A Rat

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This show is produced and hosted byMark Webber. The show is sponsored by
G three of Pero. The viewsexpressed in the following program are those of
the sponsor and not necessarily the opinionof sevent ten wo R or Ihartmedia.
Who is Mark Webber. He's aself made business executive here to help you
find your success, from the NewYork City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in

(00:24):
Paris. His global success story inthe luxury world of fashion is inspiration off.
He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark is classic proof that the
American dream is alive and well,here's your host of Always in Fashion,
Mark Webber Weber. Everything is funnywhen it's happening to someone else me.

(00:46):
I'm enjoying my time on the darkside. I prefer leaving nice behind.
No political correctness, no social graces, no extending pleasantries, no extenuating circumstances.
I'm calling it like I see it. And what did I see this
week? A symbol of the darkside telling me I'm on the right track.

(01:07):
That big gray, ugly rat balloonin front of all things a school.
It's funny when that rat isn't aimedat you and what you're doing.
I remember the first time I encounteredthat rat, not a clue what it
was of what it represented. Itwas in the street in front of the
corporate headquarters of Phillips Venues and atthe time two hundred Madison Avenue. The

(01:27):
rat wasn't by himself and all hisglory, Oh no, it had a
bunch of what turned out to beunion work is demonstrating against our company PVH
in the front of the building.I got a kick out of it.
What the heck did we do tobring in protesters to our company? Was
such good guys. Got to theelevator laughing, walked to my office smiling,

(01:49):
hug up my jacket and want thelength of the hallway down to the
CEO's office and laughing, I said, what the hell is this about.
It was at that precise moment Irealized the difference between being the president versus
being the CEO. He was depressedbesides himself, and I was having a
great time being ridiculed by the rat. Yeah, the CEO gets the big

(02:13):
bucks, but the buck also stopswith him. CEO is a lonely job
in corporate America. It's really allon him. The president's job, particularly
mine, is chief operating office,was an important, strategic and task responsible
role. But I was screened fromthe toughness that it took on the CEO.
I was having fun. He wasmiserable. It's not easy having the

(02:35):
rat in front of your office buildingwhile they're chanting the name of the CEO.
He's a rat. He's a rat. And it wasn't Mark Webber a
rat. Now I has something youprobably don't know about corporate America. In
a public company, if they're afinancial improprieties, there are only two people
accountable, the chief financial officer andthe CEO. They get purple walked out

(02:57):
of the building with handcuffs. Iremember. Also, not too long after,
CBS had a story on human rightscompliant or the lacter of workers in
sweatshops and expose life from Asia,the SHEEO walking out of his building,
shielding his face, ignoring the questionsthrown at him from reporters. Yeah,
that's the life of the CEO,but not the president. This is where

(03:21):
you can see my dark side,my smiley face until of a CEO.
Then the rat is not so funny. Everything is funny when it's happening to
someone else. In reality, wewere targeted, and I'll get to that.
But this week I saw the ratwhile walking through my neighborhood. Hold
that thought as well. Rats.I had a meeting this week with the
principle of a large billion dollar company. During a conversation, he asked me

(03:45):
if I knew a particular guy,did I work with him? I hesitated,
and after he said, the guy'sa problem and I knew him and
I remembered him. He was afriend, but he was also a rat.
So of all things, this weekis the reek of the rat now
joining me on the darker side ofthe personality scale. Jesse Weber of Attorney,

(04:06):
co host and sun Hey, Jesse, Hey, I'm not a dark
side guy. I don't know whyyou've classified me as that, although I
will admit you seem to thrive onthe dark side. That seems to be
your comfort zone. Hey, waita minute, Wait a minute, wait
a minute? Waited, I admitI'm on the dark side. I just
sold you when you're joining me fora trip on the duck side. I
didn't say you were a duck sideguy, but you're making it seem like

(04:29):
I like it too. You're theone who's funny when you're angry. You're
the one who's I don't want tosay better, but I think you give
sometimes a more entertaining show when you'reangry and you're on the dark side.
Now, look what happened last weekwhen you were back to yourself. Oh
my goodness, everybody loved it exactly. So I'm not angry, I'm just
not sweet. Well, it's funnywhen you talk about the dark side,

(04:51):
because there's this fascination that we havetoday with true crime. Everybody loves it.
All every network is trying to getin that space, whether it's true
crime documentaries, true crime show is, true crime podcast, true crime fiction
shows with actors. It's just likeeverybody's trying to one up and they're all

(05:11):
trying to get this same audience.By the way, in two months,
I'm headed to a crime convention inOrlando, Florida called Crime con That's how
many people are interested on it.No, I mean, look at what
is going on right now with thiscoburger case in Idaho. Why did he
do it? How did he doit, what's behind it, what's going
to happen next? There was sucha fascination with it. And I understand

(05:35):
why at the time because nobody knewwho did it. But even now just
people are obsessed with understanding what isbehind these kinds of really brutal crimes.
But anyway, that's a separate topic. I never wanted this for you,
Michael. I thought when your timewould come, Senator Collon, Governor Collion,
not enough time, Jesse. You'rein the middle of it all.

(05:58):
You know what the trials to belike. When they thought it, they
may send me down there. Itmight be that big you know where's down
there this time, Well it wouldbe an Idaho, So it's the other
side of the country. Maybe I'llcome and meet you there. We go,
could do a discussion outside the courthouselike we did with Johnny Depp.
Amber heard but a crime side.What's with the rat in the neighborhood?
Do you know what the rat is? Actually? Yeah? So the rat,

(06:20):
the big inflatable rat. It's asymbol from unions that they are protesting
the companies either they're hiring non unionlabor, or they're doing something that violates
policy, or they're in the middleof a protest. It's basically the union's
answer to company management very good,And that's true. That's what it is
for those of you who don't knowwhat we're talking about or have seen it

(06:41):
and don't know where it is.But I was walking and I couldn't imagine
what was it doing in front ofschool, let alone the school. It
is the government building. I've walkedover to these two guys that were camped
out with the RAT. I learneda few things. First of all,
they didn't really believe they should bethat. Number two, when I asked
them to explain what's going on,they weren't very good at it, And

(07:03):
I wondered whether or not that's becausewe were in a residential neighborhood of people
just didn't feel it was worth theeffort that they were in to gain anywhere.
They were showing their futility of itall. Apparently the school had started
construction and they used non unionized labor, and the union got really upset of
it. But nonetheless it was goingon and the rat was there. But

(07:25):
this whole thing with the rat goesback to my pH days. My boss
was a good guy. He wasalways on the right side of the right
thing, always doing what he believedwas right, and he got caught in
the crosshairs to strategic policy human rights. Never is it a simple conversation,
and they are always long lasting ramifications. And as I said, doing the

(07:47):
right thing is never easy. Ihave a great example when I was involved
with trying to build businesses in Africa. I was involved with Bono and his
wife. Oh by the way,they then est people in the world,
and they really do want to savethe earth. And what they did for
Africa was extraordinary, the way theytried to help the people. They still
do. But the whole subject oforganic cotton came up the issue in Africa.

(08:13):
We were trying to build industry inAfrica, the idea of giving them
work. Give a guy of fish, he eats for a day, but
if you teach a guy to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime. And
we were trying to teach them howto cultivate products and cotton and build the
paril factories in Africa so they wouldhave long term futures. And the subject

(08:33):
of organic cotton came up. Everybodywanted whatever we did in Africa to be
about organic cotton. And the issueis, if you are growing organic cotton,
you put cotton in the ground,you water it, you use no
pesticides, because in the reality,the ground water gets spoiled and if the

(08:54):
people around this are breathing these chemicalsor they're using the war water, they
can get very sick from it.Now, the idea is to have wells
nowhere near there and after it's sprayed, not to be in the area.
I guess I'm not a conservationist.I don't know if enough about it.
Maybe we should ask center to Kennedy. But the reality is, if you

(09:16):
grow organic cotton, you use nopesticides, and in Africa that means mosquitos,
and mosquitoes carry malaria, and themalaria grows in Africa and it's a
problem. And therefore this whole subjectof organic cotton is caught up in unintended
consequences, which brings me back tothe RAT or the PVH RAT. We

(09:39):
were a high profile company. Everythingwe did with God announced, you know,
you were a billion dollar plus company. We own brands like Calvin Klein
and now Tommy hill Feger, andyou know, we were really in the
forefront of what was going on inNAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The idea was to add jobs andsay jobs in the manufacturing sector in

(10:01):
this hemisphere rather than grow and buildin China and the rest of the Asia.
And it sounds right. I rememberTrump hated the idea of making in
NAFTA in Mexico. If I recall, blame Bill Clinton. He talked about
it during his campaign and he saidwe lost jobs to go in Central America.
He wasn't wrong, but the samejobs were being lost in Asia,

(10:26):
but he was targeted. I rememberthe Wall Street Journal searched me out because
they knew I was associated with Trumpat the time in making his dress shirts,
and they planned to come out witha big expose on Trump not being
a man of his word because theTrump shirt line, which our company represented
in manufactured we were making a NAFTAAnd there two things to remember about NAFTA.

(10:46):
It was an incentive of Bill Clinton'sand the government. They wanted us
to make it Central and South Americabecause it would in fact save jobs there.
But what they didn't call out wasthey had Trump looking like the bad
guy, and they called me.And the interesting thing for me, because
I had learned my lesson along theway when it comes to the press,

(11:07):
is that when you get quoted,it gets changed. And I had the
agreement with the Wall Street Journal.I had the experience to say, I
will talk to you, but youhave to guarantee me that you will take
the excerpts from this conversation that youtape and print him verbat him and I
did. And I covered for Trumpbecause he did nothing wrong. But that

(11:30):
was a long time ago. Thepoint of it is, even with eliminating
tariff barriers, duties, taxes asyou would call them, between partners,
between Mexico, between all of us, it wasn't enough to save imports from
going to the rest of the world. Interesting enough, high ticket items like
automobiles seem to work in union andnon union factories. But I have to

(11:54):
step into this and make sure I'mclear here that rat was targeted a PVH
in front of our building because wewere making goods in Guatemala. Now why
targeted? Because we were good guysand because anything they did would stand up
it screamed about PVH would get reportedbecause we were one of these big companies
and they wanted to make sure thatwe were caught. Now, I am

(12:16):
a union guy. My family werethe union people. I came from a
family. My father, my uncleswere all union men. Their close friends
worked for government posts. There wereunion kinds of people. I grew appearing
how the union was our friend.They just signed a new contract. We
will get more money, We'll haveanother day off. Collective bargaining work for

(12:37):
the common man. And the strengthof the large groups of workers uniting gave
us guy's power. And the threatof striking was always in the air.
And it always felt like my father'scompanies and his union they would remember and
I remember now. I knew Iwas too young to talk about. I
couldn't give them any advising. Heeven got to the point when my father

(13:01):
was a young, relatively young man, the Union was eliminating jobs. He
worked for the New York Daily Newsat this point, and he was one
of those guys who put all thetype together to do the printing. And
that became taking all the little letters, putting him in a box and making
sure it would print right. They'drun a test copy, he would review
it, make sure it was accuratefor the spelling. He did all these

(13:22):
things that it was being manual.They were giving it to computers machines to
do the work, and they didn'tneed him anymore. But as a union
guy, he was protected. Hewould have a job at the Daily News
as long as he wanted it.They came in, they offered him a
payment. He took the payment.It was like a relief and a gift.
Maybe he was tired of working there, maybe he had it up,
but the union was overays a goodthing. But when you look at targeting

(13:45):
us from making in Guatemala or movinggoods to Asia. This is fifty years
later and T shirts are still ninetydone, you can't be competitive. But
back to the rat We started afactory in Guatemala to support what NAFTA.
We hired workers who had no jobs. We took people that were sitting at
home, had no income. Wegave them jobs, We gave them fair

(14:09):
wages, we gave them bathrooms,we gave them lunches. But Human Rights
Watch it wasn't enough because they believedwe should supply schools, we should supply
one day off, we should supplyenough toilets and toilet paper and cash.
And what happened was it got tothe point that it made us non competitive.

(14:31):
They turned at Guatemala factory into thesame kind of factory had the United
States with a human rights watch.They were right to worry about humans,
but the wage level became impossible.We had to close the factory. The
rats shows up, the Human RightsWatch attacking my boss, who did only
the right things at our annual shareholmemeeting, and embarrassed the heck out of

(14:52):
us. Instead of talking about thefuture of the company, all the questions
were aimed at time and a halffor overtime, raising the standard of living.
It wasn't enough that they had jobs, so that rat did its job.
One day the rat shows up,we get targeted. I wasn't laughing
anymore, particularly when we had toclose the factory because it wasn't competitive any

(15:15):
longer. So this week that rat. My conversation with the business CEO about
it, a guy who was arat, got me thinking perfect subject for
the dark Side, and with thatin mind, joined me in a minute
to continue a story about a ratback in a minute. Always in Fashion.
As one of the world's most celebratedfashion designers, Carlagafeld was renowned for

(15:39):
his aspirational and cutting edge approach tostyle. His unique vision of Parisian ship
comes to America through Carlagafeld Paris.He has women's collections, men's collections,
ready to wear, accessory, shoesand bags. The fashion house Carlagafeld also
offers a range of watches, eyewearing premium fragrances. You can explore the

(16:00):
Carlogofhe collection at Carlogofell Paris dot com. But it's more than that. I,
for one, love to shop.I love going around and seeing what's
happening and what catches my attention,what would make me feel good to wear
now. I don't wear the women'swear obviously, but I can appreciate it
and they look amazing. If youwant to look right, you want to
have clothes that fits you well.You want to look like you're wearing something

(16:22):
that's very expensive, that's exclusive foryou and yours. You can find it
at very affordable prices at Macy's Socarlogofeldot com Paris. The women's ready to
wear fashion is extraordinary, as wellas the hand egs in the shoes.
I for one, wear men's clotheson like my appreciation of women's clothes.
I'm a modern guy. I wantto look current. I want to look

(16:45):
the way I want to feel.I go out at night, I'm in
black and Carlagafel is my buddy.Calls are great, they fit great,
and they have little tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the sleeve
or button at the neck or onthe shoulder. There's a lot of details
that go into Carlagafeld because he's alwaysbeen, he always had been one of
the world's great designers, and thislegacy and goes on and on. I

(17:07):
can't speak enough about it except tosay to you, you want to feel
good about yourself. You want toknow that you're dressing properly. You want
to close that fits you well.Carl Lagafeld Paris at Macy's or Karlgafel dot
com. My favorite brand has alwaysbeen ISOD. My company at one time
bought that brand. The CEO ofthe company handed it to me and said,

(17:29):
you better make it work. AndI put everything in my career to
make ISOD work. And I fellin love with that brand, and to
this day it is one of themost exciting endeavors I've ever got involved with.
ISOD is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you play golf, if
you play tennis, for that matter, they make a great polo shirts.

(17:52):
I mean great. They're fit perfect. The material is unique because it's a
PK fabric that waffle weave you see, and it's made of a blend of
cotton and microfiber that allows you tostretch. And very often they are treated
with solo protection as well, sothey stretch, they're comfortable, and they

(18:15):
breathe well. And one thing aboutISA, they always fit. They'll never
tug on you. You put itin your waist, they'll fit you great.
The colors, patterns are sensational.Now I will also tell you ISOD
makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and you want to
look good. You don't want tohave to think about how do I look.
You want to think about how youplay, not how you feel.

(18:37):
ISOD is the brand for you.I know I was there when it was
created. The strategy behind that brandis brilliant. It's one of my favorite
brands. While I talk about Ishould tell you about the Man's Sports,
where ISOD wasn't enough being a golfbrand. It wasn't enough being just great
polo shirts with logos, without logos. Incredible brands and story and history ISAD

(18:59):
makes whether programs. They have greatprinted woven shirts, short sleeves that look
excellent with colors, excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which
they also make this whole salt orderrelax line from Isaad, whether it be
felice, cotton sweaters, nitpolos,woven shirts and pants of a range of

(19:25):
colors and fabrics that are perfect fora guy wants to go casually in the
spring and summer of this year andhe is the thing. Isod is affordable.
Everyone listening to me talk about thisbrand can afford to buy it and
know that there are a lot ofother brands that also have a look like

(19:45):
Isote. Although I don't believe it'sfun as isot is. The brand has
a lot of energy in it,but at the price points no one can
compete. You can find is thatat your leading retailers and online at isaah
dot com. Talk to you later, guys. I wish you I'm very
happy spring in summer, and Ihelp you by telling you if you wear

(20:07):
eyesight, you're gonna look great.Welcome back, Joe Always in Fashion.
Here's your host, Mark Webber.I'm enjoying tonight's show which is entitled a
rat I'm on my dark side oflife right now. I'm enjoying not being
a nice guy. I'm enjoying pointingout the things in life that well,
I always put a decent slant onit, and I thought I would continue.

(20:30):
And I want to take a littlepoetic license and entertain you and myself
because I like this story I'm aboutto tell you. Let's call it the
rat Pack. I love the conceptof the rat Pack. The first time
I ever saw it was The Ocean'sEleven back in the sixties and seventies.
I don't remember when the movie wasmade. It included Frank Sinatra, Joey

(20:52):
Bishop, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Junior, Petlorfan and a whole cast
of characters about eleven guys who servedin the army and then they all got
out and they live in in Vegasand they decided to rob all the hotel
casino. It's a great movie.That's one of those movies that over time
you kind of like Jesse, You'vegot a favorite movie that talks about guys
hanging out together. Ocean's Eleven myfavorite movie. That is a movie I

(21:18):
can put on at any time andbe happy and watch the whole thing.
Anytime it's on television. I couldwatch it. I watch it literally on
my phone all the time. Itjust makes me feel good. That's a
cool movie about cool guys doing somethingfun in Las Vegas. What's better than
that? Isn't it a great movie? Are you talking eleven only or twelve
and thirteen? Two? Twelve isokay, it's grown on me. Thirteen's

(21:41):
good, I like it, buteleven is incredibly special. That's the one
I liked them all. I alsoliked the one with the central bullock.
I thought that was a pretty coolmovie and not my favorite. They're redoing
with Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie.Oh that's great. But are they gonna
call it Oceans eleven or they're movingon? It's Oceans eleven, but it
takes place in the six I hatewhen people reboot, I really do.

(22:03):
I hate it. I hate it. Hey, but that's not why I
want to talk about this. Ofall the things I've talked about in the
last few months, I got themost response from someone that I'll call Escalante.
I did a show at three o'clockin the morning after Jesse's wedding,
I talked about Escalante, my alterego at the time. The reality is

(22:30):
the dark side. I don't likehumans. I think I've made that pretty
clear. It's few and far betweenthat I can find that I like,
and generally speaking, I try toavoid humans whenever I can. I was
in a restaurant the other night.Eight people walked in, four or five
of them. I know I washaving dinner by myself. I must have
bothered them that I'm sitting there alone. Do I look to crepit eating dinner

(22:52):
by myself? By the way,you only look to Crepit in your mind.
I think it's cool. James Bondalways ate by himself when he traveled,
and for a guy who he says, I don't care what people think.
You care a lot what people think. There's a difference between caring what
they think and asking what I looklike. Okay, there's a big difference.
I'm asking you think it looks likeI'm decrepit that I'm sitting there by

(23:15):
myself. I'm having a grand oldtime. I love every minute of it.
But it doesn't mean that people aren'tsaying, look at this guy.
He knows nobody. So that's thedistinction, and I don't care what they
think I actually said to him.I really appreciate it. But those of
you at the table who don't knowme, I have a radio show,
and on the radio show, Iconstantly talk about being a recluse and don't

(23:36):
like humans. So thank you forinviting me. I'm sure you're all great,
but I'll sit here by myself.Could you imagine me saying that to
people are trying to be nice?You, I imagine at one thousand percent
saying that. So anyway, backto Escalante. In the middle of the
night, I explained the story thatit got to a point in my life
that wherever I was, wherever Iwas traveling on a plane, you know,

(23:56):
someone sits down next you starts totalk to you. I don't want
to be bothered. I don't wantto talk to anybody. Golf is the
one place when you're traveling alone.You can't seem to play golf by yourself.
You're any place that's decent, theywant to fill up the times,
and they'll pair you with other peopleif they have two and you have one,
or they have three and you're justthe same. And it was a
period in time where they were pairingme. I didn't know that I was

(24:18):
willing to spend the money. Icould block out a foursome on my own,
which I would do now because I'drather be alone. But they were
pairing me with guys, and someGerman guys started talking to me about who
I was and what I did,and I told him that I was a
bullfighter named Escalante, and he gotinto the whole big thing, and you

(24:40):
know, he started asking me questionsand I got into it, and everybody
in the audience seems to like it. So I want to tell you another
story. I'm working for PVH.We were a very charitable organization and David
Cassidy, the famous singer and starof the Partridge Family White at the time,
had a charity and she approached someoneon our marketing group and asked us

(25:04):
to contribute to her charity. Idon't remember what it was. It might
have been for children. We gladlydid it, and we had a very
nice relationship with her and her husband. And the reason I mentioned the Rack
Pack, David Cassidy and his wifebecame the producers of a show in Las
Vegas at the Riviera Hotel called Therat Pack. And the Riviera Hotel was

(25:25):
where the rat Pack spent a lotof their time when they were alive and
performing in Las Vegas. And we'veall seen pictures of Frank Sinatra, Dean
Martin, Sammy Davis Junior, andJoey Bishop at the rack Pack became the
place to be. It was thehottest ticket in town in Vegas. There
was nothing cooler and more popular thanI guess in the sixties or seventies than

(25:45):
the rat Pack. And they broughtthis show back and they had very talented
entertainers who kind of resembled Frank butcould sing like Frank, and who resembled
Dean and could sing like Dean,resembled Sammy, could sing like Sammy.
And I come median who looked likeJoey Bishop. And it was funny.
Anyway, I asked through my people, can I get a ticket from my

(26:08):
wife and I to go to therat Pack at the Riviera Hotel And he
said, of course, we getto the Riviera. I show my tickets
and what do I have David Cassidy'sprivate table, his wife's private table for
my wife and I at the show. That's cool. That was very cool.
Front row right there the perfect table. Before I even sat down,

(26:30):
they head to champagne laid out.They had appetizers laid out, and I
said, you know, I didn'tknow your guests of the Cassidy's. This
is how we treat you. Thankyou so much for being involved. They
really appreciate everything you do for themin the charity. I said, it's
my pleasure. So the show beginswith music. It's great. I mean,
now I'm really connected. I'm feelinggreat. My wife and I were

(26:51):
looking the part. The entertainer performingas if he was Joey Bishop. The
comedian comes out to warm up theaudience, and he starts looking around and
he starts doing his thing, andhe's funny, and all of a sudden,
he you know, he starts talkingto the audience. He talks to
this guy and that guy, andthen he comes over to me and he

(27:14):
said, hey, there, what'syour name? I said, if I
told you, you wouldn't believe me. Isn't that really what's your name?
My name is Mark, but Ireally go by the name Escalante. I
figure, I'm in the audience there, nobody needs to know my business.
Who I am? A president PVA. I want to go there. I
don't want to by know him business. He said to me, Okay,

(27:37):
Mark, what do you do fora living. You got a beautiful wife,
you must be successful. I said, yes, she is beautiful,
and thank you for that. Butagain, if I tell you what I
do, you're not gonna believe me. He says, no, I believe
you tell me what you do.So I said, well, I was
a professional highlight player. Now,for those of you who don't know what
highlight is, it's a game ofSpanish orientation from South America, Mexico,

(28:04):
where it's kind of like throwing abaseball made out of stone or some hard
material, kind of a bigger golfball against the wall. It goes one
hundred miles an hour. You haveto catch it and throw it back,
and you run all over the courtlike a handball court, but it's enclosed.
It's a very tough sport. You'rediving, you're catching it, you're

(28:25):
you're really it's dangerous at one level, but it's really really athletic. And
I said, I played highlight.It was a professional highlight place and no,
you weren't. I go to highlight. You know, you're a regular
guy from where in New York,I said, originally, but I've been
living in Spain. And what's yourname again? I said, Escalante?
S did you play high? Idon't believe he so, let me ask

(28:45):
you a question. Is what didthe arena be called in Spanish? The
front on? Oh? Really?And what did you call that basket?
You caught the ball with the sisterand the ball pull up to He says,
you know what, don't I'm startingto believe you. You played professional
eyes So that's what you do,isn't No? I said, I used

(29:07):
to do it. What do youdo? I said, you still want
to continue this? He said,yeah, I'm interested. Now you got
our interests. Why don't you wantto hear more? And he order starts
applauding you know? So I said, well, okay, you asked and
I told you. You're not goingto believe me. He said, oh
yeah, what are you doing?I said, I'm a professional bullfighter by
the name of Escalante. He says, no way, you're a bullfight.

(29:30):
What kind of crap is this?This is what you're telling me. So
Mommy is on one hand, laughingand trying to crawl under the table.
She's squeezing my arm she's kicking meunder the table. You know what are
you're doing? You know? Isaid, people eleven, it's it's okay.
So he says again, I don'tbelieve in a million years you were

(29:52):
a professional bullfighter. So I said, okay, conversation move on, isn't
none? Now let me ask youa question. What is the stadium where
they fought the bull in Spain?I said, well, I've done it
in Spain. I've done it inMexico. But the best places the plaza
dy toros. And he looks atme, he said, and the costume.
What's that called? I said,deluss. It's embroidered in silver or

(30:15):
gold. It's type fitting. It'smade to fit me, skin tight.
How did you know all this?I'm prepared, Jesse, I'm prepared.
You know me, Aren't I thorough? When I took on this identity?
I got serious. So he saysto me, all right, where the
bulls come from? What do theycall? I said, well, the
best bulls known as toro, ofcourse, a bull, a Liberian fighting

(30:38):
bulls. They're the best. Noone comes close. He looks at me.
This you know a technical question?What do you call those guys who
stick the bull in the neck beforeyou go in for the slaughter. They
have two names, a picadora bendelerros. And now he's saying, I can't
believe this. He said, yourmatador. I said yeah. He said,
do you speak Spanish? I saidno. He said, now I

(31:00):
got you. How could you bea matador without speaking Spanish? And I
said to him, I don't haveto. The bulls don't either, say
he's laughing. Everybody's laughing at thispoint. He said, I have a
question for you, and he saidsure. I said, when are you
going to be funny? And hestarted to laugh. The audience went crazy.

(31:21):
And I did my debut in LasVegas, says Escalante, and it
was a great night. That's amazing. Imagine if he was like, Okay,
we have a bull on stage.Now let's see how good you are.
Well, he went on, itwas a great show. I was
glad I was there, and Ihaven't talked about Escalante in a while.
And I hope all of you outthere enjoyed that story, and it brought

(31:44):
it up because of the rat packand tonight the show is about well,
let's call the rat I kind himon the dark side, but I'm happy
and having fun. So we'll takea break and we'll be back and we'll
continue with this rat stuff always infashion lifetime of my career building the van
Usen Brand, and I am sopleased that they're back with us now talking

(32:07):
about suits, men, we're dressingup again and it's become cool to wear
a suit. Suits can be oneon multiple occasions, in multiple ways.
You could wear a suit formally togo out at night or to an event,
to wear a suit to the officewith or without a tie. If
you look closely, now fashion trends, suits are being worn with turtlenecks or

(32:28):
mocknecks. The choices are endless,and every one of them looks right.
You could really really look the part. I believe that packaging yourself this is
important. Does the products you packageand wearing a suit is one of those
things that make men look their best. Venues and invented a new idea.
It's called the cool flex suit.It's been engineered with stretched technology, giving

(32:52):
you the most comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool
moisture wicking. It makes it perfectfor all occasions. As we discussed just
now, This new style of lookingsharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
and I'm so excited that the vanUsing company is involved in this new

(33:13):
technology and is embracing the whole ideaof dressing up. Let's not forget van
Uson made its name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the suit business
follows strongly in its way. Youcan find van us and Cool Flex men's
stretch suits at JC Penney are onlineat jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're
great. You should go look atthem. Welcome back to Always in Fashion.

(33:37):
Here's your host, Mark Webber.Funny way you get ideas. I
often talk about the fact that thisis original content and I have no idea
when I finished the show what nextweek's show is going to be about.
Lo and behold and walking down thestreet the other day on my four mile
walk and I passed the school andthere's a rat in front of it,
that big rubber balloon rat that representsthe unions unhappy with a particularular institution.

(34:00):
Found it really interesting that it wasin front of a school. Turned out
that the school was doing construction withnon unionized workers. The unions were protesting
and trying to call them out asrats, which I find to be very
effective. I've had my experience withthe rats. I thought it was very
funny, but it's interesting how everything'sfunny when it's not happening to you.

(34:22):
And it was turned around and Iwas responsible That rat made me nervous.
I felt like a creep and Ididn't like it, particularly because I grew
up in a family that was helpedby the Union. Having said that,
it got me thinking and this showbecame the show called a rat. What
I really wanted to do is ratout to men. I can't believe what

(34:45):
you guys look like. I can'tbelieve how terrible you look and dress.
Yeah, I'm ratting you out.Hey. By the way, Jesse,
this week you were on the morningshow on WR. You were filling in
for Len Berman. You were withMichael Reidal. Yep, I was guest
hosting with him. Yeah, andsomebody I know filled in one day.

(35:07):
He was a guest. Right.You called him up. I called you
up. You were on for aseven minute segment. We had you talk
about all different things. It wasgreat having you on. But I love
the way that you started it.How you started it by bashing his outfit.
You led me into it, Well, I said, you know,
I walk in. He's wearing aT shirt and shorts and he was driving

(35:28):
his bike. He was sweaty whenhe came in, he was full of
bugs, and you basically go,can we throw him in jail for wearing
shorts? Yeah, he's to facingNew York City. Well, you know
he listened, people don't see him, and he's like, I just worked
out. I just was biking here, and you gave him such a hard
time. You know, what doyou want from me? You guys were
talking about it that morning. Yeah, but you know, I don't think

(35:50):
he was expecting to be made funof by you. Was hefended? No,
No, he took it all instride. And by the way,
it was great being on that show. Natalie, who's the producer of the
show, she puts it all together. Michael was amazing to be with.
And also I got to see ourgood pal Terry. Terry's our producer here
on Always in Fashion. He putsour show together every week, Terry Trand

(36:14):
Hey, Terry, Terry was awesome. I hadn't seen Terry since before the
pandemic in person. Yeah, soit was nice to see everybody, and
it was a great week. Howdid I do filling in for Lenn Berman?
You were great. I enjoyed thewhole thing. It's very fast paced.
The only thing I didn't enjoy wasme six minute seven minutes segment.
I mean, it takes six minutesfor me to set up any story,

(36:35):
and I had to tell five.I talked about Trump, I talked about
men's clothes, I talked about meetingBernard or No, it's got to be
fast paced. You know people's attention. Seven minutes is actually a rather long
segment, believe it or not notfor me doing an hour show. And
you know, you got someone whoknows how to talk. He's not in
experience. But nonetheless, the pointis, I decided now I want to

(36:55):
rat out to men. I can'tbelieve what I'm looking at. It all
stems from packaging. Yourself is asimportant as the products you're packaged. This
whole weekend, I played golf,I went to the club, I had
dinners. We had a July fourthdinner. We were the hundreds of people.
Now I can tell you everyone thereis all sizes, shapes, ages,

(37:17):
colors, But the women in generaltry and look their best. That
doesn't mean they're all beauties. They'renot beauties. This is life. Not
everyone could be six foot two andbeautiful. Same thing for the men.
But you could tell the women thinkit through and they cared. The men
are horrendous. I spent the wholecareer. Look, I'm a corporate executive.

(37:39):
That's what I had. I wasa CEO of two huge companies,
one in the United States and onethat's owned by a company in France,
and largist luxury company in the world. And I had to run companies,
had to manage people. I hadto open stores. I had a thousands
and thousands of people relying with me, develop strategies and make things work.

(38:00):
But at the same time, whenyou're in the luxury fashioned retail business,
you have to have a feeling forproduct that I always have and I always
will. And here we are thisweekend. I go out on the golf
course and there are only four peopleon the entire golf course wearing long pants.
Your brother Jared, you, me, and the mister coffee guy.

(38:21):
Great guy. You could see hecares about the way he looks. When
we talked to him, you couldsee he puts thought into his outfits.
There are other people who look great, but we were the only four.
If I recall, everybody else iswearing shorts and they look disgusting. Okay,
first of all, I don't wantto look at men's legs. I
don't want to look at him.And the answer you get, of course,

(38:44):
it's so hot out. I havea question to ask, do you
think that makes sense? Wearing shorts, exposing your legs right directly to the
sun, is cooler than wearing pants. Do you have a look at the
people in the Mideast where they're inthe desert outside side, in the hottest
sun in the world, and they'recompletely covered in robes and turbans. Why

(39:06):
they figured out how to stay cool? This idea you wear shorts to be
cool is nonsense, nonsense. Well, wait a second, No one ever
said they're comfortable in those outfits,the burkas and those outfits. No one
ever said that they're nice, cooland comfortable. I don't believe the men's
outfits are called burker's. But forthe purpose, of course, they're wearing
it in the desert because it keepsthem out of the heat of the sun.

(39:29):
Now, I am sure this wasa court of law, Jesse,
you would call an expert witness ora scientist explain to me how shorts are
cooler. But there's no way inthe world you're going to convince me of
that because I wear pants and Iknow the difference. I know what my
arms feel like in the sun versusmy body. It's totally different. But

(39:49):
I'll go one stuff further while we'reon the science of ratting out men.
You like being indoors when it's reallyhot out, Jess. I mean,
it's amazing. Air Conditioning isn't oneof your favorite inventions of all time?
One of my favorite inventions of alltime. In fact, the reality is
when you go indoors when it's hotout in the air condition it's freezing.
I must tell you I've probably hadmore luck with women by bringing a jacket

(40:15):
on a date with me or asweater on a date from me, because
whenever they got cold, I wasable to hand from the sweater or the
jacket. They loved me. I'msuch a sweet guy and paid off a
million times over in a million differentways. It's freezing inside. How many
times when you were dating Haley,did I give you a hard time?
Her a hard time for coming outwithout a jacket or top always and whenever

(40:37):
she would forget and I'd have togive her my jacket. You gave her
like such a little mean luck.Yeah, because now you have to freeze
and come because of her. NowI would tell you with mommy, I
learned right on. She never worea jacket, never brought a sweater.
She was freezing them inte we wentanywhere, went to summ or whatever it
was, I always had to givehim my stuff. So I got smart.
I wore a sweater and I broughta jacket. But the point is,

(40:59):
men, your buffoons, your legs, the skinny legs, the fat
legs, the tan legs, thewhite legs. I can only imagine what
you look like when you get undressedwith that tan line at your knees and
at your waist. I want tothrow up the whole idea of it.
And you want to say it's hotout, you're freezing inside. What the
heck are the shorts for? Theydon't make sense outside and at night we're

(41:22):
going to functions at night. There'sa certain degree of refinement that's required when
you go to a nice restaurant oryou're in a country club amongst your peers.
This is not refined. It's ridiculous. And the funny thing about it
is I watch and look closely atthe guys doing this, and they're trying.
They wear a nice button down shirt, they might wear a nice sweater,

(41:43):
but then they wear these shorts andit looks ridiculous. It looks terrible.
You don't look good in it.I'll give a credit maybe guys thirty
five Ananda who really fit or tanor accessorize it. I used to like
when they wore their hiking boots withthe gray socks at the red trim them
and you look like the muscles atthe knee. Whether it's hiking shorts or

(42:04):
cargo shoots, those guys can actuallypull it off. But the bulk of
what I've seen ninety nine point ninepercent is ridiculous. It doesn't make sense.
And they're trying to look good.I've seen them. I go out
to restaurants. I've been beautiful restaurantsover the weekend. They walk in with
their shorts and I want to throwup. But the worst of all is
the sandals defeat. What signal?Can you tell me, Jessee? What

(42:28):
signals someone sending. When I showup in shorts with sandals, I would
be hard pressed to find anyone thatthinks that that actually looks good. I
think they're all doing it because theywant to feel comfortable. It's disgusting.
You know, in certain religions,when someone passes away, you're forbidden to
give your shoes to the family thatyou've worn. And the logic has been

(42:50):
back in ancient times, everyone's feetwere infected. They're walking without the comforts
of we have today. So themethodology was you can't give your shoes to
to your survivors. You're walking aroundwithout socks. You're stepping on crap your
feet a dirty socks protect your feet, they keep you warm, they do

(43:10):
everything. This makes no sense,and you'll look disgusting. You all look
like amateurs next to your wife.And with all due respect, I don't
want to pick on old people,but the older you get, the worst
you look without socks. It isridiculous and I have to look at this.

(43:31):
It's time to rat you mutants out. You're all rats. You know
what people say to me. SoMichael Rito, when we went off there,
he goes, well, what doyou wear to the beach. I
told him, I wear sneakers.He's like sneakers. I said to them,
you think James Bond wears sandals,he goes, No, James Bond
wears Espadrills. I was like,maybe that works Espatroll's work. Well.

(43:52):
James bonded the first couple like agoldfinger, wore sandals. It was yeah,
but he also wore a terry clothjumpsuit. You know he wasn't refined
en of you. You wouldn't finda look. You tell me Pis Brosnen
is wearing shorts and sandals. No, and neither is Daniel Craig. I'm
not so sure about that. Butokay, guys who are million dollars smiles

(44:15):
and look the part and could getaway with it. Maybe, but that's
not who you are. I goto the beach, I wear white pants,
I wear white sneakers, I wearwhite socks. But you know I'm
going home. I'm full of sand. I might not wear the white socks,
but my feet are tan. Theylook good without socks. But I
would never go to the beach andshorts. I won't even go to the

(44:37):
beach and just the bathing suit becauseI don't feel you're completing the outfit.
I have beautiful white cargo pants thatI would wear to the beach. I'd
wear a T shirt. I maywear a sweatshirt because they know it gets
cold and it gets windy. Butyou don't walk around this way. I
don't want to see you. Andthe ones that have the belts pulled in

(44:57):
with the bellies tucked over the shorts, the ones that their bellies arrive five
minutes to the location before the restof them do. It is so disgusting.
I like the ones who leave theirshirt hanging out, like we don't
see your belly because of that.Am I being too unfair? No?
I think this is a wake upcall for a lot of people. But

(45:17):
I also feel like people already knowthis, they just didn't want to hear
it. Those guys, are youa single who want to have some sexy
time? You guys out there tryingto meet new women? You guys out
there who are married Jack Jones oneof my favorite songs of all time.
I never forgot it. Hey,little girl, comb your hair, fix
your makeup. Soon he will walkthrough the door. Don't think because there's

(45:45):
a ring on your finger, youneedn't try any more. For wives should
always be lovers too, run tothe door when he comes home to you.
I'm warning you, hey, girls, you know that. Guys,
what are you doing? What areyou doing? There's not a place I

(46:05):
go where the wives don't look betterthan the men. There's not a place
I go where the women don't lookbetter than the guys. Now, I'm
not telling you all how to getdressed all the time. I'm not telling
you went to wala Hawaiian shirts orblack shirts or whatever. But really,
let's take disgusting off the table.Now for a rat, so be it.
This rat is trying to help you. We'll take a break back in

(46:27):
a minute. Always in fashion,I've been shopping for fun lately, and
while I'm out, I always lookat men's and I look at women's.
What's going on? And I wasparticularly interested in Decay because of their sponsorship
of the show. I went downstairsat Macy's thirty fourth Street to look around,
and I saw Decamy active where AndI promise you, ladies, it

(46:47):
is sensational. From the sports brawsto the crop tops, to the leggings
and the sweats. It really isa great look. And Decay had begun
as an all American brand. Dressseeing casual clothes engines and the stuff looks
incredible and right now, the colorsand the styles is so exciting that I

(47:07):
feel great about the company. Ialways do. I wear the men's wear
all the time. I've had situationswhere I've gone to big events and been
interviewed in TV or radio and someonecomes up to me in the microphone and
like they always do, who youwearing? And here I am, this
big shot with big company and theysaid, well, I'm wearing a DKNY
and they laugh and say, no, you're not. Actually have one on

(47:29):
the internet where you could see me. They asked me what suit I'm wearing,
and I say dk Andy and openedit up and there's the DKNY label.
Great fashion. It fits well,it looks right. It's designed to
make you comfortable in the city,goes from day and to night. You
can wear it in the morning andwear in the afternoon and you look cool
at night as well. It's greatfor the office as great fulisia. But

(47:49):
I was talking about the dcmy activewear. The first time I really became aware
of that. Jesse and I wereup at Sirius Radio. He was doing
a job for serious He does DanAbrams show, he fills in on the
Potus Network, and we're in thelobby and this hip hop group came up
with this really great looking Latino singergirl Young Beautiful, and she was wearing

(48:12):
a dk and Y sports bar andI said to myself, this is amazing.
Actually went to Macy's to see it, and I'm excited about the brand.
And I'll tell you what, ladies, dk Y always has great fashion
for work, always wonderful dresses andthings that you'd wear. Their accessories are
great, the shoes are always verycool. But activewear in particular right now
looks sensational and being that everyone's athleisurein activewear, it's a great time dcmy

(48:36):
go take a look. As oneof the world's most celebrated fashion designers,
Carl Lagofeld was renowned for his aspirationaland cutting edge approach to style. His
unique vision of Parisian ship comes toAmerica through Carlagofeld Paris. He has women's
collections, men's collections, ready towear, accessory, shoes and bags.
The fashion house car Lagofeld also offersa range of watches, eye wearing premium

(49:00):
fagrances. You can explore the Carlogofllecollection at Carlogofelle Paris dot com. But
it's more than that. I forone, love to shop. I love
going around and seeing what's happening andwhat 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 maylook amazing. If you want to look

(49:20):
right, you want to have clothesthat fits you well. You want to
look like you're wearing something that's veryexpensive, that's exclusive for you and yours.
You can find it at very affordableprices at Macy's Socarlogofel dot com Paris.
The women's ready to wear fashion isextraordinary, as well as the handbags
in the shoes. I for onewear men's clothes, and unlike my appreciation

(49:43):
of women's clothes, I'm a modernguy. I want to look current.
I want to look the way Iwant to feel. I go out at
night, I'm in black and Carlagafelis my buddy. Clothes are great,
they fit great, and they havelittle tweaks and touches, whether it's a
stripe on the sleeve, or buttonat the neck or on the s shoulder.
There's a lot of details that gointo Carlagafeld because he's always been,

(50:04):
he always had been one of theworld's great designers, and this legacy and
goes on and on. I can'tspeak enough about it except to say to
you, you want to feel goodabout yourself. You want to know that
you're dressing properly. You want closethat fits you well. Carl Lagafeld,
Paris at Macy's or Karlgafel dot com. Welcome back to Always in Fashion.

(50:25):
Here's your host, Mark Webber.Tonight, the show's a Rat. I
intended to come into you and beon the dark side and rebuilding nasty guy
because it seems that I'm happier beingnasty, not being nice and sweet.
It seems that I enjoy myself whenI'm on the dark side. But in
the end, the whole subject ofa rat, it turned out to be

(50:45):
a fun night for me. Ididn't expect that it started with a rat.
You know that big gray rubber ratballoon that's representative the union's protesting in
places. That's one second had todo with being a rat because of being
good guys in the world of manufacturing. And then, of course I talked

(51:05):
about the rat pack in my alterego Escalante. I think that was really
funny unless, but not least seriously, I'm routing out the men. The
way you're dressed. You look likecrap. You look like buffoons, you
look like amateurs. Neck to thewomen you're with. It's unbelievable. And
I know you think you look good. I know you're trying by the shirts

(51:25):
you choose and some of the thingsyou accessorize, the nice watches, you
comb your hair, but you lookterrible. And those of you who are
wearing shorts and sandals, I haveno idea what you're going for. Jesus
was cool, You're not. Itdoesn't look good. Okay, now having
said it, I had a greattime tonight talking a rat and dealing with

(51:50):
the rats that I hope you enjoyedtonight Show Talk Today next week