A lot of the conversations I have with designers and retailers and investors and industry weirdos are about who is failing. Occasionally, in between the Ugh, how are they still in business? quips is a success story, one that makes people equally excited and jealous. TWP, named for the initials of founder-designer Trish Wescoat Pound, falls into the latter bucket. Launched last year, it’s a made-in-New York label, reasonably priced, and a best-seller at many American retailers that will sell $15 million worth of clothes in 2023, on track to double to $30 million by 2024.
So: tiny in the grand scheme of things, but huge for a two-year-old label. “I can’t remember seeing anything like this in my 24 years in business,” Beth Buccini, owner of Kirna Zabête, told me. (Kirna Zabête first opened in 1999 in SoHo, but now has locations on Madison Avenue, Palm Beach, East Hampton, Bryn Mawr—we love an affluent suburb on the Main Line—and soon, Nashville.) While Buccini sells a mix of pure designer and more accessible brands, I mostly associate the store with Old Céline and generally, the more expensive side of fashion.
Why has Buccini sold 700 units of TWP’s “Next Ex,” a gently cropped, $335 button up? The answer is a combination of the right product, right time, and right price. “It’s the goldilocks of shirting,” Buccini said. Wealthy consumers are continuing to spend money—we can see that in the positive earnings of unassailable Hermès—but they are paying more attention to what they spend it on. They’re looking for things that convey value, no matter the price or provenance. And Wescoat Pound has a particular talent for nailing this, probably because she’s done it several times before.
