For Susan Feldman, founder of the luxury home decor site One Kings Lane and the content platform In the Groove, necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. After all, she created those successful brands based on her needs as a consumer.
But one could also say that Feldman herself is an amazing mother of invention, as her inventiveness extends beyond her entrepreneurship to her all-are-welcome entertaining style, ”usually a little glitzy” holiday décor, and penchant for personalized gifting. Everyone around her — from her family to her friends to her business associates — is better off because of her creativity.
Feldman’s life includes a divorce, a new marriage, a cross-country move, a successfully blended family, and two hit-it-out-of-the-park business ventures (so far). Through it all, her strength and style as a mother focused on everyone around her feeling safe, happy, and included. And still does.
Entrepreneurial ventures
When Susan and her husband, Bob, moved to Los Angeles from New York City in 2005, she went all out decorating her new home and entertaining family and friends. “It was all so much fun,” she says. “I had always lived in an apartment in Manhattan, but now I could have people over to my house and sit outside all year.”
She didn’t want to get in her car to drive to all the stores in LA. “I wanted a place to go to inspire me and also offer me all these great unique things for my home I couldn’t find online.” So, in 2009, One Kings Lane was born — out of her own interests. “I created One Kings Lane for me,” Feldman says. In 2016, the brand was purchased by Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Not long after, Feldman was looking for information on all the changes that happen to a woman around age 50. She sought day-to-day ideas and solutions on a small scale, and viewpoints that challenged the current view of aging on a larger one. So, in 2018, she launched In the Groove, a lifestyle website that offers a unique perspective on topics ranging from fashion and health to beauty and wellness — and does so with Feldman’s trademark authenticity and a dash of humor. In the Groove now boasts nearly 260,000 followers on Instagram.
Forging bonds through celebration
Community is a pillar of both of the brands she founded, as well as her life outside her work. “Creating community is about bringing people together who have common interests and goals, and providing them with information or helping them grow, or learn — and then being responsive to what they say.”
Feldman brings that philosophy home, too. “We entertain a lot. I love bringing people together in this house; we’ve had so many gatherings.” For several years running, she hosted a holiday party with over 100 women and brought in vendors just starting their businesses to give them exposure. “I still see women who came to those parties, and they tell me, ‘I met so-and-so at your house, and we are such good friends now.’ If you bring fabulous women together, you know good stuff is going to happen.”
Another celebration creation is “Shul by the Pool,” which she and her husband started the year they moved to LA. The Feldmans couldn’t get tickets for Rosh Hashanah services, so they hosted their own in the backyard, with guests reading the entire service and lunch served after. “That is how you create community — bringing people together with shared interests and values, and creating a little magic,” she says. The first “Shul by the Pool” had eight people, and it has since grown to include more than 80 guests, including daughters Kimberly, 38, and Jackie, 33, who fly from New York to be part of it. “Our kids love it,” she adds.
The holidays are when Susan really turns up the magic. “We think about the holidays as a time to decorate the house so it looks pretty. We have lots of dinner parties.” (That is where the “festive…usually-a-little-glitzy” décor comes in.) Though, the size of the gatherings has changed. “These days, we enjoy having a smaller, more intimate group of friends over to celebrate.”
Birthdays and anniversaries are big occasions, too, for the Feldmans. When Bob turned 64, they celebrated the 50th anniversary of his bar mitzvah. “It was really a hoot and a great way to bring our family and friends together,” she says.
For their 20th anniversary, they planned to go to Paris with their kids, and Bob surprised his wife by also arranging for 15 of their closest friends to join them. “It was five days of love,” she says. “We renewed our vows in a ceremony that our kids officiated, followed by an incredible dinner.
“I think when you find the love of your life, you celebrate every day, but that trip was really special.”
A generous spirit
Not surprisingly, gifting is one of Feldman’s love languages. Two of her favorite kinds of gifts to give are personalized gifts that the recipient wouldn’t typically buy for themselves or gifts that evoke a special memory, such as a photo in a silver frame. And to her, quality is always better than quantity — especially if the present carries with it special meaning. “I have my grandmother’s serving pieces, and I take them out and use them every night at dinner. There’s history there. I want my kids to have them, too.” Along those lines, she has started giving her children artwork from her father, who began painting late in life and got his Master of Fine Arts when he was 80. “I’m making sure they all have some works from my dad. It’s really important.”
So, too, is always being available to Kim, Jackie, and her stepson, Steven. Though they all live on the opposite coast, her children still come to her and Bob for advice, or just to run things by them. “That’s validation we’ve done a pretty good job.”
“Being a good mom means you work really hard for the first 18 years of [your children’s] lives to give them good values and good decision-making skills, and to be kind people,” she says. “Then, hopefully, when you send them off, they take all that with them.”
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The importance of family is something Feldman has always stressed in her professional life, too. Ethan Trask, SVP, brand creative at 1-800-Flowers.com, saw it firsthand at One Kings Lane, where he worked for five years under Feldman.
“She always said, ‘Your family comes first — without a doubt,’ Trask says. “She also advised us to keep things in perspective when we were feeling stressed at work. She’d say, ‘We are not curing cancer — we’re just selling couches.’”
Looking back, Feldman realizes she made sacrifices in her career for her children, and she admits that the role of parent has its challenges — but, she says, she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
AUTHOR
Martha McCully is a writer and brand consultant who’s into wellness, design, health, wine, and science. She was formerly Executive Editor of In Style, founding Beauty Director of Allure, and judge on HGTV Design Star.