Julie Macklowe

In December 2021, Macklowe created a new category by launching The Macklowe, the first luxury American single malt whiskey label. The Macklowe is distilled in limited quantities and retails for $1,500, available in select New York bars and restaurants.

Macklowe and her husband co-chaired the 2015 concert dinner at their summer estate in the Hamptons for the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, where musicians such as Jason Derulo headlined. The concert raised nearly $800,000, double the amount of 2014's event.

Macklowe currently sits on the Advisory Board of the McIntire School of Commerce and serves on the friends committees for both New Yorkers for Children and the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to whom she has contributed four of the exhibit's gowns. She is also a founding advisory board member for Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, the current Chairwoman of the Fashion Institute of Technology's Couture Council, and co-chaired the 2015 Couture Council Luncheon.

Macklowe was the muse for Zang Toi, whom she met two years earlier, for his Spring 2013 collection and debuted on the runway show September 9, 2012.

Macklowe launched her own skincare company, vbeauté on November 1, 2011. Vbeauté started as a luxury, travel-friendly toiletry kit that meets TSA regulations for a carry on, called the "It Kit", which was developed by CRB, a research lab in Switzerland. It has been praised by the New York Times for its unique packaging. In September 2014, vbeauté launched a deal with the Home Shopping Network to be sold exclusively at HSN and select boutiques. After its first year on HSN, vbeauté became one of the fastest growing beauty brands on television. Vbeauté currently sells a wide range of luxury skin care products, and is part of Macklowe's simple approach to skin care, where stem cells from the Alpine Rose flower are harvested as its main ingredient. The Alpine Rose is a small pink flower which is known for its resilient properties and which can only be found in the harsh climate of the Swiss alps, where it endures high altitudes, extreme temperatures, and dryness.

In 2011 Macklowe hosted her 34th birthday party, which also featured the launch of her new VBeauté skin care line. The event was part of a cooperative effort to raise money for VH1's Save the Music Foundation.

In December 2010 Macklowe's first fashion industry investment, BaubleBar, launched with help from Accel Partners. The online startup, founded by two Harvard business graduates with backgrounds in finance, sells jewelry direct from suppliers and designers which normally work with retailers. Macklowe helped the company in its initial efforts, raising over $1 million and she currently sits on the company's board.

As whiskey values began to explode in the mid 2010s, Macklowe zeroed in on an amazing market opportunity to create what she considers a unicorn: a luxury single malt made in America.

In 2009, backed by Millenium Partners, Macklowe opened her own $250 million hedge fund, Macklowe Asset Management. In October 2010, Macklowe closed the fund to pursue her own investments in fashion businesses.

The inspiration for this company came in 2009 as she was flying to her friend's wedding in France when her toiletries were confiscated by security. The replacement products she purchased in France gave her a severe allergic reaction. In 2011 her company raised $4 million and her product sold at 37 stores. As of 2013, the product line is sold in roughly 44 stores.

In terms of production, The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009—which govern how Scotch whiskey is made in the U.K.—dictate that single malts must be distilled using pot stills. However, since Macklowe is producing an American spirit, she and her team decided to challenge the norms by distilling her single malt in Kentucky the way bourbon is traditionally made, using a column still and copper doubler.

In 2008, Macklowe was named Vogue magazine's "It Girl".

In 2004, Julie married Billy Macklowe, founder of William Macklowe Company. The couple live in Manhattan and Long Island with their daughters.

In 2000, Macklowe worked with Chase Capital Management (now JPMorgan Partners) in Seoul and Hong Kong where she helped structure leverage buyouts. Between 2003 and 2006, Macklowe was the Managing Director of Metropolitan Capital Management, and in 2006, she joined the investment firm SAC, where she managed investment portfolios for Sigma Capital Management.

Macklowe was born in Aspen and raised in Arizona, the daughter of Frank Lerner who took over her grandfather's T-shirt company and turned it into a women's sportswear company. She completed her B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Commerce, graduating magna cum laude after just three years at the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce in 1999. It was there that she got an early induction into New York finance circles while taking “Tiger Cub” John Griffin’s class.

Decades ago, when Macklowe was traveling for her finance career, she made trips to Speyside, Paris, and Kentucky, searching out bottle shops and duty-free stands where she would stuff her suitcases for the trip home. One bottle led to another, and today Macklowe owns a collection of 1,000-plus whiskeys that she packs into three large bars and all the empty closets in her midtown Manhattan apartment. Her most prized bottles range from a 1982 Port Ellen Signatory, to Loch Lomond 50-year-old, to Hanyu 2000 Single Cask #359. Over the years, she became known for her massive, comprehensive collection (Annabelle Selldorf designed the display and storage in Macklowe’s New York apartment of more than a thousand bottles, including Bowmore 1973 and Glen Grant 1958; her “ultimate favorite” is Glenlivet 1969 and 1973).

Julie Macklowe (born as Julie Lerner in December 1977) is an American beauty entrepreneur and businesswoman, best known for creating an entirely new category for luxury American single malts within the wine and spirits industry. Formerly in finance, she moved on to become the founder and spokesperson of vbeauté, a luxury skincare line offering Swiss botanical skincare products for women. She is also an investor, former hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and socialite. Most recently, The Macklowe, her premium luxury American single malt, debuted at $1,500 a bottle and sold out within minutes.

Macklowe stressed her dedication to being socially responsible when she launched the product line in New York City on her 34th birthday. When asked about the charitable component, she said: "Social responsibility was very important. I think more corporations should do it.".