Today we’d like to introduce you to Cleo Davis-urman
Hi Cleo, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Fashion has been my first love and my profession for my entire life, starting with internships at Vogue, Rachel Zoe, and Diane von Furstenberg while attending highschool and college. I spent the first decade of my professional career working in the luxury retail space with positions at Moda Operandi and Saks. Two years into my role as Fashion Director of Saks Fifth Avenue, the real world intersected with the runway, and I realized that fashion and retail had the power to stand for something bigger, create awareness, and effect change. Dior, who for the first time was headed by a female designer, sent t-shirts down the runway that read “We Should All Be Feminists” in response to the Me Too movement and the 2016 election. I knew that this t-shirt could enable my organization to use our platform and stores to amplify the stories of women all over the country.
I created a 360 degree partnership, using the Dior t-shirt to start a conversation about Women and the Future of Feminism, which went viral on social media and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for organizations including Planned Parenthood and Me Too. This confirmed my belief that a retailer could have an impact — and connect with consumers– in ways that have nothing to do with selling merchandise. There was power there, but finding a way to use it to give voice and support to those who needed it required a new way of working, inspiring me to create a new role within Saks.
As Director of Special Projects, I was responsible for creating partnerships, programming, and events with individuals and organizations, and ideating campaigns for our brand that related to real world issues. I launched the first-ever Saks speaker series, titled Fearless Women, where activists including singer Patti Smith, Women’s March Co-Founder Breanne Butler, and Bumble Founder Whitney Wolf shared their stories. These events generated meaningful awareness and financial support and helped to position Saks as more than a place of commerce.
I’m a determined problem solver and also an extremely curious person who loves to be well informed, a fast learner, and I’m always searching for synergy and ways to connect the dots. My focus changed at the beginning of the Pandemic when, like most people, I became obsessed with self-protection. I searched for masks and discovered that the stylish ones were ineffective and the medical masks were unsightly. With my partner, Alexa Adams, who had a background in technical design and healthcare supply chain, we created barrière to provide products that are protective and pretty. Masks were our first product, but our pandemic project evolved into a broader self-care and wellness mission when we realized that our customers wanted their beauty arsenal to include protection against everyday threats to their well-being – our popular sunhat that blocked harmful rays, our deet-free bug spray that repelled nasty insects but left the skin feeling smooth and hydrated – and they wanted these solutions to be safe, easy-to use, and yes, stylish. Which leads me to our newest patent-pending product, wearable vitamin patches.
I had a personal reason for developing our patches. A standard blood panel revealed that I had dangerously low levels of Iron and B12 even though I had been taking oral supplements with those very ingredients from a trusted vitamin brand. To raise my levels, I was treated with an Iron transfusion and went to a hospital for weekly B12 injections, a process that was painful, time-consuming, and cost-prohibitive, so I was eager to find a different solution. My doctor explained that capsulized vitamins can lose as much as 90%+ efficacy in the digestive process and suggested a transdermal vitamin patch, which bypasses the digestive tract and can be more effective for absorption. But these medical vitamin patches were uncomfortable, inconvenient (because they couldn’t get wet), and irritated my skin. I searched for a patch that was safe, effective, lightweight, non-irritating, and better looking than the bulky medical ones I had to hide under my clothes, but it didn’t exist. If I wanted my dream patch, barrière would have to create it, so that’s exactly what we did.
As someone who has prioritized disruption and innovation throughout my own career, from forging purposeful partnerships between retailers and organizations to raising awareness for important causes, to starting a first-of-its-kind business that addressed a need for personal protective products during the pandemic, I am eager to learn solutions to complex problems. That is really what drives me and what has shaped and guided my career journey thus far.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Ever since I can remember my dream was to pursue a career in fashion. After a few formative internship experiences working for Rachel Zoe, Diane von Furstenberg, Vogue and T Magazine I developed that abstract dream into a concrete goal which was to become a Fashion Director for a major retailer or editorial publication. Setting a goal is easy; achieving it is the hard part. For nearly a decade this goal provided the direction for my life and informed every personal and professional decision I made. Pursuing this goal required hard work, dedication and many personal sacrifices along the way.
At 26, my dream became a reality when I was offered the role of Fashion Director for Saks Fifth Avenue. I was working closely with designers I admired, traveling to Europe for Fashion Week, and translating fashion trends for customers across the country. But less than 2 years into the role, I was ready to quit. My entire identity had become “Fashion Director” and I didn’t have time or energy to pursue things that fulfilled me outside of it. I lacked a sense of purpose and was constantly looking for ways to expand my role and responsibilities to better align with my values and newly found interests outside of fashion. I decided to turn my dissatisfaction into action and enrolled in an HBSX online MBA program to acquire new skills and gain a new perspective. One class in particular, Disruptive Innovation with Professor Clayton Christensen, changed the way I looked at my industry and ignited my passion for finding creative solutions to complex problems. From there I made a point of only pursuing job opportunities that took me out of my comfort zone, allowed me to think bigger and apply my learnings from HBSX.
I never thought I would be an entrepreneur and start my own business, especially a business in an industry I knew nothing about, until I realized that most of the best companies were created to solve a problem, and when there’s a problem, there’s an opportunity there. I started barriere to solve a very personal problem and that was all the motivation I needed to create a business plan, build a website, research, develop and patent a product and create a go-to-market strategy despite never having done those things before. It hasn’t been easy but it has been an incredibly rewarding experience and a reminder that it’s never too late to grow, or reinvent yourself and that we’re capable of anything we set our minds to!
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Life is complicated enough – taking care of yourself shouldn’t be. Barrière’s goal is to make it easy and enjoyable to build and maintain a health and wellness routine without compromise. Our wearable vitamin patches empower people to get the support they need whenever, wherever. One patch a day is all you need, however you can safely combine one patch from each of our different formulas at a time. Patches can be applied at any time of day, and the ingredients are delivered over an 8-12 hour period, so you don’t experience negative side effects, like nausea, that may come with oral supplements. The patches are water-resistant and extremely comfortable, lightweight, and travel-friendly, so you can really go about your routine without compromise. All our ingredients are researched for effectiveness and we link to clinical studies on our website to keep our community educated on why we choose particular ingredients. Since the United States regulates dietary supplements differently than other parts of the world, and no vitamins or supplements of any kind require FDA approval, we opted to produce our patches in a U.K. facility that is registered with the M.H.R.A. and is ISO 9001 certified. We also use third-party testing partners to ensure what is in every patch matches our dosage.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
email [email protected]
Pricing:
- 12.99 for 36 mini patches
- 18.00 for 6 multivitamin patches
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mybarriere.com
- Instagram: @mybarriere
