CEO’s ‘Highly effective’ Enterprise Change Results in 8-Determine Income

“It is at all times been my dream to be a CEO of a style model,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of latest girls’s style model Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.}

A style business veteran who began her profession as a up to date purchaser at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had a possibility to appreciate that purpose with Aligne, initially based by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale girls’s style model in London in 2020.

Seymour envisioned a brand new period for Aligne — the model might fill a white area she noticed in trendy girls’s clothes: the necessity for design-led, wearable items at an accessible value level, delivered with an omnichannel method.

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Seymour got down to make it occur, primarily “refounding” the corporate. She joined the enterprise as managing director in 2022, relaunched Aligne beneath her imaginative and prescient in 2023 and was formally named CEO in 2024.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

“I felt companions [had to be] an enormous a part of the story.”

Throughout her first a number of years as CEO, Seymour centered on Aligne’s group constructing on-line and “design handwriting,” then branched out from a direct-to-consumer technique to an omnichannel method with U.S. retail companions.

Actually, regardless of being a London-founded model, Aligne sees a bigger a part of its enterprise unfolding within the U.S., Seymour says.

The CEO even not too long ago relocated from London to New York to help the U.S. workplace and crew because the model continues its enlargement.

“ We’re nonetheless based mostly within the UK, so I journey backwards and forwards,” Seymour says. “London to me is our artistic hub; it is a part of our DNA being a British model. That is tremendous essential to me and one thing we do not wish to lose. So we’re very a lot creatively pushed out of London, however commercially pushed out of the U.S.”

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

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As a nonetheless comparatively younger British model, Aligne positive factors validation with a U.S. viewers by retailers which have loyal buyer bases.

“In  the UK, it is simpler to be direct-to-consumer solely as a result of the UK is way smaller and extra attainable,” Seymour says. “However within the U.S., to resonate as the following up to date model that individuals must be taking a look at, I felt companions [had to be] an enormous a part of the story.”

Aligne not too long ago launched with Nordstrom, a retailer Seymour says she’d at all times hoped to associate with in the future, after the corporate direct-messaged her to specific its curiosity within the model. Aligne can also be accessible at Anthropologie.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

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“There’s much less visibility [into] the analytics and who your buyer is. You must actually hear.”

Regardless of the long-term purpose to broaden in retail, Seymour first prioritized understanding Aligne as a model and its relationship to prospects earlier than tackling these partnerships, appreciating how essential that technique is for sustainable success.

Whether or not you are refounding a enterprise that already exists or beginning one from scratch, figuring out who your buyer is — and rapidly — will make or break its development.  ”And that is simpler mentioned than achieved,” the CEO notes. “There are such a lot of elements. With each iOS replace, there’s much less visibility [into] the analytics and who your buyer is. You must actually hear.”

Aligne’s goal prospects are “assured, working” girls, and acknowledging what these shoppers wished in a clothes line helped information the model’s design shift and the path of its assortment, Seymour says.

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Dialing into that buyer base is paying off. Aligne ended its fiscal yr in July 2025 with 56% year-over-year income development and income approaching eight figures.

Most of Aligne’s items are priced between $100 and $300. Though Seymour acknowledges why some manufacturers evolve into the “premium up to date” area amid rising prices and tariff challenges, she says the corporate is dedicated to its accessible value level.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

“I rapidly needed to be taught the place I did not wish to lean and the way to ensure to get the help.”

Being a CEO is lots more durable than Seymour thought it will be when she was 20 years previous, she admits. However she appreciates how the job has allowed her to attract on her expertise as a purchaser, which demanded a “steadiness of artwork and science” very similar to the manager function does.

“[There might be a] week that I am so inventive and designing the idea and the road, and there is different days the place I am undoubtedly leaning into the science,” Seymour says. “However I rapidly needed to be taught the place I did not wish to lean and the way to ensure to get the help in these areas as a result of a CEO wears so many hats.”

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One of many largest classes Seymour’s realized throughout her tenure as CEO to this point is the worth in listening to her instincts — even when it is tough. Over the primary couple of months of the corporate’s refounding, Seymour generally hesitated to say what she wished, then did not get the outcomes that she desired.

“Three months in, I had this second the place I introduced the crew collectively and was a lot clearer about what I wished,” Seymour says. “That introduced them extra on the journey with me, and it solidified us as a crew and our values. You probably have an concept and also you’re constructing your personal enterprise, trusting your intestine and never being scared to say it’s highly effective.”