Fenco Lin on Cider’s rise from pandemic start-up to global brand

Cider was born online in the middle of the pandemic, at a time when young shoppers were discovering fashion and community almost entirely through their screens. Six years on, the digital-first brand reaches customers in more than 130 countries and has a growing presence offline, which began with its first permanent store in Los Angeles in April. For co-founder and chief fashion officer Fenco Lin, the move into physical retail is the next chapter for a brand built on community.

“In a strange way, the pandemic made the opportunity much clearer,” Lin told FashionUnited. “Everyone was at home, spending more time online, and the way people were discovering fashion and finding community was changing very quickly.”

The founders saw a gap between how young people expressed themselves on social media and how fashion was sold to them. “We saw that young customers were incredibly expressive online, but fashion e-commerce still felt quite transactional,” Lin said. “It was usually organized around categories, such as tops, dresses, pants, rather than around how someone actually thinks about getting dressed: How do I want to feel today? Who do I want to be?”

That idea became the brand’s tagline, “Fashion Starts With A Feeling.” “In some ways, launching without the assumptions of a traditional fashion company allowed us to build the brand around the new behaviors we were seeing in real time,” she said.

Friends first, co-founders second

The founders’ history predates the company. Lin went to high school with Michael Chen Wang, and Michael, Toney Wen and Yu Oppel went to college together. “I think that matters more than people realize,” Lin said. “Starting a company is full of uncertainty, and especially in the early days, you need to be able to disagree, make decisions quickly and know that everyone is ultimately trying to solve the same problem. That foundation of trust has been incredibly important for us.”

“My background is much more product, merchandising, brand and customer. I spent my career in fashion, including as a buyer, so I tend to start with the woman: what she wants, how she shops and what makes her excited about a product,” Lin said. The rest of the team brought expertise in technology, operations and business building. “Fashion is emotional and instinctive, but building a company at scale requires a lot of technology and discipline behind it.”

For Lin, fashion has always been a form of self-expression. She wore school uniforms until high school, so the freedom to choose her own clothes meant a lot. “Fashion became another language, a way to express things about myself that I might not necessarily say out loud,” she said. “What you wear can strengthen who you already are, but it can also open up endless possibilities for who you might become.”

No single aesthetic

“I actually don’t think Cider has one aesthetic, and that’s quite intentional,” Lin said. “A girl doesn’t wake up wanting to dress exactly the same way every day. One day she might feel romantic, another day very minimal, another day sexy, playful or nostalgic. We know she wants the freedom to explore all of those sides of herself.”

She described Cider as a point of view: expressive, playful, feminine, curious and connected to culture. “That freedom is very Cider to me. You don’t need to decide that you’re one type of girl.”

The brand also champions what it calls “happiness in the mundane.”

“A lot of fashion traditionally revolves around moments, such as a wedding, a vacation, a party. Of course those moments matter, but most of life isn’t made up of major events. It’s going to coffee, meeting a friend, walking to work, having dinner on a random Tuesday,” Lin said. “That’s also why the name Cider has always felt right to us. It’s sweet, approachable and celebratory without being overly serious.”

Built with its community

Raised on social media, Cider has treated its customers as collaborators from the start. It casts them in campaigns, names products after them and turns their feedback into new designs. “We realized pretty quickly that the most interesting thing we could do wasn’t control that conversation, it was to participate in it,” Lin said. “So when we cast customers, name pieces after them or respond to what they’re asking for, it isn’t meant to be a marketing device. It’s acknowledging that the brand has been built with them.”

Those conversations have also shaped the brand’s approach to sizing. Cider offers inclusive clothing in sizes XXS to 4XL. “I think inclusivity and self-expression are very closely connected,” Lin said. “We’ve always wanted Cider to be a brand where people can express themselves through fashion, and that means thinking about who gets to participate.” The brand’s Curve collection, she added, was “a starting point rather than a finished project.”

Cider has also leaned on nostalgia through a string of partnerships. Its first collaboration was “Pretty ’N’ Punk” with Bratz, the doll line from MGA Entertainment. A Polly Pocket capsule followed in 2025, launched with a three-day pop-up at Alfred Coffee in Beverly Hills. Most recently, the brand partnered with Sanrio on a Hello Kitty and Friends collection, released in September.

Smart fashion

Behind the brand is what Cider calls “smart fashion.” “At its simplest, Smart Fashion means trying to make the fashion supply chain more responsive to actual customer demand,” Lin said. “The traditional model often requires making very large commitments months in advance and then hoping the customer wants the product. Our model was built to start more carefully, read demand quickly and respond when customers show us what they want.”

From the outset, the company invested in its own technology, including an intelligent ERP system, to track demand through feedback, shopping behaviour and community conversations. Lin stresses that data does not replace design. “Our creative and merchandising teams need to have a point of view. If you only follow historical data, eventually everything starts looking the same,” she said. “Sometimes the most useful signal isn’t simply that a product sold well. It’s understanding why she connected with it.”

Bringing the brand home

Cider tested physical retail with pop-ups, including a styling suite in London in 2023. On April 17, 2026, it opened its first permanent store, a 7,800-square-foot space at The Original Farmers Market next to The Grove in Los Angeles. The store offers in-store exclusive colourways, fitting rooms and complimentary personal styling sessions. Beyond the opening weekend, it hosts “Cider Sundays,” weekly community gatherings with Los Angeles creators, cafés and local businesses.

“For the first few years, digital gave us an incredible way to reach customers around the world. But eventually we felt there was a part of the Cider experience that couldn’t fully exist through a screen,” Lin said. “Fashion is physical. You want to touch the fabric, try something unexpected, build an outfit, walk around with a friend and discover something you weren’t searching for.”

The store is designed to translate Cider’s mood-based shopping into a physical space. “So the store isn’t simply an offline version of the website. We wanted it to express how we think about fashion differently,” she said. “And Los Angeles felt like the natural place to begin. Cider was born here. Opening our first permanent store here felt like bringing the brand home.”

Lin calls the opening one of the most emotional milestones of her time at Cider. “There was something special about seeing people walk into a physical space, try on the clothes, explore different moods, and interact with the brand in person,” she said. “But I think what makes me most proud isn’t necessarily the store itself. It’s seeing how far the idea has come, and knowing that the community that helped us build Cider online is now becoming part of its next chapter.”

A second store, at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, California, is part of the brand’s retail expansion.

Global plans

As Cider grows internationally, Lin sees a shared fashion language among young customers worldwide. “What I find fascinating is that personality, aesthetics and micro-trends increasingly transcend borders. The same cultural moments can surface through social media at almost the same time in Los Angeles, London, Seoul or São Paulo,” she said. “So we don’t think about localization as creating a completely different Cider for every country. The cultural conversation can be global, while the way we merchandise, style and present it should reflect how people actually live and shop locally.”

Her advice to young founders is direct. “Don’t start by asking, How do I build a fashion brand? Start by asking, Why does the world need another one? There is already an enormous amount of product in the market. Being good is not enough. You need a very clear reason for someone to choose you.”

Looking ahead five years, Lin hopes Cider will become one of the defining fashion brands of its generation. “Scale is obviously part of that, but I’m actually more interested in depth than simply being bigger,” she said. “I want the product to keep getting better. I want our stores to become places people genuinely enjoy spending time in. I want us to keep building categories and experiences that make sense for the Cider woman rather than expanding just for the sake of expansion.”

“The biggest risk as a company grows is becoming too predictable. Fashion shouldn’t feel predictable,” she added. “Five years from now, I hope Cider still makes you wonder, What are they going to do next?”