This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The show is sponsored by
G three Aparo. The views expressed in the following program are those of the
sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven ten wor 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 Webber. I've been thinking. I've been thinking how it's impossible to
get anyone to agree on anything. Now I can tell you, from my
point of view, I'll agree on anything as long as anything is my idea.
Now I get it. We're all entire to have our own opinions,
but we're not entitled to our own facts. But I can tell you mine
are always right common senses. It work with me, Yet common sense is
not so common in the rest of the world. I can't help, But
wonder wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all get together and agree on anything.
Would it be nice if we were older and didn't have to wait so
long? Said the beach boys. Why can't we all just get along?
Said Jack Nicholson Mars attacks. It's a wonderful world, said Louis Armstrong.
And then, of course there's no I in team. It is so simple
to agree to agree? Why not find common ground? The world should be
simple when you think about it. There's no world order or worldview. Every
country puts themselves first, and yet some of our moronic politicians have a problem
with that. I don't get it. I've been thinking about reaching across the
aisle and taking the high road. Let's agree to agree. There are agreements
in this world. There are treaties, they are collaborations. This healthy dialogue.
There's the un You must come to conclusions in business, otherwise you don't
have a business. Yes, there is healthy dialogue, until there isn't.
Funny Man's best friend. Dogs get it. They know how to behave they
know how to make agreements with their masters. We not so much. There
are still enemies in this world. I don't get it. But I've also
heard that they're on their own worst enemy as long as they are alive.
There's climate change believers and climate change deniers, Republicans, Democrats, independents,
all races, all religion that believe God and those that don't. One hundred
and thirty seven countries, last count eight billion people sharing a planet. We
have so many things in common, food, water, air, shelter,
education, jobs. This is a simple thought. Would it be nice if
we all could get along? Go figure? No one agrees with certainty,
not anything, how about anything? Nope, pretty much nothing is universal.
Then your throne. Politics is the worst, self interest, greed, anger,
a touch of hate. We're not together ever, maybe forever. It's
such a shame. Let's face it. There are a lot of people paid
big bucks to manage through the lack of agreement, the lack of cooperation.
That's what I had to do in my job. Create consensus, lead from
the front, make things happen. Leadership is getting together to get things done.
Some of us are successful, most of us aren't. We need to
be together, and that's my plan tonight. I'm not unhappy. I'm not
fatalistic, nor discourage or for that matter, giving up. We all have
to try that. Some of the parts are greater than the whole. Tonight
we're managing the together, and now we we're always together. My lawyer,
my co host, my son, Jesse Weber. I feel depressed. I
feel depressed, And don't blame me. I'm just reporting the facts. What
am I missing? Well? You know, look, we do see eye
to eye at times, then there's times we don't. I think we have
to try to say the least now, of course, but I'm listening.
You prove me wrong. Where am I wrong about nobody agreeing on anything and
getting together? It's kind of hard, you know. There used to be
like universal truths that everyone could agree on. Not the case. Anytime something
happens. It's now become political and everybody loves taking sides. It's us versus
them. We're right there wrong. We can't even agree on facts anymore.
You don't hear something crazy talking about politicians. Sure, I was on the
radio the other day and I made the point that President Biden is old.
And I don't just mean the age. I mean the fact that he's struggling,
he struggles to get out words, he struggles to stay up straight,
he's incoherent. And I got yelled at I got people on the left saying,
you don't know what you're talking about. He's fine, he's totally good.
You're making more of it than it is. You're the problem. It's
like, if you can't even accept that. I like the guy Wait a
minute, I like the guy who got up and say you're denigrading the old,
and you handled that brilliantly. I said to them, this is not
about the old. It's about the fact that you have Donald Trump, who's
what four years younger than Joe Biden, but he acts like he's twenty years
younger. It's a real problem. And it's not just me saying it.
Look at the polls, look at what people care about, and it's like
we have to live with our head in the clouds and not accept that that's
a real problem. And so you know, when they if Biden loses or
Biden doesn't do well, what are they gonna say that it's everybody's racist.
Everybody doesn't. It's like a real guess the guy who's basically saying to you
that I don't care what condition he's in anybody but Trump. And the problem
I've always had with that is I'll say it for the thousandth time. There
are a million reals like Donald Trump. Every time he opens his mouth,
you have to like take deep breath and hope he doesn't say the one thing.
By the way, well what he is? His policy's worked well.
Forget even politics for a second. You asked me about people agreeing. What
do I do? I'm the host of the Long Crime Network. We cover
trials all the time. No one ever agrees on the verdicts, even though
they were jurors. Right. People disagree with everything. People disagree with the
Supreme Court constantly. They don't believe in the election results. They're creating situations
that they have distrust of our law enforcement, our courts. And you know,
God forbid you make a statement, God forbid you say something, You
get blackballed, You get blacklisted, You're done. Your career's over forever.
All right, let's get off of this. I want to talk a little
bit of current events, all right, and see whether or not in current
events we can come together. First up, Ninal White this week, big
story. Let's tell the audience what happened. So there's a fighter named Sean
Strickland. Now let me preface this by saying, I think the guy is
out there, okay, has some pretty radical stuff. What happened was in
a press conference, he was asked about homosexuality. He was asked about if
he had a gay son. He goes, wait a minute, let me
get this straight. You'd be okay with having a gay son? And the
reporter goes, yes, I would, and Sean Strickland starts chastising. He
goes, you're a weak person. That shows you who you are. That's
the problem with this country. Really disgusting stuff to say the least. Okay,
I don't know, I mean, it's horrible what he said. Dana
White is the head of the UFC, and he's asked in a press conference
about Sewn stricklands statements and whether or not you give your fighters a long leash
to say whatever they want. And he's like, a leash, I don't
tell anybody what to say or not say. It's called free speech. They
can say whatever they want. And he didn't weigh in one way or another
about what Shawn Strickland said, but he basically was like, he's allowed to
say whatever he wants, whether I agree with it or not. And so
he took the free speech line, and that's what he basically said, I
thought he was brilliant. I thought he was brilliant. He cut right to
the chase. People are allowed to talk. You don't have to agree with
him. Guy said disgusting things. Prejudice thinks, so be it. He
shouldn't tell people what to say. Anyway, let's continue with current events.
Trump wins in Iowa, Win's in New Hampshire. I have a question for
you. Can Donald Trump be president of jail? What's going on with this?
Is that really a possibility? So first of all, can he be
convicted and be the president? Yes, he could technically be president from prison.
It's a reality, it's the truth. Now, I don't think any
of his criminal trials are going to happen before the election. I think there's
too many delays, there's too many issues in each one of these cases.
I think there's a strong likelihood that none of these cases actually happen. I
think there's a strong likelihood that he won't even be a verdict won't even happen
before the election. So if he becomes the president, he can make the
two federal cases go away, and the state cases will be pushed out till
twenty twenty nine. Donald Trump could be wearing an orange jumpsuit inside prison running
the country. Technically, yes, Now I've been asked, I have been
asked about how would that actually work. Here's what I would suspect. Tell
me if I'm totally wrong, because, by the way, your guess is
as good as mine. We're an unprecedented territory right here. I would imagine
if he was convicted, and let's say he was sentenced to I'm just giving
you a number. Let's say he was sentenced to eight years in prison and
he becomes the president. I think he would serve the first four years like
confined to the White House like it was house arrest, and then once he
leaves the office, he spends the remainder of the four years behind bars.
Just saying, so you go there, that's what I think you're saying.
He wouldn't be allowed to travel while he was the president. I mean,
maybe he'd be have to travel with marshals or or jail personnel. Possibly.
I just feel like he'd be under house arrest. I could be wrong,
but maybe the first year's the eight year sentence you gave him should be time
served for what they put him through when he was president. Last time.
Doesn't work that way. Sorry, doesn't work that way, But I think
that's a possible or if he really is sentenced to prison, he's in a
jail cell by himself, with his secret service, and his aides are coming
to visit him. I don't know. I guess that's what I who knows.
I would have thought. I wish they'd leave him alone already, But
you have said these are legitimate cases, So I'm gonna move on current events.
I don't know if you've been watching all the awards shows, but I've
been watching the speeches. Don't get me started with the clothes, but uh,
the speeches. I want to talk free speech. You can say what
you want. I don't care. You want to be derogatory, you pay
the price. This country is multicultural, therefore many accents foreign, and for
that meta domestic accents. The Southern accent versus the Deep South. Texas has
the sound of their own Midwestern people are perhaps the basic ones. Then of
course it's New York City accents. And don't get me started with Brooklyn,
but go ahead, go for it. Good with them all, but when
I'm not good with the flaws in speaking, namely the terrible habits. We
Americans seem to be picking up these speaking patterns. The people are using them
are driving me crazy. Now, there always been excellent speakers, refined,
elegant in command. There have always been people on the other side are uncomfortable
to speak publicity. I get it by what I don't get is speech defaults
in everyday life, particularly for everyone with that discomfort of speaking. There are
comes some help in the form of fillers. What are fillers? Pausing?
Uh? There's a big one though, that's starting with a sentence. So
you ever hear that one? So what did you do last night? So
I went to explain where I was. So is crazy? It's a new
filler that I literally bothers me. Great deal. But there's one that has
reached epidemic purpose. It's spread like COVID, but for talking. During the
summer, I played a tape of Aaron Judge and Aaron Boone talking baseball to
make the point. Now, you could say, well, they're baseball players,
but these guys are smart, they're articulate, they're accomplished. They are
trained to speak in public and be interviewed. But what I'm referring to the
use of the two words you know, if you listen to those two guys
speaking about baseball, every single sentence it starts with you know, and it's
not just the beginning, it's the middle, it's everywhere. You know.
You know, I might get hits tonight. You know, there's no y
in team my case. I've been thinking, you know, I do a
radio show, podcast and radio. It's on every week, you know,
anytime of the internet, you know, Saturday and Sunday nights. Wouldn't it
drive you crazy if you listen to it all the time? And you know
what you know is in every sentence. The problem is you're doing it and
you're so used to it you don't even notice what's going on. It's epidemic
proportions. And you know what we need to do, you know, we
need to get together to fix this terrible problem before we ruin the English language
together. Now, well, what got me sorted on this? Leonardo DiCaprio
is interviewed crazy one of the world's great actors, someone who's trained to speak,
someone comfortable speaking in interviews, a public sentence, I have to play
this with you. I couldn't believe I want you. When you hear him
talking, count do you know, count the number of them. Listen,
how disturbing is what's it like as a kid? I mean, how do
you handle that rejection? You know, it's interesting because I remember, you
know, you're sort of set up and you're put into this system where I
think that you're supposed to be a jack of all trades and you're eleven,
twelve years old, and you're sort of conditioned to say, well, you
know, the casting directors there and say, well, can you juggling?
You're like, absolutely, I can juggle, you know, you know,
can you ski? Hell? Yeah, you know, I'm your man.
You know the tap dancing shows. So you're supposed to like set yourself up
as somebody that can you know, you know, basically do anything that they
want. Well, if you listen, Leonardo DiCaprio is doing that, a
man who is an actor, a brilliant guy, trained to speak properly.
Think about what everyone else is doing. This is a disease. I am
the cure. Stop doing it. Let's get together on this before we ruin
our beautiful language. You know, we have a problem. Back in a
minute. Always in fashion, as one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers,
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excited. ISID Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark
Webber. I've been thinking tonight about why we can't come together on anything.
This might be the worst time in the country's history, if you think about
it, no one agrees on anything. There are wars all over the place,
skirmishes, people bombing each other. Just this week, one of the
most interesting things with Donald Trump. You want to talk about him, what
will you be your position on Ukraine. If you become president, will you
stop the war? He says, I'll stop the war on the first day.
The reporter goes back at him and says to him, well, do
you support Ukraine or Russia? He says, I don't want a war.
People are dying on both sides. The numbers are crazy. I don't want
people to die. Now, how could there be a follow up question to
that? It's so simple and elegant. He's on the right side of this
one, and still nobody agrees on anything. Is it that they don't agree
or are they to feel like? How to actually think he's going to stop
the war day one in twenty four hours. Well, instead of him questioning
whether he believes in the Ukraine or Russia in this war, why don't you
just ask him, how would you stop the war, mister president. So
that's the answer to that question, Jesse. The point I'm making is we
can't agree on anything. You can't agree on politics. We can't agree amongst
ourselves. Everyone has their own focus group. Everyone is there, intent is
up, everyone's back is getting up over everything that's said. And I suppose
if I picked a group that I belonged to and someone something to me that
I didn't like about my group, I'd also get together, but you got
to give up. We're ruining this country. The world is getting crazy,
and that's what I'm talking about getting together. But I want to take a
lighter note now. As you know out there, we continue to get more
and more listeners every week. I love sharing stories that I've either told before
or that I find interesting, and one of them has to do with one
of my favorite experiences in coming together, and it has to do with me
traveling to Berlin first time ever the Brandenburg Gate. I said in the hotel
a lawn, beautiful hotelity. You wouldn't believe it, but it's about Formula
One. I love that show on Netflix. I don't know if any of
you out there have seen it, but it's a behind the scene look at
race car driving, and it's interesting that the stories they pick them nothing to
do with the people who are winning the race. It's fantastic. It's one
of those examples of TV being so extraordinary. Regular people talking to drivers,
watching the cars, hearing the strategies. I love it. But here I
am I fly into Berlin. I'm traveling where I got the president of my
licensing division. We're talking about. Neither of us have ever been to Berlin.
We're going to sight see, we're gonna do business. We pull up
to this incredible hotel, the Alawn Hotel. And you know one thing about
Berlin, it's all new. After the war, Berlin got blasted, there's
nothing left, so everything built is new and fresh. And this hotel is
right across the street from the Brandenburg. And as I start to pull up
to the hotel, it is packed outside. I mean packed, crowds like
you won't believe. A limousine pulls up. The flash bulbs start going off
and I taken pictures of Ice says that wow, this is amazing. I
walk into the hotel, I'm getting high fives. Everybody's looking at me.
It's like rocks. I can't believe what I'm saying. And I walk in
the lobbyest packed. A guy meets me right in front of the door before
we go into lobby, said mister Weber, welcome to our hotel. Come
on in. We'll get you checked in right away. But as I walk
in, the crowd starts separating and it starts to fill out. It starts
empty and then the mood is now gone. And I said, what's going
on? And he said, mister Weber, your name is Mark Weber,
right, I said yeah. He said, well, we're in Formula one
season and one of the most famous drivers in the world is named Mark Weber.
They're all here for the real Mark Weber, who doesn't happen to be
you. Ouch, that hurts the real Mark Weber. Oh, you're an
impostor. Yeah, when I talk about it, I used to be important.
But there's an example that I was important for five seconds. But I
have another story. While I'm in the mood talking cultural and lifestyle, I
have to admit those of you who think I'm a pompous whatever, I apologize.
I'm just reporting the lifestyle that I lived. I came from a beginnings
if you listen to the beginning of the show. I grew up in the
city projects, and somehow, miraculously I found a way to become successful.
And as far back as nineteen eighty was the last time I ever flew in
coach. Ever, I became senior enough in my companies that I was able
to fly in first class. I'm working for LVMH, so I figure,
you know, let's support the French. I'm going to fly at France.
I never did before. I thought it'd be exciting. They fly out of
Kennedy Airport. I knew they have a beautiful transit lounce, so I said
to my sister. Her name is Judy Luca. I said, Judy,
book me first class in air France said sure enough, Mark, I said
great, and I show up at the gate. I don't check in luggage.
You know, you get to point where you get smart, particularly if
you're in first class, you carry your travel on luggage, or you don't
carry anything at all. I know people carry fifteen suitcases to get on a
plane. It's insane. It's like going on Safari and they're going I don't
know, Palm Beach. It's crazy. But in my case, I've learned
that if you have to travel on pieces, they'll fit above and certainly when
you're flying first class. So I go right to the transit lounge. I
go through customs. Right as I get to customs, I handed my passport
and someone from Air France comes and meet me right at customers, said mister
Weber, We've already pre checked you through. Come with us to the transit
line. I said, wow, these Air France guys really got it together.
I go to the lounge. They put me in a beautiful club chair.
In front of my club chair, there's peanuts, this all kind of
ore derves laid out. It's like for me alone. I said wow.
I said, this is crazy. Either Elvia mahe has taking care of me,
or Air France is the best airline you could ever dream up, one
of the most beautiful. I guess. The stewardess or ground attendant comes up
to me, beautiful dressed and peckled with that French accent. I was in
love. My goodness, it's just to me, mister Weber. You do
not have to board with everyone. Just wait here. When it's time for
you to board, we'll take you right into your cabin. Perfect. Wow,
mister Webber, you're also going to be piloting the plane. Did you
know that? No? I wasn't piloting the plane, but you know,
if I think it, if I want to sit in there and hang out
with the piloting and let me do it. It was amazing, mister Weber.
We're gonna have you land the plane too. How much fun is that?
Everybody boards they take forty five minutes. They come and get me and
they bring me into the first class cabin. I'm the only one in first
class and I can't even explain the experience, the food, the wine free
thing, the way they took care of me. Mister Webber, Will you
be taking your pajamas now, mister Webber, would you like an after dinner?
Can? Yeah, mister Webber, mister Webber, mister Webber. And
I'm watching this and I'm saying to myself, this is amazing. How could
I ever flown anywhere else? So eight houturs later, I'm pumped up,
I'm pampered. I'm feeling like a big shot. The plane lands, and
all of a sudden, right before anyone to planes, you hear an announcement.
Please stay in your seats. We will come to you and tell you
when it's time to the plane. Another French beauty with the French accent comes
to get me and she says, mister Webber, please come with us.
Do you have any luggage. We'll take it down for you. You've ready
pre cleared you through customs. There's a car waiting for you. Boom.
I never saw anything like it, and now I'm in the car and I'm
saying to myself, my gosh, this lv MH have clout. This is
unbelievable. I never saw anything like it. I went to France, I
hung out, I did my business. I came home, same thing.
I'm like, godlike, I can't believe what's going on. Fast forward,
get back to my office and I say to Judy, Judy, I'll tell
you what. I never want to fly to Europe anywhere ever again without flying
air France. I said sure, okay. So about a month later,
I have to go to London and I say to her, you know,
I really can't go to France first, I have to go to London.
So get me a first class ticket on British Airways. And she says,
you're sure you want to take British Airways versus American Airlines. I said yeah.
I said why. She says, you know, it's very expensive.
Said what's expensive? So she goes and does all the work comes back to
me. Have a choice. You can file American Airlines first class, which
is really business class, for six thousand dollars, or you can fly British
air for fifteen thousand first class. I said, what are you crazy,
fifteen thousand first class and she starts to laugh. I said, why are
you laughing? She says, what do you think it costs to fly to
France? So what do you mean Helvi made made it nice? What do
you mean? She said, what do you nuts cost nineteen thousand dollars?
I said, what nineteen thousand dollars? You booked me on a flight nineteen
thousand dollars. I'm just new at the company. They find out they're gonna
kill me nineteen thousand dollars. How could you do it? She said,
Well, you didn't ask what it costs. She sais, maarck. You
gotta remember their three cabins. So boy, oh boy, I was so
freaked out. Let's say I never enjoyed that experience again. So what happened?
What happened? I flew six thousand to British air and the French never
bothered me. But when you talk about getting together, you can't get any
closer than me and my assistant. We're canned and glove for thirty years were
like words and music. Everything we did together we understood each other. And
she booked me for nineteen thousand dollars in France and put my life in jeopardy.
I couldn't believe it. So with that in mind, all I would
say to you is, here's a great example of two people working together every
day, not quite sharing an office, but next to each other. And
we couldn't get it together, but we have to if we want to save
this world. Back in a minute. Always in Fashion 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 worn on multiple occasions
in multiple ways. You could wear a 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 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 does 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 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
not forget van Ues and Maine It's name with dress shirts. It's only proper
that the suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find van Ues
and cool Flex men's stretch suits at jcpenny are 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 Weber. This is Always in
Fashion. This is Mark Weber. We're talking tonight about together. The title
of the show tonight will be Managing it Together. The world is so complicated.
No one agrees, but we all get paid to manage stick together.
Every one of our politicians, there is only one thing they're there to do,
make this country better. Get along. The three systems of a government.
They all have to be in conjunction with each other making it happen.
In business, it's not so simple, but it is simple because you are
paid to manage. You are paid for results. You have to deliver,
and part of delivering is making a consensus moving forward. This is not a
democracy. Business is business. I have a story I want to tell you
about fashion. Shocking talking about fashion and always in fashion, Thomas Jefferson said
in Manners of Style, swim at the current. In manners of principle,
stand like a rock. That was the slogan first time I walked into this
design room at the Donna Karen Company, and I remember thinking how much I'd
love that because it was what I believed. I believed in fashion from my
point of view. I always had a taste, I always had a point
of view. I always knew that style was more important than fashion. But
principal matters more to me than anything. And when you believe in something,
you have to stand by it no matter what, even at the risk of
taking chaff and heat for it. So when I saw that, it gave
me a great feeling about the company I was getting involved with, Fast Forward.
I'm working with this team I love my time at Donna, Karen and
DK Why. I started every meeting walking into me and I said hi,
boys and girls, and I would end up saying, whoa, I'm the
only boy. But anyway, I work with all women, and Donna Karen
built a company with Amazons. Every single woman that was there was sharp on
her game, professional, top of the class, pinionated, and stubborn.
I'm not singling out women because they're stubborn. I will only tell you I
think women are stubborn from different reasons. For me and talking about getting trouble,
men all they think about in business is burning out the other people,
getting ahead, getting rid of them. Women are, in my view,
are more sophisticated creatures. They have more things they have to contend with.
They have lives besides work, whereas men seem to concentrate mostly on work.
The point is, I love working with these women. They were all tough
and I loved it. I'm not figuring I'm working with one woman and our
licensees, the partners we choose for various different businesses, were complaining about our
approval process. This is the design team doesn't believe in printresses. I said
what he says. They don't believe in the print dresses. They won't put
print dresses in our collection. I said, everyone I look at here is
wearing print dresses. Everyone on the street is wearing print dresses. They're beautiful.
And I have different times where I go through different phases of what I
think a woman is most beautiful. And sometimes in the winter, a wool
turtleneck sweater, pair of jeans beautiful. Sometimes it's it's a beautiful black evening
dress. I go through phases where I look at different things and they appeal
to me. But I gotta tell you, it's summertime. Nine out of
ten women are wearing these beautiful dresses. And I'm allowed to say is I'm
in love every time I look out my window, every time I walk down
the street. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not looking to meet
them. I'm looking at the clothes. That's my job. I love seeing
women in dresses. What do you mean they don't believe in dresses? She's
just that, So, I said, you mean to tell me I have
to come into a design meeting to convince the design gurus of Donna, Karen
and DK and why that they should have printresses in the line, Yeah you
do, Mark. They won't give me printresses, and I need them.
My customers are asking. So two days, lady, we arrange a meeting.
Twenty people in the room. So let's see the collection that's on the
wall. They pull back a screen. I see the whole collection, and
the first thing I say, of course I'm ready for this is Her name
is Jane. She's the head of John Jane Chung. I loved the very
talented woman. Hey, Jane, I don't see in printresses. Well,
our customer doesn't wear print dresses. You want to run that by me again?
Please this our customer doesn't wear dresses, I said, it's our customer
women that don't shave their lakes. What kind of women are you talking about?
Everywhere I go, everything I see women are wearing printresses. What do
you mean? She says, well, we don't think we should have printresses
in our collection. So I looked at the senior vice president of sales,
the one who works with the customers every day. She had those bloomingdales,
Macey's Lord and Taylor Nordstrom, all of them, and I said, are
there a lot of print dresses on the floors and the stores now? She
says, it's the biggest business in the industry. I said, do our
competitors have print ress? She just, of course, do you think we
can sell print dresses? I need printresses. We're gonna die without him.
I said, sounds to me like there's a disagreement here. So I look
at the head of sales the women approached me in the first place, and
I said, do we need print dresses? Mark? I couldn't have said
it better. We have to have print dresses. We're not competitive, We're
getting killed. We have beautiful, solid things, we have beautiful everything.
Print dresses right now are seventy five percent of the dress business. We have
little black dresses. Deca why they're the best. But we need Prince back
to design. What do you say about this? She said, we don't
believe in printresses. So I'm sitting there and I think what to say.
You guys are putting me in the position of King Solomon, who had to
go to two different mothers who both claimed the rights to this baby was born
the first one. He says to her, the only way I could see
solving this problem is if I cut the baby in half. This particular woman
who claims rights to the baby, says, no, you can't do that,
the baby will die. She can have it, goes see the other
woman and ask her what should we do. She's cut the baby in half.
So King Solomon, in his infinite wisdom, said, the rightful mother
of this baby is the woman who said she wouldn't sacrifice the baby, and
he gave the baby to her. I said, you're putting me in the
position of King Solomon. I have a design team that I have nothing but
the highest regard for. And I have the sales team, who I have
nothing but the highest regard for, who are telling me something totally different.
Now I get paid to manage this, and we have to be together.
And I'm remind you tonight as you're listening to this, this is all about
managing the together. So I said, uncategorically, beginning with this collection,
we will have print dresses. And before you argue with me, don't tell
me you're going to have to cut back on us little black dresses, or
our navy dresses, or a sequin dresses or any of them that we're not
changing. But you're going to add twenty dresses to the collection. So someone
raised their hand and they started to say, but you know, we have
to manage our inventory. So I looked to the head who was there of
inventory management in the division. Her name was Julie, and I said,
Julie, if you and I work together, can we add twenty dresses to
our assortment with out having an inventory problem? Absolutely, Mark, I'll make
it happen. So that's settled. So I said, here's the deal.
What are the kind of print dresses that are happening right now? So one
woman said there are abstract patterns. I said, okay, there are small
print florals. There are large print florals, and they're engineered patterns that may
have a print going across the chest with a matching print that goes across the
knee. That's the kind of things we need. So I looked at the
head of design and I said, Jane, you got to do twenty dresses.
I for one, like the big, large florals. I want to
see at least five of them. The small patterns I don't like as much,
but we have to have it. And I'm going to give you these
twenty assignments, and five days from now we're going to have a minute.
Today's Monday. On Friday, we're coming back. We're having a meeting.
I want to see your print dress line offering. Five days later, I
go in the showroom and I see a beautiful, not nice, a beautiful
array of print dresses. The only mistake they made was they didn't offer enough
colors in terms of the basic body of the dress. They were all black.
See you needed some tope, you needed some red, you need some
navy, some off white or white were beautiful. I said, I love
it, I love it, I love it, and the colors. I
came back Monday the colors were added. Now you're talking about high boys and
girls, Amazon women brilliant, great at what they do. You talk about
two groups of people, a sales division that has a history of what works,
how to sell, how to manage their customers, and a design division.
You talk about Donna, Aaron, a Deacon wat He's a brilliant people
that weren't in agreement. And by the end of this period, which was
two weeks in total, our line was enhanced with print dressers. We were
competitive, we looked great, we were proud, and lo and behold,
everyone was on the same page. After we did that, everyone was together
and on tonight I'm managing the together. And that was a fashion story Back
in a minute. Always in Fashion, 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 Karon collection, and Donna invented DK and Y 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 decay why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those
products you're getting dressed for work. You getsrize 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 DK and 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, dkn Y jeans, dc HY sportswear is there for
you. That's what a lifestyle brand is. And I need to mention DKY
active Wear, which is extraordinary, the leggings, the sports bras, the
sweats. You can wear DKY active wear 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 DKY 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 DKNY and Macy's DKY dot com. 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 car Lagafeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections, ready
to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagafeld also offers
a range of watches, iwear and premium fragrances. You can explore the car
lagofl collection of Carlagofelparis dot com. There's more than that. I, 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 Comparis. 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
carlago Felt 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 carlago Felt 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 Lagafel, Paris at Macy's Orcarl Lagafel
dot com. Welcome back to it Always in fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Webber. Tonight the show is managed together. I could stop by saying
I've been very frustrated that everything in the world nobody agrees on anything. I
dread the results of the next election because of the two candidates we have.
No matter who wins, the country's still going to be divided. But anyway,
tonight I'm in a great mood. I want to talk about my greatest
day in business. Get a call one day to come uptown and everyone's sitting
around the board and look like somebody died. The president of the company says,
they sit down, shut up. The gh Basque Company is in trouble.
They said they would make fIF ten million dollars. It looks like they're
gonna lose money and it could take us down. So I said, you
brought me, I'll tell you what we do. It's Friday. Everyone in
this room on Monday should be in Portland, Maine, gh Beass headquarters,
fixing the problem. And the president company looks at me. He says,
I knew I had a reason for keeping you here, because that's exactly what
you're gonna do. On Monday. You're going up to Maine and you're not
coming back until you fix Portland, Maine. This what are you crazy?
I have a job. He says, yeah, this is your job right
now. I said, but I have a different job. He gets up
from the conference table, walks behind his desk, takes out something from his
desk, puts it in front of me. It's his business card that says
president. I told you you're going to Maine, but you're not going alone.
And he mentioned this other fellow, Michael Blitzer, who is a brilliant
operations guy, had a tremendous amount of experience in retail and GH Bass was
a retail and wholesale company. He said, Michael's going there. We're gonna
name him chairman of Bass, and you're gonna go there and help him get
the company right. You are going to be in charge of product development,
marketing, fix the company, because we all know that's what's wrong with it.
So I get in and as usual, I sit down with the design
team, and they too, at this time, refuse to understand what was
happening in women's shoes now. JH. Bass as an image, it's an
outdoor shoe company to one degree, it's a collegiate shoe company making the first
penny loafer but if you're going to sell bass penny loafers in the era of
sexy shoes, you're going to be like the last buggy whip maker in New
York when horses disappeared, everybody's using cards and you're selling buggy whips. Doesn't
work like that. You have to understand what it takes to be fashionable or
stylish when the environment changes. And I said, to one of my favorite
lines I said it earlier, we can't just make shoes for women that don't
shave their legs. Women want to look good, they want to be sexy.
They don't one only went round toole penny loafers. We need the best
version of the trends that are happening. That was the message I gave to
the women's team, and then I said to him, listen, I'm not
gonna sit here and tell you what the ten best fashioned directions are in women's
shoes. You're gonna do that for me, because when I come back next
Monday, you're gonna show me storeboard samples of the shoes that you think are
not right for gh bass, but that you wear. We need to figure
out how to give bass women the best version of the right shoes. Now
the men, I said, guys, men's stress shoes, said, what's
happening? And you too about penny loafers. The hottest selling shoe company America
at this time for men are Kenneth Cole. They revitalized the entire men's shoe
industry and you are still making penny loafers. We have to change the look
of this company. And I said, listen, you're gonna do the next
fifty shoes your way, and you are going to work with me to give
me the fifty shoes that I want, and we'll see were better off.
At the end over three months, we re engineered the entirety of the men's
line. We came up with concepts men at work with address shoes, industrial
labor with a big, chuggy boots with lug souls that looked like Doc Martin's
at the time, and of course the classics, the bass shoes, and
every group had a name, every group was priced right, Everything looked brilliant.
At the end of three months, this company was humming, and more
importantly than anything else, everyone on the team was together. Everyone was proud
of what we accomplished. Everyone felt the win and as it turned out we
were going to have a meeting where we invited the wives of a board and
all the senior members of the company, all the senior offices of the corporation,
and we would present the new Bass Shoe Company. Six hundred people were
invited, We set up the shoe, all the new advertising concepts were all
the room, and if I tell you it was brilliant, it was brilliant.
More importantly, I tell you that we came together as a team.
And I got up at the end and I said, basically speaking, I
learned a great lesson. I've been a senior executive for so long whenever I
said to someone jump, they would jump. But when I came here,
I realized that I had to win the hearts and minds of the people that
I couldn't say jump. I had to say to them, I have a
concept called jumping that I'd like you to consider. And because of that style,
I became better for it. We all became better for it. And
I hope you appreciate what you saw tonight, and I hope you realized that
this is a company that we're going to all be proud of within the next
six months, and certainly by the end of the year and I got a
standing ovation. And while I'm standing in the stage, my friend who had
become the CEO, handed me a piece of paper and on it he gave
me a message. And what it said is, this is your finest hour.
You gave everyone all the credit, none for yourself. This was your
greatest day tonight. For me, it's all been about togetherness. That's a
strange word, you know. Why can't we all be together? Why isn't
this world together? I tell you the truth, I really can't answer that
when you really consider the following. I traveled the world in my lifetime,
and wherever I went and spoke to people that I met in business, they
all wanted the same thing. They all wanted to have a place to live,
they wanted to feel free, they wanted to have a great job,
and they wanted their children to have a better life than they did. It's
universal. We all need the same things. Why is it so complicated?
But I'll make it very simple. I run a business show. It's always
been about business. We've extended into cultural lifestyle to make the life lessons and
points relevant. There's no excuse in this world for us not to be together,
we vote for a present. His job is to bring the country together.
We're in business. The job is to take all these fine people that
are working in a company, allow them to be happy, allow them to
excel, allow them to express themselves. Steve Jobs said it best. We
don't hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people
so they could tell us what to do. Our job is to manage the
togetherness. And if you got that tonight, good night.