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 Webber. 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
Webber. Mark Webber. I've been thinking about what it is I like.
I've been wondering what it takes to like anything. There's a real combination of
human sense, his life experiences, human evolution necessary to form likes. I
walked here tonight, looked in the window at Bergdor just liked the jacket,
instantaneous, easy. I noticed the city noises. They were louder than I
like the smell of the streets. Store selling food not my style, but
I had to admit I liked the smell. Without thought, I determined likes.
As I walked along, a million years of evolution came into play.
My sixth sense told me that there were predators all around, not the first
time I thought the city could be separated by victims and predators. However,
this instance was light out. Myers told me not to worry anyway. Breaking
through all these life events, actions and activities, I worked through the clutter
to determine and feel what it is. I like that and of itself is
amazing. It's like in the genes or it's learned. I prefer black SUVs,
but silver sports cars, women in heels, men in suits, modern
buildings or heritage protected buildings. I don't like cluttered streets. I don't like
taxis until I need them. Like Ralph, I don't like cores. I
like American Eagle over Ara pistyle. I like restaurants first for food, then
for amviance service is a given. I like the Cheesecake Factory, but not
tjif interesting likes can change over time, I'm fascinated by why my las can
come and go. I used to like CBS, now it's Fox or News
Nation. One is on the right, one is neut for the other of
the original who are they now? I used to like the New York Times.
I trusted them, Now not so much. Wall Street Journer gets business
Reichs still like them. I like Taylor Swift for her success. I don't
know her music. I like Tom Cruise in spite of Tom Cruise. Funny
when you think about like. Some likes are ingrained, some are learned,
Some likes are tort some likes by experience. Some likes for fashioned by my
parents, some from friends. Many of my likes come from my children.
All business likes are dislikes. I'll learn to experience politics. Politicians liked or
disliked by what they do. Yes, I've been thinking the last few days
about the concept of liking, and walking to the studio, I realized I
liked doing this show. I've been thinking about likes and one of my favorite
stories is on the subject of liking. And I learned this simple allegory and
I think you might like it. There was a CEO of a consumer goods
company who needed to grow his business. One division of all the product categories
in his company he believed was underperforming, and that was his pet division.
As the story goes, the CEO was a dog lover, and it occurred
to him. Although there were a million dog foods that dog owners could choose
from, he felt there was an opportunity to create a luxury dog food to
appeal to affluent dog owners. As he thought about it, he became even
more excited when he considered the dog owners. Everyone, not just a fluent
owners would pay pay extra for dog food for their dogies. His simbleans management
team, ladies and gentlemen, I've had an epiphany. I want our company
to create a luxury dog food to appeal to luxury affluent owners. The team
nodded their heads, thinking, great idea. Why did I think of it?
He went further, Here's the beauty of the idea. Yes, it
will be more expensive than our other products, but every dog owner wants what's
best for their pet. Everyone will buy it, and everyone in the meeting,
like good executives started shaking their head, loving the idea, and they
all decided let's go after affluent dog owners. The CEO then instructed the packaging
team to create a striking, luxury looking package. To the chef and curated
create a dog food from the best ingredients, to the marketing team develop an
exciting advertising campaign and to the head of stairs, start meeting with your retail
accounts. I want twenty percent of their purchases in total to be the introduction
of our new luxury dog food, and not at the expense of our existing
business. There must be a creative, namely growth in our overall business.
Our prices are higher, therefore we'll make more money. And everyone left inspired,
eager to build a company. Now, then let's fast forward six months
later, there was a new product in luxury dog food being launched across America,
the most striking packaging, the greatest advactansing campaign. You can carry a
vtone handbag. Doesn't your dog deserve the best as well? The store shelves
in every pet store, every food store, every pet section was stocked with
a new luxury dog food. There's a new day in dog food. The
CEO is amazed at his team and so happy with his idea. On a
new day, everyone opened their doors. The consumers, the dog owners came
and bought multiple cans. The inventory was sold out in a week, huge
success. Everyone was patting each other on the back. In week two,
the stores were restocked. Interesting though week two sales were slow, no one
was buying the luxury dog food. Another week went by. It was a
disaster. No one was buying the dog food. The CEO brought his team
together, what's going on? No one wanted to talk. Finally, the
sales executive raised his hands and said, Boss, I'm sorry to be the
one to tell you, the dogs didn't like it. Sometimes we forget who's
in charge. It's not the pet owners, but the actual consumer of the
dogs. The dogs gotta like it. Tonight, I want to remind us
what's important. Now. This is really where I would introduce my lawyer,
my son, my co host Jesse Weber, but just he's not here tonight.
His courage in the world, particularly the Trump trial, the rest of
the seleverties out there in trouble, the blockade of Columbia University, and all
the college protests have him on assignments for Law and Crime Network, Serious Radio
in particularly his legal commentary for News Nation, oh and fill in host on
the network, as well as a beyond busy as a father. I made
it easy of him let those responsibilities take priority. I fly solo tonight.
Now, speaking of my sons. Last week the show followed my son Jared,
who was in Asia, which brought to mine a series of stories and
events that I had experienced many years earlier, memories of a number of years
ago I walked the same streets that he did of Shanghai and in particular Tokyo
as well. During the show, I shared a story of integrity whereby custom
of gifting in Japan left me vulnerable to the theory of impropriety, namely,
even the appearance of impropriety is a problem. Now, I was offered a
gift, and I'll talk about that in a minute. Think of our politicians
question now and insider information at stock trading, or the Supreme Court accepting airline
flights for personal use, whether it's true or not, it makes us wonder
about our leaders. I was given an expensive set of Mickey Myrtle pearls after
a large deal was signed. What if I accepted them? But I didn't.
I refuse to accept them now, Jared, in essence, led tonight
its story. Don't forget relating to your consumer, daddy, not everyone's the
CEO. Jared said, bring it to the real world, daddy. Most
young people never are confronted with your life experience. They're not offered fifty thousand
dollars pearl necklaces, embrace it, and I thought he was right. So
philosophically, the dog's got alken in this case. Understand it. So let
me help you and offer some advice for your consideration. Don't compromise yourself.
Don't business dinners. Do you know there are companies that forbid their employees for
having company dinners with suppliers. They feel that should you accept, you might
be compromising in your objective decisions on who to purchase from in the future.
Therefore, first learn and understand your company policy on gifts in outside social interaction.
My personal experience for costco buyers, they're instructed no business thinners, only
working lunches. If they're in the office, then I think about second to
thine own self be true? Will you feel compromise if you accept a favor?
Sport tickets? Yankees are back, the playoffs are on in basketball and
hockey. Most companies have access to the best sporting events. I have hosted
people at the US Open tennis matches. I've been a guest of others.
Can you separate your decision making and being neutral after you've accepted this very generous
offer for a very common night out or a sports event. But nonetheless,
can you separate yourself while I'm at it? Samples in your office they may
appear to have little or no value, but they're not yours. You want
a sample, you have to ask to buy it. Do you realize your
companies computer is not yours? It's the companies. Your time at work is
not yours. Your time is paid for by the company. They pay to
work, not to watch Instagram on their computer. This is all just food
for thought. Maybe I'm Dudley do right, but my conscience is clear.
I wanted to share that with you tonight. It's dog eat dog or the
Dog's Gotta like it back in a minute. 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, eyewear, and premium fragrances. You can explore the car
Lagophl 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, 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 Carlagofel because he's always been, he always had been
one of the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on.
I can't speak enough about it except to say to you, you want
to feel good about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing properly.
You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris at Macy's
Orcarl Lagafel dot com. A favorite brand has always been ISOD. My company
at one time bought that brand. The CEO of the company handed it to
me and said, you better make it work. And I put everything in
my career to make ISOD work, and I fell in love with that brand,
and to this day it is one of the most exciting endeavors I've ever
got involved with. Isod is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you play
golf, if you play tennis for that matter. They make a great polo
shirts. I mean great, They're fit perfect. The material is unique because
it's a PK fabric that waffle weave you see, and it's made of a
blend of cotton and microfiber that allows you to stretch in very often they are
treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable, and
they breathe well. And one thing about Isaac they always fit. They'll never
tug on you. You put it in your waist, they'll fit you great.
The colors, patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell you Isaad
makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and you want to
look good. You don't have to think about how do I look. You
want to think about how you play, not how you feel. Isaad is
the brand for you. I know I was there when it was created.
The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's one of my favorite brands.
While I talk about it, I should tell you about the men's sportswear.
Isaad wasn't enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just great polo
shirts with logos, without logos. Incredible brands and story and history. Isaad
makes salt weather programs. They have great printed woven shirts, short sleeves.
They look excellent with colors, excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants,
of which they also make This whole salt order relaxed line from Ison whether it
be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts and pants of a
range of colors and fabrics that are perfect for a guy wants to go casually
in the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing Isoon is
affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this brand can afford to buy it
and know that there are a lot of other brands that also have a look
like Io. Although I don't believe it's fun as isond is. The brand
has a lot of energy in it, but at the price points, no
one can compete. You can find Isaac at your leading retailers and online at
ion dot com. Talk to you later, guys. I wish you.
I'm very happy spring in summer, and I hope you by telling you if
you were eyesight, you're going to look great. Welcome back to it always
in fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber. The Dog's gotta like it.
I love the title. I thought it was clever. You have to
remember who you're in customers. I talked earlier about you go and prepare dog
food. You make it the best. It could be the best package,
the best. This the best advertising aim that they are dog owners but the
reality is the dogs gotta eat it, and that's what I want to talk
about. I want to talk tonight, specifically about who are we talking to,
and are we talking clearly them. I'm a car guy. I love
cars at any time. I have more cars than people can drive, and
cars in general are exciting to me. I want to talk about one brand
in particular. I have been my entire life on an emotional roller coaster with
Jaguar. I love Jaguar, at least I did. My first car,
when I was in college, was a Jaguar XKE, one of the most
beautiful sports cars in the history of mankind. In fact, Enzo Ferrari,
the founder of Ferrari, said, the Jaguars K is the most beautiful car
that's ever been designed. I bought one, a used one. I was
so happy with it until I brought it home and started to drive it.
I worked all week, I went to school. On Friday nights, I
would take the car out. It never fail. Every Friday night I would
go out. I feel like a billion dollars and every Friday night I'd have
to have a toad somewhere. Now. The interesting thing about the car taught
me a couple of lessons, because in those days Jaguars could not be trusted.
British motor cars cannot be trusted. Today they're much better. I'll get
to that in a minute. But I learned the very important lesson ordered by
that Jaguar ks Cay, which was used and was not too expensive for me
at the time. It's more expensive that I could afford. I remember borrowing
money from my mother and father and they said to me, Mark, I
don't know if this is the car you should buy. You know, it
looks beautiful, but it doesn't have a good reputation. I said, I'm
not worried about it. My mother was right. Every Friday night, either
it was towed or I had to have it delivered to a car dealership to
be repaired. For the next two weeks it would be repaired. I'd get
a bill far more than I could afford. But I borrowed money for my
parents to buy the car great lesson. My mother and father looked at me
and they said, Mark, we're going to lend this money. We expect
you to give us a check every week to pay it off. And we
came up with a small number that would come from my paycheck of working in
a clothing store. And it was interesting. Every week I showed up,
sat down with my mom. I gave her fifty dollars at the time,
I think that was the number, and she had a little ledger that had
the number I owed her at the top. Every week she would deduct that
number from what I owed her until it was completely paid up. And it
taught me a lesson that when you borrow money, it's a sacred trust.
You are making a personal commitment to whoever you borrowed it from, whether it
be your mother, whether it be a friend, whether it be a bank.
I am borrowing money and I promise you I will pay it back,
which brings me to student loans. Just while I'm on the subject, I
am against forgiving people of student loans. Every single student made a decision to
purchase college education. They decided to borrow money to pay for it. Now,
I get it. School is not free in this country. Some countries
it is, some it isn't You have choices when you went to school.
I went to a city college. My city college at the time was eight
thousand dollars a year versus my son's education at forty two thousand dollars a year
if you decided to go to the University of Michigan or the University of Virginia
or any of the other great schools around the country. Why is it my
problem? Why is it the taxpayer's problem for you to have a forty two
thousand dollars year education, or if you went to local school, it could
be ten or fifteen thousand. I'm totally against it. But that's only one
part of my Jaguar lesson. See, I always liked Jaguars. I bought
that Jaguar. It was so bad, I never enjoyed it. It was
always in the shop, never drove it more than a couple of days at
a time, because it always broke down. God forbid. You get caught
in the rain and the wires got wet. You never get it home.
But as time went on, I'll never forget. I was in Las Vegas.
I was at the Forum Shops, great shopping center where my favorite in
the country. And this beautiful car pulls up, a black coop. I
had never seen anything like it. There was a Jaguar XKR. I was
taken by it. I loved it. I'll never forget. I went home
with the boys, and I tried to convince my wife that we needed another
car. She looked at me, what are you crazy? Don't need another
car, but we all want it, we want to drive and we love
him. Come on, momy. She agreed. We bought the car and
was amazing, and I learned from that day on the Jaguars were reliable again.
And I've been in favor of Jaguar for so long because now they're reliable,
they're great looking. I enjoy driving them. And then something happened.
Jaguar decided that they were going to close operations. I think I've mentioned this
before and stop making new cars until twenty twenty five. And what were they
doing. They were turning their entire Jaguar offering to evs electric vehicles. You
can't buy a Jaguar that's not an electric vehicle. Now I have a hybrid.
I have an expensive hybrid. Whatever you think is expensive, double it.
And the thing is a problem, a problem, a problem. It's
in the shop all the time. It's not a Jaguar, but something's wrong
and it's only a hybrid. I hear all these rumors about these electric fields,
not starting in the cold, not having places to charge them nightmares,
and Jaguar has decided to turn their entire fleet of Audibo wheels into electric vehicles.
You're reading articles now the showrooms in the country. This country, I
think, has two and a half million electric vehicles that are unsold. They're
piling up in their parking lots. People are voting to go ahead. There
are increases in electric vehicles, but nowhere near the numbers needed to sustain this
business. Nowhere near the government's stepping in and forcing most vehicles to be electric
vehicles by two thy thirty two. And it got me to thinking on a
night that I'm talking the dog's God to love it all the noble goals of
saving our planet. Jaguar is forgetting that they have to make the dogs happy,
the dogs God to love it. Come on, Jaguar, I wake
up before it's too late. I'll take a break back in a minute.
Always in fashion, I spent a lifetime of my career building the van Usen
Brand, and I am so pleased that they're back with us now talking about
suits. Men were dressing up again and it's become cool to wear a suit.
Suits can be won on multiple occasions, in multiple ways. You could
wear a suit formally to go out at night or to an event. You
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. Venuesn't invented a new idea. It's called the cool
Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology, giving you the most comfortable
fit and mobility. Its wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wicki it makes
it perfect for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new style
of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfort 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 Usen made it's name with dress
shirts. It's only proper that the suit business follows strongly in its way.
You can find van using Koolflex men's stretch suits at jcpenny or online at jcpenny
dot com. Guys, they're great. You should go look at them.
D k 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 tonight. 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 n Y Donna Karen, New York. It's an offshoot of
the Donna Karen collection. The same concept a lifestyle brand. Then 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 dcaan why as intimate apparel,
as hosiery, as all those products you're getting dressed for work. You
get accessorized shoes, handbags, and it takes you through the day. The
remarkable thing about dk and Y clothes for work, they work into the evening.
The dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters, the blouses,
extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that go from day in tonight. Part of
your lifestyle is active. You have weekends, you have events, you participate
in sports. Donna Karen's Casual Clothes did that under the DKNY label. A
vast array of casual sports where that make women look great as they navigate their
busy lives. Whether you going to soccer games for your children, or whether
you're going out to the movies, whatever you want to do, dk Y
Jeans, dk Y Sportswear is there for you. That's what a lifestyle brand
is. And I need to mention DKY Activewear, which is extraordinary, the
leggings, the sports bras, the sweats. You can wear DKY Activewear,
certainly in the gym, certainly when you're working out at home, and certainly
if you want on the street, because it's that well done. The quality
of dk why is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be because
it was born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women of America.
DK and Why, a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and tonight,
from the week into the weekend. DCN, Why you can find DCNY
and Macy's DKY dot com. Welcome back to it Always in fashion. Here's
your host, Mark Webber. I've been thinking about a lot of stuff on
the way to this studio, and I've been thinking about a concept that I
call interrupters. Probably none of you ever confronted something and thought of that as
an interrupter, but I do. My creative eye sees interrupters, you know,
in your own way. We did during the SAT tests back in the
days. One of the intelligence questions happened to deal with interrupters. They didn't
call it that. They would show you a picture of four things apples,
pears, oranges, truck which doesn't fit and of course it's the trucks.
And there's a way to understand your aptitude and where you understand learning. That's
what an interrupter is. And I see them everywhere. A friend of mine
recently was talking about interrupters. Told me a story about a chair she had
bought for her apartment. She said it was gorgeous white leather, beautiful trim,
and had these beautiful blue stripes on the back of it. It was
a designer chair. She didn't share how much it costs, but she said
it was amazing by the time I got it into my part and I put
it here, I put it there, I put it everywhere, and never
did it feel like it fit. Because she didn't use the interrupter word,
but that's what it was. An interrupter. Back in the day when magazines
were extraordinary, I was very much involved in the advertising world, and when
you would shoot a photograph to be in a magazine, there really were two
choices of how that fogotograph would be presented. Some photographs are on one page,
either right or left, and some photographs are what they call spreads.
They spread out over the two pages. And the interesting thing when you open
a magazine, there's always a fold line. Magazines curl when you open them.
If you shoot a photograph that's supposed to be seen on two pages.
If you don't allow and the photographer doesn't allow space for the fold, your
picture will be cut off. Anytime you see a picture cut off in the
middle because of the fold, line. You're dealing with amateurs, people who
didn't realize what they're doing because they are interrupted. We've allowed that photograph to
be interrupted. I've often found where people put their logos, either on garments
or in these magazine pictures, can be interrupters. Where do they put the
name on the ad. It always drove me crazy because I have an eye
pro proportion and I look very closely at these things. And then there are
interrupters in the way you dress. I've talked about my uniform many times.
Navy blue suit, white French collar shirt, navy blue tie, sterling,
silver cuffling, stainless steel, rollic, stetona, watch, black shoes,
black sock. You look at me, it all comes into play. You
have a look at figure skaters. Guy wears black pants, black shoes.
Why it's an uninterrupted line in the form of his body. The women do
the same thing. They try and pick flesh colored tones very often in their
skates to match the flesh tots that they're wearing for their stockings or tights or
whatever you call them. It's non interrupters, and I don't believe in interrupters.
I believe that everything has a place. This spring fashion starting again,
I will dress in ecru tan. I love tans, I love neutrals.
I love it all blending together. If I'm wearing tan, I'm going to
wear tan shoes, I'm going to wear a tan watchpant. I'm going to
make everything blend in because I believe in interrupters. Now I have a great
story that deals with interrupters. Planned interrupters in the form of print dresses.
Is there any woman in the world that doesn't own a black dress? Every
woman has to have a black dress or ten of them in their closet because
when in doubt you put on the black dress LBD little black dress. Everyone
has them. I would venture to say every woman in the world has a
print dress or multiple print dresses. And imagine my chagrin when I show up
at Donna, Karen and dk Y and find out that the head creative person
at DK and Y does not believe Prince belong in DK and why I was
shocked. I mean, that's like being in the men's dress shirt business and
not having white dress shirts. It's impossible. Everyone wears a white dress shirt,
they wear a dress shirt. How could you not have them? They
didn't believe in printresses. This was amazing. Now how do I find out?
One night, at the end of the day, the head of sales
for dk Y asked to see me. She waited to the end of the
day because she was intimidated and was concerned for what the subject matter would be.
That she came to see me, and she didn't know the politics of
it all. Was concerned. I figured this is going to be a doozy.
So I know she comes to my office in Mark I need help,
I said, what can I do for you? You know, we're trying
to build a business. We've done so many things that are right this company,
volume and opportunities exploding, but we've hit a roadblock. So what's the
problem? She's print tresses? I said, I love printresses. What's wrong
with printresses? You're right to love them, she said, Dresses right now
are forty percent of our business. If you ask anyone, they'll tell you
that fifty percent of their dresses are prints. Okay, great, So what
are you asking me? She says? Our designed director and the design team
do not believe in prin dresses for DKY. What do you mean they don't
believe in them? They said they won't believe in them. Well, they're
gonna make them. She said, well, that's the problem. They're not.
We told them last season we lost out in this opportunity. We're now
coming into the spring season where we would plan even more than fifty percent of
our assortment and prin dresses. They won't do it. Thumb struck. Here
you're telling me this brilliant company, Donna Karen DK, why we don't have
printresses. I've seen printresses in Donna Karen. They're very sophisticated. The collection
has them. They're beautiful colors, they're very neutral. They fit with the
cole concept, but they're gorgeous. Said, you have them in Donna Karen
Mark, but we don't have them DK. Why The following morning, I
send out a memo and I convene a meeting. Before the meeting, I
asked the head of design to come see me. I said, I'm told
we don't believe in printresses. She's we don't and why is that? She
says the Dkmy urban modern city girl doesn't wear print dresses. I said,
you know, I'm standing now in the women's business. I look at women
all the time to see what they're wearing. The shoes, the dresses,
the pants. I'm a student of women's wear. I have to be.
I've no choice. Most of the women I see coming to work are wearing
dresses now, and an awful lot of them are wearing print dresses. She
says, well, Prince, we don't believe Adana Karen let alone, DCAM,
why just not all? Look, I said, you know, dresses
represent in some cases up to fifty percent of the business, and I'm told
more than fifty percent could be. Prince, it's not okay that we don't
have print dresses. She's well, we don't believe in Okay, here's what
we're going to do. I need you for the next two days to work
with the team exclusively on finding prints, a balanced print assortment that would represent
thirty to fifty percent of our business. If I said we're in the print
business, mark you do that. After I told you I don't believe in
princesses. I respect that you don't believe in print dresses. But we're having
a meeting in two days time, and I think it would be great if
you would be prepared with a series of print dresses that if you were forced
that if you believe you wanted to understand what to do. You have an
idea of what printresses would look like. She begrudgingly left and said she would
do it. Two days later, a meeting convenes three o'clock and decayn Wise
showroom. One side of the table of the design is the other side of
the cellar. The rest of the people just fit in wherever they could.
Now, I've had meetings with a bunch of you and we've talked about it.
Some of you believe that we need prints, some of you believe we
don't. I'm going to make this simple. I see what's going on in
the street. I'm not a woman. I don't wear your clothes, but
I do know if I was a stylish woman in this world right now,
part of my wardrobe would be printeresses because I see women on the street wearing
tons of them and it doesn't make any sense for us and not to have
them. For someone to come up with the idea that k Why is a
different lifestyle or what you have to do is come up with prints that fit
the image of dk Why. I'm not telling you to look like Ralph ralfis
a traditional company that Prince may be plaids when not a plaid company or a
modern company. Our Prince would reflect the modern style of the company. Quiet.
So then I say to the head of design. In preparation for this
meeting, I asked Jane, the head of design, to put a line
of prints together, and I wanted to see them in the room. So
she and the team lay out of our twenty five prints, and my impression
was they didn't do them with all of their heart in because I've seen when
they create things, they believe in their extraordinary and right away I know it
wasn't good. So the first last thing I had to do is talk about
balancing the line. You can't only have little prints. You need some that
are engineered. You need big florals, you need a whole range and choices.
So someone would come into our store at Bloomingdale's and macy and see a
plethora of Prince throughout the shop, colorful, bright, etc. They didn't
have them put that aside, and they said we're gonna have Princes, and
everybody's like uncomfortable. I said, you know what, here's what we're gonna
do. We're gonna play a game. I call it the ballot game.
Hold on a minute, I called my assistant, Judy Luke. I said,
Judy, bring down the jelly bean jar, bring down twenty pieces of
paper and twenty pencils. Make sure the paper and the pencils are all the
same. Everybody's asking me what are we doing? I said, I'm gonna
tell you. We're gonna play a game. I'm going to ask you two
questions. Question number one should we have prince? And question number two are
these prints good enough that we've seen today? And here's the great thing about
this. None of you are going to put your name on the piece of
paper, so this is anonymous. Therefore, we're taking all the politics out,
We're taking all the loyaltily out because it's misplaced. What I want is
this group of people, twenty of you people together to give me the honest
opinion without fear of reprisal. You could be honest this way, no one's
gonna know. You all have the same paper, you all have the same
pencils. So here's question one, should we have prints? And here's how
you do it. Zero if you believe you should have no prince, and
ten if you should have prints. And I'll do the same rating system for
the collection with your sewer zero if you don't like it, ten if you
think it was great. Okay, fill out your papers, and one by
one I passed the ball around. Everybody wrote on their answers, crumpled them
up, threw them at the ball. I asked the head of operations and
finance, please make one column that says should we have Prince? And will
list all the scores, and the other column did we like these prints?
And let's see the rating? I'm on them. So first thing, something
comes up, should we have Prince? One to ten? Ten? What'd
you think of these prints? Five? Should we have Prince? One says
nine? How are these prints? Four? The end of the thing,
one person had a zero for should we have Prince, and that the same
person in the rating had a tend for the Prince and their excellence. I
figured that was the design director. But after all is said and done,
everyone in the room except for one person, believe we should have Prince.
No one thought the Prince were good enough. And the exercise is, you
gotta make sure you know what the dogs want. The dog's gotta be happening,
And in this case it was the woman's consumer. For dk y back
in a minute. Always in fashion then use it. For over one hundred
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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 Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections, ready
to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagofeld also offers
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at Carlagofelparis dot com. But it'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
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Lagafel because he's always been he always had been one of the world's great designers,
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You want to know that you're dressing properly. You want clothes that fits you
well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris at Macy's Orcarlagafel dot com. Welcome back to
it Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber Tonight, I picked
a funny title. I've got a kick out of it when I thought about
it, that you got to make the dogs happy. It relates to a
lot of different things, understanding who your end user is for your products,
who you're trying to make your happy in life. I'm having fun doing this,
and now I want to talk seriously about work. I came across a
quote that I thought was really interesting on this subject that the magic you are
looking for is in the work you're avoiding. I'll tell you what, at
this stage of my life, there are so many things I don't want to
do. I can avoid him like the plague. I get up in the
morning if I have to return a phone call, I'm miserable the night before.
I don't even like the idea for turning phone calls tell me I have
to meet someone. I'm distraught. I'm a recluse by nature. I like
being by myself. I don't want to spend time with anyone. I don't
want to be told I have to spend time with anyone. I don't want
to do anything I don't want to do. Well. Why am I telling
you this? Because you're working? You have a life, You want a
little success. Who doesn't want success? Who doesn't want to make more money?
Who doesn't want to earn more? Who doesn't want to have a better
life? It's crazy everyone. The magic you are looking for is in the
work you're avoiding. You see, while I avoid everything and anything I possibly
want to avoid now, I didn't do it when I was working. No
no, no, no, no no no. I realized that in order
to have some measure of success, that I couldn't only have fun and do
the things I like to do. No. Work isn't about Hey, everything's
great. It's about what do you do when things aren't great? What do
you do all those things you have no interest in but are so important to
learn? I have two sons that are attorneys. They could kick and scream
blame me, ignore me, what have you? They wanted to be One
wanted to try it because no other idea. The other did it because He'll
admit Jesse said I forced them, but he'll Althos thanked me every day because
he did it. They both did things that were hard, that necessarily what
they wanted to do, but they did it because they should. When I
was young, my mother would force me to drink milk. I hated it,
but the only way I could get a cookie or a sweet was with
milk. Now, hindsight, maybe that's why I like sweets too much.
Now, maybe if I wasn't compromised or for negotiated with, I wouldn't like
sweets as much. I'm not going to blame my mother. I only have
myself to blame. The reality is the magic you're looking for is in the
work you're avoiding, because that's where the success is. We can't always do
what we want to do. In my case, I learned early on that
success would come from those things that I did well, supported by those things
that I should know in order to be successful. One of my favorite stories
when we bought Calvin Klein. Calvin Klein when he sold the company didn't want
to work anymore. His partner, Barry Schwartz, disappeared completely. Never came
back to the company for a day after he got his money, not a
day, had no interest, even invited all of us to dinner, and
then changed his mind. Never saw him again. He went on to work
for the New York Racing Authority, very very successful, and Calvin granted us
a certain number of days because he didn't want to work either. And what
he really didn't want to do is he didn't want to be told no.
If he came in a room and he told you this is what he believed
in, if you didn't do it, he wouldn't come back. Now I
respect that. I don't want to be told no, especially if I was
Calvin kleinb with all that success and everything I built, who knows more than
me. And we had a guy named Francisco Costa, who's an amazing designer,
who took over the women's collection business, the designing of it, and
Francisco, because he was at Calvin, developed a name for himself. He
got very well known. But at the same time he was very good at
what he did. And I remember one day Calvin was looking at the offering
and making some suggestions, and Francisco, now that he was the lead designer,
was pushing back on Calvin and telling him why he would do this and
do that and do this, because before that he would make a suggestion and
Calvin would decide this time and I remember Calvin said, this is not what
I want to do. But in particular, Calvin was great that when we
needed him, he would come up. We had at the time a license
from Waunaco. Warnaco is a separate company who had the rights to manufacture genes
and underwear. Calvin Kleine underwear is a phenomenon. Walk into any store in
the men's and women's underwear or intimate apparel areas, and Calvin Kleine underwear,
the cotton underwear, the stretch underwear dominates, huge, huge, amazing,
how big the Calvin Kleine underwear is. We were having a problem that Calvin
Kleine, the underwear, the bottoms t shirts were doing amazing, but they
company, Warnaco could never sell Calvin Kleine Bras couldn't do it. So one
day he said to me, the head of the division, could you get
Calvin to see if he can come here and help us, and I'll never
forget. Calvin came in. He said, I understand we're having a problem
with Braze. Tell me what it is. It's Calvin. The colors are
beautiful, the fabrics are great, but nobody wants to buy him. So
he looked at us and he said, are they comfortable? The president of
the division, a guy, scratched his head and he said, you know,
I never really asked that question. Well, next thing we know,
we've got a series of models in asking what worked, what didn't work.
When we learned an awful lot about what makes a bra comfortable or not,
we had another meeting with Calvin. He said, did you learn about hydraulics?
I said, what's hydraulics? He said, you know, if you
think about it, a bra is like a building crane. Your pully straps
and adjusts the shoulders like you would do a crane to lift the item.
And it has to work and it has to be comfortable. I can't tell
you how many millions of bras we said after that, an amazing story.
So here I am on a night talking to humans. I'm talking about making
dogs happy. Yeah, you gotta make the dogs happy? And what did
it mean? Tonight, you have to understand where you are in this world.
You got to understand who the end user is. You got to understand
who your customers. You got to understand who you are and what you look
like to the rest of the world. Because, whether you think it or
not, packaging yourself is as important as the products you package. Whether you
believe it or not, it shouldn't matter what you look like, but it
does. Shouldn't matter how you sound like, but it does. You want
to get ahead in life, you have to think about what you know and
what you don't know. And the more you concentrate on what is important,
the more you add to your chances for success. With that in mind,
I wish you good night, and remember the dog's gotta like it. Good Night.