Alyssa Wasko Stein is the founder and designer of Los Angelesâbased womenswear brand Donni. Stein has had entrepreneurial tendencies since childhood, but she didnât always know her love of fashion would take her down the designer path. She studied a different part of the fashion industry (retailing and consumer sciences) and secured a coveted internship in Chanelâs visual merchandising department during college. But after her fatherâs passing at the beginning of her sophomore year, Stein sought out a creative outlet for her grief. She began handmaking and selling scarves, naming the business Donni Charm after her father, Donald. Stein slowly grew her side business while continuing to work at Chanel after graduating, but after some early wholesale success, she decided to focus on Donni Charm full-time. She moved operations to Los Angeles and rebranded to simply Donni. Most significantly, though, she stumbled into designing ready-to-wear clothing, as she wanted specific pieces to style with her scarves. While Stein had no prior clothing design experience, it came naturally to her, and she surprised herself with a full line of 30 SKUs within four weeks, laying the groundwork for the Donni we know and love today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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59:47
The Who What Wear Podcast: The 2025 Who What Wear 100 Beauty Awards
For our second annual Who What Wear 100 Beauty Awards, Beauty Director Erin Jahns is joined by beauty editors Jamie Schneider, Kaitlyn McLintock, and Maya Thomas for a roundtable discussion about all of their favorite products. After spending months testing items from the buzziest new brands and the industry giants, the team has narrowed their top picks down to 100 items across haircare, skincare, makeup, bodycare, tools, nails, and fragrance. Warning: You may want to listen to this episode with your beauty retailer of choiceâs website open for easy, add-to-cart access. The Who What Wear Beauty 100 story is live, so check out the full list here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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40:51
Katie Sturino Returns! The Founder of Megababe and Author of Sunny Side Up Is Back
Katie Sturino is the founder of Megababe, the innovative beauty brand known for nontoxic, cult-favorite products like Thigh Rescue and Bust Dust. She's also a body-acceptance advocate with a highly engaged community of close to one million supporters across platforms. Sturino joined Hillary Kerr on Second Life back in 2020 to talk about her winding career path from PR to social media to beauty (listen to her first episode here), but we had to have her back on to discuss her most recent pivot to fiction writing. In this episode, Sturino shares why she decided to write her debut novel, Sunny Side Up, and gets refreshingly candid about the challenges of continuing to transform your career when everyone has feedback. She opens up about what it's like to work with a ghostwriter and where she hopes to take this creative endeavor moving forward. Of course, she also catches us up on the last five years of bootstrapped growth for Megababe and shares what's on the horizon for the business.Buy Sturino's new book, Sunny Side Up, here! (It's Hillary Kerr approved.)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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48:04
The Who What Wear Podcast: Costuming The Last of Us: Ann Foley on Apocalyptic Realism and Character-Driven Design
Ann Foley is the costume designer behind the grounded and detailed wardrobes of the hit show The Last of Us. In this episode, Foley (whose extensive career also includes work on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and She Hulk) sits down with Who What Wear Senior Fashion and Social Media Editor Tara Gonzalez to discuss the costume design process for The Last of Us season 2. Foley shares the journey of developing character-driven styles, the inspiration behind the apocalyptic fashion and how it reflected the different environments, and the subtle styling changes that marked character growth after a five-year time jump. She reveals the challenges of costuming an apocalyptic world, why The Last of Us is technically a period piece, the significance of specific items like Joel's jacket and Ellie's Converse, and the collaborative process with actors and showrunners that brought the characters to life.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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38:25
Shannon Watts: Author and Founder of Moms Demand Action
Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a prominent grassroots organization fighting gun violence in the United States. She initially aspired to be an investigative journalist, and she earned a journalism degree but transitioned into a career in public relations, spending nearly two decades in corporate communications at companies like Anthem and GE Healthcare. After taking a step back from her career to become a stay-at-home mom, the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012 spurred her into action, and she founded Moms Demand Action with a simple Facebook group. She leveraged her communications and branding expertise to transform the group into a powerful nationwide movement, now part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country, with nearly 11 million supporters. She has since been recognized as one of Timeâs 100 Most Influential People and a Forbes 50 Over 50 Changemaker. Sheâs also authored books including Fight Like a Mother and Fired Up.Buy Shannonâs new book here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Hosted by Who What Wear co-founder Hillary Kerr, Second Life spotlights successful women who have made major career changes. Guests share lessons they've learned through fearlessly daring to pivot, and how they've used skills from their "first lives" to navigate their winding career journeys.
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