The person people call…

When the stakes are real — when they're building something and need it to last, or when it's being tested and they need someone who can see what no one else can. Part brand strategist, part fixer, part the one person in the room who will actually tell you the truth. I read a situation from every angle before I say a word, and by the time I do, I already know what you should do next. I don't sugarcoat. Clients have called it brutal honesty meets hand-holding.

It shows up two ways. Privately, I counsel founders and senior leaders through the moments that test them — investigations, board conflict, reorganizations, departures, press exposure — and through the ongoing work of building a reputation that can survive contact with reality. Publicly, I do the same work for companies: brand strategy, positioning, communications, social media, and the decisions that shape how the world sees them. Warby Parker is one of the companies I currently work with, as a Senior Advisor.

I started in magazine editorial — interning at Harper's Bazaar, then landing my first job as assistant accessories editor at Marie Claire. I moved into fashion PR at Donna Karan in 1998, where I spent the next seventeen years, fourteen of them under LVMH — years spent in rooms where a single sentence could make the news or bury it. I created DKNY PR GIRL there: the anonymous voice that got a luxury house to talk like a person, before anyone thought that was something a brand should do. The press called me the real-life Gossip Girl. It taught me that people don't follow brands. They follow people. From there, I led global marketing and communications at alice + olivia before moving into consulting full time. I also advised companies at the intersection of fashion and tech — Fashion GPS, Launchmetrics, and Awear, to name a few.

Somewhere along the way, I started writing down what I knew. Leave Your Mark, because people wanted my career advice. On Brand, because they wanted to know what to do with it. Both won awards and became bestsellers. Now I'm doing it again in real time — writing my first novel, Off the Record, Secrets of a 90s Fashion Insider in New York, chapter by chapter on Substack, with more than 6,300 people reading over my shoulder as I write it.

Producers call me to analyze breaking news in fashion, media, and culture. I write for The Times of London and the New York Post. Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Inc. have all called on me to make sense of a moment. Forbes named me one of the top personal branding experts in the world.

And when I'm not doing any of that, I'm online saying what I actually think — about the news, the story behind it, and the fight against antisemitism, which is personal: I'm the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors.

I'm a born-and-bred New Yorker with two nearly grown kids, a husband, two dogs, and absolutely no shortage of opinions.

Questions people ask

What does Aliza Licht do? Two things, for two kinds of client. I advise companies on brand strategy, communications, and social media. And privately, I counsel executives and founders on their personal brands — what to do and say when something inside the company is about them, especially in crisis.

How can I work with Aliza?
By the hour or by retainer. A single call when you need an answer and not an engagement, a defined project when there's one specific situation to work through, or a standing retainer when you want me in the room on an ongoing basis. Most people start with a call.

What is DKNY PR GIRL?
The anonymous Twitter personality I created during my time at Donna Karan. I didn't just get into social media early — I pioneered the category: the first fashion brand to talk like a person online and gain a following, long before anyone had the word "influencer" for it. My reveal as the person behind the account generated more than 230 million media impressions worldwide.

What has she written? Two bestsellers, Leave Your Mark and On Brand, and Off the Record, a novel I’m publishing chapter by chapter on Substack.