A Walk With Her: Rebecca Allen

Tell us a bit about yourself and the brand. 

I am Rebecca ! I live in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, with my husband, a toddler and a cat. I’m the founder of Rebecca Allen, making sophisticated solutions for women. We launched a limited collection of timeless footwear styles in multiple shades of nude and have collected a fabulous community across the US. We’re launching in Nordstrom later this spring.

Prior to launching Rebecca Allen, you spent over five years in finance. At what point did you realize you wanted to do something different and more creative?

I worked in venture before going back to business school (before traditional finance) and had a couple business ideas that I didn’t execute on during business school. So, I would say that my stint in finance was more to try it on for size. I like early stage problem solving and being scrappy. I always knew that something would call me away.

What has been the most fun and/or rewarding part about your transition into entrepreneurship and the fashion world?

Oh, this is a fun Q. I do enjoy just building. Solving for all of our early needs for the business, thinking about the type of culture we want to foster, these are all things that I find to be the most exciting and rewarding. I also really like the networking element of it. Nurturing relationships is really fun in such a vibrant industry.Rebecca Allen has evolved into an incredible platform for empowering BIPoC women and brands - can you tell us more about how this has developed and become such a central part of the brand's mission?

When we started, we wanted to be a brand for multi-faceted boss ladies. We knew that that transcended any one demographic and so we strove to be intentional in illustrating lots of different types of women across our marketing. But instead of making Cher our leading lady, we just led with Dionne (yes, this is a Clueless reference). We know that Black and brown women create and drive so much trend, and our mission has always been to cheer for her and hold her in the light in which she sees herself.

What words of wisdom would you share to our community of women? This can be about anything - life, business, relationships, etc!

If you are thinking about starting a business, make a plan and get going. Don’t keep thinking and talking about your ideas, get to it. Don’t regret not having tried.

In your “spare” time, what do you do for fun?

Haha, these days waking up before everyone in my house, sipping coffee, reading a couple pages of Bloomberg magazine and doing a 30 min workout are the things giving me the biggest thrill. As the weather improves, I’m looking forward to more outdoor dining and just spending more time outside, in general.