STYLE | Personal Professional

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STYLE | Personal Professional
Lawson: T-shirt-based styling can be sophisticated and elegant

Shopping for clothes, accessories and beauty and wellness products is easy for Blair Lawson, chief merchandising officer for Goop Inc. The company, founded in 2008 by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, offers pretty much everything that fits Lawson’s personal style.

“You are sort of looking at it,” she joked during a conversation at the company’s recently expanded Santa Monica headquarters while wearing a flared skirt from Goop’s own G-Label brand with Alexandre Birman black suede stiletto sandals, both offered via the company website.

“I love to mix a T-shirt with everything,” Lawson continued. “I think (my style is) trying to be sophisticated and elegant, but also L.A. casual. I wear a lot of G-Label. I find it such an easy solution without having to work, and I feel styled without having to think about it. It’s feminine and it’s elegant and it’s timeless.”

Goop, which describes itself as a modern lifestyle brand, started as Paltrow’s personal newsletter. The company’s website features Goop-branded products as well as third-party items that fit the Goop philosophy.

Lawson joined the company three and a half years ago to oversee the launch of the company’s first branded products, the Goop by Juice beauty line. The company’s offerings have expanded since then to include a wide range of beauty, fashion, wellness and home products. The website also continues to feature editorial content.

Lawson called Goop’s growth explosive since she joined.

“We were 20 (staff) total, working out of … we called it the barn … it was Gwyneth’s pool house,” Lawson said. “We are now close to 200. From 2015 to 2016 we tripled the business, and then we tripled it again the next year.”

Fortune magazine earlier this year valued Goop at $250 million.

Some have questioned the effectiveness or safety of some products and health regimens Goop has sold or promoted – the company agreed last week to pay out $145,000 in a settlement related to claims it made about a line of products known as vaginal eggs. And, even before the launch of Goop products, some celebrity watchers piled on Paltrow for her perceived obsession with the problems of the privileged.

“One of her theories is that people don’t like it when you try to switch gears,” Lawson said, apparently unruffled by controversy. “She was an actress. That was the box people had her in. It was confusing when she suddenly became an entrepreneur.

“The longtime goal is that Goop is a brand that has a power of its own.”

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