Join us for a peek inside the empowering world of Gina Kuyers, founder of Luxeire. Alongside her daughter, Margot Adams, Gina and the Luxeire brand aim to provide women with sustainable, sophisticated wardrobe essentials that are exceptional quality, comfortable, and easy to care for. As the best entrepreneurial stories go!, the idea for Luxeire came from Gina Kuyers’ frustration with the discomfort and high maintenance of luxury clothing.
With a 20-year career and Ph.D. in school psychology, Gina spent decades applying research to real-world problem-solving. She brought these well-honed skills to the challenge of designing and producing a line of elevated wardrobe staples made from luxurious, eco-friendly technical fabrics.
Luxeire is for women who choose great quality and longevity over fast fashion and trends. Luxeire compliments a woman’s everyday wardrobe, adding versatility to dressing—for everything from work to travel and special occasions. The brand proudly sources its fabrics from Jersey Lomellina, a mill in Bergamo, Italy, known for producing luxury technical fabrics with an extensive selection of fabrics made with regenerated fibers.
Read on and be inspired by Gina Kuyers in this edition of the Lh Empowered Women Empower series.
Be Empowered by Gina Kuyers, Founder of Luxeire
Love Happens: As our name and the tagline of our publisher, KOKET, denotes, at Love Happens, we are firm believers that you cannot achieve any level of success without love. When did your love affair with design begin?
Gina Kuyers: My love affair with beautiful fashion started when I was a preschooler, and I would play dress up. I learned to sew in elementary school and began making clothes for my dolls and later for myself. Many of my early memories of events include the memory of what I wore and how I felt while wearing it. Beautiful, fancy clothing made me feel confident and special.
Lh: Tell us a bit about your past and what led to your founding of Luxeire.
Gina: As a 20-year career school psychologist, I often wore vintage designer fashions. I loved how the beautifully made clothing looked. But I often hated the discomfort and high maintenance care that came with their wearing. I tweaked many of my clothes and created base-layering pieces so that I could get more wear with more comfort out of this impractical wardrobe.
As the world became more casual, and I found myself dressing up less, I realized what I really wanted to wear were beautifully made clothes that were sophisticated, comfortable, and easy to care for. As a frequent traveler, versatility was also important. My frustration with the lack of options in the marketplace led me to move from creating innerwear garments to creating ready-to-wear fashions that filled this gap. Toward the end of 2019, I launched the beginning of the Luxeire RTW line with the Classic Button Up—a sophisticated style made with Italian luxury technical fabric that offered the ultimate comfort with easy wash and wear care. The Classic and all Luxeire garments use Italian fabrics and are produced in a studio in New York City’s garment district.
Luxeire garments resonate with women who are thoughtful about what they buy and wear. … They are empowered women who empower women.
They demand style, and value quality and comfort. Many of our customers are women leaders and professionals—entrepreneurs, executives, media personalities, and highly-trained experts. They are empowered women who empower women. The following is my all-time favorite Classic Button Up review from a female academic leader—”Simple, Sexiness … fits well. It feels like butter on the skin. I was telling a friend: It enhances the sexy, simplicity of feminine confidence… It’s like, ‘I just am.’ ‘All I got to do is be.’” Don’t we all want to feel this way each day we step out into the world?
Lh: What’s the story behind the name Luxeire?
Gina: The creative answer behind the name is that “Luxeire” is meant to connote “light as air luxury”. The practical answer behind the spelling is that it was a URL and trademark that were available for use.
Lh: Your daughter Margot Adams co-owns Luxeire with you—we love a mother-daughter team! How has this experience been for you as a mom?
Gina: As the founder and designer of Luxeire, I love our products and have loved the new world of fashion that I am a part of. However, the best part of all has been sharing my journey with my family from the beginning. I have four children and a husband. They all chip in. Margot was able to join Luxeire full-time as a co-owner when she graduated from Parsons School of Design in 2020. Her skills are in photography, marketing, technology, and creative direction. She turned my mid-life hobby into a growing business.
Margot and I struggled over the years like many mothers and daughters, who are both filled with excessive determination. As adults, we take breaks from each other as needed and try to build in humor and fun. We both respect the skills, knowledge, and experience that each one brings to Luxeire. Neither of us could do this without the other. The successes we experience are that much more rewarding because there is no one else we would rather experience it with.
Lh: We love your mission “to provide women with sophisticated wardrobe essentials that are eco-friendly, exceptional quality, comfortable and easy-care.” First, tell us about the importance of wardrobe essentials and why you chose to focus your brand on these products.
Gina: We want to offer women daily go-to pieces that are flattering, comfortable, easy to care for, and can go with other clothing in their closets so they get the most out of what they have. Women wear our turtlenecks on the ski slopes and for a night out on the town. Our button-ups look professional but can also be sexy. Women wear them to work, date nights, and special events like a 60th birthday party. Luxeire garments are great for travel.
Lh: The other part of your mission focuses on eco-friendliness, quality, comfort, and ease of use; how do these elements play into Luxeire’s collection, from material sourcing to your customers’ closets?
Gina: Our products are timeless, seasonless, and versatile. We believe that the consumerism and resource consumption we all participate in is not sustainable for our earth. Luxeire has committed to using only fabrics made from recycled fibers—taking waste that would otherwise end up in landfills and repurposing it for something beautiful and useful. I love fun and trendy fashion, but ideally, we should all invest in garments that can be worn frequently for many years. This is the most sustainable practice for all apparel.
Lh: If you could give one bit of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Gina: Don’t be afraid to change your career. It is okay to pursue a path that is creative, non-traditional (for a girl raised in a conservative, small-town/rural community), and outside your comfort zone.
Lh: What empowers you most?
Gina: I love reading sincere reviews of customers who share that they have finally found the clothing they’ve been looking for. When I see powerful women organically wearing Luxeire on news shows and podcasts, at book signings and special events, and in the New York Times, I feel like I’ve done something good and worthwhile.
Lh: Do you have any mottos or favorite quotes you like to live by?
Taken from Glennon Doyle: We can do hard things.
Modern interpretation of New Testament verse from Luke 12: To whom much is given, much is expected.
Author unknown: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Lh: What’s next for Gina Kuyers and Luxeire?
Gina: I need to continue to learn about this ever-changing business. I started Luxeire because of a wardrobe need and creative interest. The business side has always been a challenge for me. Add technology and social media to my world, and I feel like a dinosaur.
Margot and I have grown Luxeire substantially over the last three years of working together. Our focus is on continuing this growth. We will likely be seeking additional funding and outside expertise to help us achieve this continued growth.
Learn more about Gina Kuyers and SHOP Luxeire at luxeire.com.
More to Love!
More Stories by Empowered Women Ready to Inspire You
