March 3, 2021 4:00 am Published by

Episode 97:

A born entrepreneur, Deirdre Quinn’s early love of the craft inspired a degree in fashion design. Her passion for production and merchandising led her to Donna Karan, Escada, and Liz Claiborne, where she traveled to more than seventy countries. In 1996, she joined forces with two other fashion veterans and visionaries, Shun Yen Siu and Ida Siu, to found Lafayette 148 New York, creating one of the very rare, vertically integrated fashion brands. More than twenty years later, Deirdre’s boundless drive to discover what’s next continues to lead the brand towards the future, including the move to a soaring, sustainably built loft space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A member of the Fashion Institute of Technology and The Brooklyn Hospital Center’s Board of Trustees, Deirdre has a lifelong love of learning and a devotion to philanthropy and enriching the world through education.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • How Deirdre built an incredible vertically integrated fashion brand
  • Deirdre’s success journey in the fashion industry
  • Why it is just as important to figure out what you don’t want to do in life as it is to find your calling
  • Deirdre’s perspective on how to deal with adversity as a business leader
  • The difficult transition Deirdre had to make as she built the Lafayette 148 brand
  • How Deirdre has navigated the challenges of the global pandemic

Resources:

Becoming a Fashionpreneur

Deirdre Quinn is the founder of Lafayette 148 New York, one of the very rare vertically integrated clothing brands in the fashion epicenter of the United States. More than twenty years after Lafayette’s inception, Deirdre’s boundless drive to discover what’s next continues to lead the brand towards the future. She is also a member of the Fashion Institute of Technology and The Brooklyn Hospital Center’s Board of Trustees, where she fulfills a lifelong love of learning, devotion to philanthropy, and passion for enriching the world through education. In this episode of the Intentional Greatness podcast, Deirdre joins us to share her incredible journey as a kickass entrepreneur in the fashion industry.

Finding Your Calling

It doesn’t happen all the time, but Deirdre was lucky enough to build a career around her lifelong passion. With the unwavering support of her mother, she made her way through fashion school and began taking steps to realize her vision. So many lessons came out of Deirdre’s journey, and one thing we can take away from her is this: it is just as important to know what you don’t want to do as it is to know what you want to do. It often takes countless failures to find your calling in life, but your failures are never in vain. When you can use adversity to guide you toward the light, you will realize you’ve been on the right path all along.

No Turning Back

When Deirdre ended her tenure with DKNY and Liz Claiborne, her portfolio of experience was immensely diverse. She was finally ready to pursue her own venture and began shaping the Lafayette 148 New York brand. By no means has it been an easy road, but Deirdre has been an exceptional leader in the face of adversity. She has not faltered or given up ground, and no matter what challenges are thrown her way, Deirdre stays determined to figure them out. You pick what you wanted to do for a living, so you have to go through everything that comes with it. You can’t throw in the towel just because things are getting tough. Deirdre’s story is proof that any one of us can persevere no matter what the circumstances look like.

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