Why Darden Alum Gibboney Huske Walked Away from Finance

Most people don’t think twice about their underwear.

Gibboney Huske (MBA ’97) did.

After decades in finance, that small frustration turned into something bigger, eventually becoming Southern Fancy, a brand built around a simple idea: everyday essentials shouldn’t feel like a compromise.

A Career in Finance

Huske came to the University of Virginia Darden School of Business with a clear interest in finance, eventually building a career spanning Wall Street, from the sell side to the buy side. She worked as a sell-side analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston during the tech boom and its aftermath, later joining Legg Mason, where she became a portfolio manager for a global growth fund.

Over time, she also launched a hedge fund with a colleague, spending years immersed in global markets.

It was, by her own account, a dream job, but one that came with intensity.

“There was basically one day that all the markets were closed,” she says. “It was all-consuming.”

Eventually, she started to picture something different.

The Idea

The idea that would become Southern Fancy didn’t start with a business plan. It started with something small.

Huske found it increasingly difficult to find high-quality cotton underwear, something she later connected to supply chain disruptions following the ban on Uyghur cotton.

At first, she assumed it would be simple.

“I thought I could just find someone who made them,” she says. “But the reality is, it’s a very complicated supply chain.”

Instead of walking away, she decided to figure it out.

Starting From Scratch

Huske had spent decades analyzing businesses, not building them. She couldn’t sew and had no background in apparel.

So she started from scratch.

Huske enrolled in a program through the Carolina Textile District to learn the basics of U.S.-based manufacturing, went to a major lingerie trade show in Paris to make connections and began piecing together a supply chain. That included a lace supplier in Italy and a technical designer who could turn her ideas into an actual product.

“I really didn’t know what I was doing necessarily,” she says. “But one thing led to another.”

What followed was a slow, iterative process, figuring things out as she went.

“It’s kind of weird to have a product company,” she adds. “But it’s actually pretty cool. You’re shipping something that didn’t exist into the world.”

Building the Model

While the product itself is simple, Huske’s approach to the business is shaped by her background in investing.

She’s not thinking about it as a fashion brand as much as a consumer business built around a core collection, something people buy over and over again.

“If you find something you like that fits well, you tend to keep buying it,” she says.

By going direct-to-consumer, she avoids the traditional department store model and keeps more control over pricing, margins and how the brand shows up.

She’s also thinking about how to keep the business lean, using tools like artificial intelligence to handle parts of the operation that might otherwise require a larger team.

Taking the Risk

Launching Southern Fancy meant stepping away from a long-established career and taking on real risk.

Huske funded the early stages of the business herself and made the decision to let her Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation lapse.

“There’s definitely opportunity cost,” she says.

There were also more unexpected challenges.

“There’s reputational risk,” she adds, laughing. “FedEx doesn’t always want to come in the office when there are boxes of panties around.”

Lessons From Darden

As she’s built Southern Fancy, Huske has found herself returning to lessons from her time at Darden, sometimes in ways she didn’t expect.

Operations, once her least favorite class, is now a big part of what she’s doing.

“I was like, ‘oh my gosh. It’s operations,’” she says. “I have worked myself into another operations problem.”

More broadly, she credits Darden with helping her build confidence, especially as someone who describes herself as naturally introverted.

The case method pushed her to speak up, something that carried into her career in finance and now into her role as a founder.

Early Days

Southern Fancy is still nascent; a small but growing business with a long way to go. The company has launched two designs, with more on the way.

For Huske, the shift from analyzing companies to building one has been both challenging and rewarding.

It’s also changed how she thinks about leadership.

“You have to convince people of your vision,” she says. “But also leverage the strengths that other people have.”

That includes working with partners across the globe, from manufacturers to suppliers, and figuring out how to build something from the ground up.

It’s different from her years in finance.

But in many ways, it’s not that different at all.