The A List has been expanding its footprint in Los Angeles, adding space and growing its team.
The women-led communications and marketing agency is overseen by founder and chief executive officer Ashlee Margolis, president and managing partner Jenine Leigh-Pollard and managing partner Shana Honeyman.
“I feel like it’s just been years of building trust in the community and building relationships that feel authentic and organic,” said Margolis, who got her start at Harrison & Shriftman.
Launched more than two decades ago, The A List was shaped by Margolis’ early career in public relations and her longstanding ties across entertainment. Early collaboration with Leigh-Pollard — then an endorsements agent — helped shape a relationship-driven platform for brands including Coach, Express, Ports 1961 and J.Crew.
“It was all word of mouth,” Margolis went on. “I was different than other showrooms, because I was really heavy on celebrity, versus my competitors that were just all stylists.”
At a time when most showrooms focused on servicing stylists, Margolis built a business centered on direct celebrity access. By developing relationships with talent, and extending that access to the agents, managers and publicists who brought them in, she established trust across Hollywood’s talent community, she said.
That approach led to Margolis’ first fully produced event: a fundraiser with Rashida Jones for the charity Peace Games, hosted at Quincy Jones’ home. The evening drew high-profile guests, “before you had to pay celebrities to go anywhere,” Margolis said.
Today, The A List operates as a full-service agency, blending its invite-only showroom with brand partnerships, influencer and celebrity campaigns and activations that range from private dinners to red carpet events.
“It’s telling the story of a brand and amplifying a brand through all the different voices,” Margolis said, referring to an approach that brings together celebrity access, creator partnerships and in-person experiences to reach audiences across multiple touchpoints.
Shana Honeyman, Jenine Leigh-Pollard and Ashlee Margolis at The A List.
Michael Buckner/WWD
By the time Leigh-Pollard officially joined the company in early 2021, The A List was profitable, according to Margolis. But her arrival marked a shift toward more structured growth.
“Jenine really made a business that was running on gut and intuition into a more substantial, real business,” Margolis said.
Since then, The A List has expanded to roughly 45 employees, grown to about 20,000 square feet across four buildings on Civic Center Drive in Beverly Hills and completed the acquisition of The Honeyman Agency, founded by Honeyman, a curated luxury showroom focused on stylist-led celebrity dressing.
For Honeyman, the decision to join The A List came down to alignment and timing.
“It was very, very clear how symbiotic this could be for the both of us and my clients,” Honeyman said. “Times are changing, and brands need more than just celebrity dressing.”
The partnership allows Honeyman’s brands, the likes of Magda Butrym and Toteme, to tap into The A List’s wider capabilities, from partnerships to campaigns.
It’s an approach that’s in demand as brands rethink how they invest in influence, placing greater emphasis on access. Margolis said those long-standing relationships, built directly with talent over the years, have become increasingly important.
“We go directly to celebrities and their personal assistants,” she said. “We get results.”
That rapport has opened the door to deeper partnerships, including celebrity equity deals that go beyond traditional endorsements. In those cases, The A List works with both brands and talent to align long-term interests.
“We’re bringing celebrities on to take equity in brands and helping them with their go-to-market strategy,” Margolis said.
Looking ahead, the team is focused on growth across categories. The agency has expanded beyond fashion into beauty and wellness with brands like Ilia, with plans to continue building in hospitality and consumer products.
“We want to do more in Europe,” Margolis said. “We want to do more in Miami. We want to do more in Chicago. We’re really heavy New York and L.A. right now, and we do a good amount in Miami, but there’s no reason that we can’t have showrooms and offices everywhere.”
