Mother and Daughter Reveal 7-Figure Business Secrets: Luxeire

“ I grew up in an era where you became a teacher or a nurse,” Gina Kuyers tells Entrepreneur. “I went on to become a psychologist for school systems, but there was no part of me that ever thought, Oh, I’m going to start a fashion company.” 

But Kuyers had always had a sartorial passion, and that didn’t go away as she and her husband raised their four children over the years. Kuyers enjoyed putting together sophisticated outfits on a regular basis, but between working and taking kids to soccer practice, her demands for comfort and function began to change. Eventually, Kuyers experimented with her own designs. 

In 2016, she founded her brand Luxeire, with a focus on women’s inner wear, or undergarments. She worked on the self-funded business as “more of a hobby” in those early years. But by 2020, with her daughter Margot Adams about to graduate from Parsons School of Design in New York City, Kuyers reconsidered the future of the brand. 

At that point, Kuyers was less interested in designing undergarments and more interested in shaping fashion on full display. “ I started thinking, Really the issue isn’t the appropriate inner wear for women to wear beautiful clothes,” she recalls. “The important part is, why aren’t we making beautiful clothes for women that are super chic, but comfortable and easy-care? So I pivoted.”

Pivoting to a luxurious but functional clothing line

Luxeire would shift its mission to a clothing line made of luxury, functional fabrics.

“ We want to be that go-to brand for women who want to look polished, feel comfortable and have a fast-paced lifestyle,” Adams says. “Women who need a versatile wardrobe for work, travel and every day.”

The New York City-based brand’s next phase started with a classic button-up design inspired by Tom Ford’s Gucci designs of the 1990s: “kind of sexy” with a dramatic collar and cuff, made with a washable fabric that would hug but not constrict. 

The product was a hit and set the direct-to-consumer (DTC) business up for major success. Today, Luxeire, which remains self-funded and run by its full-time mother-daughter team of two, sees seven figures in annual revenue. 

Here’s how Kuyers and Adams are building their brand — and balance being business partners with the mother-and-daughter relationship. 

1. They started with just a couple of core products to gauge interest

Focusing on just a couple of key, differentiated products — the button-up, then a turtleneck — really laid the foundation for Luxeire’s growth, Adams says. 

Armed with some internship experience at a DTC luxury shoe brand but no extensive training in marketing or advertising, Adams started taking photos and videos of herself wearing the products at home and experimented with online ads. 

The classic button-up in particular really took off, and people began asking for more colors. 

“We saw really high-profile names coming in, literally from my advertisement that I took with an iPhone in my bedroom, which was funny,” Adams recalls. “We would see someone [place an order] and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this person saw me.’ 

Luxeire has been worn by comedian Chelsea Handler, CNN Anchor Dana Bash and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, among many others. 

Launching only the button-up and turtleneck allowed the brand to more effectively hone in on two critical pieces of data: who’s buying and what they like about the product. “From there, we were able to slowly expand our offerings,” Adams notes. 

2. They stay close to their customer base and welcome feedback 

Kuyers and Adams continue to prioritize a close relationship with Luxeire’s customer base. 

“ I am the customer service person,” Kuyers says, “so they’re getting a PhD psychologist if they have a problem with their garment or their order.”

What’s more, Kuyers enjoys cultivating relationships with many of the women online, often discussing different ideas for colors, fabrics and styles. 

“ I save emails from people if it’s about a color, if it’s about a style, and Margot and I talk about it and I get back to the person and say, ‘You know what? This is where we are,’” Kuyers says. “Nothing happens quickly. But we love to hear from our customers.”

Additionally, although Luxeire doesn’t have a showroom, its working studio in the Garment District often offers interested people living in the city or visiting the chance to see the brand’s clothes up close — and even witness their production in the attached manufacturing space. 

With the operation all on one floor, it’s even easier for Luxeire to run with feedback-based product ideas as they arise. “Once we finalize a sample, our production time is about six weeks or less,” Adams notes. “And we can just launch it.” 

3. They know how important the right people and priorities are

As a still self-funded brand without bottomless resources, Luxeire’s sustained success relies on finding the right people and priorities. 

Kuyers’s husband and Adams’s father has helped with funding and in some areas, drawing on his own business background, but aside from a part-time marketing assistant and outsourced web development help, Luxeire is still very much a core team of two.

That means hires brought on in any capacity must be up for the task and add real value. 

“When we need to shift or add something in, we have to cut something out because there’s not suddenly a bigger pool [of funding],” Kuyers says. “Sometimes we have thrown money at the wrong person who comes in and says, ‘Well, we’re going to solve this for you.’ And actually what we did without them was stronger.”

However, though the bootstrapped approach and lack of infinite funding can be challenging at times, it also keeps the business scrappy and focused. 

“ There is value to having to say, ‘Okay, this is a hard decision, but we’re not seeing what we want,’” Kuyers explains. “Even though industry standard says we should be putting money into this, for us that’s not working, so we need to switch what we’re doing.”

4. They set clear boundaries and are always mother and daughter first

As mother-daughter business partners, neither Kuyers nor Adams can just walk away when the going gets tough — and that requires drawing clear boundaries between the brand and family life (for instance, no Luxeire talk at Thanksgiving dinner).

Kuyers says that building a successful business with her firstborn daughter is incredibly rewarding, but the dynamic also comes with a “rollercoaster that’s just a little bit bigger”: lower lows, and higher highs. 

Sometimes, when Adams mentions to people that she works with her mom, they’re surprised and say they could never do that.

“‘I never thought I would work with my mom,’” Adams often responds. “Not for any one reason or the other. It just never occurred to me. Now here we are, and we’re making it work. So never say never.” 

Nothing will ever be more important than their mother-daughter relationship, Kuyers says. 

“I can walk away from a business,” she adds. “I can walk away from the money, but I will not walk away from my daughter. With that mindset, the business can be stressful, it can be fun, it can be rewarding, but at the end of the day, it’s always second place.”

“ I grew up in an era where you became a teacher or a nurse,” Gina Kuyers tells Entrepreneur. “I went on to become a psychologist for school systems, but there was no part of me that ever thought, Oh, I’m going to start a fashion company.” 

But Kuyers had always had a sartorial passion, and that didn’t go away as she and her husband raised their four children over the years. Kuyers enjoyed putting together sophisticated outfits on a regular basis, but between working and taking kids to soccer practice, her demands for comfort and function began to change. Eventually, Kuyers experimented with her own designs. 

In 2016, she founded her brand Luxeire, with a focus on women’s inner wear, or undergarments. She worked on the self-funded business as “more of a hobby” in those early years. But by 2020, with her daughter Margot Adams about to graduate from Parsons School of Design in New York City, Kuyers reconsidered the future of the brand.