How Ulla Johnson Played Fashion’s Long Game

In New York, a city synonymous with the colour black, Ulla Johnson’s bold and bright designs stand out. During last year’s quiet luxury moment, her clothes remained covered in patterns sourced by artisans from India and Kenya. Rather than the sleek, even severe, aesthetic New York brands are known for, the brand embraces a softer, unabashedly feminine style, filled with floral prints, full skirts, ruffles and lace.

Standing out, Johnson said, has been her “main advantage.”

“Our aesthetic is incredibly clearly defined and recognisable,” Johnson told The Business of Fashion. “People know when it’s one of our garments. There is something I think that’s very much our own, that we have continued to articulate and be true to.”

The differences go beyond the clothes. While most New York fashion businesses typically fall into one of two buckets — corporate-owned behemoths or designer-led brands with small, dedicated followings — Ulla Johnson sits at a rare intersection between the two.

Since launching her business over 25 years ago, Johnson has seen slow but steady growth. She didn’t open her first store until 2017 and has never taken outside investment. She still goes on trips to far-flung destinations like Peru to source materials, and the brand still does its draping and fabric development in house.

“At a time where there was a fast fashion explosion, we were doing something that really was slow fashion,” she said. “It felt like we were swimming against the tide, and there was a moment where it actually negatively impacted our business.”

Recent years especially have seen that patience begin to payoff. In the past half-decade, the business has doubled in size, with 130 percent growth since 2020; its sales run in a nine-figure range, a rarity for New York fashion businesses. It’s won celebrity fans in Katie Holmes, Margot Robbie and even Michelle Obama. And after years of primarily selling through wholesale, this year it became a majority direct-to-consumer business: 55 percent of its sales today come from its own e-commerce and three storefronts, a number it wants to increase.

Competitors who have taken a similar path — slow, sustainably produced fashion with a bold, recognisable aesthetic at an aspirational-but-not-outrageous price point — have seen varying outcomes. Mara Hoffman, founded a year after Ulla Johnson, shuttered its business this year, citing the relentless demands of the fashion industry. Meanwhile, Australian-born Zimmermann, which launched in 1991, sold in a $1-billion deal to private-equity giant Advent International in 2023.

Thibaut Perrin-Faivre, the former president of Burberry Americas who joined Ulla Johnson in April, believes there’s potential for the company to look more like the latter, with room for growth in both new markets and new categories. Beauty is on the horizon, starting with a fragrance. There will be more investment in brick-and-mortar, as well as expanding Ulla Johnson’s international footprint, which currently represents 30 percent of sales.

Still, they’re not in a hurry.

“I’ve seen a lot of brands come and go, that grow very quickly and then disappear,” said Perrin-Faivre. “[Ulla] doesn’t want to grow too fast, she wants to protect the equity of the brand. And that, to me, is the testament of a true luxury brand.”

Slow and Steady

When Johnson founded her business in 1998, it was a very different moment for the fashion industry, particularly in New York. Luxury conglomerates were still in the process of being formed, meaning the gap between bootstrapped businesses and luxury’s biggest brands didn’t feel insurmountable. Small boutiques abounded and department stores still dominated retail, giving new brands opportunities to get in front of shoppers.

“It was a very exciting time in New York, and it was a very different time to start a brand,” said Johnson. “It wasn’t really based in having a customer-acquisition strategy or a marketing plan. It was just really from the heart, and it could be done in a small way.”

Then in her twenties, Johnson felt a gap in the market for “something beautiful, something made with purpose, for longevity.” She started small, with five pieces sold in a friend’s boutique. Those did well enough to catch the attention of a buyer at the now-shuttered Barneys New York, which picked up her second collection.

For years, the brand’s relatively small collections sold through wholesale partners brought it organic growth, but it still operated under the radar. She first presented at New York Fashion Week only in 2014, and didn’t stage a full runway show until February 2017. Bringing the brand to the runway, with a 31-look, 1970s-inspired collection, she said, was a turning point that “really changed the creative impulse in our studio.”

Unlike several other American fashion success stories of late, such as The Row or Khaite, Johnson hasn’t won consumer affection for providing quality basics, the perfect pair of jeans or a simple-but-chic cashmere sweater, but instead for eye-catching, make-you-look-twice pieces, like the Kamaria sweater dress, which is created from handmade, crocheted paisleys and has a fringed bottom. Even its more basic pieces have a little something extra: The fleece Calla sweatpant features a lace-up button detail on the front. Its price point — most dresses sit between $500 and $1000, tops run between $250 and $500, jeans max out at $500 a pair — makes it more affordable than major luxury players, but a step above contemporary brands.

“Anyone can buy a brown crossbody, but her take on it would make me spend a little bit more because you’re not seeing that anywhere else,” said influencer Stephanie Covington, who goes by A Life Well Saved on Instagram, referencing the brand’s Adria Pleated Wave Clutch.

For Johnson, the goal of her work has always been to help women feel beautiful, like “the best version of themselves,” she said. In some ways, it’s a subversion of the idea of power dressing.

“We’re often called feminine, and it’s something that I celebrate, but I also think that there’s a great deal of strength to what we do,” she said. “The woman who comes to us wants to feel beautiful, but she also wants to feel powerful. She’s a woman who is unafraid to announce herself. These are not quiet clothes.”

Meeting the Moment

World building has always been a priority for Ulla Johnson. It’s long placed billboards on the heavily trafficked Houston Street in New York’s SoHo, a favourite spot for luxury advertising. In a nod to the multicultural roots of its prints, it shoots its campaigns across the globe, from Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona to an archeological ruin outside of Fez, Morocco.

Perrin-Faivre feels that the brand’s distinct aesthetic will be an asset as it looks to grow. They don’t want to take a copy-and-paste approach to any opportunity that comes their way, but he feels that homewares could also be an option. (Already, it advertises in shelter magazines alongside fashion books.)

“Because the message is so distinctive, you can apply it to some categories and some maybe not,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it, you can choose what you want to do when you are a founder-led company.”

Before then, fragrance is up next — it first tested beauty through a collaboration with the French brand Sisley earlier this year. It’s planning for another store in New York next year, and with international expansion on the mind, it’s also looking at opening a store in London.

Even as Johnson looks to grow, however, she continues to do things differently. She’s not interested in following the Zimmerman path — decamping to Paris Fashion Week, or selling a majority stake in her brand. That’s not to say she hasn’t considered what the future could look like. But once again, she’s playing the long game.

“I’m grooming my daughter to come into the brand,” she admitted. “She’s very young, but I see that spark in her eyes.”