Atlanta Apparel is back in June, showing new collections at AmericasMart. From June 3—6, an assortment of buyers, retailers, and insiders will visit Atlanta for the occasion, including Save The Duck‘s Seth Steinberg and Marie Oliver‘s Sarah Doggett Evenson. Ahead of the event, we spoke with Steinberg and Doggetty Evenson on their respective brands’ signature styles, long-term goals, and what makes Atlanta Apparel so special within the wider retail landscape.
Seth Steinberg, Vice President, Sales, Save The Duck
Save The Duck is an incredibly sustainable brand. Was that always a huge focus, or did that grow over time?
That was the vision behind the brand from our CEO, Nicolas Bargi. He’s in a third-generation family there that were in the sportswear business and men’s dresswear, and they brought Chinese production to the small town of Pisa. Nicolas is an outdoor enthusiast. He’s a surfer, a skier, and he saw what was happening with global warming and the impact on the environment. At that time, he came up with the concept to launch Save The Duck and replace real goosedown with our synthetic patented technology called plumtech. Sustainability was always at the forefront—it’s everything our company is about. It’s our brand equity. What started out as just a basic, packable puffer in the early stages of the brand has now morphed into a whole lifestyle collection, between puffers and loungewear and smart-leisure and swimwear. We stayed true to our roots as a sustainable brand, testing fabrics, and we have a huge sustainability team in Italy. In 2019, we were the first Italian fashion company to achieve B-Corp, which is the highest level of sustainability, and that really put us at the forefront of what we were doing, and being pioneers in the space, but continuing on our journey to live in an animal-free, cruelty-free world. It was very important to Nicolas and our company, and it’s who we are as a brand. What’s amazing is that we are providing such an array of fashion throughout our collection.
Save The Duck Spring 2025 (Courtesy of Save The Duck)
Since you joined Save The Duck as vice president of sales, how have you seen the brand advance and grow?
I have been involved with the brand since the beginning in the US. I was working for a distributor at the time, and almost two years ago, Save The Duck hired me directly to continue because I had built the brand for Nicolas in the US. What was once just a basic puffer that you can get at Uniqlo has now turned into a real fashion lifestyle brand between rain wear, basic puffers, fashionable jackets, and parkas. We’ve launched the whole “smart leisure” collection that’s made from all recycled plastic bottles, which is pretty amazing. What most people don’t also realize is that it’s all designed in Milan, so you’re getting that great fashion, high-end look, feel, quality, details, and trims throughout at a fraction of the price compared to our competitors out there. We’re the opening price, but a premium product. I also want to add that now all our fabrics are all ESG-tested, which is taking things to a whole other level.
What are some of Save The Duck’s ongoing sustainability goals?
We’re working with 500 other B-Corps to essentially achieve carbon neutrality through everything we do by 2030. We have a major plan in place. We live and die by our brand equity, and that’s really our DNA, and we stay really true to our roots to make sure we’re on the up and up with everything we do.
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- Save The Duck showroom (Seth Steinberg)
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- Save The Duck showroom (Seth Steinberg)
What are some of Save The Duck’s core, signature styles or key pieces pieces that have become fan favorites?
We do amazing reversible jackets in the 250 to three-and-a-quarter MSRP price range. We do this one amazing fabric that’s super lightweight, but really high-shine, iridescent color palette, that are short and cropped. We have 450 total SKU’s in our collection, so it’s pretty massive. I would say in the women’s specifically, it’s the fashion pieces that continue to perform well. Mixed media, sherpa jackets, sherpa-lined pieces, faux furs. Anything that has some sort of interest in terms of textures, fabrics, and details seems to be resonating,
What does Save The Duck have in store at its showroom for Atlanta Apparel’s June edition?
We had always been in Molly Hurley’s showroom. MH&A’s showroom, I believe it’s on the ninth floor in the mart. We have a nice space in her showroom. She’s now come on board again as our sales rep in the southeast, so we’re excited about that opportunity to just roll out distribution, because we have really good accounts in the territory, but we certainly could always grow and add additional accounts.
Save The Duck Spring 2025 (Courtesy of Save The Duck)
What makes Atlanta Apparel so special and important to the retail industry?
It starts with great retailers, and then great manufacturers. But in the southeast…the economies are thriving there. The businesses are great. A lot of the specialty stores, with how they curate assortments and shop the market and find the best of the best brands, really separate themselves from the department stores and the level of service that they provide. Everything is cyclical, and the specialty stores in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s were just the businesses. Businesses were so amazing. People were shopping like crazy. With the amount of wealth in the United States today—and especially in particular in the southeast, with the real estate booms and tech moving into the territory—it’s created a lot of opportunity for these specialty stores to separate themselves and carve out a niche. All their businesses are really amazing because of it.
How have sales been for the brand this quarter, and what are some goals within that department this summer?
We continue to gain momentum in the US. For fall, we added almost 80 women’s boutiques in the US, which is pretty significant. We continue to grow because people hear about our brand and story, and then they see the fabrics and the quality and the overall make of our garments. For the price point, you know, we’re winning by default, but for spring, summer, and particularly Q1 and Q2, it remains cold in January, February, March and even into April. Women need layering pieces, women need rainwear. Rainwear’s a big void in the market. When you look at the quality of our rain jackets, we’re doing a full waterproof jacket made from all recycled materials, under $350 retail, and it’s a recycled stretch fabric. We do a classic jacket, we do a long, 48-inch jacket. We do double-breasted models. With the void in that category, and then just overall in terms of fashion pieces that we offer, our business has been really strong, and [the pieces] sell out. The sell-out has been really strong in the southeast.
Save The Duck Spring 2025 (Courtesy of Save The Duck)
Sarah Doggett Evenson, Founder, Marie Oliver
What are some new advancements or updates to Marie Oliver’s latest collections this season?
In our collection for Resort ’26, this collection lives across holiday, our resort deliveries, and pre-spring. The mindset behind the collection is really focusing on consumer mindsets and where our customer is going, what she needs for the holiday party, our elevated winter, that’s kind of that transitional moment, and then pre-spring, giving a hint of spring. We’ve introduced some new fabrications, some chiffons, and those kinds of things for a lighter weight, more ethereal moment in the collection that balances with our vegan leathers, cotton poplins and silks. We’re excited for that, and the textures and the layers that it brings, and then really expanding into our outerwear. We launched new outerwear in fall, and have received a great response from the market, so we’re excited to continue to delve into that in holiday and in that winter capsule. Sequins are a huge party moment, so introducing some pailettes, some printed sequence, taking on those advancements as well. For our swim and cabana, Marie Oliver launched a swim collection in 2024, so this will be our third swim collection. We’ve really rounded this out as a category, calling swim “Cabana.” So, really rounding out that category, expanding in that category, both in swim and those cabana moments in separates, bringing the immersion of prints, expanding our solids program and that swim capsule. I’m really excited for the breadth that that capsule brings, because we’re seeing huge and great momentum in our swimming business as well.
Sarah Doggett Evenson (Courtesy)
Marie Oliver is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. What does it mean to you to reach that milestone?
It’s an exciting moment in the brand. It’s an exciting moment in the business. I use an analogy all the time. When you start a business, getting the wheels on the bus, but it’s a totally different strategy keeping the wheels on the bus and keeping them going and rolling together. It really speaks to getting the wheels on the bus, keeping the wheels on the bus and rolling on—we’re very, very excited for that. It’s amazing. When I look back 10 years ago, there’s part of me that feels like it’s been 25 years, and part of me that feels like it’s been three. A lot of the foundation of the business and the foundation of the brand is still very true and resonates today. Reaching that milestone, there are lots of brands that never make it this far, and it takes all things working together at all times. There’s no one silver bullet that gets you to that 10-year mark. It’s being close to the product, it’s being close to the brand and being close to the business, all things from day one all the way through, and really having those three priorities as the pillars that drive every decision that the brand makes. We’re very excited for what this is, very excited for what the next 10 years will hold for us. It’s a huge milestone, both in the business and in the brand, and I’m most honored and humbled that when I really look at this and 10 years, it still really resonates with where this brand started and what we’re doing.
Sarah Doggett Evenson (Courtesy)
What are some of Marie Oliver’s signature styles or key elements that are core to the brand?
That consumer mindset really drives our product conception, where she’s going, what she’s doing. Print is a huge part of Marie Oliver—the expression through print, and how she uses that to express her sense of self and her sense of style. Prints will always be a pillar in the business and a pillar of this brand, pushing the envelope with really artful prints and directional prints, giving her those moments that make the brand unique in the market. Our fabric assortment is quite vast, and so really giving her the difference, whether it’s an occasion dress or elevated everyday in that, so we have a wide range of fabrications. When we started, it was almost exclusively 100% silk, and then over the course of 10 years has evolved to where we have quite a vast fabric assortment that really allows us to continue to fill every aspect of her wardrobe. What she’s coming to to us for, but details, patterns, you know, the things that she’s reaching for in her closet, she’s coming back to season after season, time after time again. It’s so amazing. I see so many people wearing Marie Oliver, and it’s a dress that we design and put into the market in year two, and it’s so incredible to me. There’s a timeless nature to what we do and the collections that we put out that doesn’t feel on-trend; it feels very relevant to the market, but it truly has a timeless aspect to it that she’s reaching for it year after year and season after season.
Sarah Doggett Evenson (Courtesy)
How long have you been presenting your collections at Atlanta Apparel, and are there new updates to your showroom this season?
We actually launched the brand in the Atlanta market. Our very first market was October 2014, so we were selling into our Spring/Summer 2015 collection. We’ve been showing the collection in Atlanta since day one; the brand’s based out of North Carolina, so Atlanta felt like the natural place to launch the brand and be. Atlanta [Apparel] has always been such an earmark to this brand and to this business, from a wholesale perspective. We actually share a showroom space on the ninth floor, and it’s been a wonderful collaboration with Michael Perry’s showroom. He has a permanent showroom there. We show in other regional markets. We actually just opened a New York showroom, which we’re very excited about, a permanent showroom there. We are only in Atlanta for market. We evaluated a couple years ago opening a permanent showroom, which didn’t really make sense for us as a business, and so it’s been wonderful to partner with Michael Perry in his space. Maybe a year ago, he did a full build out for Marie Oliver. We definitely have a footprint and a space there that buyers can expect to see us. We’ve been in that partnership and collaboration with him for quite some time, and it’s been a wonderful thing for us.
What do you love the most about Atlanta Apparel—and what makes the market special and meaningful for the retail industry?
One thing I really love about Atlanta Apparel [is] the buyers that are coming there, they come with the mindset to give the brands and collections the time and energy that it takes to truly show a collection. They come in, they’re prepared for a two-hour appointment. They’re sitting down for that appointment. You’re really talking about the line, you’re talking about the new collection. You really have an opportunity to connect with the buyers and what’s working in their stores, what’s not working in their stores. Sometimes I find in other regional markets, as well as national and international buyers, there are a lot of brands to see; not that there aren’t in Atlanta, but the time and energy that it really takes to talk about a collection, speak to the product, speak to the “why” behind it, sometimes those moments can be missed. When buyers are coming to Atlanta, they come with that intention of sitting down and really talking about the brand, talking about the business, which is always really refreshing and nice. We as a brand, we as a business, spend so much time and energy on each collection, and the reason “why” behind the product, both from an inspirational perspective and from a merchandising perspective. To be able to communicate that to the buyers, get their feedback, is feels very productive and is informative on both sides. When I look at Atlanta Apparel and what makes this market so especially special and meaningful for the retail industry, it’s really been a mainstay in the marketplace and in the retail for quite some time—but even when you start to look at it, I think Atlanta is very shoppable from a buyer perspective. Obviously, there’s an infinite amount of showrooms, [and] many, many brands show there, but it’s very streamlined, it’s very focused. It’s all in one building. They do a good job of organizing it. The market is consistent, and they’re offering their dates, buyers know what to expect. While there’s always volatility in the marketplace and the retail industry, having that consistency really gives buyers the confidence to come to market and be dedicated to market. It’s been great for us in building our specialty business. Obviously, specialty was where we built this brand, and it’s been wonderful. There are plenty of brands, but each brand can still have their own moment and shine in the Atlanta market, which is impactful to the buyers and to the business for each brand.
Sarah Doggett Evenson (Courtesy)
What are some of your upcoming projects or future goals for Marie Oliver within the next 10 years?
We have just opened a permanent New York showroom in the Chelsea Art Building in New York, which we are very excited about. We will open for the June market, and that is such a milestone for this brand, being 10 years in. Obviously, we’ve been participating in New York markets since the inception of the brand, but to have that permanent space there, we’re excited that it will round out seeing buyers—so if they’re not in our regional markets, it gives us a permanent space to have that meaningful connection with them there. I’m really excited for that. June will be our first, and what that does to give the presence of the brand and also obviously supporting in regional markets as well. As we look ahead 10 years, it’s when I think about it and look back at the past 10 and all we’ve accomplished…it seems like 10 years is a long time. 10 years feels like forever away. When I look at it more short term goals, there’s three to five-year marks. But what we’ve seen is the establishment of our new swim category. I do believe that you will see the brand expanding into additional categories in the next three to five years, and also within the collection and our product assortments in new categories. They’re both in ready-to-wear and also in accessories. I do believe you will see us take an international presence, which is very exciting. We are planning the groundwork for that right now and what that will be. When I really look further in the future, down that five, 10-year mark, Marie Oliver has built a very established wholesale business as well as a direct to consumer and e-commerce business, and the natural next step for that would be expanding into a retail footprint.
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