Name: Jane Dailey
Location: Minneapolis
Education: Augsburg College, BA,
Marketing Communication, Religious Studies Minor
Job title: Fashion Fairy Godmother and President of Hollywood
Fashion Secrets
What she does: Ever wonder how J. Lo avoided a disastrous nip
slip in that low-cut green Versace number at the Grammys years ago?
Here’s a little secret: she had a lot of help from double-sided tape. Jane
Dailey, the co-founder and president of Hollywood Fashion Secrets, has made a
business of providing women with solutions for sartorial disasters.
“Don’t women deserve to feel confident about their appearance, anytime
and anywhere?” says Jane. Of course they do. But according to Jane,
fashion faux pas – like blouses that gap, hems that fall down, and accidental
stains that mar a favorite dress, for example – are the nemeses of that
confidence. Hollywood Fashions Secrets produces everything from
double-sided tape to underarm shields so no woman will be left in the lurch.
How she got her gig: “It was a stylist friend in LA that
introduced the tape originally to my business partner, and I joined her one
year later. Keep in mind double-sided tape was one of Hollywood's best-kept
secrets and the domain of movie stars,” says Jane. She and business
partner Marni joined forces to create Hollywood Fashion Secrets, and their
first product to launch was double-sided tape used to prevent wardrobe
malfunctions (a la Janet Jackson at the Superbowl). From
there, their list of innovative problem solvers just grew and grew.
Jane’s experience working with large organizations could not have been more
different from starting a small business and growing it into a worldwide
operation. “You could say that I fell into this opportunity and worked
diligently over the past ten years to create a fashion solution's category
which we are credited for establishing,” says Jane.
The Fashion Fairy Godmother: Life at the office is a barrel of laughs,
according to Jane. She and her team will often spend their time testing
out all of their fabulous products.
“Product testing in our
office is seriously fun. It could be nipple concealers one day to underarm pit
protectors to belts that buckle only in the back,” says Jane. It’s her
job to ascertain if the product is a good fit for the market. “People from all
over the world submit ideas and innovations for us to consider for
manufacturing and marketing, and we are honored,” says Jane. The company has a
policy that encourages innovation and rewards employees for ideas that are
commercialized. The self proclaimed “Fashion Fairy
Godmother,” Jane’s role is to stay abreast of fashion trends, identify the
fashion problems plaguing women everywhere and guide the creative team to
create solutions. “Everyone in the organization understands that
empowering women's confidence is our purpose, our raison d'etre,” says Jane.
Woman to woman: “We are a
women-owned business solving fashion and beauty problems for women,” says Jane.
”We get the issues and are the go-to folks to address them…and we love
it.”
Walk of Fame: If Jane could meet with anyone in the
industry, it would be Joan Rivers and Chelsea Handler. Jane
admires these amazing women in media, who she says are bright, talented, funny,
and beautiful. “I really would like to leg wrestle Chelsea, and be on
Joan's Fashion Police show,” says Jane.
Practice makes perfect: “Anybody who wants to start their own
business needs to believe in what they are doing more so than anyone else
believes in them, and stick with it,” says Jane. “Malcolm Gladwell's
research tells us it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert on a subject, and
that's only four to five years of work, so stay the course, ladies.”
This job’s for you if: your are fearless and able to assess
and take risks. “In addition – and this is really, really important – you
need to know yourself, your assets and liabilities,” says Jane. “No one
is going to tell an owner of a business that she's getting in the way!”
