Todd Cohen’s Side Hustle: LoveShackFancy

If Todd Cohen is ever spotted wearing bright pink to a business meeting, his wife could be behind it.

The Icon Realty head has been pitching in with his wife’s business venture since the onset of the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rebecca Hessel Cohen is the founder of LoveShackFancy, a growing lifestyle brand whose ruffled dresses and floral prints have hooked an audience of jet-setters, sorority girls and high school fashionistas.

LoveShack was founded in the early 2010s but Todd got more involved early in the pandemic. His wife was initially reluctant to let her husband into that part of her world, but relented as the difficult time weighed on her.

With Todd playing a major role, LoveShackFancy turned its focus towards brick-and-mortar retail, rather than e-commerce, opening stores at a fast rate in recent years. The company has 17 retail locations, focused on resort areas, college towns and cities with prep schools.

LoveShackFancy’s antique-inspired manifest destiny is showing no signs of abating, and the company plans five openings this year in Aspen, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Kiawah Island and Northern California. All of the stores are profitable, according to Todd, who was referred to as “America’s sweetheart” after a video starring his wife went viral.

The real estate expansion plans stretch beyond the United States’ borders. LoveShackFancy partnered with the Brama Group to expand the business into Europe and the Middle East. Hessel Cohen also harbors ambitions for a coffee shop and a boutique hotel in the girlishness stylings of the brand, which has reportedly done more than $100 million in sales.

While Todd seems happy to pitch in on the lifestyle business, he also has his hands full as a real estate developer.

In May, Icon Realty landed in default after failing to refinance the debt tied to a 19-property apartment portfolio in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Towards the end of the year, Icon worked out a deal to extend the $109 million debt’s maturity to May 2026, though it had to agree to pay down $12 million, including $6.5 million at closing.

— Holden Walter-Warner