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 Weber, I have always been recursive. I tell you this not
to tell you that I don't like humans, which I don't, but I'll
share this with you to make a point. I spend more time alone than
most people, which enables me to spend more time on me. I get
to choose how I spend my time. I get to do what I want
to do, which is I get to observe people, places, things,
life. I spend time listening, and more importantly, I hear I'm not
a great conversationalist unless I'm talking about that which really interests me. And then
again, unless I'm really zeroed in on what you're saying, I'm just nodding
my head, making believe I am actually paying attention to you. But when
something said is relevant to me, I hear it, file it, never
forget it. I also read a lot. I mean a lot. I'm
never without a book. I'm always interested in what's going on in the world
of fiction, more so than nonfiction. As at aside, I'm always interested
in social media what's going on. Believe me, I tune out the nonsense.
Politics is sickening, but I need personally to know what's going on,
if nothing else, to know who to like or distrust the most. I'm
interested in people, what they have to say or right. I don't know
if I've said it out loud. More than anything, I'm fascinated by quotes.
I like quotes that make a point cleverly. I'm always on the lookout
for something new and clever, And if you're a fan of the show or
a follower of the show, you know by the titles we choose. Quotes
mean a lot to me. Now, early in my career, the leaders
gave speeches. I listened, and often quotes we used. I was mesmerized
early in my career. People use quotes and meetings to make a point that
process of quote never ends. For me, I learned a million of them
and created many of my own. To thine own self be truth, said
Shakespeare. I learned how to do it myself. Tonight, I'm going to
enjoy the exploration of quotes that I've picked up along the way, some business,
some personal. Now speaking personal. Tonight, for the first time in
a long time, both my sons are with me. Number one son,
Jared. That's me, number one son, reporting for duty to be here,
happy to hang out. Wait a second, number one son. That's
the introduction. I didn't see here. By the way, I'm here,
everybody, it's Jesse Goes second, second son, second stringer. That's how
it works when the older comes in. Please tell me it wasn't number one
son, like your favorite. But he's the firstborn. I didn't say he
was the favorite. He's the old first. You didn't say older son,
said number one son. If this is a race, like, they're not
like yeah, yeah, if this isn't a race, they're like, oh,
the older car got in for now. It's no Number one son,
So joh, why are you hanging out here? First and foremost, it's
been a while since we've all been in the studio together, so I'm very
happy to be here with you, Daddy and second son, Jesse. So
that's first. But it's a big week, big big week. Jesse hosted
the Elizabeth Vargas Show and Dan Abrams Show all on News Nation, So it's
a big week. Had a lot of fun watching Jesse, and I'm very
happy to be here tonight. Yeah, you know, it was amazing.
Everyone treated us so nicely, and you know what, I love, Jesse.
You arranged for me to meet Chris Cuomo. I thought that was very
cool, not bad for a second stringer. No, yeah, no,
I both of you came. It was awesome. I love that you both
came. And look, I know how much you love Chris Cuomo and you
respect him, and I wanted to get the opportunity for you to meet him.
Now. When you arrived, he was in the middle of his show.
So what did I do? I asked one of his producers. I
said, listen, I have to run upstairs to the set because I had
to get ready to fill in for Dan, and I was like, when
there's a commercial break, can you introduce my father to Chris? And he
was absolutely, absolutely so I wasn't there, so when you met him,
it was great. I was brought over and introduced this Mark Weber, your
father. He's a big guy, strong handshake, very good looking, he
has a presence. But I was there really to thank him. He's been
so nice to you on air, so great gracious to you on air when
his show is ending and you're coming on, I couldn't help but wanted to
thank him for a real long time anyway, said to me with a big
smile, you were great. Good things are gonna happen to you. And
he told me you're filling in for him next Friday, and he said he's
really excited. And then he left and he said, as long as you
don't get his job, that's what he said, right. Yeah, that's
funny. By the way. No, he's not only been great to me
on air, but off air as well. And you talk about how big
he was. I remember one of the first times I met him was looking
at the set. I was watching something and he came up behind me and
hit me on the back like in a friendly way almost got knocked over.
He was like Superman, like hitting a like flicking an ant. He was
so big. But you know, he's a great guy. He's a great
guy. And I didn't know if you knew this. I was going to
talk about you on air, and that's what I did. That was the
first part of our segment. I didn't hear it because I didn't have the
headphones on yet. Well, luckily for you, I recorded it and I
have it for you right now. So just to give everybody a context about
it, when Chris finishes his show and he begins Dan show, we have
kind of a little bit of cross talk and I want to play the clip
for us right now. Jesse Weber in for Dan Abrams right now. So
Chris, my dad came to the studio, wanted to shove everything out,
talk about jeans. That guy has some head of hair. Do you think
this is an accident. I think this just came out of no ways.
That man. Every time you see it, it does. His hair is
splendifuous. It is fantastic. Wish I had a picture I could put it
out, but no. The truth is he came here today. Other than
the fact he wasn't even really excited to see this. He really wanted to
meet you. But even before he comes in, you know what, the
number one thing he says is, he said, George Clooney, who cares
if he supports Biden or not? Find out you said the same exact thing.
You guys are more similar than I thought. But I see where he's
coming from. You see that generation doesn't get into the hype the way they
do. I'll be honest. I can have it both ways, right,
I can say who cares? I also put it at the top of my
open right, so obviously I care. Right now. I see manipulation by
the New Times in it, which is fair play. They should just be
transparent. They're against Biden being president. They've said it twice. You can't
trust their coverage about him, and I think we need more transparency in the
media. Clooney matters, okay, but we shouldn't be exaggerating the relevance because
we like the narrative. That's my concern with the media. No, it
wasn't. You know, it's not if Obama comes forward. It's not if
Jill comes, ron Klain, the second George person in the Democratic Party,
Daniel Oshan comes forward. Now the whole game has changed, as long as
it's not Ron Klain, the second most powerful person in the Democratic Party.
Yeah, one guy, Chris, good seeing you, Thanks so much?
See you? Just how great was that? You didn't expect that cool?
I had no idea. Yeah, he complimented you. I had a feeling.
I had a feeling. I've had a feeling he was going to be
taken aback by Mark Weber's hair. See you make an impression, you know,
by the way you every week You're like, I'm not the same guy
I used to be important. You still got it? Thank you. Yeah,
I'm not great. I love Chris. Chris is greatstic I like them
again because of the way he's treated you on air as a father. It's
made me very happy. But tonight I want to talk about quotes. Inspirational,
clever, helpful quotes that make a point in business and certainly in life.
You know where I want to start. If you ever hear can I
be honest with you, run because whatever they're going to hear next is a
lie. How could you ever trust the person after they say that? Now,
but along those lines, let me start with business and company promises.
Those are the quotes I want to deal with right now, in particular the
promise of fortune and fame in a company. Now the quote, you didn't
really believe that, and I'll come back to it. I believe a company
has a right to manage. It's not a democracy, it's a company.
It's their way or the highway. Companies make choices on how to manage,
motivate, compensate, and treat their employees. I've seen great interpretations, I've
seen horrible. It's not my business to judge right now anyway, and anythink
you do can work either way. But I do subscribe the tough, honest,
clear direction and accountability. In the end, you're managing a company.
You need to retain people and the people that you need. How you go
about it is up to the management of each company. But I've learned that
the biggest source of dissatisfaction, disappointment, bad or hard feelings, disagreements is
mostly always about compensation. Now, of course, the easy the salary and
the four toh one K plan, that's clear, you know exactly where you
stand. But annual raises and bonuses seems to be the red hot bed for
arguments. Now, raises are also kind of simple, they're subjective. I
like you, I don't like you. I like the job you're doing.
I don't like the job you're doing. Guys, Gallas, get over it.
You can never win. Yeah, there are remedies, but I'm not
getting in into that tonight. I'm not telling you what you should say or
how you should compromise. But bonuses is where I want to talk about careers
because I've lost more arguments and I've seen more people get us set and get
in trouble over bonuses. And let's be fair, a company has a right
to manage and protect its assets. Now, any bonus worth anything ties your
performance to a part of the company's plan. Performance is always appropriate. Companies
need and out Now. My first experience with a bonus I was running the
dresser company. I was a young president of the venues and Shirt company,
the largest shirt company in the world. We were on a run and I
remember the CEO saying to me, if you would ever reach a twenty five
percent ROI, we'll get a marching ban and we'll pay you three times your
annual salary and a bonus. I looked him, said you mean that marching
band three times? I said absolutely, mark. Now the reason he said
it, no one ever did it before. Now, what is to turn
on investment? Turn on investments? Basically, in simple terms, if you
invest the dollar and you get twenty five percent return, you're gonna get a
dollar twenty five back, or ahundred dollars you get one hundred and twenty five
amazing return. Nineteen eighty six, some young present, I get a twenty
six percent return. We announced the figures. Everybody goes wild. I look
out the window. There's no marching band. I looked at the see.
I said, you know, I don't see my marching band. He looked
at me, said get over it from there. Bonus time was due.
I remember, he said, wait, you'll get a great bonus the end
of the year. My bonus comes, I get one hundred percent of my
salary. Now, in normal times, one hundred percent of your cell is
an amazing bonus. But he told me I can get three hundred percent.
I didn't, And sure enough, when he didn't give me the three hundred
percent, I complained to my boss. We said, you sure you want
to go there with this mark. You got one hundred percent. It's more
than you ever got. He said. They told me if I got a
twenty five percent or oh I got twenty six percent three hundred. He says,
okay, I'll go to him. They bring me in a room.
CEO's sitting there and he says to me, you owe us an apology.
Yikes. You know, saying that to me is another way of saying,
if you don't appreciate what we're doing, you don't belong at Like I said,
yikes, what a welcome to a bonus. I learned a lot of
lessons along the way. Do you know you have to believe in bonus plans.
The company's supposed to make them that they work. But my problems with
bonus did the end there. At LVMH, I had two bonus systems.
One was an annual bonus that you guys are all familiar with, and then
I had a long term incentive plan called an l TIP long Term Incenter plan
that if I reached certain goals over a three year period of earnings, I
can make three hundred percent of my salary. Let's just say I did really,
really, really well. But there was never a question whether or not
LVMH would pay me that bonus. But when they gave me the bonus and
I did the calculations, and I kind of respectively questioned, can you remember
I learned if you're not happy, you don't belong here. I said,
we calibrate differently in Europe than you Americans do here. And they made it
clear that even though I was great at every point, I have nowhere to
run with this sum just conversation. So one day CEO of the company,
Larry Phillips, President of the company, Bruce I won't go his name.
I don't know if he likes when I mentioned his name. In ten of
the senior most executives, which I was one of, were brought into a
room. I said, I have amazing news. Feel Larry Phillips said,
our stock is currently at eighty cents a share. If we get the three
dollars and forty two cents a share, which we believe is doable over the
next three years, every one of you are going to become millionaires. Millions.
Now, my cut of this pot was five million dollars. And what
they do is they created the three forty two team three dollars for two cents.
It's the CEO, the chief financial office, US ten guys, and
every month we have a meeting every month. We go sit down, We
hear how we're doing. We hear how our sharing price is going up.
We hear about how being evaluated, and we're raising our earnings. And over
the course of eighteen months we went from eighty cents a share to a dollar
sixty a share. Amazing turnaround. We have our annual meeting where we sit
down and talk about how we're doing against three forty eight. Larry Phillips starts
in and don't call me to the exact words. He says, guys,
gals, we've done an amazing job. The net value of the company has
doubled. Our earnings per share are now dollars sixty from eighty cents. Everyone
has done an amazing job. Now, he did this in the beginning to
anchor us to the company. He didn't want to lose any of his senior
managers and he figured offering us millions of dollars it would be great. They
came up with this plan. It was super smart to retain us. No
one's leaving with this. The chief financial Office IRV went to architect of the
plan is crafted. We're growing our owners. We're having our annual meeting.
We double the numbers, and he sits down, and as we get closer,
I'll never forget the results. Extraordinary. I'm counting the money. I'm
telling my wife we're buying a new house, and my wife has the quote
of the night mark Money's not money till it's in the bank. Mommy was
the brains of the family, not just the brains, by the way.
She was the moral compass. She, you know, really always set the
right path for all of us, kind of a subtle knack of keeping us
all grounded. The best in the family, definitely the better half great.
I'm just a worker. I get it. Anyway, back to the quote,
back to what's happening. We're getting extraordinary rich eighteen months. We got
another eighteen months to go, and Larry Phillips tells us what an amazing job
we did. We doubled our earnings, and then he goes, I have
to tell you it's impossible for us to ever earn three dollars and forty two
cents a share. I want to thank you for everything you're doing, but
we're canceling the bonus plant just like that. I couldn't believe it. So
after the meeting, I go I'll see our chief financial office of our publicly
traded company, of the company that declared this bonus plan to that in the
ten K to our shareholders, and I seek out the chief financial and I
said to Marav what happened? What went wrong? And then the quote you
really didn't believe that, Mark, did you? Yeah? I did?
With that as a quote, that is a backdrop. Don't call me on
this one. I'll be back in a minute. Always in fashion. As
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I, for one, love to shop. I love going around and seeing
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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
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they are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable,
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it was created. The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's one of
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I wish you. I'm very happy springing some and I help you by telling
you if you were eyes on, you're going to look great. Welcome back
to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber. Tonight, I've
been thinking about all the quotes, all the speeches I've heard, all the
quotes I've learned, the quotes I've made up, the ones that have had
the most impact on my life. And I've been thinking about telling stories.
I mean, I have so many things I could talk about. I think
we may have up doing two shows on this subject tonight. The show is
you can quote me. I'm here tonight with my number one son, number
one son, j web Is, my eldest, and my number two son,
my youngest, Jesse Weber. I shouldn't even answer. I shouln't even
have to say anything but fine, Hi, Hello, Well it's a nice
night. We're all together. We've been having a big week, a lot
of things going on. Jesse's been all over television. We've been in this
studio and here we are, the three of us recording on Always in Fashion.
By the way, I've gotten very active, don't ask me why.
On Instagram. Been posting a lot of pictures of the things we're doing,
the outfits were wearing, and the good, good hair days that you're having
is helping with why. I must tell you. I must tell you.
I find the pictures to be very interesting, Like this is us getting a
soda. It's time to post this. This is us walking a street.
It's like very random. And by the way, I'm excluded from like ninety
nine percent what is going on now? You were you were and featured the
other night when you were on TV. Yeah, yeah. Do you want
to mention that you had to crop Jesse's legs out of the pool shot because
we couldn't see those legs and when he's wearing shorts by the pool, you're
right, thank you for that. While you're at it, why didn't you
cut the band aid on your hand getting too esoteric. You guys want to
complain about your father, You gotta do better. Anyway, tonight, I'm
with my sons. It's getting a little unruly, but that's okay. Being
with your sons is always in fashion. I think the greatest thing in the
world, you know, when you think about it, a parent could achieve,
is when your children get older, they still want to hang with you.
And I am very grateful for that and very proud of it. I
must have done something right. But anyway, back to day to day work.
I'm talking about quotes tonight, and I've been fortunate that I work for
some really brilliant pillotople and I have an amazing series of stories I'd like to
tell. But first, Jared, I told you tonight we're going to talk
about quotesy is, you're an opportunity. Do you have any quote that you
have find inspirational that you've used in business sill life. I have a number,
but most importantly and most immediately tonight, some of the best quotes I
have are quotes that you've given me over the years that not only are inspirational
but practical from a business standpoint. You've always told me that you should make
sins of co mission rather than omission. So one of the most important lessons
you taught me in business is to be thorough. And there's a number of
ways to be thorough. But going back to the quote of co mission versus
OH mission, when you make a decision, you need to think through the
cause and effect of what that decision is going to be and ultimately what the
ramifications can be when you make that decision. If you do it with a
co mission standpoint, you're thorough. You think through all aspects of that.
An O mission, you don't think through it, and you hope for the
best. And as you also taught me, another quote that's important that is
also relevant is when you throw a pebble in the water, there's a ripple
effect. So every decision I make in business I think through. For example,
if we're expanding distribution on a brand, what will be the response to
the other retailers we do business with. How will the consumer look at it,
how will we look at it, how will our partners look at it?
How will the board of directors look at it? And again, that's
making a sin of co mission ran an O mission and just making a decision
for the purposes of making a decision, and that I would tell you is
one of my favorite quotes that you've given me, but more importantly, one
of the most relevant and important quotes that I've used to help expand and grow
in my career. That's great to hear. I'm glad you got it from
me. What a guy see. There's a reason he's number one. Yes,
that's number one son reporting on the number one quote off to you.
Number two. You got anything you want to say? Number two, I've
got Yes, I'm leaving my quote. No, I got two quotes.
I got a market where But I don't know if this is actually from you,
but you say it all the time. It's one of my favorite quotes
you have. And then I have another quote that I like as well,
not from you. So the one that I like from you is work is
work? If it's work, say that all the time. Got to try
to find something that you love to do. You always say, try to
always find something that you're best at, not your passion. But if you're
really lucky, you can find something that you're great at and you love to
do. It won't feel like work. One of my favorite quotes. Ever,
you know what I did the book Always in Fashion? I wanted to
call the book is this boring? Because every time I make a public address,
every time I make a speech, I'm looking out at the audience.
I get uncomfortable talking about myself, So I always ask this boring, and
I'm always expecting someone to yell out. And yes, I wanted to name
Always in Fashion is this boring? And the editors and mcgroihill refuse to let
me do it because they said the review is going to give you all the
Yeah, it is boring, So I had to do it. The second
working title I had was work is work if it's work as you said,
which basically means if you enjoy what you're doing, it's not work. It's
a great thing in life to enjoy what you're doing. But in the end
they liked Always in Fashion. They insisted what else you got, Jess though?
My next quote is from Milton Burle. This is a great quote.
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. Now. Why do I love
that one so much? For two reasons. One, when I was graduating
law school, look went I love my law school. Loved it. Now,
being honest, with you. It wasn't the top tier law school,
so a lot of people from my grade, including me, we had to
look outside the box. It might not have been the traditional way of going
to a big law firm. Some people went into entertainment, some people went
into real estate, some people built their own companies, some people started their
own firms. They had to think outside the box. If they weren't getting
selected, they had to think what are they going to do? And for
me in my career in broadcasting, I don't have a traditional broadcasting career.
I didn't go to journalism school, so I couldn't just pick the local news
or start that way. I had to build my own track. So hearing
that if the job is not there, you have to try to build your
own job. I love that quote. It's pretty good. Chard's looking at
me, he's got more. I have one more. So Mommy always told
me to be myself, and I believe Steve Jobs had a quote, your
time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. And I'll
tell you my high school yearbook quote. My goal was to emulate the character
of my mother, the wisdom of my father, and still managed to be
myself. And that's always lived true to me. You can only have one
life. Live it yourself, be who you are, be true to yourself,
and take inspiration for those that are important to you, and who more
important than my dad and my mom. So that's always rung very true to
me. That was a beautiful quote. I do want to end it just
if I can get one more. I think this is the one we need
right now. This is from Kamala Harris. It is time for us to
do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. I
think that says a lot. You're welcome to America twenty twenty four. Here
we come, all right, And if it's to save this sh show,
I have a great story to tell. I was working for PVH Venues and
Phillips van Usen. I was doing great and I had a friend of mine
who was the president of a button company. I give him a quad.
He's long gone, may rest in peace. His name was bud Winstrel,
who's the president company. Took a liking to me. Came to me one
day and say Capital Mercury, privately held shirt company. They don't own brands.
They make private label product that's brands with store labels on it. They
said, they're looking for a designer to come from the one of the brands.
They're prepared to pay enormously. I told them about you. They want
to meet you. I said, I I love it here. I said,
Mark, the kind of money we're talking about, you have to go
and listen. It turned out was triple out I was earning. I went,
I met with them. I ended up leaving venues and I left them
the right way. That was very clever. I told him, tell me
how much time you need a month, two months, three months, I'll
wait. Tell me what you need me to do. They asked me to
stay a month. I said, listen, I'm leaving, but I'm coming
back. They said, well, why are you leaving? I said,
I need to do this. I need to see that I could do what
I'm doing here somewhere else. I'll come back smarter, I'll come back wiser.
I'm coming back, I promise you. And I went to work for
this Capitol Mercury Sharp company. It was two owners. They were very genleminely
like, very very studious, very smart guys. They built a shirt company
manufacturing. I enjoyed working there, except for the fact that I missed my
home. My home was at van Usin, which ended up I spent thirty
three years there. So I missed it. And I remember as much and
as excited I was with the income I was earning, it just didn't feel
like where I wanted to be. Talked about it with my wife and she
again we said, she was always the rational. If you would be happier
at van Usen and they'll take you back, forget the money, go back.
So I called my former boss. I asked to meet him, and
we had dinner, he his wife and myself, and I said, look,
I want to come back. Said, you've only been gone for three
months. I said, and yet when I left, I told you I
would come back. Said I don't know if we can right now. I
said, you got to make it happen. I want to come back,
and he graciously figured out a way for me to come back, and I
decided to leave Capitol Mercury. I went in to see the following morning the
owner and founder, a fellow named Donald Cooper. As I said, a
real gentleman, I said, I wanted to talk to you. Said,
before you even say a word, I want you to know how much we
enjoy having you here. You've been doing great. What can I help you
with? I said, with that as a backdrop, mister Cooper, I
have to tell you I've enjoyed my time here. I respect the people I
work with, but I've been sad. I miss van use it. I
left them where before my time was due, and I've decided to go back.
He got up from his desk, walked around. Now me from Brooklyn.
I thought he's gonna punch me, but he got up. He walked
around from his desk. He put out his hand and he said, I
have to congratulate you. I'm so happy for you, Mark, You're a
great guy. You deserve this. And then he went back and sat behind
his desk and he looked at me and he said, now that we've discussed
this, what do we need to do to keep you here? What a
great quote. Right, That's fantastic, and that's a gentleman. I never
forgot it, and to this day, anytime anyone has ever resigned on me,
I remember that story with Donald Cooper, and I use it always.
I always am gracious to whoever is leaving. Back in my early days,
I worked with a fella named Robert J. Solomon, Bob Solomon. He
was amenta to me. I met him, Who's the number three guy at
PVH at the time. He was the head of all product development. He
was considered the genius merchandiser of the company. He was the one who developed
all the new concepts, the ideas. We had a new shirt brand.
He came up with it. He was amazing guy and I was lucky enough
that he was taking a liking to me early on. My boss he loved.
My boss was one of the chosen few who went on to become president
and CEO, and I was his right hand man. And this fellow Bob
knew it, liked me, understood I was doing well. And I have
a story to tell you. They used to have at the company what they
called a bull session. It was a funny name for it, but what
they did. They brought together all the designers, all the creative people,
all the salespeople and looked at new merchandise that was to be considered for the
next collection. And during the course of these meetings, everyone would give their
comments. The design people would show their ideas and the powers to be the
president, the CEO, and of course Bob Solomon, is the head of
merchandise, had the center seat. It was like the ancient coliseum thumbs up
and made it into the collection thumbs down. It wouldn't make We're going through
these this day, and towards the end of the day, I'll never forget.
Someone was presenting a new collection in sportswear and they went around the room
and then Bob Solomon, the guru of merchandise at the company, was asked
his opinion and he said, for a series of reasons, he didn't like
what he was looking at. And they got to me. Bob Solomon asked
me, so, Mark, I haven't heard from you. What do you
think? And I said, well, in this one, mister Solomon,
I don't think you're right. I disagree with you. I think this could
be a great thing. As a young person myself, I'd love that collar.
I would buy ten of them if I had the opportunity. He said,
thank you, and we went around and the meeting ended a little while
later. Solomon said, I want to thank you all. This was a
great meeting. I hope you all learned a lot, because I know I
did. This is going to be very helpful for opposition in the company in
the future. Everyone starts to get up to leave, and Bob Solomon says,
Mark, I'd like you to stick around. Everybody leaves there and says
sit down. He has me come and sit in front of his desk.
He said, Mark, I have a lesson for you, and I look
see yes, sorry, He says, I may not always be right,
but I'm never wrong. You could leave. Think about that one. I
may not always be right, but I'm never wrong. You want to talk
about politics and how to talk to your vosses. You might want to remember
that tonight. It's all about quotes. Back in a moment. 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 won on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You could wear a suit formally
to go out at night or to an event, 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.
Venuesing 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 sharp 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 Venues and made it's name with dress shirts. It's only
proper that the suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find van
Ues in cool Flex Men's stretch suits at jcpenny are 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 a career as one
of the finest, most successful, powerful women 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 Aaron collection, and Donna invented DKNY
Donna Aaron, 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 Decaan 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 DK and Y label. A vast array of
casual sportswear 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 and Y jeens, dk
Y 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
dk why is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be Because 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 DCN Why and Macy's DKY dot
com. Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host Mark Webber Tonight's
show is you can quote me. I spent a life in business. I've
spent a life in public speaking. I'm after all, I'm on the radio.
I'm a recluse by nature. I spend a lot of time alone.
It gives me time to think, time to observe. I'm always listening and
learning. That's one thing about life. You never stop learning. And if
you want to be successful, you better be curious. And early on in
my career I got interested in quotes and they inspired me. They taught me
so much in simple words, and I became enamored with them and I started
to think about some of them. This week put it together for you,
and I want to talk about certain quotes that left an impression on me.
And at the moment, I want to go into national As you know by
now if you're listening to the show. I had a senior position CEO of
elvim h Inc Louis Vuittan Mohe and Hennessy. I sat in the executive committee
in Paris. I was back and forth to France. That's the first time
I thought about I was always, as my kids would say, used to
call me batman. I was like a swashbuckley American executive that I represented American
companies. Now I'm working for a French company and I'm an American representing a
foreign entity, and that was always very different from me. I remember I
was working for PVH and I get called in one day and they told me
they hired someone to run off foreign offices. We had a huge foreign office
sourcing operation based in Hong Kong at the time, and they hired this guy
who I ended up loving. His name was Murray Weinberg. He was sixty
six years old. Today, if you can get a job at sixty six
at Shocking, the only place you get a job at sixty six if you
run for office in this country and then they make fun of you. But
they hired him as an elder gentleman, and I remember every day coming to
the office he was dressed in a suit and tie. And in those days,
the people traveling from the United States to Asia would always travel in t
shirts and cargo pants and just too casual for business. And they go to
factories. Sure the owner of the factory might be dressed casually, the short
sleeve shirt or who knows what. But I remember saying to him, Murray,
you're always so elegant. Why are you dressed like that? No one
else is? He said, because I represent a company. I am the
leader of this foreign office. I have to set an example, and I
think you should. Toomark, I said, what do you mean, I
should too? And he said the quote don't be a garmento. You ever
hear that expression, Jared in your business? Unfortunately more times than I want
to admit, I hate expression. I hate it. Also, I never
saw myself as a garmento. It's a derogatory comment. You want to talk
about quotes aimed at people in the garment business who wear the chains on their
neck, or the fancy Julie or a lot of gold, or talk with
an accent or all wise, guys, they're not professional business executives. And
I always considered myself, no matter how I handle, I remember, I
work for brilliant people. I work for people who could speak without notes for
an hour. I worked for people who thought about the big picture. I
work for a public company. And here I am traveling to Asia looking like
a commander, wearing khakis and khaki cargo shorts. And he said, don't
be a garmento. It also implies lack of sophistication exactly. So from that
day I started dressing formula and no matter how hot it was, I wore
a shirt, a tie, a sport coat, so very often jeans.
I also wore, you know, dress pants, polish shoes. I always
look the part. And I can tell you you know, this show has
a the quote of mine that I developed. It's prominent in my book.
Packaging yourself is as important it's the products you package. It might not matter
to you how you look, but it matters to others. We have to
create a vision of who we are. My next international foray. Now I'm
thinking about quotes. I went to Sweden a lot. We bought a company
that was called Gant. Kant was the precursor to Ralph Lauren Polo, and
it just so happened. The way we bought it was so powerful in Europe
and the rest of the world. Was based on three guys, three partners,
who built a business out of Sweden. They were a licensee for the
Gan brand and they did an amazing, amazing job. I remember getting into
arguments with all the time. I'll never forget one time the CEO of the
company yelling at me, and I quote, all you Americans think that the
World Series is a baseball game played in Yankee Stadium, when everyone else in
the world knows it's football played in every every country of the world, which
is soccer. Great quote. Great, how they thought of Americans. There's
another great quote I saw in Sweden. It was a tapestry behind the desk
of the CEO, Leonard Burk, and it said, building a brand without
advertising is I kissing a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing,
but no one else does. And before I leave advertising, my favorite
advertising quote in the world. Wow, there's a few break through the clutter.
David Altman break through the clutter, but my favorite one was a guy
named John Wannermaker who was one of the founders of one of the retail businesses
and I think Pennsylvania. He said, I know fifty percent of my advertising
works, I just don't know which fifty percent. I used to love that
quote. Now I have two extraordinary quotes on a personal basis for me but
in business that I have to share with you. The first I got publicly
fired. It's a long time ago, eighteen years ago, and I tell
you it's as if it happened yesterday. I'll never get over it. I'll
never forget it. I'll never forgive the people who fired me. But it
was their choice, I said earlier. Companies have a right to manage,
but getting fired killed me. And I remember how I was struggling to come
back. But I remember reading a quote from George Patten. It changed it
all around for me, and he said, it's not how far you fall,
it's how high you bounced back. And I never forgot about it.
In fact, in my book, I do a whole chapter on the subject
of making a comeback, and that quote meant a lot to me. The
other one personal that meant a great deal to me is when I joined LVMH
and I became CEO of LVMH Inc. And you know, as I said,
I had a million titles, but the most important one probably was with
the Donna Karen Company. Because they had bought the company for six hundred and
somewhadd million dollars. They weren't making any money, had three CEOs, never
made any money, didn't have a clue, didn't know what to do.
They hired me to fix it, and I was driven to fix it.
I said to myself. What am I going to tell all these people?
Why am I going to be smarter than the three CEOs? How am I
going to talk to them without sounding like a pompous you know what? I
walked in and met with the people, made a speech to everyone in the
New York offices, like two to four hundred people. I remember special location
in New York Times, and I spoke about the future of the company.
And I told him, well, one of my quotes, the brand is
bigger than the business. However, it's not the quote that I fashioned the
company offer. I looked at all of them and said, we're going to
have a motto here. It's one of my favorite quotes of all. You
all have done wonderful jobs. You all have reasons for what you've done.
You all have been successful. You just haven't reached the level that it needs
to be for a company like LVMH to treat us as a special child.
And we're going to be treated special. And the quote that I am going
to use comes from Ben Franklin, who said, well done is better than
well said. I said, I don't want to hear what you're going to
do. I don't want to hear how you're going to do it. I
don't want to hear what the future is. I want to see it.
The only thing that I'm going to measure any of us buy is what we
do. Well done is better than well said. Those two quotes probably had
more meaning to me than any other in my personal business experience. I'll take
a break tonight. You can quote me back in a minute. Always in
Fashion venues for over one hundred and fifty years now has been a mainstay in
American fashion. This brand that was invented for dress shirts was given to coal
miners when they exited the mills dirty and dusty. The Phillips Venues and Company
Phillips Family's there to give them fresh new shirts that they could wear at home
and feel their best. Over the course of time, venues and dress shirts
grew and grew and grew to suit shirts and ties for the dress up and
now sports, becoming a dominant part of the venues and collection. You can
find these products including sweaters, polos, quarter zips, trousers, and even
the best of fashion has to be preserved. I don't know if I ever
mentioned to you the advent of the men's necktie. There's nothing better in a
men's necktie business than the business lunch because guys we go out, they'd have
their lunch that have their salads or their beef and potatoes and snow stout about
it. They would always stain their die and therefore the business grew and grew
venues. And today doesn't want to make money on your hardships. They want
to do it and prevent you from having to go through that. And they
invented stain shield. It's the technology that was invented to protect your favorite items.
The stain Shield collection provides extreme defense against water based stains by causing spills
to beat up before they can be absorbed into the fabric. This collection,
by the way, in addition to regular fits, is also often in all
body sizes big and tall. You can find vanues and stain Shield and the
great venues in style sports were at vanues In dot com. That's Vanuesen 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
Parisianshit comes to America through Car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's
collections, ready to wear, accessory shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagofeld
also offers a range of watches, I wear and premium fragrances. You can
explore the car LAGOFL collection at car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than
that. I have, for one, love to shop. I love going
around and seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what would make me
feel good to wear now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but
I can appreciate it and they look amazing. If you want to look right,
you want to have clothes that fits you well. You want to look
like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's elusive 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 Carlagafel is my buddy. Cars 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 Orcarlagafel
dot com. Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Tonight. It's all about quotes. The title of shows. You can
quote me. I've given you and listed a number of quotes that I find
fascinating with some stories that go behind them. Those of you have fans of
the show have heard me use quotes throughout because it's part of my life,
it's part of my business, and it's part of everything I do. You've
heard me say that behind anyone vision, they're fifty well intentioned people undermining that
vision. That's a great way of saying, you know, when you're out
there, you have an idea of a lot of people want to help,
but you know they're negative. You got to have the confidence in yourself.
I've told you the time is the only commodity in nature that doesn't replenish itself.
Ben Franklin again, you may delay time, but time will not wait
for you. And one of my favorites in fashion. Fashion is not like
fine wine. It doesn't improve with age. You have to always be changing,
you have to always be next. And a contractual note. I have
two lawyers whose sons who know this one from me. Contracts are not a
menu sign a deal. Can't decide to obey those ideas that you like.
You have to take the whole contract. And it said in closing this out,
we all have to count our blessings. I've always said that the hardest
arithmetic the master is that which enables us to count our blessing. And with
that is a note. I'm signing off number one son, Jared Weber signing
off, and I guess number two. Yeah, no replacement son over here?
Ball boy number two? Well anyway, Yeah, filling out another quote
that I think is really important and say good night to this one. In
life, success is getting what you want. However, happiness is wanting what
you get. Good Night,