Molly Taylor ’88 jumped from luxury retail to off-price a decade ago—and hasn’t looked back
By Irina Ivanova
Photos by Cat Trzaskowski ’23
In an ever-changing fashion economy, one of the few sure things is the steady expansion of the discount aisle. Off-price retailers have exploded in popularity, capturing an ever-larger share of the retail landscape.
“Off-price is the place to be,” says Molly Taylor, Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’88. An Idaho native, Taylor completed her AAS in one whirlwind year that included a tearful separation from her family at a women’s boardinghouse, attending the senior ball at West Point, and turning 21 to much disbelief from New York bartenders, who had never seen an Idahoan enter the premises. (They would say, “Can’t you pick a better state to have a fake license from?” she recalls.)
“I think one of the things that has made me successful in my career is a focus on just being me and not trying to be somebody else, and trying to be down to Earth,” she says. “I tend to be a little bit of a klutz, and will own when I spill coffee on myself or trip on the stairs.”
– Molly Taylor
After graduation, she worked at The Bon Marché, a department-store staple in the Pacific Northwest, then rose through the retail ranks at Macy’s and Nordstrom before jumping to Nordstrom Rack in 2014, where she launched its Canadian presence and its digital vehicle, rack.com. Following stints at Century 21 and Saks Off Fifth, Taylor is now senior vice president of merchandising for apparel and designer at Rue Gilt Groupe, the industry leader in the luxury off-price segment.
Its two main platforms, Gilt and RueLaLa, run ten flash sales a day for an engaged group of members. But keeping a perfectly curated selection of Jimmy Choo pumps and Celine bags is no easy feat. First, there’s running the numbers—understanding what products will sell at how big of a discount, and whether that will be profitable for the platform. “It’s a very mathy thing,” Taylor says of merchandising. “People think buyers are glamorous and the product always wins, but you have to have the economics in order to make it work.”
And unlike a traditional buyer, who might place orders a season or even a year ahead of time, off-price buyers operate on very short timelines and choose from already existing goods—and sizes, styles, and quantities.
“There’s a lot of scrappiness to it,” she says. “We will buy for next week, we’ll buy for next month, we’ll buy for the month after that. It’s this constant, dynamic, assortment-building as you go.”
Often, that means buying everything a designer has to sell, “the good with the bad,” known as a “take all” offer. That might mean signing a deal with a designer known for shoes and bags and being saddled with their apparel, children’s wear, and belts; or getting more merchandise than you expected and scaling back elsewhere to compensate; or pulling together multiple teams for an all-hands-on-deck push to close the deal, ship everything quickly, and sometimes manually sort the merchandise when it arrives, all mixed up in boxes with no scan code. “It can be a mess, and we say ‘yes’ in order to have access to those products,” she says.
It’s easy to draw shoppers with discounts; much harder is wooing brands to provide that merchandise because, unlike in full-price luxury retail, “designers don’t need to sell to you.”
“The best brands want to sell to a Saks or a Nordstrom; they don’t necessarily want to sell them off-price and have a markdown footprint out there.” That’s where relationships are crucial: “The way we get the best offers is by having the best relationships, so that brands call us first.”
For the brands that make that call, Rue Gilt can offer a very engaged customer. “Our best customers shop with us nine times a month. It’s incredible, the frequency,” Taylor says.
Relationships are also important for Taylor in her role as an FIT Foundation trustee and a member and former co-chair of the Alumni Advisory Council. She’s constantly thinking about how to broaden the college’s connections with both alumni and industry.
“I lived on the West Coast pretty much my whole career, and I didn’t have any outreach or any connection with FIT,” she says. Soon after she moved to New York in 2019, lunch with a vendor who happened to be on the FIT Foundation board turned into an invitation to serve. “The opportunity to be reconnected with FIT, give back, and be around these very cool people, was tremendous. I still pinch myself.”
Taylor’s passion for people extends to her home life as well. She cooks to relax and frequently plays host. When she spoke with Hue, she had just hosted neighbors for dinner the previous weekend and was preparing to host houseguests the upcoming one. (On the menu: fancy fish and chips [made with roasted potatoes] and lasagna from a family recipe.)
“The common thread, whether it relates to my work at FIT or in the industry, is people,” she says. “I have found my voice, and it’s through people, and it’s through relationships.”