Photo: Courtesy of Catbird
Watch the full conversation between Leigh Batnick Plessner and Fashionista Editor in Chief Dhani Mau on The Fashionista Network.
When Leigh Batnick Plessner contemplated her future, she could picture the qualities of life she wanted but didn’t have a clear idea of what career would provide them. Of all her guesses, though, jewelry was never on her radar.
As the story goes, she studied English in college and, after graduation, worked as a stationery buyer at an independent bookstore. This encouraged her to start her own stationery line, Jezebel. She was actually presenting the brand at her first trade show at New York City’s Javitz Center when she met Rony Vardi, founder of Brooklyn-based jewelry brand Catbird. She didn’t know it at the time, but that meeting would cement Plessner’s future in the jewelry space.
“[Vardi] bought my line, and then she was opening another store,” Plessner told Dhani on The Fashionista Network. (Watch it here!) “She was looking for people to work there and sent out an email […] So I started there one day a week, two days a week, and then it built over time.”
Eventually, Plessner shut down her stationery business, committed full-time to Catbird and climbed the ranks at the company. In the full interview, she discussed her earliest years working at the Williamsburg, Brooklyn boutique, building relationships with clientele and the development of Catbird’s influential signature pieces like its first-knuckle rings and Forever Bracelets.
Twenty years since joining the company, Plessner is now Catbird’s Chief Creative Officer, a role in which she “knits together all the various elements of Catbird,” she said. This includes working with the art, design and development, merchandising and partnerships teams. She’s also helped establish Catbird’s strong and unique collaboration strategy.
Looking ahead, Catbird is gearing up to launch new collaboration drops and continue expanding its retail footprint as it prepares to open its ninth store in Chicago. (To date, it has stores in Williamsburg, SoHo, Rockefeller Center, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Culver City and Washington, D.C.)
“I hope with the jewelry we make that Catbird is something that will stand the test of time and thrive with time,” Plessner said. “So I hope that there is more [growth], but in a really — always — thoughtful and considered way.”
Watch the full interview here.
This conversation was hosted on The Fashionista Network powered by interactive media platform Fireside, where viewers get the chance to participate and speak directly with industry figures. Learn more about The Fashionista Network here.
Source: Fashionista.com
