Tech Powered Luxury

This week, we’re coming to you live from PFW with Rachelle Cunningham, a fashion illustrator and painter whose work has moved from a hospital room to the front rows of couture, and now into fashion you can actually wear. Rachelle has worked with CHANEL, Vogue, Vivienne Westwood, Nina Ricci, and more, but the most interesting part of her story is how it happened: through sharing consistently online, building an unmistakable aesthetic, and treating every moment as a potential bridge rather than a closed door.

This week, Ashley is in Paris with Romina Introini (Romilux), one of the street style and fashion photographers shaping how Fashion Month is seen in real time. You have likely seen her work on official fashion week accounts, brand channels, and creator feeds. What you may not know is the path that built it: documenting life in Uruguay, a retail job at Zara, and a decision to keep showing up to fashion week long before there were clients attached.

For Episode 5, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with Romina Introini (Romilux), a street style and fashion photographer documenting Fashion Month in real time across NY, Paris, Milan, and London.

Romina didn’t break in through a traditional route. She built a portfolio in public, then let the work create its own gravity.

Street style is not just taste. It’s positioning, speed, editing, and distribution, and she approaches it like a discipline.

The “breakthrough” role with London Fashion Week arrived at the last minute, but it was earned through seasons of self-funded consistency.

Scaling output required structure, not hustle. She built a small team to support video, editing, and behind the scenes storytelling.

Her clearest advice is the most practical: start with what’s around you and build proof of work before opportunity arrives.

Welcome back. Last week, Ashley McDonnell sat down Gordon Renouf, co founder of Good On You, to unpack what sustainability can actually be measured, what brands disclose versus what they claim, and why overconsumption keeps accelerating. If you missed it, listen here.

For Episode 4, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with Tracey Warren, CEO and founding partner of F5 Collective, a funding ecosystem accelerating women owned businesses.
Consumer brands are told to raise venture capital as the default, yet the funding system is not built for how most women build businesses.

The loudest funding pathway is not always the right one, and venture capital has not meaningfully evolved in decades.

F5 Collective is designed as an ecosystem, not a single product, combining commerce, community, expert support, and funding pathways in one place.

The hardest constraint in consumer is not demand, it is cashflow timing, especially around purchase orders, stock, and delayed retailer payments.

F5 Collective reframes shopping as a form of funding, because revenue is often the best early stage capital and your wallet drives what scales.

Modern traction signals like waitlists, sell out drops, and creator led momentum are real, but legacy underwriting struggles to read them.

A new ownership pathway is emerging, buying existing businesses and modernising them, and F5 Collective has this on the roadmap as a future funding product.

Welcome back. Last week, Ashley McDonnell sat down Annabel Hay, founder and CEO of Clutch Glue, to unpack what happens after virality, from manufacturing and retail expansion to fundraising strategy and systems that scale. If you missed it, listen here.

For Episode 3, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with Gordon Renouf, co founder of Good On You.

Good On You rates brands out of five using roughly 50 topics, and up to 900 data points for larger brands.

The first test of “sustainable” is transparency, not intent, not values, not packaging.

We spend a similar share of income on clothes as 20 to 60 years ago, but buy four to five times more garments.

A “zero” score is rarely drama, it is silence, meaning near zero disclosure on basics.

Regulation matters, but culture and incentives matter more than purity, and poorly designed rules can drive greenhushing.

Retailers and landlords may become the fastest enforcement layer, because distribution and tenancy are leverage.

This week, Ashley is in Sydney with Annabel Hay, founder and CEO of CLUTCH Glue and one of Shark Tank Australia’s most talked about contestants. Not yet 30 and already having pivoted from construction management to building a global consumer brand, Annabel breaks down what happens after virality, from manufacturing and logistics to retail expansion, fundraising strategy, and the operational systems required to scale.

CLUTCH Glue started with a simple problem. A night out, failing fashion tape, and one thought: “It would be so much easier if I could just glue myself into my clothes.” Annabel built an alternative to body tape that lets you glue, rather than tape, clothes to your body.

Four years of R&D later, CLUTCH is patented, sweat resistant, water soluble, hypoallergenic, non toxic, and designed to wash off when you are done.

Virality came fast. A 10 second TikTok hit 9M views overnight and sold out the first 5,000 units. Then the real work began, scaling manufacturing, tightening operations, and turning attention into a repeatable business.

Shark Tank was strategy, not luck. Annabel spent six months and more than 100 hours preparing, then landed the strap moment that made the product instantly click on camera. The clip later became one of the show’s most viral moments and introduced CLUTCH to a global audience.

Retail came later. DTC first for margin and data, then founder led outreach to get ranged. CLUTCH hit Priceline shelves and became the number one best selling product within a week.