This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The show is sponsored by
G three of Parow. The views expressed in the following program are those of
the sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor or iHeartMedia. Who is
Mark Weber. He's a self made business executive here to help you find your
success, from the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
His global success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational. He's gone
from clerk to CEO twice. Mark his classic proof that the American dream is
alive. And well, here's your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Mark Weber. I've been thinking, actually, I've been thinking a lot.
Confluence of the events got me thinking. But before I go there,
by the way, here's my lawyer, my co host, my son,
Jesse Weber. He's here tonight. Nice of you to come, Jesse.
I think you introduced me so quickly this time because you were afraid I was
gonna run away. I'm like, I look, I love doing I love
doing this, I love I love doing this show. I'm sorry, I'm
busy. I get caught up in things. Last week wasn't my fault last
week? Wasn't what's more important than this show? You know how busy I
was. Look, nothing's more important the show. But did I have quite
an experience? Absolutely? Do you know where I was? I wasn't in
New York City. No, I was in Nashville, Tennessee. Do you
know what I was doing in Nashville, Tennessee? Thoy, I couldn't know
the audience. I was at Crime Con. Crime Con. It's a giant
convention for people who are interested in true crime. Six thousand people and I
spoke in front of a panel. How many of the six thousand are actually
murderers? Do you think? Honestly? Everybody was amazing. Everybody's super nice.
Everybody you know what it is? You think everybody's weird. Everybody comes
up to me and they know what The number one thing they say to me
is thank you so much for what you do. They are all invested in
these cases. They want justice for the people. And I spoke on a
panel two thousand people. I spoke in front of two thousand people. I
sent you the picture. How crazy? What is the purpose of the convention
for those who are interested in true crime documentaries? Stories, reporting shows.
This is a convention where you can go and you listen to panels about different
subjects, different cases that are happening. You can also meet the people that
you've been following. It's you can buy merchandise. It's like a comic con
but for people who are interested in the true crime community, and it's really
good at panels like there. I was there for the Law Crime Network as
their anchor and reporter, and I was part of two panels. One panel
was talking about Scott Peterson because there was a possibility he might get a new
trial, and me and my co host Anjeanette Levy, we spoke on a
panel, talked all about the evidence in the case, the new developments,
and literally two thousand people were listening to what we were saying. It was
incredible. And then I spoke on another panel where I was moderating one about
America's Greatest Detective. Three incredible detectives, one of them won the award of
America's Greatest Detective at an awards show later that night, and we just learned
a little bit more about what they do, the cases they work on,
and the audience was fantastic. They love them and then we had a booth,
a law on crime booth where people got to meet me, got to
meet my co host, and we were selling merchandise. It was great,
taking photos, signing autographs. It was an incredible experience. Whoa whoa,
whoa, whoa whoa. People knew who you were, people knew who I
was. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I go outside here in New
York City, no one beats an eye. I'm at this thing. I'm
like the Justin Bieber of this community. It was shocking, shocking. My
wife was there, she accompanied me, and she said, this is like
an alternate reality where you're a celebrity. That's exactly what it was like.
I was taking pictures, signing autographs. People were saying the nicest stuff.
It was really, really complimentary, and I loved meeting everybody. So you
felt like a big shot, a movie star, rockstock. Did I feel
like I mattered? Did I feel like I was important? Absolutely? But
I'm telling you the most rewarding thing is when people came up to me and
say, I love your show, I love your reporting, thank you for
what you do, thank you for bringing attention to this subject or that one.
I mean what more could you want from hearing that may I'd prefer the
autographs. The autographs were great. Actually, one of the coolest things was
somebody came up to me. I met them first last year at last year's
crime Con. They had a scrapbook of pictures that I took with them from
last year and then they wanted me to sign it. So it was it
was pretty cool to say, all right, I'll forgive you for not being
here, and that is your daytime job, so I would say to you
should be there rather than But I was excited for you. Got to feel
what it's like to be someone who matters, and I really like that.
Good for you, Jesse, Yeah, because you give me no validation,
so I need it from other places. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. How
was the show? How was the show? You were gone for two weeks.
I think one was good, one was amazing. The one that was
good could have been better. But I you know, I'm doing my thing.
I'm okay, but anyway, and I'm glad you asked because I want
to get back to me. Too much time on you. I want to
get back to me in New York City anyway. So while you were gone,
I went to an event this week, charity event by an organization called
the two to ten Footwear Foundation. It's an organization that cares for people in
the footwear industry. They actually take care of their own, those who are
need and distress and despair. And every five years, a powerful person who
demonstrates a deep compassion for people in their companies or in the world around them
is honored by the two ten Foundation and all their members coming like you,
There were thousands of people there raising money, giving donations, and all of
honor of a select person who's given this award. And this award is given
out every five years. I had been there before. My career has spanned
many genres and products, and over time I was involved with brands and designer
shoes and I was invited by my son Jarreeded to accompany him and this night,
in particular, I knew the recipient of this prestigious honor. Now hold
that thought, I'll get out early. It's a beautiful sunny day this week.
I'm driving with the top down and cooling. The gang comes on the
radio seeing its ladies' night. It's lateies night. Oh what a night,
And here I am going to this event. I have the song in my
head and back to the two ten Awards ceremony songs in my head. The
award RECIPI is actually a woman named Diane Sullivan who's executive chairman of a company
called Cholaris. If memory serves me right, this confluence of the song in
my head and the award for Diane Sullivan got me thinking about women of great
success and substance, and that's what I started to think about. Now here
we are. The two ten group is sponsoring the event at the Glasshouse,
which is an amazing facility on twelfth Avenue at forty seventh and forty eighth Street,
remarkable indoor outdoor terror structure. I'm looking out over the Hudson River,
the sun is setting. I'm waiting for my son to join me, and
it hits me Ladies' Night. I've worked with amazing women over the course of
my career, and I'm going to devote a show to the ladies i've worked
with, so tonight it's actually Ladies' Night. But back to the two ten
charity. I know no one now you want to talk about being an event
with two thousand people by yourself waiting for my son. The only person I
know could be awkward, but this is the way it was because shoes were
always on the perfume of my career and I didn't know anybody there. The
industry changed, the people are younger. All I could do is try and
look my best and wait for Jared. And of course, you know,
package is as important as the products you package. There. I am Navy
double breasted blazer with silver buttons, Ralph gray worsted Canali pants, white Thomas
pink dress shirt opened at the collar, Tiffany's stainless steel cuff links with my
initials on them, Rolex Batman to match the jacket, black Montoni loafers.
I looked upart, although I must have looked like a fish out of water.
I'm sure people noticed me with my long hair. They didn't know who
I was, but I was alone, so it was a little weird.
Anyway, Jared shows up. He knows all the power brokers. Jesse,
I tell you this story. You didn't tell me the story, but you
sent me the picture of you guys night. You looked. I'm not gonna
sugarcoat it. You look fantastic. Did you post it on are Always in
Fashion page? Yeah, it's on the website. Everybody check it out.
It's on Instagram. So Jared he shows up. He knows all the powerbrokers,
the CEO of DSW, the son and founder Seth Campbell of the organization
for which we were at, one of the top guys at Aldo, and
Jared introduces me to all of them. They're polite, but it's funny.
I shook hands and I can see in their eyes. No one cared to
meet me. No one knew who was. Nobody cared who I was.
That's life. People seeing through me like I'm Cellophane. Hey, I used
to be important. Nobody knew. So I'm hanging out waiting for the ceremony
to begin. It's ladies night for the show in my head. Then out
of nowhere, the lady herself, the recipient of the evening's award, is
right in front of me, Diane Sullivan, and she says, Mark Weber,
what are you doing here? I'm here for you. No, Mark,
what are you really here to honor you? And with that she walks
away, doesn't look back, says another word in heads for the podium for
that award, I want to talk about awkward. She couldn't wait to get
away from me. I haven't been blown off in a while, so I
kind of got a kick out of it. I laughed. A thousand people
there and the most significant on the night has absolutely no use for me.
I smiled. But there's a backstory and Jared's stand. He sees what happens,
says what's that about? I said, human nature, and it actually
is an interesting story. Diane Sullivan tonight sonoree, executive chairman and board member
of Celearis, worked for me at PVH. My boss and I had hired
her to run our footwear company, and she reported to me when we hired
her, track reckon and footwear preceded her. She was an amazing woman and
we had hoped she could make our shoe business more successful. For us.
Shoes weren't a core competency and are. Though profitable, we didn't long in
the business and wanted out, and we had hoped Diane would turn it around.
Now, don't hold me to it. Nine months, maybe a year,
we were treading water. Nothing great came of it, and Diane,
to a credit, realized that while footwear was important, it was not a
core business for us and we didn't really support it. Perhaps the way we
should have. We were more afraid of it than we liked it. And
at one point nine months, maybe a year, she came to us.
She wanted to leave the company, and she'd been off of the executive vice
president job at Solaris. It was called Brown Shoe Company at the time,
the precursor to Solaris, and she explained she was going to be groomed for
the CEO spot, a great, great chance for her. Now as a
human I was happy for her. At his executive our key player was leaving
the company, I have to confess I wasn't happy. Problem was for her
she had a contract with us, and she had a one year non compete,
which means she could not leave and go work for another shoe company in
theory for a year. And in order for her to leave, she would
need our approval. And why would we give it? Now, you would
ask, why would anyone sign a contract to forbid them to work elsewhere?
Because equally corresponding to that clause was an agreement that if you were terminated or
fired without cause for any reason, you would receive a corresponding one year severance
policy. So simply you get paid for a year at full salary. Jesse
would know this in me. I learned early on that there's a quote in
the law or about the law that says the law abhors slavery, namely,
you can't force a person to work these severance agreements. Taking both sides into
consideration makes a tidy legal document. But here's where the story gets interesting for
Mark Weber and Diane Sullivan. My boss comes to me one day with a
crazy idea. I tell you, I was shocked. Do you have the
courage to say it out loud? He says, I want you to tell
Diane Sullivan the only way she could leave the company is if her new company
buys our shoe company. You're listening to this. It's crazy. Yeah,
it's like fifty to one hundred million dollars. We are gonna tell them they
have to buy this company that they don't want, that we don't want in
order for her to leave. I was shocked. I mean, I thought
I was smart, I thought I was a tough guy. When he said
this to me, I was amazed. I didn't have the courage to say
it out loud. My boss made me look like an amateur. Anyway.
I was forced to be a hard nosed with Diane and take the company line.
And I presented it with list, Diane, we have an agreement with
you. We don't want you to leave the company. In order for you
to leave, it's been decided by our chairman and the board of directors that
if you want to leave and break through your employment agreement, you're gonna have
to talk to your new company out buying it. She was shocked, she
was angry. She couldn't believe it that we would stand in her way and
do this. And I did take the opportunity to say that, Diane,
this was not of my choosing. I didn't even consider this. I was
asked to deliver the message. Of course, our chairman is expecting you to
come see him. She was upset, but the answer was, if you
want to go leave the company, that's the deal. Now. As it
turned out, Selearis wanted Diane, and they negotiated the terms and they bought
our shoe company and she left. Now, the company she was running was
a problem. It wasn't doing great and needed to be turned around. She
wasn't able to do it here, and now she had it in a new
company where she was just employed. She was embarrassed, her future perhaps in
question. Now having said that, she went on to do great things.
I wish my board loved me the way that board loved her. A few
years I ran it to Diane at another event. I said, Hey,
Diane, how are you doing? And she looked at me, your kidding,
Mark? I said, what, you don't think I'm ever going to
forget, let alone forgive you for what you did to me when I wanted
to leave the company. Diane, that wasn't my decison. Yeah right,
Mark, you involved with everything. And she walked away before I can even
respond. And here we are, all these year years later, blown off
again by Diane Sullen, the award recipient at a night I knew no one
but her. Now she's a player. Anyway, Congratulations Diane, you said,
congratulations, Diane. I have a feeling she's not listening to this show.
Just call me crazy. I don't think she's listening to Always in Fashion
with Mark Webber after everything. No, she's not a fan of mine.
And that's why I laugh. And I want to talk a little bit more
tonight. It's Ladies Night and Always in Fashion a tribute to the ladies I
work with but I couldn't help but being at this event and hearing the song
and seeing Diane telling you a story of perhaps not one of my better days.
But congratulations to all involved. It was a nice event and what an
amazing venue. The Glasshouse back in a moment. Always in fashion. That's
one of the world one's most celebrated fashion designers. Carlagafeld was renowned for his
aspirational and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes
to America through car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,
ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagofeld also
offers a range of watches, I wear and premium fragrances. You can explore
the car lagofl collection at car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that.
I have for one, love to shop. I love going around and
seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what would make me feel good
to wear Now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can
appreciate it and they look amazing. If you want to look right, you
want to have clothes that fits you well. You want to look like you're
wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours. You can
find it at very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com Paris. The women's
ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as the handbags and the ship
use. I, for one, wear men's clothes onlike my appreciation of women's
clothes. I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I want
to look the way I want to feel. I go out at night,
I'm in black and Carl Lagafel is my buddy. Clos are great, They
fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe
on the sleeve or button at the neck or on the shoulder. There's a
lot of details that go into Carlagafel because he's always been, he always had
been, one of the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on
and on. I can't speak enough about it except to say to you,
you want to feel good about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing
properly. You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld Paris at
Macy's Orcarl Lagafel dot com. A favorite brand has always been ISAOD. My
company at one time bought that brand. The CEO of the company handed it
to me and said, you better make it work. And I put everything
in my career to make Ayaod work, and I fell in love with that
brand. To this day, it is one of the most exciting endeavors I've
ever gotten involved with. ISOD is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you
play golf, if you play tennis for that matter. They make a great
polo shirts. I mean great. They're fit perfect. The material is unique
because it's a PK fabric that waffle weave you see, and it's made of
a blend of cotton and microfiber that allows you to stretch. And very often
they are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable,
and they breathe well. And one thing about ISOC they always fit.
They'll never tug on you. You put it in your waist, they'll fit
you great. The colors, patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell
you ISOD makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and you
want to look good. You don't have to think about how do I look.
You want to think about how you play, how you feel. Isod
is the brand for you. I know I was there when it was created.
The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's one of my favorite brands.
While I talk about it, I should tell you about the men's sportswear.
ISOD wasn't enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just great
polo shirts with logos, without logos, incredible branded story and history. ISOD
makes salt weather programs. They have great printed woven shirts, short sleeves.
They look excellent with colors, excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants,
of which they also make this whole salt order. Relaxed line from ISOD,
whether it be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts and pants
of a range of colors and fabrics that are perfect for a guy wants to
go casually in the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing,
Iszod is affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this brand can afford
to buy it and know that there are a lot of other brands that also
have a look like ISID, although I don't believe it's fun as Isaia is.
The brand has a lot of energy in it, but at the price
points no one can compete. You can find Isaaca at your leading retails and
online at isad dot com. Talk to you later, guys. I wish
you are very happy springing summer, and I help you by telling you if
you were isaid, you're gonna look great. Welcome back to it always in
fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber. Tonight, it's ladies night.
Oh what a night. A confluence of events of me hearing that song by
clueing the gang and going to a charity dinner where the woman who I'd known
a long time ago was made the Women of the Year and given the award
got me thinking about all the women that I've worked with in the company and
the remarkable people that they are and the jobs they have done. Now,
I know there's a glass ceiling in the world still for women when it comes
to business. It's getting better, but I got to tell you from my
vantage point, I was always confronted by brilliant women in my companies. The
fashion luxury retail industry perhaps is more populated by women of consequence than maybe any
other industry, and I want to talk a little bit about that. My
first exposure to women of consequence in business took place at the board level at
PVH Corps, Phillips Venues and Company. As a young man, I was
fortunate enough to present to our board on various different occasions, and pH was
blessed with two amazing women on the board. The first was named Shirley Goodman,
who was Shirley Goodman Well. Shirley Gillman was a college educator and for
in particular. She was one of the founders of Fashion Institute of Technology,
the college in New York for our industry. She joined in nineteen forty nine
to help draft the legislation making fit part of the SUNNI, the State University
of New York college system. She stayed there from nineteen forty nine to nineteen
ninety one. At the time she died, she was an amazing woman and
on that board whenever issues of people came up, recruiting people that we needed
open positions the industry at large, she was always there talking with an insight,
in an intellectual prowess that blew me away, and I realized what an
important woman she was, and if you go to ft, a picture of
her hangs in the lobby commemorating who she was for the industry. There was
another woman named Mistelle Ellis. When I met her, she was eighty two
years old, but shop is attack. She was a marketing guru in New
York. She had her own private practice, and people from all over the
world in the industry at large, came to her and asked her opinion.
And she sit in our board meeting and give a different point of view from
everyone else who was strictly numbers, strictly business, strictly strictly. She put
up a fashion slant, a marketing slant of what could be important to the
company to build brands and make them interesting. And I always appreciated her insight
because she took the mind away from just the numbers and gave it a different
perspective. I've told the world in my book and I'll say it again.
I was always struggling with van Ues and advertising. You know, how do
you make venuesen brand special when you were up against all the designers and all
the best shirt makers in the world. And even though van Usen probably made
the best shirt of all them. How do you make it exciting? And
by the time I was in the board asking about questions and help and looking
for help. I remember going to her one day and saying, look,
Estelle van Usen makes women's products. It makes pants, that makes sweaters,
and of course we're known for shirts. I'm at a loss. What do
you think we should do in our advertising tea? Get it noticed? And
she looked at me and smiled and simply said, you should simply say shirts
for men. And I looked at her and I realized what a powerful statement
that is van us and shirts for men, And from that everyone in the
world would recognize the brand. I was spent my time on making our shirts
look like designer shirts that far more expensive than they were, and sure enough,
shirts for men caught on and I used it for five years running until
I left the company, and if they were smart, they'd go back and
continue to use it because van use it his shirts for men. Now.
My exposure to these women at the board was not my first exposure to women
in business. In fact, in my early years I began as a clerk
and when I got promoted to my first creative job as a designer, lo
and behold. My first boss was a woman named Darlene Johnston. Darlene Johnson
was a gifted technical creative genius in the Boy's division of our company. Now,
as it turns out, my first design job, I was assigned to
the Boy's division. I wasn't happy about it because of all the divisions in
the company. You think van ues in dresshirts, number one, venues and
sportsman number two. At the bottom level of the pecking order was the Boy's
division. And I remember talking to Doleen and she's saying to me, you
don't know what you're getting into. You don't know how fortunate you are,
because in this division you're going to learn about every product. And that's the
way it worked, you know. I've often talked about what is the key
to my success? Of course being curious, of course having a degree of
smarts, always looking to learn. But I say that when I looked at
the symbol of the Godfather, if you remember what it is, it's a
marionette marionette strings and a hand holding them. And it always impressed me early
back, even those days, that if you want to be in the position
of holding those strings rather than being at the bottom of the strings where someone
else was telling you what to do. You had to learn as much as
you can about everything surrounding you. And here I was in the boy's division.
By the time I got there, I was expert in boy's woven shirts,
tresh shirts, ports shirts, collars made out of woven fabric. Darlene
was a knit genius. She came from a company named rob Roy where she
was the head creative director of the kid's knitwear business, and she brought that
expertise to our company. Now, I hadn't thought about Darlene in a long
time until I was in Ralph Laurentz's store on seventy second Street one day and
there was a guy who I knew right away named Jerry Lauren, Ralph's brother
who began the business with Ralph, and together they made it what it was.
And he started talking to me and my son Jared, because we both
had long hair. We were all trying on clothes. He loved the way
it looked on us, he loved our hair. Started to talk and I
said, I know who you are, and he said, how's that work?
I said, my first boss was Darlene Johnson, And out of the
blue, eighty two years old, He said, that was my time at
rob Roy before I joined Ralph and started his business. She was amazing.
How did you know she was my first boss. Anyway I worked there,
I learned everything I could about knit where everything I could about sportswear. I
learned about T shirts, sweaters, I learned about pants. I was given
the opportunity to learn jackets, t shirts, and screen printing. All there
was to know about knitting, buying knitwear by the pound rather than the yard,
and all of the associated things. How do you tell one knit from
another from the weight? I got this amazing education, and as time went
on, the fascin any thing is everyone in companies had specialists. If you
were a dress shirt guy, you were a dress shirt gal. You did
dress shirts. If you were a sports shirt person, you did sports shirts.
If you were a pant person, you did pants and outawear, and
on and on. My time at PVH, my beginning years, I was
in boys and I learned everything about every one of those businesses. So when
they started needing creative people to run the big divisions, I was more equipped
to do it than anyone else when they started. As years went on to
consolidate businesses that they wanted senior heads, fashion directors, general managers to oversee
a multitude of products. I was ahead of everyone else, and it all
relates back to this woman, Dolan Johnson, who I worked for. Those
three ladies gave me a perspective on women's in fashion that I never forgot,
and they got me on my way. I'll take a break back in a
moment. It's Ladies night. I'm always in fashion, always in fashion.
I spent a lifetime of my career building the van Usen brand, and I
am so pleased that they're back with us now talking about suits. Men were
dressing up again and it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits can be
won on multiple ocasions in multiple ways. You could wear suit formally to go
out at night or to an event, to wear a suit to the office
with or without a tie. If you look closely, now fashion trends,
suits are being worn with turtlenecks or mack next, the choices are endless and
every one of them looks right. You could really really look the part.
I believe that packaging yourself this is important. Does the products you package?
And wearing a suit is one of those things that make men look their best.
Venues In invented a new idea. It's called the cool Flex suit.
It's been engineered with stretch technology, giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility.
Its wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect
for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new style of looking
sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing and I'm so excited that the ven
Using company is involved in this new technology and is embracing the whole idea of
dressing up. Let's off again. Van Usen made its name with dress shirts.
It's only proper that the suit business follows strongly in its way. You
can find van Using Cool Flex Men's Stretch suits at jcpenny or online at jcpenny
dot com. Guys, they're great. You should go look at them.
DK and Why. Donna Karen, New York. Donna Karen began her career
as one of the finest, most successful, powerful women in the fashion industry.
She developed a collection aimed at the luxury market for women on the go,
women who were powerful in their workplace, women who had lives that extended
beyond the workplace. And her clothes went from day and to night. An
extraordinary collection. But the interesting thing Donna Karen had a young daughter, and
she had friends and they couldn't afford to buy the Donna Karen collection, and
Donna invented DKNY Donna Karen New York. It's an offshoot of the Donna Karen
collection. The same concept a lifestyle brand. Now we talk about lifestyle brands,
what does that really mean? Simply what they say, there are brands
that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get up in the morning, you
start to get dressed Donna Karen dcan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery,
as all those products. You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes,
handbags, and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing about
DK and Y clothes for work, they work into the evening. The dresses,
the suits, the pants, the sweaters, the blouses. Extraordinary clothes
at affordable prices that go from day in tonight. Part of your lifestyle is
active. You have weekends, you have events, you participate in sports.
Donna Karen's casual clothes did that under the dkn Y label. A vast array
of casual sportswear that make women look great as they navigate their busy lives.
Whether you're going to soccer games for your children, or whether you're going out
to the movies, whatever you want to do. DCN, Why jeans,
dcaan why sports wear is there for you. That's what a lifestyle brand is.
And I need to mention DKY Activewear, which is extraordinary, the leggings,
the sports bras, the sweats. You can wear DKY Activewear, certainly
in the gym, certainly when you're working out at home, and certainly if
you want on the street, because it's that well done. The quality of
dk why is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be because it
was born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women of America. DK
and Why a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and tonight, from
the week into the weekend. DCN Why you can find dcnhy and Macy's DKY
dot com. Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark
Webber. Good evening. It's Ladies' night. I'm Always in Fashion. It's
a night where I'm celebrating the luck I had working with brilliant women from the
day I began, from the first exposure to the women on pvh's board,
to my first boss, who was a woman who taught me how to be
a creator and taught me that I could learn a lot a lot of subjects
and be ahead of the game and put me on my way. I am
saluting women tonight because in this industry, retail, fashion, luxury, women
play a massive role. I understand in this world women still see and there
still is a glass ceiling, but in our industry they've broken through anyway.
Jesse, what do you see in women in your industry? I work with
a number of incredible women. So at Long Crime, we have a female
president who is a powerhouse. She has been with the company for years.
She helped build it into what it is today. She is just an incredible
manager. She knows exactly what to look for. It's really a sight to
see because she had started actually her career in local broadcasting and now she is
an incredible executive Prime Crime, my documentary show that I work on, from
the executive producer and host of all women on my team, and they are
some of the best people I've ever worked with in terms of incredible editors,
incredible writers, so organized. So I'm fortunate that way. Now, I
will tell you before my broadcast career. You know, I was a lawyer
and the first person who taught me law I was a junior associate. She
was a senior associate. She was incredible, taught me the ropes, taught
me how to become a lawyer. There was one person I worked for that
I just have to call out though. She was a partner at my firm,
and I will not sugarcoat this. She was one of the toughest people
I have ever worked for in my entire life. She wasn't the easiest,
but my gosh, was she brilliant. You say she's tough. I was
tough, But fair? Was she fair? I think she was a little
rough. Put it that way. She once called me an idiot, which
was not the nicest thing. I had problems. You had fourteen people throwing
work at you. Let me let me tell you what. Let me tell
you one thing. She didn't quite call me an idiot. She basically suggests
that I was dumb. But let me tell you something. What she did
that I actually, to this day, I don't think I was wrong.
So I worked for a number of different departments, and I was doing actual
legal work, writing up breefs, doing research, and one day she calls
me and she goes, I need you to go upstairs and I need you
to sort out these files with the guy that she wanted me to sort it
out with his job, as he's like the records guy. She gos,
I need you to put all the files in the right place. And I'm
drowning in work and she tells me to do this, and I guess I
was a little annoyed, and also the way she had been treating me,
and I said, there, basically, with all due respect, isn't that
his job? She goes, what did you say? Don't tell me what
his job is and what your job is. And the next day I get
a call from my manager who says, I got to talk to you.
I got a call from her. He goes, she says, you're very
rude and that you you said to her, this is dropped the dime on
you. She dropped the time on me, and I was I was like,
whoa, let me correct the record right here. And he acknowledged how
abrasive she is and how tough she is, but when I look back on
it, she had a lot of responsibility, big clients. She's hutting up
an incredible division on her own. She built it herself. But I'm glad
I'm not working for her anymore. Put it that way. But overall,
over, overall, I've had great experience. Well it's Ladies to Night,
and I think I want to be fair there. Women in this world and
business have been incredible to you, to me, And so I want to
talk about getting into LVMH because I have a story about a woman who without
her, I don't believe I would have been hired by LVMH. To see,
LVMH is a global company. They're one of the remarkable companies in the
world. Louis Vuittan mohen Hennessy. They operate their own stores because primarily ELVIMH
is a retailer. But in order to be successful there and even get placed,
you have to have an understanding of global business. And I met a
woman who was the managing director of the Asia Pacific Organization at Calvin Klink.
Her name was Edith Chen. She did something for me that became incredible because
I knew nothing about the inner workings of managing businesses in Asia Pacific. I
wake up one day and I have to go to China. China had become
one of the most important markets for luxury and power designer brands in the world.
We owned Calvin Klin. Our jeans, our underwear was all over China
and Asia. But China represents about a third of all the products sold in
the world. And how does that work. I knew nothing about it.
And Edith took me to China, and when I got to a first Hong
Kong, she set up a board presentation for me in her offices, introduced
me to all the people and started to show me the infrastructure of Calvin Klein,
how it was organized, who the key players were, and what we
needed to accomplish that day on our trip. But she said to me,
before you could be useful to me, and she said it in a way
that was respectful. I need you to understand how everything works. So before
we have a meeting with any one of importance, I need you to go
with me to a mall in Beijing, which is where we were, And
she took me to one of the best malls in Beijing and started to walk
me. Says Mark. The first thing you'll notice that there are no empty
spaces in this mall. It's filled to capacity, and there's a waiting list
for years to get into this mall. And you'll notice on the first floor
all the luxury brands. You could see Dior, you could see v Tone,
you could see Gucci, you could see Prada, And the first thing
anyone sees when they come into those malls is the luxury products. On the
second floor, you'll find diffusion brands, either the second tier of brands that
these companies offer, or brands of a lesser consequence. So in the case
of Prada, they also own Memeu. But also you might find Ralph Lauren,
Tory Birch, you'd find Donna Karen or dkayn Why in these stores.
And then on the third floor you'd find Calvin Klein Jeans and other brands like
those genius brands that you compete with. And the mauls were tiered by consequence.
Who were the players? But in a mall mark where there's more interest
in opening stores than real estate, who do you think are the most important
people in this mall? And I thought for a minute, and before I
can answer, she said, the owners of the mall and the landlords and
the people representing the owners of the mall. So now that you understand that
we want to open stores, that our Calvin Klein store isn't big enough,
that they just bought and built a beautiful mall in Shanghai, and we need
to get Calvin Klein there. I want you to meet the mall owners.
I want you to meet the representatives of the mall and all their people,
and we need to convince them that Calvin Klein belongs on the second floor with
the collection and on the third floor with the jeans line. Oh and by
the way, Mark, they've never done that for us A great well.
Anyway, Edith Chen brief me on this, took me and spent two days
with me in China, taught me what I needed to know in China.
But I said to you early, I wouldn't have got the job at LVMH
if it wasn't for this fateful trip with Edith. See when I was in
my interview and being grilled, what do I know about luxury? What do
I know about this? What do I know about that? What do you
know about your business in China and the rest of Asia? I proceeded to
tell the story of the importance in landlords and how I've met all the key
landlords in China, and how the morals were structured and tiered, and of
course they know it, but they wanted to see that I knew it,
and thanks to Edith, I was prepared and forever I am grateful for that.
Now I can talk to you about Donna Karen, who made it impossible
for me to join her company. I thought she was a gifted, gifted
individual I had the greatest respect for in the world. I did meet with
Donna. I tried to be recruited, she tried to unrecruit me. In
over a period of agonizing months, I fought to get into LVMH to run
that company for them. Ultimately I did, and I had a great working
relationship with Donna. But I have to say, on the list of people
that I've met in business that I respect Ladies Night, Donna Karen's brilliance,
her ability to design, her ability to walk into an empty room and turn
it into a museum is nothing short of brilliant, and I have to salute
her with that. Will take a break back in a minute on Ladies' Night
talking about the women that really impressed me in my career. Always in fashion
venues for over one hundred and fifty years now has been a mainstay in American
fashion. This brand that was invented for dress shirts was given to cold miners
when they exited the mills, dirty and dusty. The Phillips venues and company
Phillips families there to give them fresh new shirts that they could wear at home
and feel their best. Over the course of time, venues and dress shirts
grew and grew and grew to suit shirts and ties for the dress up.
But now sportswear has become a dominant part of the venues and collection. You
can find these products including sweaters, polos, quarter zips, trousers, and
even the best of fashion has to be preserved. I don't know if I
ever mentioned to you the advent of the men's necktie. There's nothing better in
a men's necktie business than the business lunch, because guys would go out,
they'd have their lunch that have their salads or their beef and potatoes, and
snow stout about it. They would always stain their die and therefore the business
grew and grew venues and today doesn't want to make money on your hardships.
They want to do it and prevent you from having to go through that,
and they invented Stainshield. It's the technology that was invented to protect your favorite
items. The stain Shield collection provides extreme defense against water based stains by causing
spills to beat up before they can be absorbed into the fabric. This collection,
by the way, in addition to regular fits, is also often in
all body sizes, including big and toall. You can find Venues and Stainshield
and the great venues in styled sportswear at vanues in dot com. That's vanusing
dot com. As one of the world most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld
was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision
of Parisian shit comes to America through car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections,
men's collections, ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The
fashion house Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches, I wear and premium fragrances.
You can explore the car lagofl collection at car Lagofelparis dot com. But
it's more than that. I have, for one, love to shop.
I love going around and seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what
would make me feel good to wear now. I don't wear the women's wear
obviously, but I can appreciate it, and they look amazing. If you
want to look right, you want to have clothes that fits you well.
You want to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for
you and yours. You can find it at very affordable prices at Macy'socarlagofel dot
com Paris. The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as
the handbigs in the show. I, for one, wear men's clothes,
unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy. I want to
look current. I want to look the way I want to feel. I
go out at night, I'm in black and Carl Lagafel is my buddy.
Clothes are great, They fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches,
whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or button at the neck or on
the shoulder. There's a lot of details that go into Carlagafel because he's always
been he always had been one of the world's great designers, and this legacy
and goes on and on. I can't speak enough about it except to say
to you, you want to feel good about yourself. You want to know
that you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl
Lagafeld, Paris at Macy's Orcarl Lagafel dot com. Welcome back to Always in
Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber. It's Ladies' night. I'm Always
in Fashion. I heard the song ladies Night cool in the gang. I
went to a charity event that was honoring a woman as their Woman of the
Year who I had worked with. Got me thinking Ladies' night. I wanted
to talk about women that I work with. I'm trying to think about all
the women who made me impressed and had changed my career. But right now
what I want to talk about is courage in my industry. Where I learned
it. I was working back at PVH and I happened to work alongside of
a woman named meg La Chance, who in my early days demonstrated something to
me that I thought was more courageous than I never understood before I grew up
running wholesale businesses. I was the president of Venues and Shirt Company at one
point before I really got to know megla Chance. Meg at the time was
vice president of Jeffrey Bean Retail. It was a men's and retail outlets format.
And I start to work with these teams in retail. I had a
job called pH International. I became the sourcing guy who'd help design, source,
buy the product around the world in Asia to deliver to these stores.
And I'll never forget. We'd have design meetings. Meg would sit there with
a team of planners and administrators. Meg was in theory a buyer of retail,
and she would look at the products, put a value on all those
things that she'd like, talk to her team and put it all together and
they would lay out all the orders. This is what I want to buy.
And I looked at her and I said, how do you know how
to do this? She says, Mark, what choice do I have.
I have a store, I have to fill it with a product. I
have to buy product. I said, but you don't know who's going to
come in. You know what? She says, We get paid to make
these decisions. And for the first time I realized how difficult the retail business
is. You're making decisions a year in advance. You're filling up store with
merchandise that you've seen either in sample form of paintings and deciding to buy it
with quantities, and that your whole career was based on selecting right or wrong.
And from Meg I learned courage. You know, another element of business
when I'm looking at the ways to define some of the women I work with,
has to do with likability. I work with a woman named Carol Kerner
who's the president of Donna Karen Collection. Donna Karen Collection was one of the
toughest businesses I've ever been associated with because we were competing with all the best
designers in the world, from tom Ford to Door, Fendi, Vitone.
All this floor space is being shared for apparel. We're trying to get our
share. I would work with Donna Karen and I walk into Sacks Fifth Avenue
to meet the power plays and the decision and Carol walks in and they love
her, They respect whatever she has to say. That doesn't mean that they
would buy everything we want. At the time, Sacks Fifth Avenue had thirty
three stores and they were only purchasing Donna Karen in nineteen of them. And
I watched Carol construct a deal on ship brillianc and gut to be in all
thirty three stores. And she said to the head guy, the senior vice
president at Sachs, who's making the merchandising decisions, I need to grow to
thirty three stores. Just well, I can't give you all thirty three stores.
So she said to him, I'll tell you what I want five stores.
And she put down on a piece of paper she had already pre written,
these are the five stores I want to be in. He says,
I can't do it. Carol, she says, I'm going to put these
goods in on consignment. I always choke. I never agreed to consignment.
She need to even ask me. The problem with consignment is you put the
merchandise in a store. Everything they sell they pay you for. Whatever doesn't
sell they give back to you. And I'm taking the total risk. If
these five stores do well, I want the next five stores and then the
next five stores. Will you do that? There's no risk to you.
And because they loved her, and because they liked her and not loved her,
they liked being around her. She was so likable, and because she
offered them a plan that could not fail, they gave her the order and
we grew from there. What a great lady, another one in a long
list of great ladies. And I'm internally grateful for what I learned from them,
what they did for me, what they did for the companies I worked
for, the successes we have in this industry luxury fashion retail Women occupy major
positions throughout the industry, as they should because they're good at it, and
far often they're better than men at it for all intensive purposes. I've worked
with brilliant women controllers who understood the finance. I worked with brilliant sales executives.
I've worked with presidents and chairmen of massive retail companies or wholesale companies in
this industry. And I'm proud to say I am a grateful guy for what
I learned and got from them. But on a night we're talking about ladies
night, I can't help but say the most powerful important woman I ever met
in my life was my wife, who passed away six years ago. My
wife, Susie was the brains of the Weber family. She's the one who
put it all together, not me. She knew what it was like to
raise and build a family. She set me up and told me how to
be a father. Whenever there were difficulties, she took them like an eagle
flying through the snowstorm. Nothing reffled her feathers. She got things done and
knew the things had to be done. My wife has left a huge hole
in our family, in our hearts and the operating structure of the Weber family.
She was so smart, so capable, so on top of everything.
She was the one we all went to it for advice. Whenever I had
an issue with business, when I was concerned, she always put it in
perspective. She always said to me, it's just work, Mark, it's
not the family. Do fine. Whenever I was troubled, don't worry,
Mark, You'll be fine. She's always been the guiding light of our family,
to our sons and to everyone that has been involved with the Webers.
I miss her. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think
about her. I know the boys think about her all the time, but
how in the world when it's ladies night can I not talk about my wife?
Susan Weber with that. I hope you enjoyed tonight's show. Good Night