Samina Virk: U.S. CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of Vestiaire Collective

23:16Second Life Host:Talk to me about working on those designer collaborations. They still very much resonate with me. How did you feel about it? That was one of the reasons I initially joined Target. So I grew up in Michigan. I was very familiar with Target. But I remember when they launched designer collaborations beyond just the home, you know, Isaac Mizrahi was the big first one. And I remember reading articles criticizing designer collaborations and the fact that how can a designer, you know, dilute their brand and partner with a mass retailer. And over time I watched how they succeeded. And I was there during the five-year anniversary of Go International, which was their designer label.

23:59And I went back in to all the initial designers that they worked with and we reissued old pieces. I mean, it was Proenza Schooler and Featherston. Takoon was part of the group. I still have my Rodarte pieces. Oh, Rodarte, of course. So we went back and we reissued all of those. And what I loved about it as I remember when it launched. And I remembered that between the time that they launched designer collaborations and I came into Target, they were so successful and they had really made it such that every retailer was starting to do collaborations across the board. And they really were one of the first.

24:33So I was beyond excited to have joined the team because it truly was, in my opinion, it was one of the best teams to be part of at Target. And it was nice to be able to kind of make it in there and see it from the inside.

24:45Second Life Host:And also, I mean, like doing serious numbers, like that Missoni drop was record shattering. Obviously, everyone had such a sentimental connection to it. It was just so very, very major. Working on those collaborations did two really important things for the industry. One is it gave designers, especially designers who were starting out, a bit of capital to work with the design house to be able to design collections that they may not be able to do individually. And then also Target had such marketing power and our marketing budgets were quite generous. And so we were able to go through the process of developing a co-brand and really coming up with a true integrated marketing strategy, everything from print to TV to digital to PR and events.

25:32And they're just resources that those designers wouldn't necessarily have independently. And so it was a part of the collaborations that I hadn't thought of before I joined the team and I realized how much value it provided them and then therefore fueled their future collections.

25:46Second Life Host:Okay. So at what point did you feel like you were ready to move on from Target? Because in many ways that feels like people can spend their entire career there, but you eventually decided it was time to move on and you started getting into resale at eBay. So walk me through that transition. So you're discovering my nomadic side, which has been a theme in my life. As part of the designer collaboration team, I had relocated to New York and I was based in New York while the rest of the company was in Minneapolis. Part of that was just to be part of the CFDA. Like, you know, we were part of the fashion industry.

26:23And so a lot of these collaborations came out of those partnerships. Like Jason Wu came out because after being in the industry and attending events with him, I sat down with him and said, hey, we'd love to do this collaboration with you. Here's our ideas. So there was a good reason for it to be in New York. But this was before the days of remote working. And so there were two things that happened. One is I knew that as I wanted to progress in my career, I would need to go back to Minneapolis because that is where sort of the headquarters and most of the other roles were. I am a Michigan girl, but I love New York.

26:54So there was that personal dilemma. And then the second thing that happened is I loved working in the role in the team, but I still miss the tech side. There is something about when you start your career in such a startup world to go to a retail world where you are planning 18 months in advance. And they're both great, just a different way of thinking. And so it was interesting because many people were getting into tech when I was interested in getting into retail. And so I felt like I had a really good understanding of both merchandising and also traditional marketing. And an opportunity came up at eBay.

27:26And at the time, most of my family was living in San Francisco. And I thought, oh, this must be a sign. I mean, I was missing tech. It's in a city I've been thinking about moving to at some point. And the role just felt like a good mix of my e-commerce and fashion experience. So that's what led me to San Francisco.

27:45Second Life Host:So talk to me about your role there because you launched and led eBay's new fashion vertical team in 2011, which feels like a gigantic project to get off the ground. Well, the great thing about eBay is, you know, eBay is one of these places where they've gone through, I think, evolution over the years where they have a mix of people who come from the industry and a mix of people who don't. And I think the mix of those two worlds together is sort of what makes companies like eBay and Bestiaire and many e-commerce companies successful. So I had started talking to them at a time when they had decided to rebuild their fashion verticals.

28:26And in doing that process, they really realized that there was a gap in the industry, that eBay could be a place where brands and branded retailers are also selling some of their excess inventory alongside people selling themselves. And there were also many professional sellers in the fashion world who had grown their business on eBay. So you sort of had this gamut of different types of sellers. And so they wanted to bring a little bit more retail and fashion experience to the mix so that there could be people working with all of these groups that I just described and help them succeed on the eBay platform.

29:02And so I came in to build the team that worked with what we called these strategic sellers, because at the time, it was BCBG, Calvin Klein, Neiman Marcus Last Call, like they are from a very different world. How do you show them the value of being on a resale platform? And how do you work with them so that they're successful? So the goal of the team that I started was to be those partners and then work with the internal eBay teams across functions to make sure that both sides are successful.

29:32Second Life Host:You'd obviously been in leadership roles before, but how did you like this iteration of building something and that type of leadership role? Because the best training for being a manager is being boots on the ground and just figuring it out, in my opinion. But I'm wondering what your experience was like. I feel like most of my roles, especially on the leadership side, I realize in the moment and day to day, I'm pulling from things in my past, right? Like I feel like, okay, yes, I kind of have a sense of how I could potentially handle this mixed with, I don't know what the hell to do. And what should I do next?

30:08And mixed with a third of, okay, there has to be a way to figure this out. Let me talk to people. Let me ask, let me get other opinion. So I really feel like most of my roles have been a mix of that. And I think eBay was the same. I mean, I went from being in the retail world to digital marketplace where you don't own the inventory and you really are a platform to sell product. And so that very much is different than when you're at Target and you're part of the design process and you have full control over your pricing and promotional opportunities. And so there's this element of learning a new industry while also trying to start a team, train them, figure out how to work with different parts of the business.

30:48I definitely have enjoyed all of the roles. They've all had a mix of some days where I'm very confused and other days where I feel like, oh, I got this.

30:56Second Life Host:Fair enough. How much did you understand eBay, the resale market in general, when you made that move? What was the learning curve? It was a learning curve. I definitely didn't come prepared. And I think that is why they like hiring this mix of people, right? I was bringing a certain level of skill. And the learning curve with a marketplace environment is that you have two sides of the business, right? You have your demand and your supply side. When you come from retail, it's not how you're naturally thinking of things. And so it was almost like two times the business responsibility in some ways and two ways to look at the business.

31:33And it was very easy to sometimes skew one way or another, especially because I was on the seller side. So it was really focused on working with sellers. It took a little bit of time, but I think what was great about the environment is because we were a mix of different skills, it felt like every team was almost like a puzzle. I was working alongside other people who were in other categories, like non-fashion categories, and they had a different set of skills. And just by working alongside them, being part of the ecosystem of a larger company, I was able to pull a lot from those resources. And to be honest, that's the case even today at Vestiaire.

32:09There's a nice mix of fashion, retail, and then e-commerce. And I think you really learn a lot when you can find a way for those worlds to work together.

32:17Second Life Host:Well, speaking of which, let's move on over to Vestiaire. So you spent a couple of years at eBay and then you made the move where you are now US president and CMO. Talk to me about that move. Why were you attracted to the company? What made you want to take that shift? Well, my nomadic side kicked in again. It was a great experience at eBay. I loved living near my family. I got to know my nephews. I watched them grow up, but my heart was still in New York. And I decided to leave eBay without another role because I wanted to take a little bit of time off, spend it in the Bay Area before I leave and then travel.

32:58And I ended up landing back in New York working on a few consulting projects. And while I was doing those consulting projects, which just came up through my network. After I left, my network saw that I had left eBay. And so I had a few consulting engagements come up. I was in New York. I was introduced to the co-founders of Vestiaire. And I really was fascinated because it hadn't officially launched in the US. So it was

33:22Second Life Host:still relatively new. This is Europe only, right? Yeah. When I joined, they were Europe only and they were starting to see some organic traction in the US. And I think one of the moments that they got a little bit of organic traction is I think back in 2014, Kim Kardashian came back to the US and tweeted something about the French eBay Bestiaire Collective. And I remember that started some waves. And then the fashion industry knew about it first because going back and forth for Fashion Week. So I went out, I met the team, I met the co-founders. I was so fascinated with the vision, which the vision was they wanted to bring a community of buyers and sellers together for secondhand luxury and designer fashion, but they wanted the trust element.

34:04They wanted to curate the experience and they wanted to authenticate the pieces. And their vision was really twofold. One is just because something is secondhand doesn't mean the experience should feel secondhand. So they were horrified at the way some open peer-to-peer platforms, you receive this beautiful luxury item and it's sort of packaged together really quickly because the seller threw it in. And the second is, I will say the co-founders from the beginning, really, two of them who are still with the company, they came from the fashion industry and they felt really strongly about there's so much amazing fashion.

34:38Circular fashion needs to be a bigger part of the fashion industry. And in order to do that, you really have to make the experience better for designer and luxury product. So both of those were part of the mission of the brands. And I really respected it. Coming from eBay, I saw the challenges of an open marketplace. You know, I wanted to focus on the fashion category. And I think when you're at a place like Bestiaire where your main product is fashion, you can really curate that experience for fashion even more. So I joined them and I launched the U.S. market. It was at the very end of 2014. What did that entail?

35:14So did you have to build out a full team? Like what was the process like that feels logistically like a nightmare? It was definitely logistics challenges. is. It was a mix of two things. One is getting to know the business from a global point of view and how they built France up. Then it was trying to determine, okay, and what is the order that you tackle each of those functions in the U.S. and how do you build the foundational team first to help you sort of get to phase one? But then beyond that, what do you focus on first? Obviously, we had to focus on authentication and operations. So I had to flex some muscles and pull in support and hire external consultants to help me figure out, okay, how do you set this up?

35:59And then how do you introduce this brand to the US market? I would call my job both then and now general management where you're really having to work across topics, but very much leaning into brand growth and brand marketing, which I would say is sort of where my wheelhouse and where my interests are. And so for me, it was really this great role because you were starting a new market, but really with the support and the resources of headquarters. And because we were a two-sided marketplace, our community of international sellers and buyers is just as important when you're launching. So I wasn't launching with an empty store.

36:34We had this amazing European product on the platform. We had a great team who had already built it out in Europe. So they actually went through a lot of the challenges and I really leaned on them for how do we tackle it in the US. And then as you build out each of those different functions And as you build out introducing the brand, who's the right team that you bring in, who can really know the U.S. market, but also work really closely with the European teams and bring that European brand ethos. What was the hardest part to get right? You know, the operations and logistics, I would say, is probably not my primary skill.

37:08I think I was more of a problem solver. So, I mean, now we have this amazing warehouse in Brooklyn. We have a head of operations who's leading it. You know, it's this well-oiled machine. I would say when we launched our operations, it wasn't so well oiled, but we got there eventually. I think that was the one that was probably the most challenging for me.

37:27Second Life Host:Talk to me about brand positioning, especially at launch, because for the US launch in 2014, there were already a handful of marketplaces or peer-to-peer platforms in the States. Yes, obviously eBay, but also the RealReal and Poshmark. How did you think about that storytelling aspect for the U.S. customer? So we really wanted to celebrate the fact that we were European and French. And we wanted to be, at the time, we called it your sort of fashionable French best friend who's advising you on what to wear and what to buy. And we wanted to make sure that we celebrated that and brought it to the mix versus just being a place that you can buy secondhand.

38:11So even our marketing at the time, like our tagline when we first launched was shop the world's best closets. Our editorial and creative was a little bit more fashion forward, but also quite relaxed because it is secondhand. And so our feeling was a lot of the other players were focused on price and logos, and we wanted to be more focused on style and fashion.

38:31Second Life Host:You also did a really smart thing for launch. And there was an article in Vogue back that same year, talking about some of the curators who you brought on board, Kim Kardashian, Cara Delevingne, Sookie Waterhouse, Courtney Love, Haley Steinfeld. How did you get all of those folks on board? Well, we still do a lot of closet sales. We've done a few big ones like Jessica Chastain and Paris Hilton recently. Because we are a marketplace, the community has been an important part of Vestier's brand ethos in Europe and in US. And it kind of goes back to what I mentioned before, which is we're not just a place for you to come buy, you know, a cheap secondhand item.

39:12We are a place where there's buyers and sellers. You can follow people's closets. You can like items. You get notified when there's price alerts. You can save searches. So it's really meant to be a bit more of a community engagement discovery to fashion. And so as part of that, we always wanted to celebrate the fact that you can shop the world's best closets, including closets of people who you admire their style and you would love to have a piece. And some of those relationships actually came up organically. Like some of those celebrities and models that we worked with, they organically discovered Bestiaire.

39:46And then we have a VIP consignment service, both in the US and in Europe. they would start consigning with us. Or we also found out people would be shopping us and we would somehow find out that we had this famous person who was shopping and they were trying to look for an item. And so some of those relationships really cultivated organically. And then when it came time to pull together a moment, we reached out to them. Others, we introduced ourselves. We offered, you know, who we are and what we're doing. And I think the mix of the two has been really great. and we introduce somebody new to our community.

40:18And, you know, some of them are under private accounts. Some are okay with sort of celebrating their closets. And so we are very much about just finding new ways to work with people. And, you know, we're continuing to do that in the U.S. now. We work with various influencers, different partners. We even work with brands offering resale as a service. So I think for us, it's really about that. How do you bring more variety and more interest, but also more style?

40:43Second Life Host:Okay, so after three years of launching and growing the business, you moved over to Thread Styling as the US president and global CMO. For anyone who is not familiar, can you explain the premise of Threads and then also why you decided to make this leap? I moved on from Vestia because we were at a stage of growth at the company where we sort of hit our first milestones being in the US. So we went from not being fully operational to having, you know, a sizable business. And as a company, we looked at, okay, what's the next stage of the company? And we looked at different scenarios. And one of the scenarios was to really strengthen Europe and launch in Asia.

41:26Another scenario was you go really big in the US. And I was a part of those decisions. And it made sense from where the company was at, like, we're in the US, great. Now let's continue to strengthen Europe and go into new markets. And so when that decision was made, I think it was the right decision for the brand. For me personally, different trajectory if you're growing and scaling a market versus, okay, we've established ourselves. Now let's make sure we've funded ourselves enough to launch the next market and sort of keep this going. So I moved on, on good terms. I was still a huge fan of the brand.

41:59I just felt like I was looking for something new. I consulted for a little while and then came across Thread Styling. So Thread Styling was really positioned as a social commerce experience. So we used social content to inspire and we were doing shopping over WhatsApp and direct message. At the time they were quite early, this was pre-COVID, and they really wanted to bring this sort of chat commerce experience, but almost feel like an influencer. And then it really be on demand. So it also is a marketplace environment. So it's you know, we shoot this amazing content. We sort of show you how you can style luxury product.

42:38And then when you come through, you tell us what you're looking for and we find it for you. So it was this mix of chat commerce, personal shopping and concierge all in one with luxury fashion as sort of the foundation. So I joined pre-COVID very much with the same intention of launching and scaling the U.S. market. The company was based in London, so had a good initial start. and then COVID hit, unfortunately. And everything sort of stopped. I was in the process of starting to build the team, starting to figure out what's our marketing approach, how are we going to introduce the brand to the US?

43:13What should the mix of US shoppers be versus global? And then how do we work together as an executive team to grow the brand? And so when COVID hit, thankfully, I hadn't hired the full team because it was just at the beginning of the launch. One advantage was that because we were all on social and chat, our existing clients actually did really well because people were suddenly not traveling, right? So, and they were still looking for items. The challenges we had to close our office, our operations. At one point, I had a lot of Chanel sandals in my apartment. I was shipping things at one point just because we didn't know whether the office was going to open.

43:49And so after coming out of that experience, we realized, okay, we don't know how long this period is going to last, but we believe in this business model. So let's pause investing more into bringing a team together in the US and let's try to continue our business model remotely. And so it was during that that I transitioned into the marketing role and oversaw the editorial team. And also we launched the e-commerce experience, which was new for them. Like they really were starting with chat commerce and then launched e-commerce after. And so it was this interesting period and it was a very international client base.

44:23So I think the lack of travel, if anything, fueled the business in some ways. Threads tends to use the sort of international sourcing network across different places looking for product. And people, you know, if you remember during some stages of COVID, because people weren't traveling, there was a lot of investment buying going on for things that would happen in the future. And so I would say Threads styling was perfectly positioned because we did have access to luxury. We were in touch with different resellers and retailers and brands. And so we were able to help facilitate that.

44:54Second Life Host:It's such an interesting proposition. And I also find it even more interesting that not that long after, in 2023, you decided to return to Vestiaire, but this time as the North American CEO. And then you were also recently appointed chief marketing officer. So again, this is now three times in a row where you've had double titles, maybe more. Talk to me about that decision. What made you want to come back to Vestiaire? I really was very interested in the resale industry, starting with my eBay experience with Vestiaire. And I was watching it evolve even after I left Vestiaire. I stayed in touch with our co-founders.

45:36I watched the trajectory of the brand. They really grew over the COVID experience and went through a lot of transition. And the leadership team scaled significantly. And then I also watched them become B Corp to really take a stand for kind of the sustainability pillar that's always been there. I saw a new CEO come in, raise capital, you know, so they were really doing some interesting things. And then in 2022, Vestia's team decided it was time to come back to the U.S. I watched the brand over the years. I always had a little soft spot for them.

46:13Second Life Host:Your story wasn't done. Yeah, my story wasn't done. And so the company acquired a US-based company called Tradezy, which was based in LA. So I watched the acquisition. I was in touch with the co-founders. The Tradezy platform team migrated over and then there was churn. Everything basically moved into the vestiaire and the team was changing and I was back in touch with them and they asked me to come back and I spoke with the team and it felt like a good fit on both sides. And I mean, I also couldn't help but say yes, because after starting the brand and seeing it go through this moment and then watching all of this happen, I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to come back and see it through to the next level.

46:54Second Life Host:So when you came back into the business, how much had changed while you were out? Obviously, the acquisition would change the trajectory of things. But like, what else were you excited about? So we were much bigger business in the US, both on the buyer and the seller side. So I was really excited to take the traction of what the acquisition brought and then continue the momentum of building the brand and really building this community of U.S. buyers and sellers as part of this international community. The other thing I was really excited about, because we were much bigger, our selection is amazing.

47:30And I think over the years, our vintage selection has grown, current season, past season. And we always say the thrill of the hunt when we talk about our search experience, because there's just so much amazing, you can get lost in it. And so that was always something I felt really passionate about. And now there was even more of it. Right. So the company was much bigger. And I was excited to come back and work with some of the original team. You know, Fannie and Sophie are co-founders. They like embody French chic fashion. and I was excited to join this team of smart, powerful, fashionable women who are really passionate about this brand and bring it forward.

48:07And I loved that the sustainability element of it was now something that we were talking about. And we very often now have these community moments where we talk about impact, we're recognizing what's happening in the industry, and then we're also celebrating the fact that we do have circular fashion as a solution to that. So not only is it a smart way to shop, but it's also the chic way to shop. So all of those reasons combined with just really introducing Vestiaire to a much bigger US audience. I mean, there's still so much potential.

48:39Second Life Host:I love it. It makes me very excited, to put it mildly. So it's also been really interesting to see how luxury resale, the trajectory of it has obviously just as a category gone nuts, but also that the resale market is continuing to grow. And I think it's probably poised to grow even more over the next few years. I'm curious what you're seeing. What are your thoughts about the luxury resale market in the next couple of years? And where do you want to take Bestiaire? I mean, there's still so much potential in resale and in luxury. When you take a step back and say, okay, why has the luxury industry grown so much?

49:18And one of the reasons that resale has been alive. It started with affordability and access, right? Experiencing brands, access to brands that maybe you're not able to buy firsthand. And then over time, what we've seen is that more and more people have come to Vestiaire and are shopping resale, not just for price and access, but also for variety. I think as time has gone on in the fashion industry, we've started to celebrate sort of archival, vintage, the re-editions, the re-issues. You see it on the red carpet. Yeah, exactly. Now it's celebrated on the red carpet and fashion is itself, trends are circular, right?

49:53You start to see trends coming back, being celebrated. And so I think resale suddenly then became a way to also participate in that and also have more variety than what's out there right now. And I think, you know, as the fashion industry has become a little bit more of this mass produced industry, there's people saying the quality has changed, right? The things aren't made the same way. there is this element of how do you celebrate fashion and really sort of buy something that's out there. And then I do think now the impact of the fashion industry on the environment is just much more of a prevalent topic.

50:29And I think knowing the stats out there that if you didn't produce anything more, you could still have more than enough clothing and shop existing clothing and participate in circular fashion. I think when you look at what's happening in the environment now. Prices are rising. There's a lot of uncertainty around what's happening with products and tariffs. And there's also this element of timelessness and classic style. Anybody who loves fashion is balancing all of these different things. And I think secondhand, fashion is really a way that you can balance all of that. Shop smartly. You can have access.

51:03You can buy things at the right price. And you can also buy things that are timeless and move away from this throwaway culture. So I think all of those reasons are why there's still so much potential. And I think we're going to see a lot more.

51:15Second Life Host:I'm very excited about it. It makes me all kinds of happy. So on this podcast, we like to also talk about mistakes because everyone makes them over the course of their career and we don't always talk about it. But I think it's important because I think that people, women in particular, need to hear that you can mess up and come back from it because that ultimately reminds people that we are resilient and very little is forever in the best possible way. So could you tell me about a moment in your career where you felt like you made a big mistake and what you learned from it? I feel like I make a lot of mistakes.

51:51You know, when you're building brands and building teams, it's always this balance of moving quickly, but also moving strategically. The times that I think of that I've made some mistakes, it's like I've tried to balance both and maybe I've moved too quickly. And I've made hiring mistakes in my past where you hire too quickly and then you realize later, like, oh, actually, it is better to take the time up front no matter how painful it is. Making decisions on marketing investment at the time of the company, like sometimes not moving quick enough. Other times, maybe doing too much too soon when you're not ready for it.

52:26And so I call them like daily, weekly moments when you sort of learn and you're like, OK, I won't be doing that again. or maybe I will do it again and I'll learn my lesson from it.

52:36Second Life Host:So a lot of the folks who listen to this podcast are in their first lives and they are interested in making some sort of pivot, but they're scared. As someone who clearly has wanderlust and is not afraid of a pivot and is not afraid of a relocation and is not afraid of a change, what advice would you give someone who is standing there thinking about it, but it's just a little bit nervous and hasn't made the leap quite yet. Well, I'll say that I was very scared when I made those decisions. It's easy to talk about them now, but when I left my job without another one, when I relocated to London for business school, when I dropped myself in Minneapolis after never really having been there.

53:19So I would give two pieces of advice. One area that has helped me make decisions is really, I hate to say it, I don't want to sound cliche, but networking, but not networking to network, right? It's more about the curiosity about where you're at in your career. It's curiosity about an industry that you're not in. How do I get connected to somebody in that industry? Do I know somebody who has a friend who works in the industry? Do I have a friend who has a boss who's a woman who could really be interesting to talk to? Oh, I met somebody at this event. I love what their company he does. And I think for me, the networking has been more about asking questions, hearing answers, and talking to people.

54:02Because I think that's where you learn how different people have approached transitions in their life, whether it's career or personal. I mean, that's how I discovered my career in e-commerce. That's how I discovered business school, was hearing people talk about it. So I think that curiosity and networking to gain knowledge and access and hear stories. And then the other thing that I'm a little bit of a believer in is I mentioned before, I like the idea of kind of setting a goal and then trying to stay flexible. I'm very much a write it down. I am like whiteboard session. I'm not on my laptop.

54:33I want to write on something. What do I want to do? And if I don't know what I want to do, what are the things that I like? And then as I start writing that, how does it make me feel? What are the type of people I want to be around? And really just getting it out there. And then you start to see a pattern. and then this is what I want to do. And I think one of the things I learned over time is it's okay if it's not exactly what you want, but sometimes just saying, I would really love to be in the industry is enough for people to open up their network, for them to give you ideas. And it's okay if you pivot.

55:05It's okay if you don't end up going there, but don't be afraid to just say, this is what I would like to do. You got to manifest.

55:11Second Life Host:So my last question is also my favorite, which is if you could go back in time, Samina, and give your younger self some advice, any advice, what would you say? I would say relax. Ah, okay. Why? I think right now I talk about everything quite comfortably, but in those moments I was quite anxious. I would feel like I have to figure everything out. I feel like, oh, I have to get into this school. I have to get this job. I have to do this. I learned it a little bit during my experiences. I think my family and my brothers definitely helped me relax a bit and not take myself too seriously. But, you know, I would just say just relax.

55:51Like you have the time. Take the time. Take the space. Don't be so rushed. It only gets better.

55:58Second Life Host:Well, thank you so much for your time today and for sitting down with me. This was such a pleasure. I feel so inspired from hearing about your career. It's just like the perfect way for me to go forward in the day. So thank you. Oh, thank you.

56:21Second Life Host:That was the U.S. CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of Vestiaire Collective, Samina Virk. For more inspiring interviews with women like Samina, head on over to secondlifepod.com, where we have so many more for you to peruse. If you like today's show, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review us. we love seeing you spread the word on social and now you can tag us in your posts we are at second life pod on instagram twitter and facebook we always want to know who you're interested in hearing from on the show so send in your requests to hello at second life pod.com or you can dm us on instagram i'm at hillary kerr the show is at second life pod our dms are always Open.

57:10Second Life Host:I'm Hilary Kerr, and you've been listening to Second Life. This episode was produced by Hilary Kerr, Summer Hammeris, and Natalie Thurman. Our production assistant is Raven Yamamoto. Our editor is Natalia Perez. Our audio engineers are at Treehouse Recording in Los Angeles, California, and our music is by Jonathan Leahy.

57:40Thank you.