Calling Palm Beach their “dream location” for the Veronica Beard brand, founders Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard dish on everything they love about the new location, their spring 2022 collection and what’s in store for the future.
Calling Palm Beach their “dream location” for the Veronica Beard brand, founders Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard dish on everything they love about the new location, their spring 2022 collection and what’s in store for the future.
Congrats on recently opening your 18th Veronica Beard location! What do you love about the Palm Beach community, and how important is it to have a brand footprint here?
VMB: Veronica and I love Palm Beach! We are very connected to the place and so thrilled to have this space at The Royal Poinciana Plaza. There is everything you could wish for here: great restaurants, exciting shopping, entertainment, art, fitness. It’s a dream location for Veronica Beard.
VSB: Our customer is in Palm Beach, so it is very important for us to be here. More than anything else, our philosophy is to meet her where she is. If she is here, we want to be here, with that full lifestyle collection that meets her every need.
You recently hosted quite the runway show in Palm Beach. Tell us about the event and what made it special.
VMB: This event was so exciting for us. We just opened our 18th store in Palm Beach, so the runway show was a celebration of that moment. We showed our spring 2022 collection, but in a fresh new way, perfect for the style and overall vibe of Palm Beach. It was a moment to bring friends of the brand together, and it was a real party!
VSB: This was a big moment for us. As a brand, we typically do a presentation during New York Fashion Week. So to bring a full-scale runway show down to Palm Beach felt like such an exciting way to make our mark, set down our flag and say, ‘We are here and this market is so important to us.’ We were also so excited that Remi Bader walked in our show. It was such a moment!
Now that you’re in your 12th year of business, what has surprised and delighted you about the journey?
VMB: Meeting the customer. It is the single most fulfilling thing every day.
VSB: That we can have this business, do this job which we love, and use our platform to give back and make a difference.
Tell us about your Make it Happen series and how you select individuals that inspire.
VMB: Veronica and I both wear so many hats. I have five children, I worked in finance before we started Veronica Beard, and I’m a total sports fanatic. There are so many things outside of the brand that make us who we are. And of course all women are just the same—each juggling a million tasks, and with a million little life hacks and stories that make up who she is. So we started Make it Happen to profile other women who are living their lives and doing inspiring things in the process. We have featured artists and authors, pro athletes, interior designers, entertainers, founders, activists and more. Some of the women are well-known names, and others are behind the scenes. And each of them has an amazing story to tell.
VSB: We are always saying, ‘Veronica Beard is for women who make it happen!’ That we are a brand for the doers and makers, movers and shakers. The women who get up and get it done, live life to the fullest, give back and do it all again the next day. The Make it Happen series was born from that seed. And because there are countless women, in different fields and industries, that we are so inspired by. To date, we have profiled approximately 50 incredible women. We are so proud of this campaign because we really believe that every woman lives ‘in the and,’ with so many facets making up who she is.
Giving back is part of the DNA of the brand. What’s the latest with your #VBGivesBack initiative?
VMB: It is truly baked into who we are as a brand. We started #VBGivesBack in 2015 because it was so important to Veronica and me that if we were lucky enough to have a successful business and a platform, we would use it to give back. We always say, ‘When you look good, you feel good, you do good.’ Th at is the motto we live by, and to date we have worked with 70 incredible organizations and partnered with women from all over the country.
VSB: For us, social responsibility isn’t something that happens just in certain moments, like only in March for International Women’s Day. We want to be a brand that gives back every day; if we are making a transaction, we are giving back. How it works is we partner with a new organization on a quarterly basis and a portion of each online sale goes back to that partner. In addition, we do a big #VBGivesBack Day in all our retail locations (18 now!) to end the partnership. And in the interim, we do smaller shop-for-a-cause days, volunteer as a company and really try to reach into our local communities, find out what is important to our customer and give back to that.
What do you hope brand affcionados will love about the next collection?
VMB: We designed it to be a spring uniform, to fit her lifestyle in this seasonal moment. Th e collection includes everything from airy occasion dresses to linen suiting perfect for work.
VSB: Its versatility. We always say a dream wardrobe must work in real life.
What’s in store for the future of the Veronica Beard brand?
VMB: We are so excited for what’s ahead. Make it Happen and #VBGivesBack will continue to be our biggest brand initiatives.
VSB: More stores! We have some really exciting locations opening this year, including our first international store! 340 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach
Photography by: PHOTO COURTESY OF VERONICA BEARD
