According to Jeff Rudes, founder and CEO of L’Agence, customer behavior will determine the timing of product launches in the home and beauty categories.

“She has to be loyal enough to the brand that she’ll pick up a bottle (of perfume) at Saks and say, ‘I have to try this.’ We’re not there yet,” he said. “We’re very realistic about growing the brand. … She has to trust us and buy into what we’re doing. It’s all a matter of timing. We have to get her to like more of what we’re doing and then we’ll definitely win her over (as a customer in other categories).”

Rudes and L’Agence fashion director Tara Rudes-Dann also spoke on the podcast about their plans for New York Fashion Week, new standards in customer service and the path to becoming a “lifestyle brand.” Highlights from the episode below have been lightly edited for clarity.

What drives the company’s “exponential growth”?

Impolite: “We’re up about 35% from last year. New customer acquisition has had a big impact – the marketing we’ve added to what we were doing (before) has brought new customers. And we know that when they come to us, they’re still a year away from starting their brand loyalty search with us. We’ve been very successful in adding shoes to the range and we’ve launched swimsuits that have been a huge hit from the start – we couldn’t believe it ourselves. And we’re adding belts and pajamas to the range and working on underwear. So we’re building a lifestyle brand – we’re building something that allows our customers to dress from day to night and with all kinds of products.”

Success through traditional marketing

Impolite: “We’ve done about four or five catalogs so far. It’s a way of delivering an edited, focused product, … but it’s really a sales tool. And people respond to it because it’s like an old magazine. It sits on a table, you can turn the pages, and if you want to deal with it later, you can deal with it later – but there’s a lot of value in it. And we’re surprised by the business it generates. It’s incredible how people respond to it.”

Return to old sales methods for denim

Impolite: “I’ve been watching the (jeans) market for a couple of years, ever since we launched jeans. In the old jeans environment, like the old Barneys, you walked in and there were tables full of jeans. You immersed yourself in jeans. You walked into the dressing room with three or four pairs. You were there to buy jeans. That doesn’t exist anymore, anywhere in the world. … So the whole idea of ​​the Jean Bar is to immerse our customers in jeans. They’re there to try on jeans, and we create the environment for them. We have a big jeans business, and even in our stores, it’s fragmented. In each brand’s stores, you have one (jeans) on the left side of the store, and then there are dresses and blazers, and there’s another pair of jeans on the other side of the store. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we sell by fit in the Jean Bar. So if someone says, ‘Oh, the Ruth is my favorite cut,’ we can show them nine different Ruth styles and they’re right in front of them. … It’s just a matter of getting them into the dressing room so they can try the different cuts, and it works really well.”

Rudes-Dann: “I also like the part where I educate her – because there are so many great silhouettes and she may not be familiar with them or know how they fit her body type. It’s such a great tool to be able to go into such a beautiful store and have this experience where she can find what she likes – and find more of it in different washes and finishes – and she can find something new that she may have never tried because she has these stylists who are taking care of her and making sure she feels comfortable when she leaves the store.”

Impolite: “The most important thing is the service.”