The Modern Wardrobe: Founder Gia Mezz Looks Back On Five Years Of Leau

Forbes

16-06-2025

The Cascade Drape Gown from The Modern Wardrobe, LEAU's latest drop.
Gia Mezz, the designer and founder of LEAU, is an impressive young woman. June 16, 2025 is the five-year anniversary of her brand, which was founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With no formal design training, relying on her internal compass and an authentic desire to connect with her clients, Mezz is entirely the architect of her own success.
'You know,' she told me in a quiet voice, 'the first month we did $10,000. That was the biggest surprise to me, which I think goes back to trusting yourself and trusting your gut. And then growing over those next couple months, I mean, we scaled the brand in the first year and a half to $2 million. That was kind of like a 'wow' moment for me. And truthfully, over those next couple years, it was a little difficult navigating the brand and scaling from a business perspective. But I will say, we're coming off of our best-month-ever, May, and we reached eight figures in lifetime sales as well in May. So I think right now I might be feeling a little bit like, I can't believe I just did that. to see those numbers, especially at the beginning, I can't believe I thought of something and this is what has become.'
When the designer and I met to talk about the last five years, and what's coming next, she told me that the name of the brand, LEAU, is a reference to her favorite perfume, Chanel No° 5. 'I love vintage fashion,' Mezz told me. 'I spend my free time kind of curating my own collection. I just felt like the name was perfect, because that perfume's been around for like over 100 years. It played perfectly into my brand, my story and the mission, to what I'm doing here.'
A model wears the Classic Column Oversized Blazer from The Modern Wardrobe, LEAU's latest drop.
Long before Mezz had a clearly articulated plan, she knew that she would build something.
'I've always known that I was going to have my own business and do my own thing, and I've always had that independent drive to me. In addition, from an early age, I've just always loved fashion. But for many, many years, I never thought that I could put the two together. I grew up in Connecticut, in a small town very far from a major city. My family are nurses, my dad drives a truck. I guess I just never thought that it was possible, I just always knew I was going to do my own thing. When I first moved to LA in 2014, I just happened to get a job at a fashion startup. I think it was always in me, and I just never realized I could do it.
I asked Mezz how she convinced herself, how she turned whatever corner that allowed all of this to happen.
'I'm really big on manifesting and following your intuition,' the founder explained, 'and I know I've always just had that deep knowing. Over time, my small actions have led me to where I am today, and I think maybe it's more of those small moments than one big moment that I can really attribute to where I am. I would say, honestly, as young as maybe seven or eight, I just always knew I was gonna do my own thing, and I guess I'm here now.'
Starting a company while the world was shut down, which is what Gia Mezz did, sounds terrifying, but it also makes complete sense. Work, I have argued this to you many times, is an excellent place to put one's anxiety, it is incredibly useful to be able to turn fear and existential dread into fuel. I am always curious about successful systems, so I asked about hers.
Gia Mezz, founder and designer of LEAU.
'Honestly, it's still surprising to me,' Mezz said of her business launch. 'I obviously had the idea before COVID in 2020. It was something that came to me in 2019. My background is in fashion, specifically for a fast fashion startup. So I was really familiar with that side of the business, which kind of led to me being frustrated with fast fashion. I never had the experience in actual design, that's something I taught myself. So in 2019, I taught myself graphic design. And I was talking to factories and beginning on samples and trying to put together collections to drop. I knew how you drop a collection, like in a very traditional sense of the fashion word.'
But then COVID disturbed the plans of our whole planet. Shipping was messed up, factories closed, textiles and notions (all the fixtures and various sewing accouterments) became incredibly difficult to source. Especially when it became clear that certain textiles might carry the live virus around longer than others.
'A lot of stuff that I was planning, I couldn't do it to its full effect,' Mezz explained. 'I had to be really selective and resourceful as much as possible during that time. I had to really pick and choose what styles could launch with what was available to me at the time. It led me to drop pieces in a very non-traditional way. I'll drop a couple pieces for launch and see how they do and really test the market. And honestly, I think in my case it was a happy accident, because it worked out in the best way possible for me. Like, I'm extremely grateful that we were able to grow the brand so fast, especially during COVID. I couldn't believe that people were buying, but the demand was there. And people were really receptive to what was dropped. I have a lot to be thankful for. Things were so unknown. I think there was beauty in that and just like trusting your mission and your process and just hoping for the best is kind of what I did. I couldn't really plan something because things were changing so fast. And from one month to the next, things were changing, kind of like this tariff situation.'
The Ysabelle Babydoll Corset Mini Dress from The Modern Wardrobe, LEAU's latest drop.
The clothing is what made everything possible, combined with Mezz's desire and commitment to communicating directly with her customers. Let's start with the clothes. But because I never know how much people understand about pattern making and the process of actually producing apparel, let me explain a few things.
When a garment is made of a patterned fabric, it is extra expensive to match the pattern at the seams because doing so creates a lot of waste. But if a pattern is loud enough, attractive enough, it can be used to hide design flaws or corners cut to drop the cost of production. Part of making a pattern (the pieces of fabrics which, when assembled, make up a garment) is grading, sizing up and down from the original design. By using a textile with a small amount of stretch, like the percentage of elastin one finds in a pair of fast fashion jeans, brands can reduce the time spent on making sure each size fits as well as the original sample. The stretch makes it work well enough, most of the time, on enough bodies that there isn't a good enough reason to change cost-cutting practices. All of these practices are connected to the sizing issues in the fashion industry especially for larger people who as a rule have a much more difficult time finding clothing that they like. This, of course, is impacted further by the refusal, by some brands, to make clothes in larger sizes.
On LEAU's website, prominently placed, are the words which Gia Mezz works by, a guiding philosophy, so to speak. I asked her to talk to me about how these words impacted her design process and the business end of her brand.
Front and back of the Sancia Corset Midi Dress from from The Modern Wardrobe, LEAU's latest drop.
'The biggest thing is, we are all about investment fashion,' Mezz told me, 'so, in every piece, can I re-wear this? Can I restyle it? That's the basis of all the pieces that we put out. With my background being in fast fashion, I've seen a lot of men in the industry leading things and not really caring about the fits and the fabrics. Because, when you put on clothes, you want to feel good and you want to feel confident. If there's a step missing, you have to use the right fabrics and have someone making sure it is designed and fit for a woman's body. In the pieces I designed, I wanted to take it a step further and really emphasize figure flattering pieces that can be for a wide range of bodies. That's an emphasis that we really, really strongly pride ourselves in. Not only the fit, but also the fabrics, and having them last longer than what you would buy from a trends driven company or a fast fashion company in general. I think it's sad because I don't think it's really communicated to the masses just how much is lacking when it comes to cheap fashion, especially fast fashion. There are missing parts that you're not getting when you get cheaper clothing.'
When it comes to her textile choices and use of color, Mezz listens to both her gut and the people who want to buy her designs. She is a listener, she pays attention, she does what she tells people she will do. This communication is intricately linked to the colors and fabrics used in her designs.
'Obviously a big part of the brand is timeless pieces,' the designer said, 'and a lot of our styles are in black and white, which are pretty timeless in my opinion. And I think when you're running a brand, you have to think about not only the design, but the business side of things, and how you can continue to grow and scale. I think we've really relied on the fact of using some of the most popular colors, black and white, to really translate our designs. We've started exploring, like within the past year, some other colors, and we launched a color blocking dress about six months ago that has quickly become our best seller.'
The Back of the Alaia Drape Maxi Dress from The Modern Wardrobe, LEAU's latest drop.
'A lot of our styles are iterations of a similar silhouette,' Mezz continued, 'but in another color, or in a mini or a midi length, and that's because we really listen to our customer feedback. A lot of our newer styles are variations, stuff that's been highly, highly requested, especially when it comes to color. Like the pink color we were asked for. People were begging us to release this one dress we have in pink. They were like, 'we want to wear this dress, you have it in white, but I can't wear it to weddings. Can you launch it in other colors so I can wear it as a wedding guest?' And I was like, sure. I think that attitude has contributed to the success of the brand. As much as it's creative and design, it is just like listening to the customers, and what they want to run, and grow, and scale a business. So I would say it's equal parts creative and listening to what your community really wants.'
One of the phrases on her website, 'Buy Nice, Wear Twice,' especially caught my attention, I was curious about where the rhyme came from, what inspired the phrase. Mezz immediately gave credit and told me another story which illustrated the character of who I was speaking with.
'I'm going to be honest, that actually was something that came from a customer, her name is Paige. Over the past couple months, we've been getting a lot of traction on TikTok specifically. One of our customers bought our corset, which is our most popular product. And she was like, 'I've bought from these other brands and similar styles, and they've never lasted past one wear. But this one, like, trust me, it's worth it. You can buy nice, or you could buy twice.' She ended up driving a lot of sales, luckily for the both of us. And it just is something that kind of stuck.'
Swatches of fabrics from planning for LEAU's latest release.
'Because you know, we do use the premium fabrics and our corsets have steel boning. It's just something I felt like really communicated like our mission and how we are differentiated from fast fashion. And you know, just because you see a similar style somewhere else at a cheaper price point, it doesn't always mean that it's the best. I totally understand that everyone has different budgets. But again, from my experience, I've been a consumer fooled by overconsumption and hopping on trends. And I've either never worn the stuff I've bought or never worn it more than once.'
This is something that probably all of us can understand. How weird that this is, or is close to, a universal experience in 2025. It's not exactly cool. I suspect work by people like Mezz is how we fix that.
'I think what's important for me,' the Gia Mess said, 'the brand aside, is that I'd really love for people to really think about what they're purchasing and do their research. There's so much misconception I find, especially now. There's a lot of talk about factories and producing overseas and a lot of fast fashion. There's just so much misconception. I'd just love for people to take it a step further, if it interests them, to learn more about fashion in general. My goal with the brand is to teach people that less is more sometimes. You don't need to feed into these cycles and these trends and the overconsumption of it all. I mean, I'm super passionate about that. I would love for people to just open the conversation more. And I think people are, and I'm super thrilled about that. I think, and it goes back to what we said at the beginning, trusting your intuition is exactly what got me here. I can't imagine the younger me seeing this.'