‘Right now is a really good time’: Khaite’s Catherine Holstein on its post-startup era

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Catherine Holstein’s business pitch in 2014 was based on the idea that women’s needs were being neglected. Fashion was showmanship; it was marketing, she says, and that resulted in fragmented, frustrated shopping experiences. Her brand, Khaite, was born in 2016, with a line of don’t-call-them-basics in cotton, denim, leather and cashmere. Handbags came later, but Holstein soon realised she had a problem.

“I wasn’t carrying our handbags. I wasn’t reaching for them. And that is why I started this brand — to make clothes I would gravitate towards in the morning.”

While not a full relaunch, Khaite is introducing a new chapter for its handbags. It released a selection of new bags this month: the Lotus, a re-release of an existing style, improved with a wider strap and more malleable design; the Simona, a sleek baguette; and the Zoe, the brand’s take on a quilted tote. Together, the pre-fall collection forms a new “family” of handbags, around which Holstein says future designs will be based.

What Holstein is working towards with the handbag drop is a shift in balance of the business’s makeup that for many is a marker of maturation. Already 45 per cent of the brand’s business, by next year, Holstein says, non-apparel will account for 55 per cent. The long-term goal is to have an 80-20 split between non-apparel (the brand also carries belts, sunglasses and shoes) and ready-to-wear. This means Khaite’s revenue divide will more closely mimic those of major fashion houses, who make the lion’s share of sales from covetable accessories.

Other shifts to the business have taken place behind the scenes. In March 2023, growth equity firm Stripes took a majority stake in the brand. At the same time, Stripes’s founder and partner Ken Fox asked Brigitte Kleine — a former president at Donna Karan, Alexander McQueen, Michael Kors and Tory Burch, an operating partner at Stripes and a board member at Khaite — to step in as CEO, taking the role over from Holstein, who also calls her a mentor since day one. Kleine, speaking for the first time in her new role, says she didn’t think she’d ever work in-house at a fashion brand again, until the Khaite job came along. “These opportunities are so rare. There is no opportunity like this in New York,” says Kleine.