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 is classic proof that the American dream is alive.
And well, here's your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Mark Weber. We're all defined by what we do. That's life. Hey,
what do you do? Simple question? We all get it. Sure.
How you look at something to say about who you are. The way
you dress at any given time sends signals. The way you put yourself together
helps to find you. You go to school matters, what you took away
matters more. What's important to you is another part of your puzzle. Are
you married, family, religion, city, state, country, all relevant?
But in this world, there's one simple question that sums it up.
What do you do? Cuts to the chase classifies you, defines you,
It is you more than anything. The other day, I was speaking to
a woman I was a reference for her in an upcoming job placement and interview
process. What good reason I should say? She's talented, I work with
her, and I would gladly endorse her for the role she applied for.
During our conversation, she mentioned to me how much she still love working,
how she'd love to be challenged, and how she'd like to find a new
mountain to climb. It was at that precise moment I realized I didn't talk
about this ever, and how I define myself a mountain climber. I've talked
about curiosity a million times, being interested in learning as a driving and my
success. I've talked about energy defining who I am. When I interview with
Bernardo Nau, the chairman and founder of LVMH, he asked me what do
I bring to companies? And I replied, I bring energy. But this
week, in that conversation, I remember how I always defined myself. When
I wanted to bring a touch of clever to a question mark what do you
do now today? My first response is always the same, I don't know
I used to be important. I'm not now. Push me a bit and
I'll say I'm a radio and podcast talk show host. But back in the
day, when I was important, when I was being clever, when I
wanted to be charming, when I wanted importantly to define myself, I would
always answer simply the same way. I'm a mountain climber. Now. I
never had a harness, never used rope of pylons, never wore spike shoes
or powdered my hands. I didn't hang, I didn't scale, I didn't
put myself in harm's way. I didn't need brutal strength. But I I'm
still a metaphoric mountain climber. I always looked up. I always embraced change.
I sought out challenges. I tackled the difficult tasks. I was always
interested in learning and applying, setting goals, sometimes impossible ones. I wanted
to prove I could soar. I wanted to get to the top. Yes,
I was a mountain climber. I remember always wrestling with this concept.
Should I work for a developed company that's doing well and make it even better?
Or should I seek out problem companies, fix them and make it mine.
Either would work. Where was the daunting though, Where would you have
to be your greatest to prove your worth? There's no right answer to that
question. But as long as I was learning, as long as I was
scaling the corporate wall or mountain I've written in my books, I studied publicly.
My first company had my heart for so many years, for so many
reasons, not the least of which was in twenty five years, I had
twenty five different assignments, job posting titles. I always had something new going
on. It kept me riveted, interested, challenged, excited. I never
would leave because every few weeks, every few months, every year, I'd
had a totally different job. It was like I left the company and started
all over, a change. I loved it. I loved accomplishing even more
love learning most. That's where the value resides. At the top of the
mountain. At the top of the mountain, the wind blows the hardest,
and I liked it there. Tonight, I want to talk Korea mountain climbing.
Now joining me at the top of the mountain, my lawyer, my
son, my co host Jesse Weber. I like this. I like this
association with career climbing, with mountain climbing, because if you think about it,
the higher you climb also the higher the stakes are. Right, if
you climb mountain, the higher there danger level. But the higher you get
in the top of the mountain, the more you can fall, the more
you could lose. So I think that's a really interesting way and an interesting
comparison to talk about a mountain as a kind of career. You're one hundred
percent right because when you think about it, the more the risk, the
more the daunting task, the bigger the bucks are. And it's correctly so
every business you can think about, people making the decisions or the people who
are at the pinnacle have the biggest opportunity and at the same time control the
furthest And by the way, if you really are enjoying what you're doing and
you're climbing that mountain not out of an obligation or you have no other choice,
but because you really love it, the higher you get, the more
concern you have, and the more pressure you have that you're going to lose
it all. I mean, there are people who lose their jobs and they
really were passionate about it. So there's a danger there as well. Obviously,
not the same thing as climbing a mountain. But you get what I'm
talking about. And we've talked about money before. We always do on the
show You climbing the mountain for money? Never, it was never about the
money, although I expected the money to follow whatever I did. I believe
in capitalism. As I said before, name a business. Let's say show
business. Where's the biggest money in show business? Jesse? Actors? Okay?
Why as an experienced actor, myself, as somebody who went to acting
school, do you know how hard acting is? I think it's always easy.
And then you and me get in front of a teleprompter and I have
to do three sentences and it took me an hour. Teleprompter's different. Acting.
Making something look real is so incredibly tough. The best actors and actresses
out there make it look easy. I say they deserve all of the money
because it's one thing to be comfortable on camera and show your emotions. But
to make it look real and people feel like it's a real thing. That
is such a talent and the best actors and actresses that's why they get paid
millions and millions of dollars. Robert Downey Junior could anybody be iron man,
sure, but not like him. He has transformed it. And that's why
you would pay him seventy five million dollars to be in the role, because
he's transcended it. He's turned it into something his own. Nobody else can
do what he does. And when you do something that really nobody else can
do, that's why you get paid the big bucks. Tom Cruise, We've
seen him in a million different things, and yet when he's in that cockpit
Maverick, you believe he's a flyer. They convince you. You forget about
how you know him, you forget about everything you've ever seen in him,
and there he is sitting in the plane and you believe it. That's the
top of the mountain. He's built that career and people still want to come
see him. I mean, to not only build a fan base, but
to retain it. That's a huge thing. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Who else do you have on your radar screen? Let's talk sports? How
about sports? Same thing. Look at Tom Brady. There's a reason he
should be paid the way that he was paid. If you're the best at
what you do, you're gonna get paid amazing. And you can say the
same thing for any athlete who excels. Let me call somebody else out because
you talk about sports the rock. That guy started out playing football in college,
he did wrestling. No, he didn't just do wrestling. He became
the world's most famous, most successful wrestler of all time. Correct, and
he is now being considered a presidential candidate. God help me. Yeah,
well, my goodness, there's a reason he's the what top four followed person
on Instagram with what three hundred four hundred million people? Top of the mountain?
How about in broadcasting, who's at the top of the mountain. Well,
I mean you got everybody like if you look at CNN, you talk
about Anderson Cooper, Laura Coates, you talk on Fox News, Sean Hannity,
But even people I know they're controversial. But Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson
distanced himself from the pack. Now that's it. The high you are the
bigger the fall. Okay, and he took a big one, but he's
come back and he's a unique individual. Whether you like him or not,
you have to give him credit. Well, in today's day and age,
if you take a strong enough point of view, it doesn't matter if you
get kicked off of a major networker because you can build up a file on
a different platform. Well, I would say it depends on what you get
kicked off for. But back to this, let's talk industry. The top
of the mountain is so hard to get ahead and it's so hard to perform.
You look at Tim Cook at Apple. You never even heard of him.
He's the number two guy to Steve Jobs at one point, and he's
been at the helm of Apple for ten, fifteen, twenty years and Apple
has done extraordinary. Tim Cook himself has become a billionaire. He's at the
top of the mountain, developing and delivering amazing, amazing success. May I
also say he had the I would say the impossible task of trying to fill
the shoes of Steve Jobs not an easy task, and he stepped up to
it. That goes back to you want to follow in a company that's doing
well, or you want to follow in a company that's not doing well.
Differentiating himself making a name for himself at Apple, which is an extraordinary company
that changed all of our lives, that had a founder that had a vision
for changing our lives and deliver. Tim Cook was amazing. I think of
Bernard Arnault. I worked for Bernardo no I got to know him a bit.
This is a guy who had a vision for what the world could be
in luxury goods. His family was in the construction business, They built homes,
they owned real estate, and he had a different world and what he
thought vision would be for luxury entrepreneurs are to be applauded. Like Arnaut and
like so many others Warren Buffett, he understood how to invest, where to
put his money. Jeff Bezos had an idea. These guys put their own
money, they borrowed money, They put their lives on the line to climb
to the top of the mountain where the wind was blowing so hard, and
at any given time they could fall. I never forgot my favorite quote on
that subject from General George Patton, when he said, it's not how far
you fall, it's how high you bounce back. And every one of concept,
anyone with the ideas, has fell and they've come back if they've made
it to the top of the mountain. And by the way, there are
no shortcuts. There are no shortcuts. Because you look at somebody like SBF,
the guy with the crypto, right, that guy not only failed that
company, he also got criminally charged. Then you look at George Santos,
right. He wanted to enter politics, He wanted to be the new Republican
voice. He lied his way up to the top. I mean, my
goodness, if you're gonna you have to follow the system. You gotta actually
put in the work and do it. There's no shortcuts. The only place
that success comes before winning is in the dictionary. It doesn't come easy.
It has to be worked. And as I look at what's going on,
and I had this interview this week, I stood up for this woman in
terms of interviewing as her resource and reference. I thought about how hard it
was to climb the mountain, and how my sights and your sites should always
be at the goal. You know, if it was easy, it wouldn't
be a peak. There's only so much room up there. It's not easy.
It's impossible. By the way, Am I wrong? Or does it
seem like politics is on your mind tonight? That's very of you. What
made you see that? I just know you. I just know you.
I mean because I think when you talk about politics, all those people you
talked about getting to the top working hard, I don't think it's the same
thing for politics. You look at some of the people that get elected to
office, sometimes the highest office, I'm like, my goodness, how lucky
were they? They sometimes fail to the top. I know that's a bad
thing to say about our politicians, but at the same time, you don't
have to be the best to be at the top of politics. That's my
take. Well, I liked your comment fail to the top. I think
anybody who has had some measure of success in politics who gets themselves elected did
a lot of things right, either the way they carried themselves, what they
had to say, the people they surrounded themselves with. Unfortunately, this country
doesn't feel the best talent. That's one of the reasons I was so excited
when Donald Trump was elected, because here we had someone from outside the belt,
someone from business, where the only thing that matters in business is delivering
what you say you'll deliver. When he started bringing in business people into the
government, I was incredibly excited. But I want to hold that thought.
You know why, because politics is on my head today and I know you
like when we do this, and there's such brilliance in our system. But
one could argue whether it's also flawed. Now we have, as it relates
to the president of the United States, a policy that says one that they
could only run for office twice and there's term limits four years and four years.
And when I think about President or Obama as an individual, I love
that guy. I liked the way he thought, and he stopped and he
took a moment to think before he answered questions. I like how articulate he
was. I like how smart he was. I love watching him fly down
those stairs on Air Force One looking so cool. I really really liked and
loved having him as president, and I was an immune to the emotions of
seeing our first black president. It was amazing. But I don't believe I
agreed with anything that the Democrats put in place, with the exception of Obamacare,
because this day I realize now maybe then too, I don't know how
difficult it is to get healthcare and how important it is for Americans to have
quality healthcare. That aside, nothing I liked, But our system was designed
to give us choices. That you don't get married to one individual. You
don't have dictators, you don't have emperors who could just keep going on and
on and on and on. That's a great strength, but it's also a
tremendous weakness because when you have someone good, you can't ride their trail.
They have a fixed amount of time to do what they want to do.
And I believe you could argue, whether it's a flawed system or a great
system, that there are term limits. You want to stick in to cents
here, Jesse, I think when you look at the age as some of
the politicians as well, it becomes even more important. So I'm all in
favor of term limits. I think it's one of the things that should never
be changed. And I know there's talk about, oh maybe we should change
there should never be changed with the term limits. It's so important for our
country. Turnover is very important for the health of the country as well.
Now you mentioned age, and there could be age limits without term limits.
But this is what got me thinking about it. China, President Biden and
China this week. I'm so distraught watching what went on. Now you take
President chi this guy was elected for life. He is a hard nose,
he is smart, he knows what he needs to do, and he's clever
on what he's dealing with. There's no question this man has total control over
the second largest country in the world, second largest economy. There's a lot
going on. My position has and will always be we need to be friends
with China. We need to be strong with China. We need to recognize
how great they are at what they're doing, where their mistakes are, where
they can be had, and where we could push back and win our own
wars. And I don't mean physical wars. I mean the wars on intellectual
property, the wars on business, the wars and economics. I mean there
is always going to be disputes. And I watched this week as President Biden
was feeble, old, out of place, and then I thought about our
term limits. China has to believe that at most he has one year left
as a president, and even if he should win, he's become so frail.
Now I have trum and this respect for the presidency, and I have
this respect for President Biden because he's the president. But watching this this week,
one man is young and vibrant and has the control of his country for
the next twenty years. When we have a lame duck president, or in
this case, a president who is as old as Biden, who is becoming
frail, who has a Vice president that no one in the country really likes.
I mean, I'm sure there are people you can find, but we're
hard pressed. And I have to say our system is flawed because we can't
negotiate with strength if we only are in a short time. I believe she
is looking at Biden. He's being polite, he's saying certain things that he
should say, but by and large, he can't trust this country. He
doesn't know if Biden will be here four years from now. He doesn't know
who'll be dealing with next. He doesn't know who's going to run for president.
He doesn't know. He only knows what he knows, and he's going
to be a hard nosed do what's right for China. This is a flawed
situation we find ourselves in now. President Trump. I liked his presidency,
I admit it. I also admit that every time he spoke, he put
himself in trouble and said things he shouldn't have said and pissed off a lot
of people. But I care more about what he did than what he said.
Putting him aside, would we be better off with a different candidate in
the Republican Party. Maybe there's so much controversy surrounding Donald Trump, in spite
of how great a presidency he could have run. A will But I have
to look at the Democrats and I have to say to them, would you
please do what's right? I hate to be the one saying this because I
have so much respect for the office of the presidency. But you Democrats,
you have to step up and recognize that Biden is not right for the country
right now. He is not strong enough. He doesn't have the physical or
mental capacity to be our president during wartime. What's going on here? So
please, to the Republicans, you ought to offer us another choice. To
the Democrats, you have to find someone else. We're competing. We're dealing
with some of the toughest, smartest people in the world, and we're talking
about the top of the mountain where the wind blows the hardest. We have
to talk to China. They have to be our friends, and they have
to believe that sitting across the table from them is some kind of powerhouse.
As a vision for our country, our government should be a strength, not
a flaw. We're at the top of the mountain. I'm a mountain climber.
We need some new mountain climbers and politics back in a minute. Always
in fashion. I've been shopping for fun lately, and while I'm out,
I always look at men's and I look at women's. What's going on?
And I was particularly interested in dk Wyde because of their sponsorship or the show.
I went downstairs at Macy's thirty four Street to look around and I saw
DKY activewear and I promise you, ladies, it is sensational, from the
sports spras to the crop tops, to the leggings and the sweats, it
really is a great look. And dk Y had begun as an all American
brand dressing casual clothes engines, and the stuff looks incredible and right now the
colors and the styles is so exciting that I feel great about the company.
I always do. I wear the men's where all the time. I've had
situations where I've gone to big events and been interviewed and TV or the radio,
and someone comes up to me in the microphone and like they always do,
who you're wearing? And here I am, this big shot with big
company and they say, well, I'm wearing a DKY and they laugh and
say, no, you're not. I actually have one on the Internet where
you could see me. They ask me what suit I'm wearing, and I
say d and why and open it up and there's the DKY label. Great
fashion, it fits well, it looks right. It's designed to make you
comfortable in the city, goes from day and to night. You could wear
it in the morning, we're in the afternoon, and you look cool at
night as well. It's great for the office, it's a great for Leisia.
But I'm talking about the DKY active wear. The first time I really
became aware of it, Jesse and I were up at Sirius Radio. He
was doing a job for Serious He does Dan Abrams show he fills in on
the Potus Network, and we were in the lobby and this hip hop group
came up with this really great looking Latino singer girl Young Beautiful, and she
was wearing a DKY sports bar and I said to myself, this is amazing.
Actually went to Macy's to see it, and I'm excited about the brand.
And I tell you what, ladies, dk Y always has great fashion
for work, always wonderful dresses and things that you'd wear. Their accessories are
great, the shoes are always very cool. But active wear in particular right
now looks sensational and being that everyone's at leisure and active wear, it's a
great time. Dky go take a look. Been a lifetime of my career
building the Van Usten 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 occasions in multiple ways.
You could wear a suit formally to go out at night or to an
event. You can 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 mark next. The choices are endless and every one of them looks right.
You could really really look the part. I believe that packaging yourself is
as important as the products you package, and wearing a suit is one of
those things that make men look their best. Venues and 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. It's wrinkle resistant fabric, it's
cool moisture WICKI it makes it perfect for all occasions as we discussed just now.
This new style of looking shop while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
and I'm so excited that the van Using company is involved in this new technology
and is embracing the whole idea of dressing up. Let's not forget van using
Maine It's 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. Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your
host, Mark Webber. Of all things, this week, I started thinking
about being a mountain climber. I'm a metaphoric mountain climber. My entire life,
career, even personal life is always about seeking the top, seeking the
pinnacle. I always wanted the best of the best. I didn't always get
it. I have no right to get at all, but I know I
tried my best to get there. And in business a series of things I
could point to that would allow me the chance at doing something special. I've
talked so many times how you're packaging yourself is as important as the products you
package. What you look like, not if you're pretty or not, but
the way you present your appearance, the way you dress, do you make
a statement, do you fit in, do you look the part, what
you say, how you say it, And then of course following those things,
not necessarily what you're passionate about, but what you're best at. The
successes and failures are painted by people who said they followed their passions and they
had no business being passionate because they're not good at what they're passionate about.
We all have to find that which will make us succeed, stand out,
be special. My case, it was always the product. I had a
feel for it. You could put me in a room by myself with five
thousand garments, and I can tell you how to package it together to make
a collection, what will sell, what won't sell, on top of which
I could make it better. I just had a feel for it. And
I'm not so sure that's what I was passionate about. I just knew I
was good at it. Later on in life, marketing became something for me.
I was trained by some of the best advertising people and marketing people in
our industry. And not only as I trained, I listened I watched and
I applied my sense of taste, my sense of common sense to marketing,
and I excelled at it and I did well. But to tell you the
truth, I've always said curiosity was what made me different, because I was
interested in everything I didn't know. This week, for all crazy reasons,
I'm watching all kinds of movies and I happened to see a movie and I
had a lot of vessels in it. One of them was a container ship,
a cargo ship. I remember being in Hong Kong, and in Hong
Kong one of the big events on Sundays with people went out on the water.
Hong Kong Harbor was amazing and they had these Chinese junks, so a
lot of the people had them to entertain. You've all seen them. They
have the sales, the very traditional Chinese ships, but on them they're very
comfortable. You could eat, you could have activities, dance, music,
play cards. It was a wonderful time and it was a gift to be
invited. And I remember going out in the Chinese junk in the middle of
Hong Kong Harbor, looking at the buildings on both sides and being amazed by
what I was seeing and I happened to be with the head of marketing for
Sealand and I remember asking him could he arrange for me to go on one
of his cargo ships? And he started to laugh and I said, you
know, I've been doing this for twenty years. I've taken all manner of
people, from CEOs, the designers, all different kinds of people. Well,
you are the first one who has ever asked to go on a cargo
ship when it was operating, and it would be all pleasure to set that
up for you now, just to put these things in perspective. We also
had a relationship with Mask, who, by the way, is the largest
shipping container company in the world. They're from Denmark. They do forty billion
dollars a year in freight, that's their earnings from shipping things around the world.
They estimate the value of their cargo at six hundred and seventy five billion
dollars a year, merchandise that moving from one place to the next. Mask
was founded in nineteen oh four. They have eighty nine thousand employees in one
hundred and fifteen countries in three hundred and twenty four offices. They have five
hundred and ninety of those huge container ships. They took me up to the
bridge to look out over the car ship. This ship we were on would
travel with two thoy twenty foot containers, those big shipping containers you see by
the sides of the road at every port in the airport's two thousand of them.
They went deep in the hole of the ship all the way up to
the top. It was like being on a skyscraper with these boxes. And
you know what the length of these ships are when you look out, twelve
hundred feet that's four football fields. These things are incredible. They need geniuses
to man them. And then when you realize you put two thousand containers in
a ship you come to the first port, you don't offload all containers.
You might unload five hundred at the first port. So if you're in Hong
Kong, you go to Japan, you give five hundred there and then you
get new five hundred. It's all computerized and it's all stacked and loaded to
be efficient. I never knew any of them. The point of this is
I assure you that there's nobody in the ninety nine percent of the people working
in the fashion business who've done what I just said, because I went to
the things that I wasn't interested in that I didn't knew nothing about warehouse and
distribution. Where did Mark Weber with his black pants or his navy blue suit?
What is he doing in Chattanooga, Tennessee Schoolglehaven, Pennsylvania. Walking through
warehouses, talking to the union people, talking to the shop form and talking
to the people moving the inventory. Understanding the system for loading and unloading in
that warehouse, Understanding which bays the products come in, which ones they go
out, how they fill trucks, how they get the trucks, how do
they know when to deliver? Me, of all people wanted to know this,
and I learned it. I became a quasi expert at manufacturing. The
same way why I gravitated towards the law. I'm not a lawyer. I'll
never be a lawyer. I'm not as smart as my son's. But understanding
where the law and fashion interconnect, I'm as good as they come. While
I'm on this, nothing pisses me off more than going to shop and can't
find my size on a particular item. How could that be? I didn't
understand it, and I wanted to learn it. I wanted to meet and
talk to the people responsible for merchandising and planning and understand the systems that they
put in place. And I learned that there were two things. First thing
is, for all we know, the product could be in the store,
sitting in the back room, and the big department stores have no one to
bring it out. You walk into the apartment store, you're not going to
find someone to go in the back room when it's busier. Even if it's
up is it to find your pair of pants that size thirty six? If
you're in the gap, you can walk up to the front desk. You've
been at a Republic up aeropostyle old Navy American eagle and say, hey,
I really like these pants. Do you have someone will going back and find
them for you? Big stores no drives me crazy, But more relevant,
how could they not possibly have core items in all the colors, in all
the sizes because the systems and the infrastructure to fill in on those sizes is
incomplete. They don't have the wherewithal If you have a million units of white
and blue shirts across America and someone is buying them every day, if you
are not making those products every single day to fill in across the country.
You will never be in size. I learned how to do that because nothing
is more important than satisfying your customer in the heat of the battle. You
got them to your hilaria, where your brand is. You got them interested
in buying your product. Do you know how hard that is to do?
And then you lose them because the size isn't there. Crazy easy, And
I would tell you anybody who doesn't understand this is doomed. But I learned
it, and I learned all of these things that I didn't gravitate to because
I know that if you want to be at the top of the mountain,
sometimes it's not fun getting there. Sometimes you're doing things that aren't the things
you like to do. Sometimes it's not the things you're drawn to. Sometimes
it's not even what you're great at. And if it was easy to get
to the top of the mountain, it wouldn't be a peak. They'll take
a break, We'll be back in a minute. Always in fashion. Fall
is now upon us, spring is gone, summer is over, and I'm
tending to be a little upset. Except the fall brings new challenges and new
differences and a great new environment for us to thrive and enjoy. I,
for one, love the change of the season is because of the new fashion,
and I am excited about My favorite brand Iszot and what they bring to
the party. When I used to work at the company and we were reinventing
Izod, which had always been a golf and tennis brand, we brought it
to new heights, new dimensions. I thought Isaac would be practical in skiing,
not necessarily for on the slopes, but for EPRISKI what do people wear
when they're relaxing, when they're in those hotels? What are you doing when
you're at home? What are you wearing to the movies? What are you
wearing to go out at night when you're no longer wearing your spring clothes?
And here we are in full and I can tell you what it is.
Polar fleas, French dairy, different kinds of fleeces, color block colors,
sweaters, great, great long sleeve items come into play. And with Isaac,
they were always about color and being colorful. I love what the brand
represents, whether we're talking about color block or solid colors. Always with the
logo, Isaac brings a dimension to sportswear. Fashion at affordable prices that you
can't find any and at the same time, it's all color related, from
the woven shirts, from the knit shirts to the matching sweaters or the sweaters
that will look great layering over these shirts, always matching pants, beginning with
the core color of khaki, working into the navies and the blacks. ISOD
is a spectacular brand all about colors and launching in full of the new fall
shades you'll see in the stores. Listen, guys, Isod's a great brand.
It's energetic, it's fun to be around, and it makes you feel
and look your best. And now there's a color palette change and you get
to change with it. ISOD. Come take a look j C. Penny
Coal's and online ISID. What a history. How much I enjoy this brand.
Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
The top of the mountain, the wind blows the hardest. It's not only
the most different good place to be, it's the one that's fraught with most
pitfalls. Getting there and thriving and being successful there is even more complicated.
This week, circumstances reminded me that when people ask me what I do for
a living. After I complain, of course, that I'm not important anymore.
I remember that in the days of yesteryear, when I was a player,
when I was at the top of my game, when people wanted to
hear what I had to say in business, that I'm a mountain climber,
that I was always looking for the next opportunity. It's funny about how you
find your course of events. I was always what I would call a go
to guy, and the consequencely in my business career, I'm always looking for
go to guys or go to girls. These are people that when you go
to you ask them to do something, they will always have the right attitude.
If they don't know how to get something done, they'll figure out how
to get it done. If they do know what to do, they'll live
with bright eyes and a smileless I'll get it back to you immediately, and
they'll ask you some detail questions of you may not have considered. Would that
help you as well? And you always say yes because they're always so eager.
It's a great place to be. I was a go to guy,
and more times than not I volunteered for assignments. I mentioned my first twenty
five years in my first company. I had twenty five assignments during that time.
Whether there were promotions, new titles, new responsibilities, always something different.
Having so many different assignments was like starting a new company in every day,
a new assignment was something new and fresh and difficult. I was very
fortunate and I loved every second of it. But I have a story that
got me thinking. I used to go back and forth to Sweden for a
period of call it a year, a year and a half. I went
to Sweden three four times a year. It was one of my ports of
call and why I had a big, fancy title. We had bought a
brand called gan. Gant was there before Ralph Lauren did Polo. The plaid
shirts, the khaki pants, the sweaters over the shoulder, the whole thing.
Gant was traditional merit. It had the Connecticut waspby look. It was
amazing, amazing brand. And during the course of events when we bought Isaac,
it came with Gant and Gant in the United States was not doing well,
but in the rest of the world it was doing amazing, and I
needed to learn about it. Now did I need to learn about it?
No? There were probably twelve people in between me and the decision making in
Gant. But I determined that I would volunteer and I'd be a part of
the group that would go back and forth to Sweden and deal with the Swedish
company. Why because the brand for the rest of the World ROW Rest of
the World was licensed to a company based in Sweden. There were three partners,
two designers and a brilliant operational guy. They were based in Stockholm,
and they figured out a formula to build a global brand. Now, when
you think about a global brand, what does that really mean? Real global
brands have the same product everywhere in the world at the same time. My
friends at VITONE, when you see the core handbag, the tote bag with
the initials LV and the brown and the yellow and the gold, whatever it
is, and you see that same bag everywhere in the world, and it's
priced the same except for foreign taxes, vat taxes or something, but pretty
much you pay the same price anywhere in the world, the same bag made
in the same countries. You multiply vetone by the thousands of styles and all
of them are there. And once in a while there may be some special
items from France, or there may be some special items for China, because
in China this Chinese New Year and red is a big thing. So they
may make some special hand bag, but by and large, they're all the
same around the world. We in America, when we're in business, generally
speaking, we're in market is so big we never thought about the rest of
the world. I think back twenty five thirty fifty years ago when General Motors
was trying to sell automobiles outside the United States, I couldn't get arrested.
I remember when they were trying to sell to Japan, where we had a
trade and balance. They were screaming at the Japanese, why aren't you buying
our cars? Maybe, General Motives, we're not buying your cars because you're
not making them with the steering wheel on the right. You're making them with
the steering wheel on the left, which is what you do in the United
States. We drive on the right side. Just maybe you did know how
to do that, and if you multiply that by millions of different things.
US companies were so spoiled because the size and the breadth of the US market.
We didn't look to the rest of the world. And here we buy
gant and we now have the opportunity through there for me to learn. My
curiosity took over and I wanted to be there every step of the way,
and I learned. The first thing I learned by the way, is that
you can't walk in as American expect everyone to do whatever you think you're right.
In this case, the Gant Company in Europe was far more successful than
we were in the United States. We were at the point where we were
making everything cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. We were selling off price retailers like
TJ Max and Ross and Costco. And these guys were selling the Kreme de
la Creme in London, they were in Harrod's or Harvey Nichols or even Selvages,
and around the world they were in the best stores. And they had
franchise partners, people that bought product from the main company and opened their own
stores. More about that in a second. So I get to Sweden my
first time, and I'm trying to be humble, you know. I meet
the three partners and I congratulate them on what they do, and we had
to say, you know, it's our company, we own it. We're
going to set the rules. And I'll never forget the chairman, the opsky
looking at me and said, you're struggling in the United States to keep this
brand alive. We've got a two hundred million dollar business. We're selling everyone
in the world. You would love to sell if you knew how the product
in our countries and this part of the world is higher priced, it's better
quality, it's better everything, and you're here to tell me what to do.
I said, well, it's not so much we're here to tell you
what to do. We want to learn from you. We want you to
learn from us. We have ways of sourcing that could save everyone and a
lot of money. They said, that's not where we want to make our
money. We're happy with our quality and I'll never forget. We got into
almost a heated argument when the chairman of the company looked at me and said,
you Americans, you're all the same. You have no idea how the
world works. You think the World Series is a baseball game played in Yankee
Stadium, when the rest of the world knows the World Series is football.
He didn't even bother to tell me soccer because I knew what he meant.
And this is played in every country of the world in tournaments every year and
the World Cup every four years. That's the World Series, not what you
Yanks think the Yankees are doing. And I remembered every meeting we had,
and we got to know each other, and we liked each other, and
we were more tolerant than each other. And I learned how they polished and
put this program together. I'll never forget the other great thing I learned in
Sweden. I don't know if at this point in time this would be considered
politically incorrect, but they were brilliant at logoing their product, marketing the product.
They did their own advertiser. They didn't want our input, they didn't
care what we had to say. They wanted to do it their own lead
follow get out of the way. They wanted us out of the way.
So when it became advertising, this particular CEO, Leonard Bork, great guy
behind him, had a tapestry and on it it said, building a brand
without advertising is like kissing the girl in the dark. You know what you're
doing, but no one else does. And that was the headline, and
why we should be spending more advertising money and is part of the world the
rest of the world. That was always a great opportunity, but global companies
understand that they have to have one concept, one idea of product for everywhere
in the world, with certain exceptions like I mentioned Chinese New Year. But
what this Swedish company understood was they need to create one collection of merchandise.
All the shirt so all the sweaters, all the pants, all the items,
all the fits, all identical in many styles and colors they felt was
appropriate. And they brought their partners in from around the world at the beginning
of every season and showed them their simple collection. And if you were in
Australia, they said to you, you have one week to work with us
here in Sweden and detail all the styles you want, all the colors you
want, and all the quantity of those styles you want within this week.
And if you were a franchise partner who had ten stores in China or ten
stores in Taiwan, or fifteen stores in France, or fifteen stores in London
or wherever you were, you were forced to come in and be part of
this group that would all purchase collectively during this week. We in the United
States loved some of their better product at the high end of the halo,
we too had to be there that week and they concumulated all those orders.
I put everything together, and they brought in their suppliers from overseas and said,
I want this shirt with the button down collar in ten colors, one
hundred thousand units. I want ten thousand of this, twenty thousand of this
third. And they gave them the order, and they told them when they
had to deliver it, and they told them the breakdown of which countries they
would ship into. And that's how you run a global company around the world.
I had never been exposed to it. I didn't know how it worked.
I now did know how it worked. I was impressed I learned.
And here once again this common theme tonight, the top of the mountain.
How do you get there? Why is there a peak? Why is it
not a flat surface with a lot of people at the top of the mountain,
Because there isn't that many jobs way up on the top, and it's
very windy up there. You can blown off, knocked out at any time
because it's also slippery. You got to make the right moves, and how
do you make the right moves? Learning as much as you can, about
as much as you can with that. I'll come back again and finish up
the top of the mountain. Because I'm a mountain climbing I know how to
climb. Always in fashion. As one of the world's 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 Carlagofeld 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 handbigs and the shoes. 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 Carlagofel is my buddy.
Calls 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. This is Mark
Webber. I remember so clearly when Donna Karen hit the scene. It was
explosive. She was one of the most dynamic designers in the history of the
world, and her product was very, very different from anything anyone in America
had ever seen. She was modern, she was New York. She was
vibrant. When you looked at the business in those days, there are companies
like Ralph Polo or Tommy Hill, Figure or Nordica, great traditional American brands,
but no one identified modern. You wanted modern, you had to find
Georgia Armani. Black was the basis of his presentation and everything about it had
a European sheet to it, but not in America until Donna came. Donna
was a New York life resident, understood the pace of the city, understood
what it was like to live in the city that never sleeps, that goes
twenty four to seven. Donna invented DKY Donna Karen New York. I'll never
forget the first time I saw it. I was in London and they had
built at a magnificent four floory store in a building with an open roof,
a glass ceiling, glass ceiling, I suppose, representing we're changing the way
things are done. DK and Y was frankly nothing short of extraordinary, both
men and both for women. Black was the basis of the brand, although
the many colors played off the palette and they all look good against black.
Let's face it, we live active lifestyles. We get up in the morning,
we do different things, we work, we play evenings. Is about
entertaining and seeing the best that New York has to offer. Tky offers a
collection a men's wearing, women's wearing, but footwear, accessories, suits,
shirts, ties, women's sportswear, women's active wear that speaks to the lifestyle
that goes with you wherever you want to go. And it's always modern,
it's always contemporary. It's always at the forefront of what fashion should be with
a New York lifestyle in mind. I've lived the life. I was the
chairman and CEO of Donna Karen. I understood what that brand meant, and
I can tell you if you want to step out, you want to walk
away from your traditional roots. If you want to be modern, you want
to make a statement of elegance, but in a New York kind of way,
with the sophistication of New York. As a person who understands all the
city has to offer and all the modern lifestyle in America is about. You
find it everywhere. People are forcing themselves, urging themselves to get out and
be special and live this lifestyle. Dkn why. You can find dkn Why
at DCNY dot com or in Macy's. I'm telling you, guys, and
I'm telling you ladies, you can look chic, you could look special,
You look right. Dcan why. Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's
your host, Mark Webber. Always in Fashion is original content. It's not
like other radio. I'm not saying we're the only with original content, but
we are unique. We're different. We're not doing news and weather, we're
not doing sports, we're not doing politics per se. We're talking about business.
We're talking about ideas. We're talking about cultural and lifestyle and things that
you could learn and pick up along the way if you choose to listen and
pay attention to what I have to say, what Jesse has to say.
It's very unusual that we have to find ideas this week. I had no
idea what I wanted to speak about, which is not unusual. I never
do. But all of a sudden, someone mentioned to me climbing mountains as
opportunity and remembered when I was younger, people asked me what I did for
a living, and I said I was a mountain climber, referencing all those
things that I felt were different from anybody else. Jesse, you learn anything
tonight. Yeah. I mean you've talked about this concept before, about learning
all the different parts of a job, all the different parts of a discipline
to be successful. I've heard it, and I never really put it to
use until recently. So I'm the executive producer of a show, and I
learned how a show comes from a concept to an idea to actually airing on
TV. You know, you have to come up with an idea, you
have to come up with a story. Then you have to get all of
the different footage and the pictures and the music and the assets, put it
all together, editing, doing all the interviews, the writing, and managing
all the different people of a team. That is just something that I never
thought I would learn. But now that I've learned all the different parts of
what puts a show together, that's gonna help me forever. Makes you very
valuable, very valuable, Yeah, exactly. You know, when you see
all these actors or actresses and their executive producers, you're not just on the
radio. You're not just on the YouTube, you are also an executive producer
learning how to do this. I am thrilled for you, and that's exactly
what we're talking about tonight. At the top of the mountain, it's the
windiest. It's also the most dangerous because stakes is so high. You're responsible
not only for your self or your family, responsible for all the people looking
up to you at the top of the mountain or counting on you to have
the ideas to deliver on the promise tonight. I'm a mountain climber. I
hope you enjoy climbing with me going forward. Good Night,