenya herself, Salima has always had the goal of making our world better through her business concepts.Find out how Salima applies sustainability principles to her company’s strategy and how she’s building a brand based on the belief that we should live in a world where fashion can do good, not just look good!This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support.

This week, our guest is Stephanie Kersta, co-founder of Hoame, The Brand is Female’s favourite meditation studio in downtown Toronto. Stephanie is a registered psychotherapist who holds a Masters in Psychology. She pursued additional certifications, including post-grad studies in Addictions and Mental Health Counselling, and she has incorporated additional evidence-based holistic practices to her training; she is now certified in Applied Mindfulness Meditation, Stress Reduction, Cognitive Therapy, and Mindful Eating. Stephanie opened the meditation studio Hoame with her business partner Carolyn Plater a little over a year ago. One of the things Stephanie specializes in is sleep therapy, and we thought she’d be the perfect interview to end the year with, as we all need support with our sleeping habits, especially this time of year! It can also be a difficult time for anxiety overall, and we asked Steph to share a few tips. If you’re finding yourself triggered or wondering how to get the best rest in the middle of the Holiday break; this episode is for you!

Mary Alice Malone is the founder of New-York and London-based Malone Souliers.Mary Alice’s eponymous brand of elevated women’s shoes was founded in 2014 in London, and quickly rose to become a leading name in International luxury footwear. Picked up by leading e-comm fashion retailers such as Net-a-Porter and Matches shortly after the brand was launched, Malone started appearing on every cool girl’s feet. Launching in the UK first, the brand won over customers in the Middle East and Europe, then North America.Mary Alice Malone was born and raised in the heart of the Pennsylvania countryside. Passionate about horse riding, Mary Alice didn’t expect she’d become a footwear designer one day, but she was always interested in craftsmanship and the process of designing objects.She later honed her craft at the London College of Fashion, further refining her skills at a number of renowned ateliers, before launching her own brand.Mary Alice took a short break from leading Malone when she became pregnant with her first child, leaving co-founder Roy Luwort in charge; but she came back, determined to continue to lead Malone’s love story with customers across the world, and carry on the brand’s expansion.Listen to our interview with Mary Alice where we talk about the obstacles she has faced breaking through footwear glass ceilings — after all, luxury women’s footwear is traditionally designed mostly by men for some odd reason… and discover the many lessons she has learned along the way.

Tracy Moore is the award-nominated host of Cityline, the longest running lifestyle program for women in Canada. She is the first black woman at the helm of a Canadian lifestyle TV show and has broken multiple glass ceilings throughout her career in media!Listen to our interview and hear about the obstacles she has faced and the risks she has taken (hint: they all paid off!) and learn about her impressive journey to unlocking her own potential.Tracy started her career as a reporter and anchor in the early 2000s, working in various Canadian TV networks and making her way up the ladder. While she initially was dreaming of becoming the new Diane Sawyer, Tracy moved on to obtain one of the most coveted spots in lifestyle TV with her headlining gig on Canadian show Cityline which is also broadcast in 70 million American homes daily.Tracy has garnered several awards over the years, among them: Brilliant Minded Woman Award for Community Service, Canadian Screen Award Best Host nominee, Gemini Best Host nominee and the BBPA Media Award. Tracy is also a proud mom of two.Our interview was recorded at Hoame, Toronto’s favourite meditation space.

Sabrina Maddeaux is a Toronto-based journalist specializing in fashion, lifestyle, beauty and more… she is the current Society editor and arts/style columnist for the National Post; she also contributes to a number of other publications in addition to being a style and beauty expert on the air for shows such as CityLine. Sabrina has carved her own path in the current, challenging media landscape and has managed to come out ahead!Listen to Sabrina discuss the challenges that come with being a woman in media, the state of publishing in 2019 including the pressures that come from brands and advertisers… and hear her explain why it matters to be able to share more women’s voices and women’s stories.

Jacqueline Leung is the Founder and CEO of Pressed News, a digital media company that makes the news easy to understand. With a daily email newsletter, online explainers, and social media community, Pressed brings its subscribers a recap of world issues straight to their mailbox every morning, always from a Canadian perspective - and minus the bias.Before launching Pressed, Jacqueline spent several years in marketing in different industries, including sports, food, and media. She came to realize she wasn’t getting access to Canadian news in a way that made sense for her, and she set out to fix the issue.Listen to her journey as she starting building a different kind of media company and discover some of her tips for dealing with adversity (including going to therapy once a week!), career challenges and get her advice on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.This episode was recorded at Hoame, Toronto’s favourite meditation and wellness studio.

This week, in keeping with our theme of women in the arts following Art Toronto held at the end of October, our guest is Maryam Keyhani.There are several words that can be used to describe Maryam — she is a painter, sculptor, designer, wife, mother, surrealist and hat enthusiast. She spends her time between Toronto and Berlin, and for anyone who follows her on social media, she appears to live in an absolutely enchanted world where her, her children and her friends partake in the joy of dressing up with Maryam’s creations which on an average day can include brocade, feathers, ruffles, embroidery, bows, lace, silk, outrageously puffy sleeves, balloon skirts and dresses that look like they belong to another era… and of course, the fabulous, extravagant hats which have become her signature.These days, we can safely refer to Maryam as a hat maker. She has earned attention from media in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including recent praise for her escapades in millinery in Vogue.Designer, journalist and past TBIF podcast guest Mosha Lundstrom recently used the following words to describe her own experience wearing one of Maryam’s creations:“I can’t even describe how transformative your hats are to wear. Crowds part, people treat you like you are way more important than you often feel, and you, in turn, carry yourself totally differently. And so a new hat habit is formed.”Listen to our host Eva Hartling’s conversation with Maryam for a glimpse inside the artists’s wonderful, imaginary world and to hear the story of what has inspired her to start making hats, thus allowing anyone who wishes to join in to rediscover the importance of play, as an escape and a respite from the harsh realities of life.

Art Toronto, Canada’s international contemporary and modern art fair, is being held this weekend, and to highlight this important event we sat down with a few women artists for a special showcase.The art industry continues to be marked by inequality: as of the first half of 2018, there were only 5 women on Artnet’s list of the 100 best-selling artists at auction. The number of women on this list has fluctuated between just 2 and 6 since 2013. Overall, 96.1% of artworks sold at auction are by male artists.The top three museums in the world — the British Museum, the Louvre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art —have never had female directors.Women are still behind men in directors positions in at museums with budgets over $15M, holding 30% of art museum director positions and earning 75¢ for every dollar earned by male directors.Our first guest part of our Art Toronto showcase is Janet Werner, a Winnipeg-born, Montreal-based painter. Janet’s work is presented at Art Toronto and she has a solo show opening at the start of November at the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal.Janet studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and went on to attend Yale University where she received her Masters of Fine Arts. She taught painting and drawing at the University of Saskatchewan and started teaching at Concordia University when she moved to Montreal in 1999.Janet is known for her impressive, large scale fictional portraits of women. She has been focusing on the genre since 1997 — through her work, she explores themes of subjectivity and desire by producing composites of found images, mostly gathered from fashion magazines.Listen to Janet discuss her journey, her sources of inspiration as well as the challenges she’s faced as a Canadian visual artist with our podcast host Eva Hartling!