After 15 years as a managing director focused on emerging markets at Morgan Stanley, Vanessa Barboni Hallik decided to take a six-month sabbatical. The idea was to study sustainable finance, but as she began examining different industries through the lens of sustainability, she turned her attention to fashion, eventually making the leap from a high-profile corporate career to founding a mission-based startup.
“The goal for me was to really dedicate the next phase of my career and my energy to something that felt really personally purposeful,” Barboni Hallik explained. “So, my pivot [from finance to fashion] was a complete accident.”
Launched earlier this year, Barboni Hallik’s luxury fashion brand, Another Tomorrow, operates at the intersection of sustainability, ethics and design. As founder and CEO, Barboni Hallik built the brand on a foundation of community and transparency, with a value system based on three pillars—human, animal and environmental welfare—guiding every company decision.
“If you care about income inequality, if you care about the environment, if you care about soil health, if you care about biodiversity, if you care about animal welfare, the fashion industry is really central to all of those issues,” Barboni Hallik said. “So, having sound sourcing policies and having true transparency for the customer, I think, is absolutely critical and will be tremendously impactful on real people, real places and the rest of life on this planet.”
Barboni Hallik spoke at our annual Women and Worth Summit in March, where she was joined by Fatma Collins, cofounder and CEO of children’s shoe company Ten Little, for a panel discussion about pivots with purpose. See what Barboni Hallik had to say when Worth caught up with her backstage at the event.
