#377: LoveShackFancy Founder on Selling Dresses Out of Her Trunk, Pushing Past Your Comfort Zone & Turning Her Side Hustle Into a Fashion & Lifestyle Empire

·1 hr 5 min·5 clips

Rebecca Hessel Cohen started Love Shack Fancy by selling handmade dresses from her car trunk after failing to find the perfect bridesmaid dress.

This episode of Behind Her Empire features an interview with Rebecca Hessel Cohen, founder and CEO of Love Shack Fancy. Host Yasmin Nouri introduces Rebecca's journey from creating bridesmaid dresses out of necessity to building a multi-category lifestyle brand. Rebecca explains her mission to create a brand that empowers women and girls through feminine, romantic clothing. She recounts her upbringing surrounded by fashion, with her mother working as a creative director at 17 magazine, which inspired her early internships and career as a senior fashion and beauty editor at Cosmopolitan. Rebecca describes how Love Shack Fancy began as a side project while she was pregnant with her first daughter, Scarlett. She details the unglamorous early days, including learning business operations from scratch and facing skepticism from department stores about her feminine aesthetic. The conversation covers key milestones, such as opening her first store in Sag Harbor, which led to a panic attack due to overwhelming demand, and scaling to 17 stores. Rebecca discusses the importance of social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok, in building community and driving viral moments like the 'Bama Rush' trend. She shares insights on launching fragrances with Sephora, expanding into beauty, and maintaining direct engagement with customers through DMs. Rebecca reflects on balancing entrepreneurship with motherhood, listening to her gut, and evolving the brand over a decade. The episode concludes with her excitement about upcoming collaborations and beauty launches.

As heard by us

A founder story about turning trunk sales, imperfect early decisions, and a first store into a growing lifestyle brand.

Rebecca Hessel Cohen's LoveShackFancy story works best as a grounded founder case study, tracing how a fashion and lifestyle brand grew through decisions that were often made before everything felt ready.

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Why you'd press play

Press play when you need a founder story that starts with handmade bridesmaid dresses and a car trunk.

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