Rebecca Minkoff's 20-Year Bet On Herself

Forbes

02-07-2025

Rebecca Minkoff
What if one question could define your entire career?
That's what happened to a young designer in 2005. Just as Rebecca Minkoff's signature 'I Love NY' t-shirts were gaining momentum thanks to actress Jenna Elfman's appearance on the Jay Leno show, Elfman reached out to Minkoff and asked if she also made handbags.
At the time, Minkoff had never designed a handbag. She said yes anyway.
'I feel like a lot of opportunities come about from white lies,' she admits. 'I knew where to get leather because I had been making leather jackets. I love going into Home Depot and looking at all the hardware, so the hardware for the first few thousand bags was legitimately from the different Home Depots around the city where I dragged my suitcase.'
Finding Her MVP
After countless hardware runs and late nights spent stitching together prototypes, she came up with what would become a movement-defining accessory: the "Morning After Bag."
The slouchy, leather trim bag designed to carry everything in case of last-minute sleepovers catapulted Minkoff's business and turned her into a household name.
'It was during the time of Sex and the City,' Minkoff says. 'But more than that, it was taking back the idea that (the walk of shame) should be something shameful. It signaled that movement of independence. We can be strong, independent, have a great night out and walk home proudly.'
It can be astonishing how much things change over a twenty-year period, yet some things stay remarkably consistent. While the Rebecca Minkoff of 2005 was helping women strip the shame away from their 'morning after,' today she channels that same energy into helping women entrepreneurs build businesses on their own terms through the Female Founders Collective.
Yet she remains a fixture in the fashion and accessories industry, having outlasted so many of her peers thanks to her rare ability to adapt, evolve, and innovate across two decades of building her business.
One of Minkoff's key lessons? Focus on what's working.
'When you find your MVP, your minimum viable product, you ride that wave,' she says. 'Once you have momentum, figure out why it's working and iterate on that success.'
The Rebecca Minkoff brand has served as something of a companion for women's milestone moments: her first real paycheck, her first big job, her first child.
'The brand has always been about being that friend, that mentor,' she says. 'We started out the same age, and we've stretched together.'
The Rebecca Minkoff brand persona isn't a stretch from the woman behind it. When I first met Minkoff in 2023, she had invited me onto her podcast to talk about my forthcoming book.
I was struck by how grounded and approachable she was. Weeks later, when the studio lost all the audio from our interview, she stayed calm and unbothered. 'Well, this is not the best news,' she wrote to me. 'But let's find a time to re-record.' As with this article, she followed up personally, not through layers of team or PR, but with a quick note from her own inbox (though she eventually did enlist a little help from an assistant to reschedule our recording).
Minkoff understands that her long term relationship with consumers, influencers, media and those in her industry comes along with high expectations.
'One of the best things you can do for your customer is make high-quality pieces that last,' she says. 'If it holds up for 10 or 15 years, that's the most sustainable thing you can do.'
By the late 2000s, Minkoff's eponymous brand had become a household name. Behind the scenes, however, she was in the red.
'I was $60,000 in debt on a credit card I had no idea how I'd pay off,' she says. 'We were in great stores, but losing money. I had no idea how to get out of the hole.'
Then the 2009 recession hit. That's when Minkoff made the tough decision to lower her prices. 'Hero bags that were $495 and $595 came down to $295 and $395,' she says. 'We sacrificed our margin, but we knew it was our only choice to stay in business at that time.'
Minkoff's bet worked. Bags began flying off shelves. According to Minkoff, the company saw 546% growth in 2009, selling over 100,000 units over the next three years.
'I think our customer felt like we listened to her,' says Minkoff. 'We saw it as a short term play for two to three years while our customer was getting back on her feet.'
Minkoff proudly poses with one of her first handbags
From the beginning, those close to Minkoff recognized her talent and believed in her success.
'When I saw how quickly Rebecca snapped into action to respond to that demand, I knew she was going to build something amazing,' says longtime friend and former DailyCandy editor Crystal Meers. 'People didn't just want one bag, they wanted one in every color, and she was so determined to deliver. From the start, she has been resilient, resourceful, and tireless, doing what needs to be done to succeed.'
Experimenting is core to the brand, not only when it comes to product but in their marketing as well. Without traditional ad dollars early on, the company frequently turned to emerging tech as a way to build product visibility and brand recognition while finding new ways to connect with consumers.
In fact, Minkoff was one of the first designers to experiment with QR codes, live-streaming fashion shows, and offering SMS-based customer service long before those were standard. Minkoff famously created the first interactive dressing room mirrors and was a pioneer on bridging NFTs with real world shopping experiences.
'Sometimes we won, sometimes we failed,' she says. 'I didn't care. I wanted to try. If you're not testing, you're not learning.'
One of her biggest tests came during 2021, when COVID gutted many businesses, including hers.
'We were down 70%,' Minkoff recalled. 'Our supply chain collapsed. At one point, we only had 3,000 bags in stock instead of 300,000.'
That's when Minkoff made the call to sell the business. They brought in Sunrise Brands as a strategic partner, selling for a reported $13-$19 million.
The sale allowed her to shift into a new role: Chief Creative Officer. 'Now, I focus on design, events, and building relationships. I'm not in bank meetings anymore. I'm having fun again. I'm back to what I'm best at.'
'I always asked, 'What am I bad at?'' she recalls. 'Then, once I could, I hired other people for those roles.'
Reflecting on her career, Minkoff sees how each season of running her business evolved alongside her own personal growth. She went from stitching t-shirts on her apartment floor to showing her collection annually at New York Fashion Week. When she became a parent, her relationship to work shifted.
After returning from maternity leave she realized she couldn't be everything to everyone.
But Minkoff says she has never believed in balance.
'There's no one-size-fits-all answer,' she points out. 'Most of the time, the framework we're trying to 'balance' within was built for men.'
She tried working too much. She tried clocking in and out like it was a desk job. She tested her limits, then redesigned them.
'I brought my kid with me to so many events and shows,' she says. 'I didn't sleep. But I didn't want to be away. So I found a way.'
That realization paved the foundation for her next chapter.
In 2018, after the birth of her third child, Minkoff launched the Female Founder Collective with co-founder Alison Wyatt, created the Superwomen podcast to amplify the voices of women entrepreneurs, and later debuted her newsletter Can't Make This Sh*t Up, sharing raw, relatable stories of founders navigating highs and lows.
'It was personal,' she says. 'It was me, pumping in an airport lounge and thinking, someone else has to be going through this.'
Like so many entrepreneurs, Minkoff built the business she wished she'd had at the beginning of her own career.
In 2021, she published her first book, Fearless, which was part memoir, part leadership lessons designed to show women how to trust their gut, take bold risks, and build something that lasts.
Minkoff believes women can't wait around for what they want from their careers, be it flexibility, more money, or a new role: they have to claim it.
'No change has ever happened by waiting for someone, usually a man, to give it to us,' she says. 'You have to take control. Pilot your own way of working. Ask HR for what you need. Propose a new structure.'
Which is exactly what Minkoff herself continues to do. Twenty years later, her brand is still that companion for women's milestones. And the woman behind the business continues to propose new ways to flip society's perceptions of what's possible. She's still listening to, and growing up with her customers. Still experimenting with new technology. Still, as the title of her book indicates, fearlessly trying out new, bold ideas. Still advocating for women business owners.
So what's Minkoff's next chapter?
While she couldn't reveal details on the record, she hinted at 'exciting new developments' that will offer, 'the freedom to dream bigger, move faster, and ensure (the business) remains not just relevant, but essential for the next 20 years and beyond.'