Something Navy Taps Betty Wang as President
Bolstering its leadership team, Something Navy, the lifestyle brand founded by Arielle Charnas, has named Betty Wang its first president.
Most recently, Wang was an independent consultant. Prior to that she was vice president, divisional merchandise manager for handbags and accessories at Saks Fifth Avenue, and earlier was divisional merchandise manager of ready-to-wear and designer boutique at Shopbop. She has also been a buyer and planner for women’s apparel at Bloomingdale’s.
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“I was always looking to work on the brand side of fashion and work more with product development, and it was really the team. Arielle and Matt are such a force to reckon with,” said Wang, referring to Charnas, who serves as creative director, and chief executive officer Matt Scanlan.
Wang, who begins Monday, said, “Arielle has this really great, creative, inspirational fashion style and a really engaged community Something Navy is not just a fashion brand but it’s a lifestyle and media brand. That was really appealing to me, to really get closer to customers and the community she built.”
Charnas, who started Something Navy as a style blog in 2009, has 1.3 million followers on her personal Instagram, and the company has 325,000 followers.
Wang, who reports to Scanlan, said the company is investing in its growth by dedicating even more resources to its leadership team. She said she will work as a close business and thought partner to Charnas.
After an exclusive apparel partnership with Nordstrom (where at one point the line’s popularity crashed nordstrom.com) ended in 2019, Something Navy became a stand-alone fashion brand in 2020 and currently does an e-commerce, wholesale and retail.
Its first wholesale account (which it sold for spring 2021) was Revolve, which was followed by Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Intermix, Revolve and Shopbop in spring 2022. The company doesn’t sell internationally yet, but that’s something it is exploring. The brand has four stores in Newport Beach and Los Angeles, California, and two in New York City, New York, at 1055 Madison Avenue and 379 Bleecker Street. Over the next 12 months, Something Navy plans to open a store in Miami, Florida, at the end of the year, and stores in Dallas, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois, next year.
Among the brand’s investors are Beliead Ventures, L Catterton, Vanterra Capital, Box Group, Jenny Fleiss, Silas Capital, Third Kind Venture Capital, SWAT Equity, Black Jays Ventures and The Seed Lab, among others.
Asked what her top priorities will be, Wang said, “Understanding the customer base a bit more and getting a little bit more intimate with that data and of course, looking at the product opportunities. Arielle has a particular effortless style and elegance and the collection really embodies the mix of classic with elegant and cool, with a huge dose of fun. I’d love to take that and see where there are more opportunities to deliver those types of feelings and emotions,” Wang said.
Something Navy offers womenswear, childrenswear, home, bed and bath, and some beauty. “We’re going to continue to build on that and see where there’s opportunity to penetrate further,” Wang said. The full product assortment is online, while most of the wholesale accounts focus predominantly on the apparel. The collection is carried in the contemporary area.
Something Navy has done well with collaborations and that’s an initiative that will continue. The brand is selling merchandise from its second collaboration with Ba&sh, which includes shoes, belts, a bag and a hat. It also did a back-to-school collaboration with Superga for women’s and kids’ shoes.
“They’re very important,” Wang said about collaborations. “I think Arielle lends a style and unique point of view to certain categories that we’re exploring right now. People have responded really, really well to her take on some items. You may know the brand already, but her take on them is unexpected. There’s been a really great reaction to these collaborations. It helps to see both brands in a new light.”
Meanwhile, the company has moved beyond the backlash it received early in the pandemic when Charnas shared a series of Instagram posts showing her taking a COVID-19 test, which she secured through personal connections at a time when New York was limiting them to those exhibiting specific baseline symptoms, which Charnas didn’t seem to meet. After testing positive, she then shirked shelter-in-place mandates and left New York City to self-isolate in the Hamptons, which angered social media users, as reported.
Wang will be based at the company’s headquarters on Madison Avenue and 34th Street in Manhattan.
Asked how she and Scanlan will divide responsibilities, she said, “Matt is the CEO of Something Navy and Naadam [a cashmere brand]. I will be focused really predominantly on Something Navy’s opportunities for growth, and leading the team toward that strategy. I will be working really closely as a partner with Arielle. This will enable Arielle to focus on the innovation and creativity of product design and engaging even further with her community which she loves, and her followers are asking for as well.”
