“It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.}

A seasoned professional in the fashion sector, Seymour began her journey as a contemporary buyer with Saks Fifth Avenue. She found an opportunity to attain her aspirations with Aligne, a women’s fashion brand launched by Dalbir Bains in London in 2020, initially focused on wholesale.

Seymour envisioned a transformative path for Aligne — breaking into a niche she identified in contemporary women’s fashion: offering design-focused, comfortable clothing at a reasonable price, using a comprehensive retail strategy.

Determined to transform this vision into reality, Seymour essentially “rebuilt” the brand, stepping in as managing director in 2022, reintroducing Aligne under her leadership in 2023, and ultimately taking on the role of CEO in 2024.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne}

“I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”

In Seymour’s initial years as CEO, she concentrated on fostering Aligne’s online community and honing the brand’s design identity, eventually transitioning from a solely direct-to-consumer model to a more integrated retail strategy in collaboration with U.S. partners.

In fact, despite being a London-founded brand, Aligne sees a larger part of its business unfolding in the U.S., Seymour says.

The CEO even recently relocated from London to New York to support the U.S. office and team as the brand continues its expansion.

“ We’re still anchored in the UK, so I make regular trips back and forth,” Seymour reveals. “To me, London is our creative epicenter; it is ingrained in our identity as a British brand. Retaining that British creative influence is crucial, while commercially, we are expanding from the U.S.”

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne}

As a still relatively young British brand, Aligne gains validation with a U.S. audience through retailers that have loyal customer bases.

“In  the UK, a direct-to-consumer approach is more feasible due to the country’s size,” she notes. “However, in the U.S., to establish ourselves as a notable contemporary brand, collaborating with partners was essential for our growth narrative.”

Aligne recently launched with Nordstrom, a retailer Seymour says she’d always hoped to partner with one day, after the company direct-messaged her to express its interest in the brand. Aligne is also available at Anthropologie.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne}

“There’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”

Despite the long-term goal to expand in retail, Seymour first prioritized understanding Aligne as a brand and its relationship to customers before tackling those partnerships, appreciating how important that strategy is for sustainable success.

Whether you’re refounding a business that already exists or starting one from scratch, knowing who your customer is — and quickly — will make or break its growth.  ”And that’s easier said than done,” the CEO notes. “There are so many factors. With every iOS update, there’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”

Aligne’s target customers are “confident, working” women, and acknowledging what those consumers wanted in a clothing line helped guide the brand’s design shift and the direction of its collection, Seymour says.

Dialing into that customer base is paying off. Aligne ended its fiscal year in July 2025 with 56% year-over-year revenue growth and revenue approaching eight figures.

Most of Aligne’s pieces are priced between $100 and $300. Although Seymour recognizes why some brands evolve into the “premium contemporary” space amid rising costs and tariff challenges, she says the company is committed to its accessible price point.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne}

“I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support.”

Being a CEO is a lot harder than Seymour thought it would be when she was 20 years old, she admits. But she appreciates how the job has allowed her to draw on her experience as a buyer, which demanded a “balance of art and science” much like the executive role does.

“[There might be a] week that I’m so artistic and designing the concept and the line, and there’s other days where I’m definitely leaning into the science,” Seymour says. “But I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support in those areas because a CEO wears so many hats.”

One of the biggest lessons Seymour’s learned during her tenure as CEO so far is the value in listening to her instincts — even when it’s difficult. Over the first couple of months of the company’s refounding, Seymour sometimes hesitated to say what she wanted, then didn’t get the results that she desired.

“Three months in, I had this moment where I brought the team together and was much clearer about what I wanted,” Seymour says. “That brought them more on the journey with me, and it solidified us as a team and our values. If you have an idea and you’re building your own business, trusting your gut and not being scared to say it is powerful.”