Second Life

Kara Brothers is the president of the mold-breaking skincare solutions company Starface World. She studied English in school and spent the early years of her career trying to find an industry and role that felt like a good fit for her. Brothers worked at several digital ad agencies before spending 10 years at Google, working in corporate strategy and strategic partnerships. During her time at the tech company, she also received an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, again to expand her worldview and career options. Working at Google taught her countless lessons, but she realized she wanted to work on physical products and something that made a real impact. So in 2020, she left her position, and after a brief stint at an AI company, was hired as the SVP of strategic initiatives at Starface World. Brothers implemented key communications and organizational strategies at the fledgling company and was made president soon after. Today, she uses her wealth of experience to guide all aspects of the company’s internal and external operations, as it continues to expand its footprint in the skincare and beauty industry.

Claire Sullivan is a designer, creative consultant, and founder of the design label Miss Claire Sullivan. She grew up loving fashion and has a penchant for dramatic, voluminous designs. It’s no surprise, then, that after working as the co-creative director of the streetwear label Vaquera, she founded her own atelier, where she creates dynamic, one-of-a-kind designs. In the past year, she’s generated several iconic red carpet moments, such as Addison Rae’s padded bustier with a big tulle skirt. Her pieces have also been worn by the likes of Chappell Roan, Kylie Jenner, and Camila Cabello. This week, Sullivan joins Who What Wear Editorial Director Lauren Eggertsen to discuss her earliest style influences, what it's like to design custom pieces for her clients, and how she created an Anna Wintour–approved dress made out of maps for Hailey Bieber.

Arianne Phillips is the costume designer for the new film A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. Phillips is an accomplished costume designer for stage and screen and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design three times, beginning with James Mangold's Walk the Line in 2006. For A Complete Unknown, she teamed up again with Mangold to re-create Bob Dylan's visual style with extreme specificity. Phillips spent several years researching Dylan's wardrobe, working with vintage experts, designers, and even Etsy sellers to find pieces that captured each iteration of Dylan's unique style. This week, she joins Erin Fitzpatrick, WWW's associate director of fashion news, to talk about her approach to the project, working with Chalamet, and collaborating with Levi's on a new capsule collection that re-creates Dylan's favorite skinny jeans style.

Erika Thompson is a beekeeper, bee advocate, and founder of the bee removal services company Texas Beeworks. Erika grew up in Texas loving all things animals and bugs. She studied geography at the University of Texas at Austin, and after a brief stint as a vet tech, embarked on a career in communications. She worked at several different nonprofit organizations over the years, but despite the impact she was making, she didn’t love sitting at a desk every day. In 2012, she signed up for a beekeeping class as a fun outlet. But from that first class, she was hooked. She started keeping bees herself and eventually began offering humane bee removal services to people in the Austin area. In 2018, she left the world of communications to commit to being a beekeeper full-time. In 2020, she made another major career move when she began posting videos of her bee removals on TikTok. Her passionate, kind, fascinating storytelling immediately resonated with others, and her audience grew quickly. Today, she has over 11 million followers, and several of the videos of her bee removals (which she still does for free!) have over 100 million views.

Susan Korn is the founder of the charming, quirky, and downright joyful accessories brand Susan Alexandra. Korn started her brand by making jewelry and creating handmade painted pieces. But one fateful day, she discovered a bead shop in Chinatown and had a vision of a beaded bag she wanted to create. Her beaded bags have since cemented her as the queen of whimsical fashion. Now, she’s expanded into DIY charm jewelry, custom sculpted pet pieces, home goods, a full Judaica line, and has collaborated with brands like Pebbles, Bose, and Crocs. This week, she joins Kat to talk about how she approaches designing a new product, her dreams for the brand in 2025, and her epic dog fashion show with Rachel Antonoff at New York Fashion Week this past fall. Listen to Susan Korn’s Second Life episode here!