We’ve been keeping a close eye on Vena Cava’s Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai since we heard they were in need of a financial planner. In these dire economic times, what a smart move for the designers to make! Especially after they were a runner-up at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which included a prize of $50,000 to invest in their label’s future. And since the CFDA announced Vena Cava’s mentors last week — Patrick Robinson of the Gap and Andrew Rosen of Theory — we wondered if their new counsel would help speed up the selection process. After all, we’re in a recession; this isn’t the right time to dawdle. But when we caught up with Mayock and Buhai to find out if they’d found the perfect fiscal agent, they, alas, told us otherwise. “It has not happened yet, but we are meeting with several people. In the meantime we have been taking this into our own hands,” Sophie says. “We enjoy having control of our finances at this early stage in our business. This way we can fully comprehend the complexity of the beast we are dealing with.” There’s potentially room for error here, but we understand, one step at a time. And it’s not like this pair is green in the game. “To give you an idea of how much we’ve grown — our goal last year was to get office chairs,” Lisa tells us. “And I’m proud to say that we met that goal.” Chairs are nice. But not as nice as 5.9 percent growth over six years. We’re not accountants or anything, but avoid guys named Bernie Madoff and you should be good. There are plenty of laid-off finance guys who need work on the cheap.
