Speaker 1: This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber.
Speaker 2: The show is sponsored by G three Aparo.
Speaker 1: The views expressed in the following program are those of
Speaker 1: the sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor
Speaker 1: or iHeartMedia. Who is Mark Webber. He's a self made
Speaker 1: business executive here to help you find your success from
Speaker 1: the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Speaker 1: His global success story in the luxury world of fashion
Speaker 1: is inspirational. He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark
Speaker 1: is classic proof that the American dream is alive. And well,
Speaker 1: here's your host of always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Speaker 2: Mark Weber. It is Mother's Day weekend and thanks to
Speaker 2: my producer Peter Aolano, we decided to do a Mother's
Speaker 2: Day show. Now, I should start right from the bat.
Speaker 2: I was a mama's boy. I just knew it. My
Speaker 2: mother loved me. I could tell every time she looked
Speaker 2: in me, every time we talked. It was special. My
Speaker 2: mother loved me. She was firm, she was a friend.
Speaker 2: She was my mother and it meant a lot. She
Speaker 2: was a bookkeeper. My mother understood numbers, she understood discipline
Speaker 2: and make sure in her own way. Well, I don't
Speaker 2: recall her ever telling me what to do. I always
Speaker 2: knew what to do. There was no question what the
Speaker 2: right thing was. She was a mother. She was stucking
Speaker 2: out for me. School never a question. I had to
Speaker 2: be in school, I had to be on time, whatever
Speaker 2: it had to do, I was going to school. My
Speaker 2: mother made it clear, more so than my dad. My
Speaker 2: mother made it clear, I'm going to college. Whether I
Speaker 2: liked it or not, I didn't know. You know, I
Speaker 2: was a kid growing up in the city projects. I
Speaker 2: had no idea what to do with my life. But
Speaker 2: I know I was going to college. I also knew
Speaker 2: that alcohol was not a part of my life. Noah, drugs.
Speaker 2: It was made clear. The basics were what we were
Speaker 2: all about. My mother always said I could work, but
Speaker 2: she made it clear that the money you earned from
Speaker 2: working is for you, not for me. You need to work.
Speaker 2: And perhaps the best story I could tell about my
Speaker 2: mom and my dad, but pretty much my mother the bookkeeper,
Speaker 2: had to do with purchasing a car. I wanted my
Speaker 2: own car. I was young. Now I'm in college. I
Speaker 2: needed to get around. I wanted to meet girls. I
Speaker 2: wanted a cool car and I wanted to get a car.
Speaker 2: My parents made it clear that they needed their car
Speaker 2: and that they couldn't afford to buy me a car.
Speaker 2: So if I wanted to buy a car, they were
Speaker 2: willing to lend me money as long as I agreed
Speaker 2: to pay the money back and installments every week. And
Speaker 2: as luck would have it, I turned out and I
Speaker 2: bought a car. At that time. It was not a
Speaker 2: lot of money today, but it was enough that every week,
Speaker 2: for twenty four weeks, I had to give my parents
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars. My mom did a chart, a bookkeeping shot,
Speaker 2: and she put it in front of me, listed all
Speaker 2: twenty four months, and each month I made a payment
Speaker 2: that she deducted the one hundred dollars from that payment.
Speaker 2: And I learned the value of money, and I learned
Speaker 2: how important was to settle your debts. More importantly, it
Speaker 2: drove me crazy that I owed money. I didn't like
Speaker 2: the feeling of owing money. I didn't like the feeling
Speaker 2: that every week I had to go to work, if
Speaker 2: nothing else, to pay off a loan. To this day,
Speaker 2: all these years later, I am debt free. I believe
Speaker 2: in paying off everything, house cards, whatever it is, I
Speaker 2: do not have debt. I would mention credit cards because
Speaker 2: I think anybody who takes a loan on a credit
Speaker 2: card is insane. Somebody mentioned the interest is thirty six percent.
Speaker 2: You get a credit card, you pay it off every month.
Speaker 2: It is insane to have credit card debt. And I
Speaker 2: learned this from my parents. But as time went on,
Speaker 2: I have to admit, for some reason, even though I
Speaker 2: had great parents, even though I was a mama's boy
Speaker 2: and I always loved my Mohami should always talk to
Speaker 2: me and always make sure I was okay, I didn't
Speaker 2: have many questions. I seem to have figured out most
Speaker 2: things in my life on my own until I met Susie,
Speaker 2: the girl who became my wife. Mommy, Susie Jesse's mother, Jesse,
Speaker 2: my lawyer, my co host, and my son Jesse. It's
Speaker 2: Mother's Day Weekend. You were always a mama's boy. Actually,
Speaker 2: it was always very clear to me that you love
Speaker 2: mommy more than me. I love both of you equally, but.
Speaker 3: Mama's boy a thousand percent, one thousand percent, and I
Speaker 3: was Mommy's little baby.
Speaker 2: Look for me.
Speaker 3: This is a tough holiday. It's tough to be thinking
Speaker 3: about it. Mommy passed away a few years ago. Mommy
Speaker 3: was the best. She was absolutely everything to me. She
Speaker 3: was always always there for me and Jared talk to me,
Speaker 3: patient with me, caring, sweet, You know what the number
Speaker 3: one life lesson she always had for me when in
Speaker 3: terms of becoming a parent, she said, talk to your children.
Speaker 3: Always know that they can come to you to talk
Speaker 3: about whatever's bothering them. And I did about everything. And
Speaker 3: she always had this way of making me feel safe,
Speaker 3: feeling special. She had a way of literally turning my
Speaker 3: day upside down always.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you know this.
Speaker 3: She and I never ever, ever, ever once got into
Speaker 3: a fight ever ever. And I think about her every day.
Speaker 3: There's not a day that goes by when I don't think, Wow,
Speaker 3: what would have been like to have her here for
Speaker 3: this moment or for that, or what she would say
Speaker 3: about this or that I still need her advice. Just
Speaker 3: an incredibly special person And I like to think about
Speaker 3: her a lot, not just every day, but particularly on
Speaker 3: Mother's Day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember you and Jared coming to me after
Speaker 2: Mommy passed away, and we were talking about it and
Speaker 2: coming to grips with it, where both of you have
Speaker 2: told me daddy. You're a pretty good tough love guy,
Speaker 2: but you also now have to become the sweet one.
Speaker 2: You have to fill in for mommy. I wasn't quite
Speaker 2: sure how to do that.
Speaker 3: Well, with all due respect, I mean your incredible father
Speaker 3: that I don't think you ever figured that one out.
Speaker 3: And I don't blame you. It's a very it's tough,
Speaker 3: it's a tough role to fill, and you're always you're
Speaker 3: always there for us. But it's just it's different.
Speaker 2: It's just different. It's the truth. I don't know how
Speaker 2: else to say it. Well, the Weber boys were always
Speaker 2: Mamma's boys, and that's just the way it is. Because
Speaker 2: Mommy was so special. You talk about mothers so special.
Speaker 2: Mommy Susy was the architect of our family. I don't
Speaker 2: know how Look, we both got married. I was married
Speaker 2: by the time I was twenty four. She was younger
Speaker 2: than me, and you know, we're babies, really and you
Speaker 2: think about that today. I don't know people get married
Speaker 2: that young. But what did we know? I knew nothing. Me.
Speaker 2: I was like a guy that fell out of a tree.
Speaker 2: I knew as how to smile and how to convince
Speaker 2: Mommy to go out with me and date me and
Speaker 2: eventually married. But Mommy was the architect of our family.
Speaker 2: And it all became clear to me when we first
Speaker 2: got it going out, because she respected her parents in
Speaker 2: a way I had never seen before on anyone, let
Speaker 2: alone a girl you go out with. I mean, I
Speaker 2: could have said she loved to parents, and we all
Speaker 2: love our parents, or were supposed to. But she was different.
Speaker 2: When her parents talk, she was actually listening. And no,
Speaker 2: Mommy was beautiful, she carried herself with grace. But that
Speaker 2: respect she had for her parents is what changed my
Speaker 2: feelings towards her. It's something I never came to grips
Speaker 2: with and I never saw someone like that. And there
Speaker 2: was no hiding anything from her parents. She had no secrets.
Speaker 2: When her parents talked, she listened. My favorite story, well,
Speaker 2: the great stories of respect. I hadn't met her parents
Speaker 2: for the first month, and after a month we were
Speaker 2: Mommy and I were like words and music. We were
Speaker 2: really connected, and she said it's time to meet my parents.
Speaker 2: I said, really, She says, yeah, it's time to meet
Speaker 2: my parents. Do I have to? And she stopped and
Speaker 2: he looked at me, so are you serious? Of course
Speaker 2: you have to meet my parents. I'm going out with
Speaker 2: you either like me, you don't. You want to go
Speaker 2: out with me, you don't, but you have to meet
Speaker 2: my parents. I went to meet the parents, and it
Speaker 2: was funny because in those days I was known as
Speaker 2: the prints of the Projects. I look cool. I behaved
Speaker 2: like a cool guy, except I made my mistakes. I
Speaker 2: remember I had the most beautiful European brogue shoes, you know,
Speaker 2: the kind with the perforated fronts and laces. The only
Speaker 2: problem with and they were orange, so they looked great
Speaker 2: with tan pants and they look very special. White v
Speaker 2: Nex sweater, white well light blue shirt under the v
Speaker 2: Nex sweat. I show up for the parents house. I
Speaker 2: sit down and you know, talking to the father, and
Speaker 2: I put my cross my legs and put my foot up,
Speaker 2: and none be knownst to me. I had a hole
Speaker 2: in the bottom of my souls. I couldn't afford to
Speaker 2: replace them, or I didn't think I needed to, so
Speaker 2: I was kept a piece of cardboard there so that
Speaker 2: I wouldn't bet step on the floor and get nail
Speaker 2: on my foot. That would help. But I put my
Speaker 2: foot up and the cardboard had moved, and my father
Speaker 2: in law was looking at the bottom of my foot
Speaker 2: through my shoes, and I found out that about later.
Speaker 2: The point being we went out, I met the parents,
Speaker 2: so I was very polite. They seemed to like me.
Speaker 2: And when Mommy and I, Susie and I are getting
Speaker 2: to the front door, they walk us out of our
Speaker 2: house and the father says to me, Joe, he says,
Speaker 2: Mark brings Susie back by eleven o'clock. I looked at sure,
Speaker 2: and I'm laughing to myself. Eleven o'clock with this guy nuts.
Speaker 2: So I'm opening the door. We walk out and I,
Speaker 2: you know, next to Susie and I lean over and
Speaker 2: it's say, eleven o'clock. What are your father kidding? When
Speaker 2: I come back at eleven o'clock, so I was walking
Speaker 2: down the road, you know. I walked down the stairs
Speaker 2: of the house to the car and I looked to
Speaker 2: opened the door for Sissy and she's not there. I
Speaker 2: didn't know what happened. Where is she? I turned around
Speaker 2: and she's still by the door in the front of
Speaker 2: her house. I said, what's going on? So I had
Speaker 2: to walk back to the front of the house. She's
Speaker 2: standing on the doorway and she said to me, if
Speaker 2: my father says, I'm coming back at eleven o'clock. You're
Speaker 2: bringing me back at eleven o'clock. And it was then
Speaker 2: and there that I realized she was special, a woman
Speaker 2: who respect her family, would respect anything, and she was
Speaker 2: the architect of everything we did. She brought our family together.
Speaker 2: She knew what to do. I didn't when we would
Speaker 2: have kids. Her decision, how many kids we would have,
Speaker 2: her decision, how would we behave, how we behave as
Speaker 2: a family, her decisions. She clearly taught me what mattered
Speaker 2: in life, what we should care about, how to be
Speaker 2: a father. I'll never forget. I was a successful guy
Speaker 2: young and you guys, Jesse, you and your brother were
Speaker 2: playing sports, basketball, baseball, sokka, karate, and you know. I
Speaker 2: was working, but I had all the reasons in the
Speaker 2: world not to be around. I got home one night
Speaker 2: for dinner, Susy says to me, I need to talk
Speaker 2: to you. I said, okay, is it serious? She says,
Speaker 2: I think so. I said what She said, are you
Speaker 2: having success? I said, yeah, we're doing great. She said,
Speaker 2: what good is success if you're not with your children
Speaker 2: when they need you? And I was quiet. She said,
Speaker 2: I expect you to be at all their games. I
Speaker 2: expect you to be there. Otherwise, what a success money,
Speaker 2: You'll have to be with your children. So she taught
Speaker 2: me right away. That changed my life. Now, I won't
Speaker 2: say it was every game during the week, but I tried.
Speaker 2: I didn't miss much the weekends. I was always there
Speaker 2: and during the week. She was right, what's the sense
Speaker 2: of being a big shot if you're not with your family.
Speaker 2: By the way, that's a great point.
Speaker 3: I always talked sense in you always talk sense into you.
Speaker 2: We were a tight unit. Anybody who knows Weber, whether
Speaker 2: it's you, me, Jared, whoever, the family, the girls, they
Speaker 2: know we're a tight unit. We roll together, we're a family.
Speaker 2: We're a tight unit. We have few friends, and the
Speaker 2: people that are friends are very special people. Otherwise we
Speaker 2: don't want them. They wouldn't want us. We're about doing
Speaker 2: the right thing and being close. And that was always Mommy,
Speaker 2: and I got news for you. It wasn't always about being
Speaker 2: a father of how the family should behave. Susie was very,
Speaker 2: very elegant, composed, confident. Her parents taught her how to
Speaker 2: behave and how to feel good about yourself, and that's
Speaker 2: self confidence came always I always think of the song
Speaker 2: that saved the last day for me? Have I talked
Speaker 2: to you about this Dresley now by the Drifters? Soho
Speaker 2: You can dance and go and carry on till the
Speaker 2: night is young. You can have your fun, but don't
Speaker 2: forget who's taking you home and who in your heart
Speaker 2: is gonna be Oh darling, save the last dance for me.
Speaker 2: That song. Every time I think of Mommy, I think
Speaker 2: of that song when it comes to business, because any
Speaker 2: function we ever went to, she was my wife. She
Speaker 2: was the better half. She was smart, she was elegant,
Speaker 2: She grew up around a family that was in her
Speaker 2: own businesses. She had the sense about everything. And I
Speaker 2: would show up an event, the two of us would
Speaker 2: say hello to a few people. We would part our ways.
Speaker 2: She would work the room, I would work the room.
Speaker 2: We go our separate ways, but we knew that we'd
Speaker 2: be coming back together for the last dance. And it
Speaker 2: was such a powerful partner to have in business, who
Speaker 2: would look the part, act a part, be charming, and
Speaker 2: be able to do whatever she needed to do for
Speaker 2: our careers. Together at any event we ever went to,
Speaker 2: Mommy was extraordinary and perhaps the best story that I
Speaker 2: can tell how to do at my worst moment of
Speaker 2: my career. She and I began together at PVH. She
Speaker 2: was my wife. I started working. She was my partner.
Speaker 2: She was able to dvise me. She was always level headed.
Speaker 2: My wife never went up and down. She was level headed.
Speaker 2: You've heard me talk of time to time that the
Speaker 2: way to behave in business is like an eagle through
Speaker 2: a snowstorm. Whatever happens, no matter how high the winds are,
Speaker 2: no matter what the challenge is, just fly level, don't
Speaker 2: let it affect you. Make the right decisions based on
Speaker 2: common sense and logic. That's who she was. And the
Speaker 2: worst moment in my life was getting fired. I got
Speaker 2: fired for van Usen, and not just as a clerk,
Speaker 2: but as CEO. It was a public firing. It was
Speaker 2: going to be one of the most embarrassing situations in
Speaker 2: my life. Let alone ruined my life. I had worked
Speaker 2: my entire career there as a clerk, I became the president,
Speaker 2: I became a board member and CEO, and I got
Speaker 2: fired because basically the board didn't want me. It wasn't
Speaker 2: associated with not performing because the day I got let go, oh,
Speaker 2: they took up the earnings estimate on Wall Street. A
Speaker 2: week later, when the SEC did a filing on my firing,
Speaker 2: they said it clearly, I'll get the terms of my
Speaker 2: contract and then some because there was no wrongdoing. It
Speaker 2: just wasn't the guy they wanted. Now. Did I hate
Speaker 2: them for it? Absolutely? Was I angry for it? Yes?
Speaker 2: Was I bitter for it? Yes? Was I said, Yes,
Speaker 2: all of those things is part of the effort when
Speaker 2: you get fired. But the truth was, I knew the
Speaker 2: board has a sacred duty to manage the CEO and
Speaker 2: the company they are in acting and the interests of
Speaker 2: the shareholders. And if they made a decision that they
Speaker 2: didn't want me there, it's their decision to make and
Speaker 2: I had to respect it. And yes, I was unhappy,
Speaker 2: but I had to respect it. But what frightened me
Speaker 2: more than anything else was having to tell Susie the
Speaker 2: idea of me sitting down with my wife, who all
Speaker 2: of these years we've been together, who she's looked up
Speaker 2: to me as a business guy who had achieved incredible
Speaker 2: heights from where I began. She saw me from the
Speaker 2: beginning walking around like John Travolta and not knowing anything
Speaker 2: about the complexities of business, or how to behave, or
Speaker 2: how to dress or how to speak for that matter,
Speaker 2: all those things we're talking about. Packaging yourself is as
Speaker 2: important as the products you package. I was a good
Speaker 2: looking guy who knew how to smile. That's all I had.
Speaker 2: Mommy and I together built this career. Now I have
Speaker 2: to tell her I was fired. So I call her
Speaker 2: up during the day and I said, I don't want
Speaker 2: to meet you said, what do you mean, It's just
Speaker 2: I kind of meet you. I want to talk to you.
Speaker 2: What's wrong, moke, I said, let's just meet It's nothing.
Speaker 2: So I meet her in a restaur and I sit
Speaker 2: down with her, and you know, I was obviously shaken.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to tell her this, and I was
Speaker 2: very depressed. And I said, Sue, I have some very
Speaker 2: bad news to tell you. And she looked at me
Speaker 2: and now her face changed. She was nervous, she was worried.
Speaker 2: And I'm sitting across the table from her, and I said, Cusia,
Speaker 2: I have terrible news. And she's waiting and I said, look,
Speaker 2: I got fired. I would tell you in a manner
Speaker 2: of seconds. She reached across the table. My demune wife,
Speaker 2: Susie in a manner of seconds punches me in the arm.
Speaker 2: I can still remember how much it hurts. I can
Speaker 2: still remember the black and blue mark, and I remember
Speaker 2: more importantly what she said. She said, I thought it
Speaker 2: was something important. You scared me. This was a woman
Speaker 2: who knew right from raw, who understood what was important
Speaker 2: in life, and on Mother's Day, can't help but think
Speaker 2: about Susie back in a moment always in fashion. As
Speaker 2: one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld
Speaker 2: was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style.
Speaker 2: His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to America through
Speaker 2: car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections, ready
Speaker 2: to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagofeld
Speaker 2: also offers a range of watches I wear in premium fragrances.
Speaker 2: You can explore the Carlagofhol collection at carlagofilpowers dot com.
Speaker 2: But it's more than that. I, for one, love to shop.
Speaker 2: I love going around and seeing what's happening and what
Speaker 2: catches my attention, what would make me feel good to
Speaker 2: wear now? I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but
Speaker 2: I can appreciate it and they look amazing. If you
Speaker 2: want to look right, you want to have clothes that
Speaker 2: fits you well. You want to look like you're wearing
Speaker 2: something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours.
Speaker 2: You can find it at very affordable prices at Macy's
Speaker 2: Orcarlagofel dot com Paris. The women's ready to wear fashion
Speaker 2: is extraordinary, as well as the handbags and the shoes. I,
Speaker 2: for one, wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes.
Speaker 2: I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I
Speaker 2: want to look the way I want to feel. I
Speaker 2: go out at night, I'm in black and Carlagofel is
Speaker 2: my buddy. Calls are great. They fit and they have
Speaker 2: little tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the
Speaker 2: sleeve or button at the neck or on the shoulder.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of details that go into Carl Lagafel
Speaker 2: because he's always been, he always had been, one of
Speaker 2: the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on
Speaker 2: and on. I can't speak enough about it except to
Speaker 2: say to you, you want to feel good about yourself,
Speaker 2: you want to know that you're dressing properly. You want
Speaker 2: to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris, Carl
Speaker 2: Lagafeldparis dot com. I love Polar fleece. It's lightweight, takes
Speaker 2: colors beautifully, It's comfortable, keeps you warm and even if
Speaker 2: it's warm out, it doesn't hamper you. It doesn't make
Speaker 2: you perspire. I love Polar fleece. I also love sweatshirts
Speaker 2: and sweatpants, love them, love them, love them. I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of khaki pants and a big fan of
Speaker 2: a golf clothes, and I'm a big fan of Iszide.
Speaker 2: I used to be the head of Iszide. In fact,
Speaker 2: my company bought it at of bankruptcy and the CEO
Speaker 2: of the company asked me to come in and fix it.
Speaker 2: And he said to me, Mark, the future of the
Speaker 2: company's in your hands. Can you do this? And I said,
Speaker 2: I will do it. I put everything, my heart and
Speaker 2: soul into making Isesid the powerhouse that it is today. Now.
Speaker 2: I left a long time ago, and the company just
Speaker 2: continues to thrive. Isaot is one of the great sweater makers,
Speaker 2: pant make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polar shirt makers,
Speaker 2: They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,
Speaker 2: you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
Speaker 2: easy for you. If you're going to be casual, go
Speaker 2: in and look at ist. Now that doesn't say that
Speaker 2: they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits,
Speaker 2: you go find them. Isaot is a collective brand that
Speaker 2: offers lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true,
Speaker 2: it's a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun
Speaker 2: prices everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of
Speaker 2: all the brands that I'm involved with, and you can
Speaker 2: name them, think about PVH and LVMH and all the brands,
Speaker 2: Isaot is the one that's most personal to me because
Speaker 2: I was involved in crafting the future of this brand.
Speaker 2: The clothes are great, fall is great. They're doing well.
Speaker 2: Isa dot com, isaacat jcpenny. Go look for it. I
Speaker 2: think you're going to be very happy. And ladies, those
Speaker 2: of you the shopping for the guys in your lives,
Speaker 2: take a look. I think they'll be very happy with
Speaker 2: your choices. Isaac for men, welcome back to it. Always
Speaker 2: in fashion.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Mark Webber.
Speaker 2: It's mother's Day Weekend tribute to women all over the world,
Speaker 2: particularly moms. Congratulations we are well. We wouldn't be here
Speaker 2: without you. You're the best. I'll tell you what talking
Speaker 2: the best. I have spent a career in luxury fashion
Speaker 2: and retail, and I have to tell you the women
Speaker 2: in this business are amazing in many respects. There's so
Speaker 2: much more attuned to this industry than men are. Sorry,
Speaker 2: guys myself included. I was always in awe of the
Speaker 2: women I work with in business. In fact, when I
Speaker 2: started coming up, when I first started working, I worked
Speaker 2: for a guy. It was brilliant assistant designer. He kept
Speaker 2: moving up and before I moved up, I was working
Speaker 2: in the children's division, the boy's division, and I was
Speaker 2: given a new boss one day, a woman. Her name
Speaker 2: was Darlene Johnston. She was trained at rob Roy, which
Speaker 2: was one of the big children's companies in the world
Speaker 2: at the time, but more importantly in Ralph Lauren, and
Speaker 2: she knew knitwear like no one you ever saw. She
Speaker 2: knew everything about the weights of the fabric, the yarn sizes,
Speaker 2: how to manage all the machinery, how to design it,
Speaker 2: cut it, style it. And I learned from her, and
Speaker 2: I have to tell you I got a brilliant education
Speaker 2: from her, and that's how I started actually to be
Speaker 2: perfectly frank in my company venues. And at the time,
Speaker 2: I believe I was the first guy who ever worked
Speaker 2: for a woman in that company. And from there on
Speaker 2: everything changed. The women accelerated during my course at van
Speaker 2: Us and I work with two young ladies who both
Speaker 2: of them I would say are probably five feet tall stature,
Speaker 2: but in capability where they were incredible, Helen Katz and
Speaker 2: Island Combatis. One was dresshirts Eileen, and the other was
Speaker 2: sports for Helen. And those two young ladies who I
Speaker 2: work with over the course of time, helped make PVH
Speaker 2: brilliant and I was incredibly lucky and aware of what
Speaker 2: they were able to do. As time went on, I
Speaker 2: met a woman named Kathy Bremberg who was an operations genius.
Speaker 2: I met another operation's genius, all women, financial people, Pam Koton,
Speaker 2: the treasurer of the company. All women. But perhaps the
Speaker 2: most important story of all of them was before I
Speaker 2: became a board member, I was head of marketing for
Speaker 2: the company, head of merchandise, had a bunch of big titles.
Speaker 2: I become president of the company. I become a member
Speaker 2: of the board, and I remember that I always struggled
Speaker 2: with what a van Usen was, and I started getting
Speaker 2: confused because van Usen we made women's wear. At this time,
Speaker 2: we had a big women's were business in our outlet stores.
Speaker 2: We made men's pants, men's sports where a lot of
Speaker 2: different items, even men's baiting sits. We had licensees and
Speaker 2: made belts and small leather goods, pajamas, underwear. We had
Speaker 2: everything in van Using. And here I am responsible for
Speaker 2: creating the marketing for the company and the advertising, and
Speaker 2: I was always struggling, should I make pictures that have
Speaker 2: all these products in it? We had eyewear. Should I
Speaker 2: do spend money on eyewear? What is van Using? You
Speaker 2: could call it a lifestyle brand, but everybody calls themselves
Speaker 2: a lifestyle brand. I was struggling how to make venues
Speaker 2: in distinctive Now. Over the course of time, there was
Speaker 2: a lot of shirt advertising. Seymour Philips, the son of
Speaker 2: the founder back in the day, created advertising in baseball
Speaker 2: parks around the country and made venues and what it
Speaker 2: was a big national brand. There was a woman in
Speaker 2: our company. Her name was a Stelle Ellis. I've talked
Speaker 2: about her often, maybe even recently, and she was on
Speaker 2: the board. She was the marketing spokesman on the board.
Speaker 2: She was one of those women who grew up in
Speaker 2: New York City. By the time I met her, she
Speaker 2: was in her early eighties, sharpest attack, and had a
Speaker 2: point of view, and she gravitated towards me because I
Speaker 2: was younger. I had a point of view. I wasn't
Speaker 2: afraid to give it. I had a creative bent. She
Speaker 2: was creative. So we always talked before and after the
Speaker 2: board meetings. And one day I walked into the meeting
Speaker 2: and we were there alone. I said, I need your help.
Speaker 2: So what do you need more? I said, I'm struggling.
Speaker 2: I'm about to do a major campaign on van Usen.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of money that we want to
Speaker 2: spend on the brand, and I'm not sure what does
Speaker 2: the van use it. And I'll never forget I've I've
Speaker 2: told the story. She put her head down for a minute,
Speaker 2: looked back up at me and smiled and she said,
Speaker 2: mark van Usen the shirts for men. I looked at
Speaker 2: her and I said, that's so simple and brilliant, but
Speaker 2: does it cover everything? Says it doesn't have it. Shirts
Speaker 2: for Men is what we are, how people know us.
Speaker 2: We're the best in the industry, one of the most
Speaker 2: recognized brands in the world, and you have a right
Speaker 2: to have all those other brands and all those other
Speaker 2: products around. Don't worry about it. And I went on
Speaker 2: a tear creating all kinds of advertising of shirts and faces,
Speaker 2: and it was one of the most proudest moments the
Speaker 2: company ever had. The advertising we created was brilliant, so
Speaker 2: Shirts for Men and I really really always enjoyed working
Speaker 2: with her. As I moved to LVMH, and I spent
Speaker 2: most of my time focusing on Donna, Karen and the company.
Speaker 2: While they gave me all the titles chairman and CEO
Speaker 2: of elvmanche Well, I was just member of the executive
Speaker 2: committee in Paris. While I oversaw the Thomas Pink Shirt Company.
Speaker 2: My responsibility was take the Donna Aaron company that only
Speaker 2: I Madge spent six hundred and fifty million dollars six
Speaker 2: forty five to be exact, that they never made money
Speaker 2: on it and turned into a profitable entity. And I
Speaker 2: focused on that. And I get to LVMH and I
Speaker 2: meet Donna who's a whirling dervish, brilliant, you know, million
Speaker 2: miles an hour, and I can come back to her
Speaker 2: in a moment. But I met my first dkmy meeting
Speaker 2: in because it was my first day, they arranged a
Speaker 2: meeting in the boardroom with my new group of executives,
Speaker 2: all of my direct reports, including Judy Lougo, my assistant,
Speaker 2: Kathy Volker, Jennifer Morris, the heads of licensing, Jackie Bowser,
Speaker 2: the head of marketing, Patty Cohen, the head of PRN Marketing,
Speaker 2: and of course Donna Karen. There was also Tricia Calber,
Speaker 2: the head of Finance and chief operating officer, as well
Speaker 2: as Mary Wong, the head of decayn Y Sportswear, Carol Kerner,
Speaker 2: the head of Donna Karen Collection. And I'm sitting in
Speaker 2: the boardroom and I said, hi, boys and girls, and
Speaker 2: I look around and said, oh, I'm the only board
Speaker 2: The whole place was all women, and their direct reports
Speaker 2: was all women. So I was in with the Amazons.
Speaker 2: I was with the most powerful women in the world,
Speaker 2: all these capable people, every one of them was a woman.
Speaker 2: And in speaking with them and having this first meeting,
Speaker 2: I realized how lucky I was, and it was something
Speaker 2: that made very clear to me how important women were
Speaker 2: in our industry. Any question I had with finance, Tricia
Speaker 2: had the answer. Anything I needed to know about how
Speaker 2: Bloomingdale's thought, Mary would have the answer. Anything I needed
Speaker 2: to know about women's collection, Carol had the answer. And
Speaker 2: I worked with women my entire career and it was
Speaker 2: really extraordinary experience. Now, I've always had a philosophy that
Speaker 2: I want to work with people that I struggled to
Speaker 2: be value added. Think about what that means. That means
Speaker 2: that the smarter they were, the more capable they were,
Speaker 2: the better I would like it, and I would find
Speaker 2: a way to fit in and be productive. And it
Speaker 2: was tough with this group because they knew a lot
Speaker 2: about a lot of things, and I wanted to make
Speaker 2: an impression, and I did. My contribution to the group
Speaker 2: came down to I understood corporate life, and I understood
Speaker 2: what ELV Maje was accounting for and what they needed.
Speaker 2: While this was one of the great brands in the world,
Speaker 2: they weren't getting a return. And the reason they weren't
Speaker 2: getting a turn is for whatever reason, the former CEOs,
Speaker 2: who were all very capable, one was a lawyer. One
Speaker 2: was from Sacks if they have anyone was from Georgia Romani.
Speaker 2: They never ran an American or apparel company, an accessory
Speaker 2: company and licensing company that had a collection component. They
Speaker 2: were all familiar with the collection, the very expensive thing,
Speaker 2: but they didn't understand the mass peal of the dkm
Speaker 2: Y Brandon how to make it profitable. And of course
Speaker 2: I knew that, and in order to get these things
Speaker 2: in place, I had to put in disciplines that would
Speaker 2: make it profitable and expense I remember the first day
Speaker 2: in meeting with them, when I started to ask what
Speaker 2: I thought were difficult questions, not intentionally, but they were
Speaker 2: questions that needed to be answered. Every answer I'd get
Speaker 2: from one of those people would be can I be
Speaker 2: honest with you? I said, no, what I always do,
Speaker 2: No lie to me, and they would look at me
Speaker 2: like and laugh, And I said, the most important thing,
Speaker 2: I'm asking questions. You shouldn't be afraid to answer them
Speaker 2: the way you feel. I want your opinions. You're being
Speaker 2: paid for your pinons. I don't have to agree, but
Speaker 2: we need to get on board. And it was really
Speaker 2: bad for the first week till finally I said to
Speaker 2: my assistant Judy, empty out the jelly bean jar. I
Speaker 2: had a big I guess it was a trophy. Someone
Speaker 2: went it was filled with jelly beans. Anybody came into
Speaker 2: my office conference room could have the jelly beans. And
Speaker 2: I emptied it out. And I said to the team
Speaker 2: we had a meeting. I said, from here on in,
Speaker 2: anybody who says to me, can I be honest with you,
Speaker 2: He's going to have to put a dollar in that bowl.
Speaker 2: I mean the dollar bowl filled up in like minutes.
Speaker 2: But we eliminated that habit, and we all agreed that
Speaker 2: in ordered us to be productive, we had to be
Speaker 2: honest with each other. Of course we did number one.
Speaker 2: Number two we had to focus on money. We had
Speaker 2: to get the shareholders healthy image money. They had to
Speaker 2: make money. This is something was foreign to these people.
Speaker 2: Not that they were bad, because in Donna's world, the
Speaker 2: most important thing is build a brand and the money
Speaker 2: will flow. That's true. The more powerful you make the brand,
Speaker 2: the higher prices you could sell, the more goods you'll
Speaker 2: sell at regular price. It should work, but it didn't.
Speaker 2: You had to be focused on the margins. You had
Speaker 2: to be focused on all those financial things. And I
Speaker 2: was adamant, and I refused to give in an inn
Speaker 2: an inch, and we changed the profile of the company
Speaker 2: who made a ton of money. And part of it
Speaker 2: doing was I made everyone vested in the company. I
Speaker 2: set up financial plans that if we hit everyone would
Speaker 2: not only get their bonuses, but special bonuses. I had
Speaker 2: career veteran Patty Khaneh's been thirty years with Donna. I'll
Speaker 2: never forget. After the first l TIP long term incentive
Speaker 2: plan came out and she received her check, she came
Speaker 2: into my office with tears in her eyes and she said,
Speaker 2: first of all, when you said that we were going
Speaker 2: to do this, I never believed it. Number one. Number two,
Speaker 2: even if it was real, I never would believe we
Speaker 2: would collect what you promised. And number three, this is
Speaker 2: the most money myself or my associates I've ever made
Speaker 2: working here. We've always worked hard, but we've never participated
Speaker 2: in the profit sharing. And I can't tell you how
Speaker 2: much I respect you and how much we all appreciate
Speaker 2: what you did. It was one of the great moments
Speaker 2: of my life because I delivered on what we promised.
Speaker 2: You focus on financials. If we make the return for
Speaker 2: lvmheal all benefit, and we did year after year after
Speaker 2: the year. One of my favorite stories had to do
Speaker 2: with intimate apparel, ladies underwear, men's under it, but particularly
Speaker 2: ladies underwear. When I was at Calvin Klein, we had
Speaker 2: the most profitable women's underwear business in the world. It
Speaker 2: was huge, It was amazing and DK and why Donna
Speaker 2: Karen To this day, I'm sure Donna Karen's hosiery, you know,
Speaker 2: stockings and leggings and stuff, is one of their biggest business.
Speaker 2: It's an annuity every year to just keep making it
Speaker 2: and filling in it and make a ton of money.
Speaker 2: I get to the company, I said, I want to
Speaker 2: meet the underwear people. Why because I went to Macy's
Speaker 2: and the Donna shop was in shadow, because Calvin Klein's
Speaker 2: shop was so big and so powerful that the lights
Speaker 2: from their shop were blocking out our shop because we
Speaker 2: were so small. And I went to meet the licensee
Speaker 2: with Kathy in with Jennifer Morris and Kathy Volga, and
Speaker 2: I said to them, listen, I came from the biggest
Speaker 2: underwear company in the world. We have to invest in this.
Speaker 2: This is so much money. Even though Donna Karon is
Speaker 2: doing great. Deca't want should be big. It's not digging up.
Speaker 2: I went to the licensee. I said to the licensee, listen.
Speaker 2: I had an idea. I said, you know, we're not
Speaker 2: spending enough money. I'm building shops. I want you to
Speaker 2: take our business in Macy's and rebuild the shop. He said,
Speaker 2: I don't have money for that. I say, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you what we should do. Whether it's one year or
Speaker 2: two year. Let's take a hiatus on advertising underwear. I said,
Speaker 2: we're not spending enough to mean anything. They said, we
Speaker 2: can't do that. We have to have it. I said,
Speaker 2: listen to me. You're spending a million dollars when we
Speaker 2: do a photo shoot for this category and this kind
Speaker 2: of models. You're spending quarter of a million dollars just
Speaker 2: on that, adding another one hundred thousand of the photographer.
Speaker 2: Then take with the money that's left after paying royalties
Speaker 2: and guarantees to the models or whatever, you got maybe
Speaker 2: half a million dollars. At the time, an advertising page
Speaker 2: was fifty thousand dollars. So if the course of the
Speaker 2: year we would have ten pages over the cost of
Speaker 2: the year, that's one magazine a month. Even less. If
Speaker 2: you put two pages in Vogue. You're only going to
Speaker 2: have five insertions the whole year. I said, you're not
Speaker 2: spending enough money to be meaningful. So what I want
Speaker 2: you to do is authorize us to take that money
Speaker 2: and let's build shops with it. The guy said no.
Speaker 2: So I walked out and I said to Kathy and Jennifer,
Speaker 2: I can't do business here anymore. I don't want them
Speaker 2: in our licensees. They said, but you know, I said, listen, guys,
Speaker 2: we worked well as a team. There are certain things
Speaker 2: that are important to you. There are certain things that
Speaker 2: important to me. We could do better. Find us a
Speaker 2: licensee who needs this. Our licensee was with Jacoll, great
Speaker 2: underwear maker. They were amazing, but they just weren't what
Speaker 2: we needed to do. We were tiny. Cavin was big.
Speaker 2: So they found maiden Form and we signed a twenty
Speaker 2: five year deal with maiden Form with the CEO public
Speaker 2: company to do Donna Carna dk Y and they were
Speaker 2: desperate for it, and in order for us to give
Speaker 2: them twenty five years, we did a deal that was
Speaker 2: ten times richer than we had with more coal, and
Speaker 2: included in that was building shops and doing everything to
Speaker 2: build the brand and for maiden Form. We were the
Speaker 2: star on the top of the Christmas tree and we
Speaker 2: built a strong business. But all the women that we
Speaker 2: work with, all the people there, I struggled to find
Speaker 2: a way to be valuated and I did. And the
Speaker 2: reason I struggled because they were great and I had
Speaker 2: a tremendous respect and I still do for women in retail.
Speaker 2: I worked with women in retail that were courageous. Here's
Speaker 2: a simple thing that most people don't know. If you're
Speaker 2: a manufacturer, you put a line together, you put your
Speaker 2: ideas down to whether it shoes, handbase, whatever, you make samples,
Speaker 2: and you go out and sell it. If you sell
Speaker 2: a lot, you make a lot. If you don't sell
Speaker 2: a lot, you don't make a lot. You're not making
Speaker 2: a decision. You're going to retailers who have to stand
Speaker 2: up and buy it. They're the most courageous people in
Speaker 2: the world. If you're at Bloomingdale's and you come with
Speaker 2: Donna Karen shoes, they're the ones who step out and say,
Speaker 2: I want a thousand pair for all my stores. They
Speaker 2: make the commitment. They're the ones religiously aggressive. Most of
Speaker 2: the buyers and people I met along the way and
Speaker 2: the women's dis industry put together were women and it
Speaker 2: was amazing to work with women. And not only that,
Speaker 2: when you stop and think about it, give me a break.
Speaker 2: You know. Men work, they go home, have their dinner
Speaker 2: and go to sleep. Women work, They have families, They
Speaker 2: go home, they have children, they have to feed, they
Speaker 2: have hundreds they have to take care of. They are
Speaker 2: working more hours than we could ever work. Now, I
Speaker 2: don't want to make light of men, and you know
Speaker 2: I'm one of them. I committed myself to hard work
Speaker 2: and effort and think about the business all the time.
Speaker 2: But if you think about a women's life, it doesn't
Speaker 2: end six o'clock. She has families to manage and all
Speaker 2: these things. So I always had a great respect for
Speaker 2: women in business. Well, i'm on the subject of women
Speaker 2: in business. Let's go back to LVMH. I'm meeting with
Speaker 2: LVMH Corporate in Paris and part of the yearly efforts
Speaker 2: of LVMH. This is a company that cares very deeply
Speaker 2: about their people, recognizes that there are people, they are associates.
Speaker 2: Their workforce is what makes them special, and every year
Speaker 2: they want to make sure first things first, a tenant
Speaker 2: in business then I learned in my PVH days is
Speaker 2: when you have someone working for you that's really good,
Speaker 2: you need to promote them, obviously, but sometimes you have
Speaker 2: them in jobs that are really important and there are
Speaker 2: other opportunities that open up, but you don't want to
Speaker 2: give those people up because they're too important to your
Speaker 2: You're a part of the organization that might be in sales,
Speaker 2: and now you have a job in merchant, you don't
Speaker 2: want to give them up. Well, in that day, our
Speaker 2: CEO came up with a policy at one point, and
Speaker 2: I stay with me when I became CEO that any
Speaker 2: job that opens up in the company, I don't care
Speaker 2: how important you are to the division you're in. If
Speaker 2: something opens up and it would be a promotion, we're
Speaker 2: going to give you an opportunity to the interviewed you
Speaker 2: for it, or give you that job. Because if you're
Speaker 2: going to end up holding people back, you're going to
Speaker 2: eventually lose them. So your idea should be, rather than
Speaker 2: lose them to another company, lose them to yourself. You
Speaker 2: can't hold people back. And this was a tenet of
Speaker 2: LVMH as well, which I was proud to be a
Speaker 2: part of and excited to hear. LVMH had sixty thousand employers,
Speaker 2: I believe at the time, and they had policies in
Speaker 2: place and one of the most sophisticated HR teams globally
Speaker 2: that I ever saw in my life. And there were
Speaker 2: constant updates and reviews on people, and the whole review
Speaker 2: process took a very long time, doing reviews, doing self evaluations,
Speaker 2: talking about where someone can or cannot be, what other
Speaker 2: opportunities in the company might be afford to those people.
Speaker 2: And it was a brilliant set of circumstances. And I'll
Speaker 2: never forget. I am at this meeting in human resources,
Speaker 2: in the human resource part of my financial meetings and
Speaker 2: these strategic planning, and I had gone through the evaluations
Speaker 2: of all my direct reports, some of which you heard before,
Speaker 2: all of which were women. And the women that I
Speaker 2: work with either had lives that they established in the
Speaker 2: United States in New York, they owned their own homes,
Speaker 2: they owned their own businesses. You know, they had lives.
Speaker 2: Many of them were single or had significant others, and
Speaker 2: some of them were married. I had children, They had
Speaker 2: their roots in New York. Before in preparation for this
Speaker 2: meeting that I was going to have in LVMH. I
Speaker 2: asked each of the individuals whether or not they would
Speaker 2: be movable, because a big part of elval image global
Speaker 2: is they move people all over the world. If you're
Speaker 2: in New York and there's a great opportunity happening in
Speaker 2: Paris or in London, you should be transportable if you
Speaker 2: want to be. And I had these meetings with each
Speaker 2: of the individuals and Hey, Patty, would you be willing
Speaker 2: to move to Paris? You know, Mark, my life is here,
Speaker 2: my husband's here, our work is here. We love New York.
Speaker 2: I've been with Donna. This is where I belong, this
Speaker 2: is where I want to finish out my career. And
Speaker 2: I went one by one with all the different women,
Speaker 2: and pretty much across the board, every single one of
Speaker 2: them wanted to remain in New York. All of them
Speaker 2: had different reasons. And I asked them, if there was
Speaker 2: an opportunity for you to be promoted to make more money,
Speaker 2: to go live in Paris, or go live in London
Speaker 2: or Rome or Antwerp or Hong Kong or Japan, do
Speaker 2: you want to live and move there? And the answer,
Speaker 2: pretty much across the board, if not exactly, was no,
Speaker 2: I'm New York born and bred. This is where I
Speaker 2: want to be. This is where I want to have
Speaker 2: my career. Thank you for asking. I'm thankful for lv
Speaker 2: IMAH that they would consider it, but I belong here.
Speaker 2: Fast forward. Now I'm at the meeting with the head
Speaker 2: of HR who outlines the entirety of a plan that
Speaker 2: She was a brilliant woman, shot and tell, and I
Speaker 2: liked hering it along well with her. She just laid
Speaker 2: out the whole plan and said, now I'm going to
Speaker 2: leave you in the hands of I forgot his name,
Speaker 2: some French guy. And she left the meeting with the
Speaker 2: meeting started. So I'm looking through all the notes Mark
Speaker 2: in a French accent. I see you have some very
Speaker 2: high rated women in your division. They're all getting better
Speaker 2: than average or exceptional. These are women that we could
Speaker 2: use in the organization. Let's talk about opportunities. And when
Speaker 2: I get into the conversation with him, I said, in
Speaker 2: preparation for this meeting, Shot whatever his name was, I said,
Speaker 2: none of my directports, none of my direct reports, want
Speaker 2: to move. They're all happy, and they're in New York
Speaker 2: and there's silence in the room just like this. You
Speaker 2: mean to tell me if we have an opportunity for
Speaker 2: them in Paris, they wouldn't want to move to Paris
Speaker 2: and work in our corporate office here. I said no.
Speaker 2: He said, well, I don't believe that. How could that be?
Speaker 2: And I made them one of the great mistakes of
Speaker 2: my life that I loved. I paid a price for
Speaker 2: it in terms of good will. I said, they live
Speaker 2: in the greatest city in the world. They all have
Speaker 2: significant others, they all have husbands, they all have routsia,
Speaker 2: they're happy in New York and they don't want to
Speaker 2: move even to Paris. And he goes, you didn't even
Speaker 2: focus on He goes right to You're saying New York
Speaker 2: is the greatest city in the world. And I said,
Speaker 2: m yeah, I thought that was Everyone knew that. He
Speaker 2: got pissed at me. You have no idea, He says,
Speaker 2: I can't believe you say that to me, especially to
Speaker 2: us in Paris here, that's the greatest city of the world.
Speaker 2: What is Paris? Blah blah blah blah blah. I said, listen,
Speaker 2: can we get off of this. This is not about
Speaker 2: who has the greatest city in the world. You asked me.
Speaker 2: They have rootsia, they don't want to leave. They're powerful women.
Speaker 2: They deserve to have what they want. I've asked them,
Speaker 2: if it was promotable more money, do they want to
Speaker 2: leave to the person. Every one of them said, no,
Speaker 2: that's what this is about. So having said all of that,
Speaker 2: I really will tell you that I have the highest regard.
Speaker 2: In my career, was surrounded by great women who've done
Speaker 2: great things for our country, for our industry, for our company,
Speaker 2: and for the all the people that were lucky enough
Speaker 2: to be around them. Happy Mother's Day to all of you,
Speaker 2: and happy Ladies Day. Back in a moment, Always in
Speaker 2: Fashion spent a lifetime of my career building the van
Speaker 2: Usen Brand, and I am so pleased that they're back
Speaker 2: with us now talking about suits. Men were dressing up
Speaker 2: again and it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits
Speaker 2: can be won on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You
Speaker 2: could wear a suit formally to go out at night
Speaker 2: or to an event, wear a suit to the office
Speaker 2: with or without a tie. If you look closely, now
Speaker 2: fashion trends, suits are being worn with turtlenecks or mark next.
Speaker 2: The choices are endless and every one of them looks right.
Speaker 2: You could really really look the part. I believe that
Speaker 2: packaging yourself is important does the products you package, and
Speaker 2: wearing a suit is one of those things that make
Speaker 2: men look their best. Venuesing invented a new idea. It's
Speaker 2: called the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology,
Speaker 2: giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle
Speaker 2: resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect
Speaker 2: for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new
Speaker 2: style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
Speaker 2: and I'm so excited that the ven Using company is
Speaker 2: involved in this new technology and is embracing the whole
Speaker 2: idea of dressing up. Let's not forget Venues and made
Speaker 2: it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the
Speaker 2: suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find
Speaker 2: Vanues in cool Flex Men's stretch suits at jcpenny are
Speaker 2: online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great, you should
Speaker 2: go look at them. Done. Karen began a Career is
Speaker 2: one of the finest, most successful, powerful women in the
Speaker 2: fashion industry. She developed a collection aimed at the luxury
Speaker 2: market for women on the go, women who were powerful
Speaker 2: in their workplace, women who had lives that extended beyond
Speaker 2: the workplace, and her clothes went from day and tonight.
Speaker 2: An extraordinary collection. But the interesting thing Donna Karen had
Speaker 2: a young daughter, and she had friends, and they couldn't
Speaker 2: afford to buy the Donna Karon collection, and Donna invented
Speaker 2: dk NY Donna Aaron, New York. It's an offshoot of
Speaker 2: the Donna Karen collection. The same concept a lifestyle brand.
Speaker 2: Now we talk about lifestyle brands, what does that really mean?
Speaker 2: Simply what they say, there are brands that follow you
Speaker 2: throughout your lifestyle. You get up in the morning, you
Speaker 2: start to get dressed Donna Karen decan why as intimate apparel,
Speaker 2: as hosiery, as all those products. You're getting dressed for work.
Speaker 2: You get accessorized shoes, handbags, and it takes you through
Speaker 2: the day. The remarkable thing about dk andy clothes for work,
Speaker 2: they work into the evening. The dresses, the suit boots,
Speaker 2: the pants, the sweaters, the blouses. Extraordinary clothes at affordable
Speaker 2: prices that go from day in tonight. Part of your
Speaker 2: lifestyle is active. You have weekends, you have events, you
Speaker 2: participate in sports. Donna Karen's Casual Clothes did that under
Speaker 2: the DK and Y label, a vast array of casual
Speaker 2: sportswear that make women look great as they navigate their
Speaker 2: busy lives. Whether you're going to soccer games for your children,
Speaker 2: or whether you're going out to the movies, whatever you
Speaker 2: want to do, dkn Y Jeans, DC and Y Sportswear
Speaker 2: is there for you. That's what a lifestyle brand is.
Speaker 2: And I need to mention DKY active Wear, which is extraordinary,
Speaker 2: the leggings, the sports bras, the sweats. You can wear
Speaker 2: DKY active Wear certainly in the gym, certainly when you're
Speaker 2: working out at home, and certainly if you want on
Speaker 2: the street, because it's that well done. The quality of
Speaker 2: DK why is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't
Speaker 2: it be because it was born from the idea of
Speaker 2: luxury made affordable for women of America. DK and Why
Speaker 2: a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and tonight,
Speaker 2: from the week into the weekend. D can why you
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Always in Fashion.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Mark Webber. It's Mother's Day and Mother's
Speaker 2: Day weekend. It's an emotional time for me. I was
Speaker 2: married to a woman my entire life, a great woman, Susie,
Speaker 2: sweet Sue, and she passed away. It's someone seven years
Speaker 2: ago and it was like yesterday. Never dreamed that she
Speaker 2: wouldn't be with us. So when this holiday comes around,
Speaker 2: it it leaves me and Jesse and the boys and
Speaker 2: our daughter in laws and everyone since state happy. We
Speaker 2: had our time with her, and we did, but a
Speaker 2: sad state. But it's a time to reflect on mothers
Speaker 2: appreciate it. I had a great mother who loved me.
Speaker 2: I was a MoMA's boy. The boys and MoMA's boys,
Speaker 2: they all love their mother's more than they love their father's.
Speaker 2: I have to admit it. My children, I know, love me,
Speaker 2: but not like they love their mommy. It's like, you know,
Speaker 2: I talk about this all the time. I think it's hysterical.
Speaker 2: For a lighter note, you know, I took the boys.
Speaker 2: You see all these professional athletes, okay, football players whatever.
Speaker 2: The father's in the backyard. He's running around on the ground.
Speaker 2: He's teaching them how to throw the ball, catch the ball,
Speaker 2: tackle the boys, all the stuff. Then the guy wins
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. He catches the past and he puts
Speaker 2: his hand up, he says, hey, Mom, Hi, Mom. And
Speaker 2: it's like me with the boys. No matter what I
Speaker 2: ever do, they found my wife to be exceptional. That's
Speaker 2: something I had to live with and the something I
Speaker 2: had to get used to, and I did because she
Speaker 2: was great. And I've been fortunate enough to know a
Speaker 2: lot of great women and personally and professionally. And I
Speaker 2: hope you all do, and I hope you appreciate it.
Speaker 2: That life for women is even more complicated than men.
Speaker 2: They have to be the brains of the outfit. They
Speaker 2: have to manage the family. They have to help pay
Speaker 2: the bills. They have to take care of the children.
Speaker 2: They have to get them to everywhere they need to go.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you once I did a radio show and
Speaker 2: a demo long before I got on the radio, and
Speaker 2: I talked about being missed the mom. That my wife's
Speaker 2: mom hurt her leg. She had to go to Florida
Speaker 2: help her. She broke her leg. I was alone with
Speaker 2: the kids for a week. It was the toughest job
Speaker 2: I ever had in my life, not including or notwithstanding
Speaker 2: the fact that I went shopping bought a couple of
Speaker 2: bottles of milk and I threw some stuff on it.
Speaker 2: The milk spilled all over the car. The car smelled
Speaker 2: from milk. I had two little guys. I had to
Speaker 2: feed them every day. It was during the summer. I
Speaker 2: had to take them to the beach. I had to
Speaker 2: keep them clean. In the midst of all of this,
Speaker 2: one of the boys got the measles. I mean, I
Speaker 2: had a nightmare in my life. I couldn't handle how
Speaker 2: hard it was to be mister mom. So I salute
Speaker 2: you ladies tonight. I salute the mothers of America, I sayes,
Speaker 2: I salute the mothers of the world, because none of
Speaker 2: us would be here without you. With that happy Mother's Day,
Speaker 2: and I hope you enjoyed always in fashion, taking a
Speaker 2: little life experience and a little cultural aside away from
Speaker 2: business and away from the hardcore, to talk about really
Speaker 2: what's important in life, our mom's good night.