Inside Sophie Krakoff’s New Venture, Friends of the House Group
A budding entrepreneur with a fashion pedigree is taking a crack at influencer marketing.
Sophie Krakoff, daughter of designer Reed Krakoff, is branching off on her own with the birth of her influencer agency, called Friends of the House Group. Krakoff opened shop earlier this year, and now with the development of her roster well underway, she will be throwing a kick-off fete on Wednesday.
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Though it’s her first time founding a business, she’s hardly a marketing neophyte. Her experience spans predominantly beauty companies of all sizes, from MAC Cosmetics and Shiseido to Halsey’s About-face and creative agency Métier Creative.
Her experience with influencers — at least, as a follower — started long before her time in the corporate trenches. “I was an O.G. vlogger watcher on YouTube,” Krakoff said. “That was prior to monetization and before the space was quite oversaturated. But seeing that evolution from YouTubers to Instagram to TikTok has been amazing to watch, and that’s how I fell into the beauty space.”
Part of her mandate is to find new avenues for brands to partner with her roster of clients, which include Dana Hasson, Gabriella Gofis, Cheyenne Grenaway, Sydney Silverman and Lilly Sisto. Krakoff said the trend is toward longer partnerships and the waning of what she calls “the one-off partnerships and relationships.”
“Above all else, it’s looking at influencers and brands as true partners to each other, whether that’s from a product development standpoint or from a marketing standpoint. I’ve seen so many creators jump in and get involved,” she said. “We’re getting involved in untraditional ways from what we’ve always seen, instead of, say, a paid ad for a Black Friday promotion.”
That ethos extends to her lineup of clients, which all play in fashion, beauty and lifestyle categories. Those realms, Krakoff said, will only converge more. “There is such crossover of fashion and beauty. Look at Merit Beauty’s collaboration with Proenza [Schouler],” Krakoff said, nodding to Hasson’s intermingling posts of baking recipes and makeup tutorials, often drawing inspiration from confections like chocolate and pink marshmallows. “How can we find like-minded brands that show our values but bring us to a new audience? Dana Hasson has gone to baking school, but she partners with Dior Beauty because she’s able to create incredible beauty looks.”
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