Lisa Says Gah Debuts a New Look, First Offline Retail Space
Lisa Says Gah, the cult e-commerce site known for colorful, Instagram-famous fashion trends, is getting a big refresh. The site launches its redesign today, along with a new logo. This past weekend, the company also revealed its first offline pop-up as a testing ground for a potential brick-and-mortar space in the future.
The site’s founder, Lisa Buhler, enlisted Sarah Kissell — who created the Nasty Gal logo — to refresh her own’s company’s aesthetic. “We were looking at the brand’s San Francisco roots and wanted to shop this really classic SF mood but make it modern and refined — more polished to reflect where we are in the business,” said Buhler.
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She says the site’s sales in the first quarter of 2021 grew 250 percent over 2020’s numbers. Currently, 20 percent of site sales come from international consumers. While Buhler founded the company in 2015, she also launched an in-house line of easy dresses and separates in 2017 that are now sold in 15 retailers worldwide. The Lisa Says Gah brand is made of largely deadstock fabric and is produced in small factories across the Bay area.
“The site has been the last [thing] to evolve until this rebrand. We’ve grown our team and product and have been getting by on a [website] template for years. As a self-funded business, everything is baby steps. It took six years to get us to a custom site,” Buhler said of growing her business.
While the LSG customer has consistently skewed young, fashion-focused and interested in bright colors and new trends — some things have changed. For instance, the site launched with expensive pieces from luxury up-and-comers like Saks Potts — but has since widened its scope to include more entry price points from under-the-radar contemporary brands.
Buhler said that this has contributed to the company’s growth. “I feel like we’ve attracted a new customer by really expanding our price point to be more accessible over the years. I don’t know [that our shopper] has changed at all, but I think [more generally] shopping habits have and consumers are buying small and local and that’s helped our site while also helping us sharpen our mission,” she said.
At Fred Segal’s Sunset Boulevard location, where LSG launched its first immersive physical retail space on Saturday, Buhler has focused on the company’s in-house brands and a limited assortment of vintage T-shirts. Now with custom garment racks and other fixtures, she sees the pop-up there (running until June 30) as a testing ground of future spaces to come.
“I’m eager to see what the reaction is and what it feels like. It’s nice to be a part of something with less pressure to commit. Lisa Says Gah has built upon its friend-to-friend POV. While many brands chase upward, we’ve built authenticity by reaching outward and doing what’s most available to us, which has strongly resonated with our customers from the start. This pop-up is our opportunity to bring our new branding to a physical space and reconnect with our [shoppers] in person,” she said.
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