{"id":30901,"date":"2024-03-27T14:26:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T18:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30901"},"modified":"2024-06-11T11:44:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:44:59","slug":"the-new-power-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/the-new-power-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Power Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christeson

Christeson and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a Work Friends event. \/ Deitch + Pham<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Everyone talks about the pockets.<\/b><\/p>\n

In fact, they have their own subsection, with detailed photos, on Argent\u2019s website.<\/span><\/p>\n

But any woman who\u2019s ever tried to wedge a phone into a tiny pretender of a pocket \u2013 <\/span>or discovered her jacket doesn\u2019t even have one \u2013 will understand why.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sali Christeson \u201907 was one of those women, with a great job in Silicon Valley and underperforming options in her closet.<\/span><\/p>\n

She launched Argent in 2016. Today, the company\u2019s boldly colored, thoroughly pocketed suits and separates are being worn in meetings from Washington, D.C., to Hollywood and around conference tables everywhere in between.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vision is more than fashion. And it doesn\u2019t even stop at function. It\u2019s about elevating the profiles of women in every field and giving them versatile, expressive, comfortable clothing in which they, and their work, can shine. \u201cRadical equality when it comes to paychecks, pockets and everything in between\u201d is the immodest goal on the company\u2019s website.<\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, Christeson hosted a Furman Women\u2019s Impact Network (FurmanWIN) event in New York in fall 2023. Linking and supporting Furman women was a priority. \u201cWe\u2019re facilitating relationships and connections beyond the brand,\u201d Christeson says. But \u201cat all of our events, people do gravitate toward the fitting room at some point,\u201d she adds, laughing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jill

U.S. first lady Jill Biden with Christeson at the event. \/ Courtesy Photo<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s much more than work for Christeson, Argent\u2019s founder and CEO, who earned a degree in business administration from Furman and received the university\u2019s Tom A. Triplitt Outstanding Young Alumni Award in spring 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we create is really strong and confidence-inducing,\u201d says Dave Christeson, Sali’s husband and Argent\u2019s marketing director. \u201cShe genuinely wants women to succeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Within a year of launch, Hillary Clinton was a client.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe not only dress her \u2013 we know her and have a very good relationship with her,\u201d Sali Christeson says of the nation\u2019s first major-party female presidential nominee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinton is not the only familiar name on the company\u2019s customer list: Others include Vice President Kamala Harris, journalist Katie Couric, actor Kristen Stewart, comedian Amy Schumer, and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. And first lady Jill Biden wore a seafoam blue Argent suit to UNICEF\u2019s 2023 Champions for Children event, for which she was the keynote speaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

ALWAYS AN ENTREPRENEUR<\/b><\/p>\n

Christeson has always been on the prowl for a business idea that needed her attention. She grew up in Hardeeville, South Carolina, and often went to work with her dad, who ran a Turkish rug shop in neighboring Hilton Head Island.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dream was to just have a desk,\u201d she says, laughing.<\/span><\/p>\n

She started with the classic lemonade stand and advanced quickly to handmade horseshoe picture frames.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI was just always hustling,\u201d she says. At Furman, she heard talk about how tough it was to take a class with Kailash Khandke, the Frederick W. Symmes Professor of Economics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth

Furman President Elizabeth Davis and Christeson visit during the September event. \/ Deitch + Pham<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe challenged me in a way that was good for me,\u201d she says. \u201cHe pushed me and always believed in me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Khandke wasn\u2019t surprised when Christeson pinpointed a problem and found a way to solve it. And he doesn\u2019t expect this to be her last.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who knows her knows that she\u2019s going to have many more successes,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

After college, Christeson moved to Chicago for big-city life and to take a first step into the banking world. She and Dave, who had met through mutual friends in Oregon, reconnected in Chicago and were married in 2012. Sali earned an MBA at the University of South Carolina and held jobs with Daimler Financial Services, Johnson & Johnson and Cisco.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was in the tech world that she first began to deeply understand the weight a woman\u2019s clothing has on perceptions about her. The Mark Zuckerbergs of the world showed up to news <\/span>conferences in hoodies and jeans. \u201cNo one was really defining what workwear looked like\u201d for women, she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER<\/b><\/p>\n

In June 2016, Argent launched online and at a women\u2019s conference in San Jose, California. The name Argent honors the legacy and entrepreneurial spirit of Christeson\u2019s great- grandfather, who founded a lumber mill in South Carolina in 1916 called Argent Lumber Company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary De Bonis had worked with Christeson at Cisco and cheered from the sidelines as Argent was in development. At the launch, she watched potential customers trying on the clothes for the first time and realized Christeson was on to something special.<\/span><\/p>\n

De Bonis was one of the brand\u2019s biggest customers before joining the company as chief operating officer in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Argent is purposeful about inviting customers\u2019 input. Repeat customers, in particular, may talk with designers who want to know about their typical day, their travels, their challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are powerful, ambitious women, who also say, \u201cOftentimes I\u2019ll step into a high-profile meeting and think how much I hate my outfit,\u201d Christeson says.<\/span><\/p>\n

One customer wished her blazer pocket could be lined with microfiber to keep her glasses fresh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGenius,\u201d Christeson says. \u201cIt was genius.\u201d You can now find a microfiber-lined pocket in an Argent blazer.<\/span><\/p>\n

LEVERAGING FASHION<\/b><\/p>\n

Everyone talks about the pockets, but they\u2019re only one way Argent focuses on function. De Bonis says one of her favorite features is hidden elastic bands that keep sleeves in place when you push them up to dig in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Argent also is known for the vibrant colors and patterns it offers alongside traditional black and navy. A bright pink Argent combo was the focus of #Ambitionsuitsyou, a fall 2020 campaign tied to voting and female empowerment. The eye- popping pink suits were all over celebrity social media accounts. There\u2019s no point in pretending women aren\u2019t judged by their clothes, \u201cwhich is total BS, but it happens,\u201d Sali Christeson says. \u201cWe can leverage it as a tool to our advantage. … We do derive confidence from what we wear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a unique corner to be in \u2013 keenly aware of the fashion world and its trends but determined to meet customers\u2019 needs. \u201cWe might make decisions that favor our customers more <\/span>than the fashion elite,\u201d Christeson says.<\/span><\/p>\n

AFTER LIVING ROOM ZOOMS, A RETURN TO THE OFFICE<\/b><\/p>\n

In its early years, Argent sold online and in pop-up shops before opening retail spaces in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then March 2020 \u2013 and the global pandemic \u2013 arrived. The next two years were \u201clike one long day,\u201d De Bonis says. Argent chose not to pivot into loungewear and instead moved quickly to back out of leases and close the four physical stores. Then everyone\u2019s energy was directed toward the moment that arrived in spring 2022: \u201cWomen were coming back for a full wardrobe reset,\u201d Christeson says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some had lost weight in the last few years. Others gained. Everyone was tired of seeing herself in the same round of shirts on Zoom, day after day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s new flagship store opened in SoHo in fall 2022, followed quickly by two more New York locations and another in Washington in early 2024. Christeson anticipates expanding into as many as six more cities this year, plus adding more wholesale partnerships like the one Argent has formed with Nordstrom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like we met the moment perfectly,\u201d she says. Now it\u2019s a matter of keeping pace with the pent-up demand for all the fabrics, colors and pockets women want.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI just really believe this consumer deserves this,\u201d Christeson says.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Argent founder Sali Christeson \u201907 has cracked the dress code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":30902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2663,1963,2660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-furman-magazine","category-spring-2024"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30901"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31442,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30901\/revisions\/31442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}