FOUNDER’S TAKE NO.5
NATALIJA DEDIC STOJANOVIC | MIAMI BEACH | 1.15.25
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
Darwin’s words have never felt more relevant than in the face of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, a stark reminder of nature’s unpredictability. Homes are lost, lives are disrupted, and entire communities are displaced. We are witnessing nature at its most powerful, testing the limits of both the natural world and human endurance. In these moments of crisis, the word "resilience" is everywhere. It’s a word we use to describe how we go through hardships and make the best of those circumstances, but also how we evolve and respond to change, even when the ground beneath us feels like it’s shifting.
Resilience isn’t just a concept we talk about in the abstract; it’s something I encountered firsthand during the pandemic, when the fashion industry was thrown into chaos. Shifting market trends and buying schedules made it clear that the timing of the swim week needed to be adjusted in order to stay relevant and align with the industry’s new rhythms. I thought about this for years. I remember all those times I brought it up—at city board meetings in Miami and Miami Beach, over pistachio gelato at Forte dei Marmi with Angela Chittenden, founder of Beach Bunny, where we talked about life—kids, anti-aging treatments—and the big idea of shifting the platform. She loved it. Everyone did. But knowing it would affect 30,000 people, that was a huge responsibility.
Greg Hanimian, CEO of Luli Fama, was one of the first to emphasize the importance of aligning runway shows with peak direct-to-consumer months. In 2022, I finally decided to move the platform up by a month, in response to feedback from designers, buyers, fashion editors, and city officials. The response was more significant than we had imagined—media impressions doubled to over 12 billion, an outcome that underscored just how powerful resilience can be when it’s not about clinging to what we know.
The lesson learned was about recognizing opportunities to adapt and grow, trusting your instincts, and embracing change—even when resistance is strong.
