Women’s apparel brand Lands’ End hired its first Chief Marketing Officer in more than a decade. As of April 1, Sarah Sylvester is now heading up the brand’s marketing team.
Prior to Land’s End, Sylvester spent nearly 20 years at Victoria Secret, holding multiple marketing executive roles, most recently as Executive Vice President of Marketing, which she vacated January 2025.
In January 2026, brand management firm WHP Global acquired a controlling stake in Lands’ End for $300 million. WHP Global owns more than a dozen consumer brands including Vera Wang, Bonobos, Express and Toys R Us.
As Sylvester geared up for the official start date, Chief Marketer sat down with Sylvester about her plans.
Chief Marketer: Congratulations on the new role. So what are your plans?
Sylvester: I am in the listening and learning mode. I really love to listen to customers, listen to team members. I don’t want preconceived notions coming in affecting my thinking.
Chief Marketer: What are you hearing?
Sylvester: What I’m hearing — and also I did notice this from an outsider’s point of view before I started — was just the quality and the amount of product that is so relevant for what our customer wants. Really having something for everyone, not only from an apparel perspective, but from your home.
Just hearing the ability we have to be in everyone’s home and the potential to create more awareness around that. I’m leaning towards that, of how do we let more people know about all this amazing product for all your apparel and your home needs for everyone in your life.
Chief Marketer: Do you think Lands’ End has good brand awareness or not good brand awareness?
Sylvester: It’s one of those iconic brands where when you say ‘Lands’ End,’ you get a lot of people like, ‘Oh yeah, I know Lands’ End.’ So they know of it, but do they know of the Lands’ End of today? There have been so many great product improvements over the last couple of years. And like I mentioned, the breadth. So that’s amazing, but I think just expanding the awareness to a more current modern seems like it’s a really big opportunity.
Chief Marketer: I know you have a lot of experience with brand transformation. Can you talk a bit about that?
Sylvester: Having come from Victoria’s Secret and I was there for a long time, of course, over such a long period of time, brands go through different journeys. And so I had my fair share of brand transformation experiences, which is really about examining who the brand is, who your customer is, what aspects of that do you need to keep and what do you need to evolve? I always like to have a balanced approach with that.
From what I’m seeing, there’s an opportunity here too. There’s so many great aspects about the brand and some of those we will keep and some of those will push forward and evolve to be a little bit more modern and pacing with a potential new customer. There’s always opportunity to introduce your brand to new customers while keeping your old ones.
Chief Marketer: Do you have any examples of how you plan to do that?
Sylvester: The team started to just do some more experiences and events last year and they were greatly successful. There was a holiday pop up and a summer pop up and it feels like they were just scratching the surface.
Chief Marketer: And you have stores correct?
Sylvester: We have 21 stores. Obviously, they’re spread throughout the country, so it isn’t readily available to everyone to visit in person with only that many. We really focus a lot on the digital transaction, which is why I think finding ways to bring the brand to life in person is a great way to make a deeper connection with the customer.
Chief Marketer: Then you referenced pushing out some of the old tactics. Do you have any examples there?
Sylvester: I don’t think it’s so much as pushing out old tactics. I usually am a strong believer in that there’s a lot of different aspects to marketing. I think it’s just fine tuning them. How do you do less of some things and more of some others and kind of just tweak the dials a little bit and find what the proper mix is between all the marketing tactics that are at our disposal.
Chief Marketer: Would you say that Lands’ End needs reinvention?
Sylvester: I think that all brands need to constantly be looking at what’s going on out there and always changing and evolving with their consumers. It’s something you always need to be looking at and seeing what’s working and what’s not.
Chief Marketer: What are some learnings from Victoria Secret that you bringing to Lands’ End?
Sylvester: I have always found a success in putting the customer at the center of everything you do, of just being close to your customer and listening to them and what they’re saying. That applies to any industry, any product that you’re selling, and so that’s always kind of my ground zero starting point.
Chief Marketer: Are there any unique challenges in the women’s apparel space with marketing that are unique to that category?
Sylvester: There’s always opportunities with apparel, trends always change quickly and consumer sentiment. What we’re seeing is that there is still a ton of opportunity, so continuing just to do everything we can to get our message to the right customers with the right products. That’s always a big thing is when you have the right products, making sure that we’re marketing it to the right people.
Chief Marketer: What in your opinion makes a successful CMO today and how has that shifted over the past few years?
Sylvester: What I appreciate about being in this role is really staying close to the customer and representing the customer. There will always be nuances in marketing. It changes every day, but I think representing the customer and ensure that everyone has the same information. I’m a big believer in context and communication and being successful.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
