Back Row with Amy Odell

In Part 2, Ana Andjelic and Amy Odell break down Meghan Markle’s new brand As Ever, how The Row quietly built one of the most powerful luxury brands in fashion, and what's next for Chiara Ferragni after her acquittal.

Part 2 is available to paid subscribers at backrow.net (which includes full newsletter access) or through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Celebrity brands are everywhere—but what separates the ones that thrive from those that fail? Can fame alone turn a celebrity idea into a lucrative enterprise?

In this episode of the Back Row Podcast, Amy Odell sits down with branding expert Ana Andjelic (former Chief Brand Officer of Esprit & Banana Republic, author, and the voice behind the newsletter The Sociology of Business) to break down the secret formula behind the most successful celebrity businesses.

From Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop to Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty and Hailey Bieber’s billion-dollar sale of Rhode, they explore why fame alone isn’t enough, how authenticity clashes with marketing hype, and what it really takes to turn star-power into a lasting cultural phenomenon.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Introduction: Why some celebrity brands succeed while others fail
03:20 – What is Gwyneth Paltrow even selling at Goop? And with the relaunched Gwyn clothing line?
09:10 – The death of quiet luxury: where does Gwyn fit?
10:50 – Apple Martin and Gwyneth’s viral Calvin Klein moment
11:30 – What’s kept audiences captivated by Gwyneth for 30 years
18:00 – Predicting the future of Gwyneth’s brands
21:10 – Alex Cooper and Unwell Hydration is more than just trendy water
29:00 – The key to Hailey Bieber’s $1 billion brand deal
32:45 – Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty is playing the long game
35:00 – Shay Mitchell and Toddler Face Masks: rage bait or reputation ruin
36:00 – Meghan Markle’s brand As Ever: “Last time I talked about her, I got raked over the coals”

Links & Resources
Back Row Newsletter

Amy Odell - Instagram

Ana Andjelic:
Instagram
The Sociology of Business (Newsletter)
The Business of Aspiration (Book)
Hitmakers (Book)

This episode was produced by Amy Odell and edited by Amy Odell and Jonathan Voytko.

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On this holiday episode of The Back Row Podcast, Amy Odell shares a special installment of Retail Confessions, featuring an anonymous interview with a former Harrods sales associate.

The interviewee discussed what it was really like working on the shop floor at one of the world’s most famous luxury department stores — from intense sales pressure and demanding clients to the unspoken rules of the über-rich. To preserve anonymity, the interviewee’s responses are read by Amy’s husband, Rick.

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Amy Odell talks with model and writer Lauren Chan about what she calls a "recession of size inclusion" in fashion. After years of progress, brands are reverting back to casting “straight size” models by default —and the consequences go far beyond aesthetics.

Lauren shares a fashion week story that captures the problem perfectly: a major entertainment cover shoot featuring a size-12/14 talent had no designer samples available, Amy and Lauren discuss why it matters when the fashion industry ignores bigger bodies; how AI will affect body diversity in fashion; the impact of GLP-1s; and more.

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FOR PART TWO OF THIS PODCAST, sign up for Back Row Premium in Apple
or Spotify. In part two, Amy gets Dana Thomas's thoughts on Emily in Paris after watching it for the first time; how French attitudes toward plastic surgery compare to those in America; and how the French feel about the Bezos billionaire lifestyle.

In this episode of the Back Row podcast, veteran fashion journalist Dana Thomas joins Amy Odell to talk about Emily in Paris! She reveals what it was really like to actually live the fantasy of moving to Paris at 18 years old to work in fashion, how it influenced her style, and how actual French fashion is so different from the show.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Why Emily in Paris works as fantasy
01:30 Dana Thomas’s real “Emily in Paris” story
03:40 Modeling and learning French beauty and style rules
06:40 French chic vs. American cool
09:50 Life as a teenage model in the 1980s
12:00 Falling in love and moving to Paris
14:00 How French women actually dress
17:20 Scarves are very important
22:30 The French style formula, explained
26:20 Handbags, pockets, and why French women don’t carry much
29:00 Men’s style in Paris vs. the "Emily in Paris" fantasy

Links & Resources:
Back Row newsletter

Amy Odell - Instagram

Dana Thomas
Instagram
Deluxe (book)
Gods & Kings (book)
Fashionopolis (book)
Style Files (newsletter)

This episode was produced by Amy Odell and edited by Amy Odell and Jonathan Voytko.
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Gwyneth Paltrow has long been known for promoting various wellness fads that drive experts crazy. Long before she was publicly singing the praises of raw dairy products, she would publish "detox" diets each January. These were the foundation of Goop's wellness business. In this excerpt from Amy's latest book Gwyneth: The Biography, hear about how Goop began, how its viral diet advice generated great controversy (along with invaluable notoriety) in its early days, and how health and medical experts felt about it all.

Get the full Gwyneth audiobook here.

Get Gwyneth: The Biography in hardcover or ebook here.

Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from Gwyneth by Amy Odell, read by Chante McCormick. Copyright © 2025 by Amy Odell. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 

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