Introduction
Three sisters from Derby, where they were the only Black kids in their school, sketched a logo on a napkin in a Brixton bar and asked a question: could we come together as a powerhouse?
Between them, Louise, Lori and Victoria Powell have more than twenty years in luxury retail, from Harrods and Valentino to Tiffany, rising to senior roles in rooms where, as Louise puts it, there were not many faces of colour at the top. Now they run LVL London, developing leaders and championing the people coming up behind them. In this conversation with Sope Agbelusi, Louise and Lori talk about courage, humility, imposter syndrome and what caring leadership actually looks like on a shop floor.
From the Nottingham coach to the Harrods floor
Growing up in Derby, the sisters had to take a 30-minute coach to Nottingham just to see designer brands. Louise's way in was a Christmas temp job at House of Fraser, where the store director announced only two of twenty temps would be kept on. "That has got to be me," she decided, and it was. Lori caught the bug in a Sheffield trainer shop, memorising nine-digit stock codes and outlasting quicker colleagues because she cared most about the customer's story. When you love hearing people's stories, she says, it does not feel like work.
In London, Louise rose at Harrods from managing the Way In fashion area with 80 staff to business manager and general sales manager, and noticed that as she progressed, the diverse faces thinned out. Lori followed her into Harrods, with a truth worth keeping: somebody can open the door for you, but you still have to make your own name when you get there.
Courage, competence and credibility
Lori dislikes the word confidence: everyone's confidence varies with circumstances, but courage, the willingness to go for what you want, paired with the humility to keep working hard, is what carried them. LVL is built on three Cs: competence, courage and credibility.
Louise tells the story of a team member whose confidence far outran his skill, first to greet every director who hit the floor, and who has gone far on self-belief while more skilled, quieter managers waited. The lesson is not to fake it, but to recognise that skill alone does not speak; you have to let people see it. On imposter syndrome, which they note women, and Black women especially, carry, Louise is honest: the niggling voice may never fully go away, but you find your own way to bury it. For her, that way is faith.
Leaving the big name behind
Both sisters admit they were scared to leave corporate careers. Their practical advice: put money aside for the months before the first contract, and accept there is never a right time; the right time is when you decide, and the fear evaporates once you start taking intentional steps. Sope names the deeper shift: without a famous brand behind you, you have to show up as the same person with the same experience, and be even more of yourself.
Their network proved the real asset: most early interest in LVL came from people who had experienced their work first-hand, including a former retail director who once nominated Louise for a leadership award and now runs a major retail destination in Dubai \[CHECK detail\].
What caring leadership looks like in practice
The sisters' leadership examples are refreshingly concrete:
- **What's your number?** When someone seems flat, Louise asks them to rate themselves one to ten, then asks what would move them one point today. Sometimes the answer is as small as a colour printer, and it is fixed by Monday. It is rarely "change my world"; it is small things, noticed and acted on.
- **The morning brief is the most important meeting of the day.** Not the one with the retail director; the fifteen minutes with your team, where you can make or break their day.
- **Follow through on commitments.** Lori argues consistency and follow-through matter more than ever when people crave stability.
- **Zero ego succession.** Lori takes pride in stepping sideways so others can lead, and both believe the mark of success is never having to hire from outside because you built the future leaders under you.
Louise's proof point: a manager once told her, "I know I don't always have to give 100 per cent because you don't micromanage. But I give 110, because I genuinely feel valued." People who feel cared for perform when nobody is watching.
Hard decisions and honest scars
Both share the hardest moments. Lori had to be the mouthpiece for a redundancy affecting a team member whose family she knew; the relationship never fully recovered, and her way through was telling herself the right stories: the decision was not hers, and she did all she could professionally. Louise flagged a commission problem to her finance director, and the resulting change hit 200 staff in their pockets; people left. Leadership titles look shiny from the outside, Sope observes; inside, they carry weight.
Sisters, lanes and Earth, Wind and Fire
Working with family works, they say, because each sister stays in her lane: Lori builds the learning and development programmes, Louise, the self-described jazz hands, presents and delivers, and Victoria, direct and to the point, keeps everyone on track. Their brothers call them Earth, Wind and Fire. The differences that cause friction in hard times are the same ones they celebrate; the dynamic is a strength, but it needs managing, and that is the real talk.
PR, humility and the row about colour
As corporate leaders they let league tables speak; as founders they have had to learn to tell people how good they are, consistently, which sits awkwardly with humility. Their reframe: great PR is really great relationships, personalising, listening more than you talk, and looking to others' needs first.
A telling exchange closes the conversation: both sisters dress almost exclusively in black, navy and nude, and Louise names why: as young Black women in luxury, they did not want to be stereotyped; they wanted to be taken seriously. Favourite brands, for the record: The Row and Victoria Beckham \[CHECK: second brand rendered "batman" by ASR, possibly Balmain\]. And the lesson from the Linkin Park anecdote stands: never judge a book by its cover, and if you change yourself to match what you think somebody is, you are going to fail. Be yourself; the truth comes out anyway.
Two definitions of leadership
Lori: creating a path that others want to follow, and role-modelling it, not perfectly, but vulnerably and authentically, adjusting daily through feedback and dialogue. Louise: believe the goal can be achieved, inspire your team to believe it, set the small goals along the way, and get everyone on the same page. Walk into any store on a Saturday and ask a staff member what today's goal is; if they do not know, you have a problem.
