An Inspiring Comeback Story | Interview with Stylish Entrepreneur Lisa Kline
We’ve all had our ups and downs in life… it’s inevitable. Whether you’re working towards your goals and dreams or if you’ve already met them, the trials and tribulations of life simply become part of your journey. The key is to not get discouraged, but find different ways to be a better version of yourself, create even bigger goals for yourself, maybe even re-invent an old idea you had and make it something even more compelling.
That’s exactly what entrepreneur and style expert Lisa Kline did.
Lisa Kline opened her flagship store in 1995 and was a trusted style source for many actors, recording artists, and celebrity clients selling the hottest trends and putting brands on the map for almost 2 decades. Due to some personal reasons, she closed the last of her 6 stores in 2012.
In the last 8 years, she wasted no time to continue blossoming her career. She had a loungewear line on HSN, was a panel judge for a show on Bravo, placed brands on the Today Show and has consulted for several retailers. You can check out her history on www.lisakline.com.
With those milestones under her belt, she found another way to incorporate her on-air experience with her passion for being a style source for others. When the pandemic began a few months back, she started souring PPE for the medical industry and placing brands on a TV network called Shop LC. It was then she realized it was time for her to come back and bring essentials to her customers.
This August will be the 25 year anniversary of Lisa Kline. She has relaunched the website selling essentials for 2020 across all categories with her site, www.shoplisakline.com.
Check out my interview with Lisa as she guides us in depth through her inspiring comeback, her advice for those who may feel “stuck” career wise, how on-air opportunities helped her blossom, the ways she’s giving back, and so much more.
1. This August will be the 25th year of Lisa Kline – congratulations! Tell us about yourself – where you’re from, how you got started in your career and how you knew what you were passionate about.
Thank you Brielle! I was born and raised in Los Angeles and I knew I wanted a retail store since I was 9 years old. I was driven always by my passion for clothing and style and the vision I had of my boutique from a little girl. I always stayed on the path by working in retail from a very young age and learning the business. I also studied Fashion Design at Syracuse University. After graduating I wanted to open a store by the time I was 25 years old with my designs. As I started going to trade shows with the fashion design program at Syracuse, I knew I wanted to be a buyer and buy other peoples designs. I graduated, came back to LA, worked in retail and started looking for spots! August 5th, 1995 I will celebrate the 25-year anniversary of Lisa Kline, the home of LA style and one very fun magical journey in all ways. Starting with the women’s flagship on Robertson Blvd, it was followed by Lisa Kline Men, Lisakline.com, Lisa Kline Kids, Lisa Kline Men Malibu, Lisa Kline BH and the Lisa Kline outlet store on Melrose Blvd. We dressed every show in the 90’s and all of 2000’s, and have always been a style source for celebrities, musicians, other stores across the US, and put hundreds of contemporary brands on the map, along with inspiring young designers and entrepreneurs, LK was quite the institution.
2. When did you decide to make the leap from being a store owner to a retail consultant?
After my husband died of a freak accident in 2009 and I was left with 2 little kids under the age of 5 and the crash of 2008, retail changing in all ways, fast fashion taking over with knock offs, it was time to close my brick and mortar shops one by one. I closed all 6 of them by the end of 2011. After the stores closed, I had a loungewear line on HSN, I launched an start up online platform called Vault as their Chief Fashion Officer, I started a brand placement company placing brands on the Today Show, GMA, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Rue La La, all the while I started consulting for companies and influencers and hotels as a designer and buyer. I just had to pivot, and I never stopped going to trade shows and working with brands in all categories, always keeping myself in the game and having my finger on the pulse. I have always been a platform for brands. I just had to figure out a way to do that without my 4 walls in the typical brick and mortar fashion I was used to.
3. Tell us a little bit about the services you offer that fall under your consulting.
The scope of my services are broad, and clients can pick what they need help with in an a la cart fashion from buying, merchandising, retail consulting, design, business development and brand placement. You can see all of my services here: https://lisakline.com/services/.
4. You’ve made quite a few TV appearances. How did that come about?
My TV appearances started very early on when I just opened my women’s store in 1995. Fox News asked me to be a style expert and they came in one day and filmed me talking about trends. I loved it and always felt comfortable behind the camera, so much that the staff used to tease me and call me one take Kline. I would always ask the producer if they wanted to do another take and they always got what they needed the first time. We filmed all the time in all of the stores and covered all kinds of trends, brand launches, judging, travel segments, we did fashion shows and were on the news, we even had a segment with Gordon Ramsey! The top chef won a shopping spree at Lisa Kline and her gift and shopping experience was filmed in the store on Robertson. I did a show on Bravo called Launch my Line as a panel judge which had 9 segments. Then I had my own loungewear brand on HSN and went live on air for a few years and was always in talks to do my own reality show but never pulled the trigger.
5. How has taking on on-air opportunities helped your brand?
Being on camera back in the 90’s and 2000’s is what made me an influencer back in the day before we had social media. Lisa Kline was featured in so many magazines, with trends, stories, celebrities, where to buy, and basically as an expert. Lisa Kline the store became a brand organically with having my own label in the store mixed in with the other hundreds of brands we carried. We were a platform for brands and in doing so it built my brand. I was very serious about my branding, my logo, my message, my vision, my packaging and even how the staff interacted with the consumer and styled people in the stores. Everyone was trained and all systems were in place which all helped really establish my brand. My store was one of the first stores on Robertson Blvd which was a sleepy decorators street that became one of the hottest streets in Los Angeles to shop. All kinds of boutiques opened up around me and tourists and people visited from all over the world to shop the curated mix, be on trend, take home a piece of LA fashion and source brands to bring back home to their own businesses. A celebrity spotting was always a plus and happened often.
6. When the pandemic started a few months back, you started sourcing PPE for those in the medical industry and placed brands on a TV network called Shop LC. How did this idea come about and what did the process look like to both source products as well as place them on TV? Sounds like there must have been a lot of moving parts!
There are always a lot of moving parts in all I do but luckily it all flows together somehow. I had reconnected with Cindy who is the VP of Merchandising for Shop LC at a tradeshow called Cosmoprof in August 2019. She actually placed me on HSN when I sold my loungewear line. I asked her if I can pitch her brands like I do with the Today Show and the other venues I work with. So I started sending her brands and then when the pandemic started, she reached out to me and asked me if I could help source essentials for the pandemic like masks and sanitizer. It was thanks to her that I dove right into PPE.
The greatest part is I am working with so many people in my industry who have all pivoted, so the relationships are the same and there is a trust factor for over 20 years. We are just selling other items on trend right now, not apparel. The networking has been so much fun, connecting with so many new people and old friends across the world to get people goods from hospitals, nursing homes, TV shows, hotels, and the general public. We know how to work together, source and get things fast to market. That is how we can help and there is a lot of teamwork with PPE. We are all learning a new curve, a new category and products we have never worked with before. It has been very rewarding, challenging, and fascinating at the same time. I feel like I am getting a graduate degree in PPE as I am learning new things every day and starting a business from scratch. It is a lot, and it takes up time but there is something very mysterious about it that keeps me interested. I have learned a lot and it has kept me busy and on the pulse with the pandemic and how I can help others get what they need to be safe. I use all my skill sets in learning this new space and that is why it is satisfying. I have also reconnected with old friends and made new friends for life while I keep expanding my network which helps with all aspects of my business as a whole.
7. Tell us the details about your latest venture, shoplisakline.com.
While sourcing PPE in March I started getting messages from people asking if they could buy masks and sanitizer from me and protective gear. I knew at that moment it was time to relaunch and jump back into the space to be a trusted source for my clients once again bringing them what they need during these very strange times to stay sane, safe and styled. The focus of my site is “Essentials for 2020” and that doesn’t mean apparel. I will add clothing in all categories slowly as we grow but that isn’t my focus out of the gate.
8. How do you choose what items to sell on your site? How do you know what your customers truly want and need successfully through just an online platform?
I have been curating for 25 years so for me it is second nature and just what I do and love doing. As a retail consultant for high end venues I was fortunate enough to be able to attend over 25 trade shows a year across all categories. I have been very focused on gift, home, beauty, food, drink, candy, loungewear, health, wellness, activewear and more.
I already had my new LK 2.0 store concept done about a year before this pandemic started and I was causally looking for a retail spot in a hotel but never found a fit. So I am curating those categories on my site and following that map which will continue to grow and expand as time goes on.
Shoplisakline.com is a marketplace for brands and the consumer to explore, learn and enjoy their shopping experience.
My gift is knowing what the consumer wants in the present day, and my job is to bring them what they need before they know they need it. I am a source and expert, so my customers shop with me because if it is on my site or in my store it is LK approved and trusted to buy and use, wear, live with and enjoy. I am already an established brand so coming back into the game now during this time online is the way the business will go and I will grow it just like I did my retail stores and online for the past 2 decades, this is my new baby and I will do whatever it takes to make it a success. There is a lot to do but that is the fun part figuring all of that out and I do that as I grow each day, each week, and each month. There are a lot more analytics and tools I can use that weren’t around back in the day and I am going to take advantage of all of them to help my business grow.
9. Your story over the last 25 years can truly be inspirational to so many who have hit highs and lows in their career. What would you say was one of your hardest moments that, looking back, now you think was a blessing in disguise?
My story is definitely inspirational, and I have to say that there isn’t one moment that I can look back and say was hard or something that happened that turned into a blessing in disguise. Going full circle from starting out at a very young age and growing the businesses with a hands-on approach being on the floor and able to react and make decisions quickly it was all positive. The high highs and the low lows really were both just as intense, one was good, and one was bad, but I learned from both. Going full circle and making the decision to close my stores was one of the hardest and heartbreaking things I had to do on my own. They were my babies and they were all very unique and had their own personalities and experiences when shopping in them.
Maybe the hardest moment was when I made the decision to close my women’s division that had moved into the men’s store. That tore my heart out, but it was the right thing to do at the time. I have no regrets and feel that I was the first store on the street, and I was going to be the first to leave as it wasn’t the same shopping experience and I didn’t want to have stores if that was how the future was going to be.
I missed my stores so much over the years and had to grieve the loss of them, it was hard. The beauty now with this pandemic for me is I already went through so much loss and hardship and had to work through it all over the last decade. Now my vision is clear as day, I know exactly what I need to do and what I want to do and create this time around.
10. With the pandemic in full swing and causing every type of detours in people’s lives (especially in terms of career), what advice would you give them about sticking it out through the rollercoaster of trials and tribulations?
My advice would be to go deep inside and pull out your skill sets you were born with, that are natural to you, or learn a new skill, or just try new things. You must pivot and lean into what is currently happening. This isn’t the time to be afraid, this is the time to seek out opportunity and creativity and to help others.
