Torrid's Liz Muoz started as a patternmaker. Now she's one of the only Latina CEOs leading a publi
- Torrid, a plus-size fashion label, went public at a valuation of $2.3 billion on July 1.
- CEO Liz Muñoz fit 36,000 garments for Torrid before being promoted in 2018.
- She told Insider what was next for Torrid and what it meant to be one of few Latina CEOs.
On the morning of Torrid's initial public offering on July 1, CEO Liz Muñoz arrived at the New York Stock Exchange wearing a ripped jean jacket, a black dress, and safety-pin earrings, all from the plus-size fashion brand. She sported bright-purple hair and black nail polish.
"I'm sure I'm not blending in, but who wants to blend in anyway?" she told Insider.
Torrid opened above its list range at $23.25 and closed at $24.15, which put the company's valuation at $2.7 billion. In 2013, the brand was bought by the private-equity firm Sycamore Partners in a $600 million deal that included Torrid's parent company, Hot Topic.
The California label, founded in 2001, could have gone the way of other mall brands. Sycamore acquired its plus-size competitor Lane Bryant in 2020 after its parent company, Ascena Retail Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Torrid has shed the mall-brand label, Muñoz said, citing that 70% of Torrid's 2020 volume was e-commerce. It has also served plus-size women far longer than most other fashion labels.
"We were on a mission to service this customer in a way she had never been before," she said. "I'm 54. I'm a big girl. I have been shopping plus size for 40 years, and I know firsthand how devastating it is to go out and try to find something to wear and not find it."
Muñoz grew up sewing most of her own clothes, as most plus-size clothes in the '80s was designed for older women, she said. She even made her own wedding and prom dresses. Her plan was to be a patternmaker.
She worked at Lucky Brand Jeans as the head merchant for 13 years before joining Torrid in 2010, where her first priority was improving how products fit. For three and a half years, Muñoz and her designers fit 140 garments a day, five days a week, adding up to more than 36,000 items of clothing from jeans to bras. Getting promoted to CEO in September 2018 was not part of her plan.
"I never wanted to be a CEO. I only ever wanted to work on product, and everyone knows that," she said. "I am running a big company, but I'm still involved with the product."
Torrid filed for a public offering months before Muñoz's promotion, with a goal of raising $100 million. It was withdrawn in 2019. Since then, Muñoz has focused on rounding out the leadership team — hiring the Victoria's Secret veteran Anne Stephenson as the chief merchandising and product officer — and narrowing down Torrid's inventory to the best-selling products, while introducing new lines, such as a bridal collection.
Muñoz, who was born in Los Angeles three months after her parents arrived from Cuba, is one of the few Latinas in history to run a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq or NYSE. According to the Latino Corporate Directors Association, there have been only four before her, including the Cuban American Geisha Williams of PG&E, but they have all since left the top job. Even on a board level, Latinas are the least represented demographic, making up 1% of board seats at publicly traded companies, according to Deloitte.
Ozzie Meza, an associate vice president of the LCDA, said the underrepresentation of Latinas was partly because of a lack of mentorship and recruiting.
"Latinas haven't been groomed. They haven't been brought to positions of influence," he said.
Muñoz is aware that she's part of a rarefied group. "I'm still in shock," she said. "It feels pretty good."
Her top priorities after the IPO are customer acquisition — Torrid recently launched an ambassador program with influencers — and growing the Curve line of bras and swimwear. Torrid has 3.4 million customers, a sliver of the 91 million prospective customers in the US.
"There's a giant amount of women out there that have not found us yet, that are settling and struggling," Muñoz said.
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