Lisa Green

What do you do?
What I’ve always done is help brands get more comfortable with what’s new and next in digital. I spent [12 years] working with big fashion brands at Google. When I first started working with Chanel, they were like, “No way, we’ll never be on YouTube.” Then we got them to do this Brad Pitt Chanel No. 5 video [on] the homepage. Now I get to work with the best brands in fashion by taking their inventory and [selling it] to our customers… What we want to do is bring the best of The Yes to the brands and bring the best of the brands to the customer.

When did you first get interested in fashion?
I’ve always loved fashion, [but] I don’t think I ever recognized it as a career path until I went to Google. [My job] wasn’t at all in the fashion space. I did a variety of things, but then I had a baby and didn’t want to travel as much anymore. I was looking to shift gears, so we created a fashion vertical. I was like, “That sounds exactly like what I want to do—take everything I’ve learned and bring it to the brands I’ve always loved.” So my interest in fashion came out of admiration, then I grew into it from a business perspective. Once I started, I really felt like I had found my foothold.

The Yes is still a startup. What’s it like having to define your job as you go?
I’ve been with The Yes for 3 years, so I joined from early days. We didn’t [even] have the name yet! But we’ve always been well-backed and had a team with experience, so that gave me confidence in what I was doing… [We signed] the first 140 brands without a working app. We had this wonky laptop prototype showing them what our vision was. They were excited enough that they were willing to take that jump, to learn what it was we were building.

How do you decide which brands to partner with?
It’s a team effort, no doubt. Our creative director is super helpful in finding [up-and-coming] brands. We have also been tapping into the younger generation that works with us—it’s great to see what people love and what they’re wearing. We use social platforms to see who’s getting a lot of love on Instagram or TikTok. It’s not just about our taste. We want to have something for everyone.

What’s your favorite item in your closet?
How boring is it to tell you it’s every white t-shirt? I’m a total t-shirt girl, which has been a big challenge in Zoom world because I wear a lot of t-shirts with cute bottoms. [Laughing.] But I did buy this JW Anderson dress with these black-and-white balloon sleeves that I absolutely love. When I’m really needing a moment, I wear that with a pair of [sneakers].

Has working in fashion had an impact on your personal style?
Yes and no. The most important thing about how I dress is, “Do I feel good? Do I look good?” There have been moments in fashion that have made that really difficult. Like, I’m having a jeans crisis right now. I’ve definitely [always] looked best in skinny jeans, but they don’t look cool anymore!

Who are some female designers you find inspiring?
One is JJ Martin from La DoubleJ. I just think she’s so cool. She’s this American woman who moved to Milan. She had a vision she wanted to build and she’s really done it. The other one I wear a lot is La Ligne. They’re 3 women who came from Vogue and had a vision for what they wanted to wear every day, [so] that was what they started designing. Another [brand] I’ve been really into is LemLem. Liya Kebede has a beautiful story. All her items are handcrafted in Africa, [and] she’s giving back to the communities where she sources her product and things are manufactured. [Those are] brands with a mission behind them, and I think that’s important.