Anything, Everything, and Nothing

Anything, Everything, and Nothing

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
show is sponsored by G three of Parow. If he's
expressed in the following program are those of the sponsor
and not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor or iHeartMedia.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Who is Mark Webber.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
He's a self made business executive here to help you
find your success, from the New York City projects to the.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Avenue Montaigne in Paris.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
His global success story in the luxury world of fashion
is inspirational.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
He's gone from clerk to CEO twice.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Mark his classic proof that the American dream is alive.
And well, here's your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Mark West.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Tonight, anything goes. I'm going to talk about whatever comes
to my mind. You could stay and listen, you can
turn the dial. But if you decide to go win
for yourself somewhere else, I respect it. I want to
talk about what I want to talk about, and tonight
it's anything I want see. If you decide to leave,
you'll miss some interesting stuff, I hope, some funny stories.

(01:05):
And I have to tell you when I first began
on radio, I found it so hard to find topics
to discuss. After all, Always in Fashion is original content.
It's kind of like the movies when they give out
awards for original screenplays versus the adapted from books or
other places. I have to come up with something that

(01:27):
doesn't exist. When you consider radio podcast for that matter,
there's politics, Trump did this or that. It's everywhere. I
talked to business angle. When it's business, then I'm involved
with Trump. Then of course there's news, weather and traffic,
and then there's sports. Anybody can come in on sports.
You don't need me. I'm original content. It's invented from

(01:52):
my imagination. I do talk business, observations and life lessons.
I began the show. When I began and the show,
and every time I started, I'd talk about, this is
a business show, this is always in fashion, this is business.
I tried to drive home the theme. I was concerned
the title always in Fashion would limit me to the

(02:14):
potential of the audience. I wouldn't stick with truck drivers.
I wouldn't get people in the city. I wouldn't get
anybody who didn't want to hear about fashion tit. I'd
lose out on teachers, accountants, politicians or whatever. They're not well,
they're not interested in fashion. I would guess. But nonetheless,
we have captured a very broad audience, and my audience

(02:36):
base is all over the world. I heard from people
in Hong Kong, I've heard from people in Korea. I
have a following in Europe. But I was concerned no
matter what I did, no matter how much I drove
home the fact in business, it'd be a problem. And
then Lo and Behold on podcasts, Apple and Spotify categorize
me as cultural and lifestyle and that changed everything because

(02:59):
it allowed me to talk about those subjects that I
wanted to talk about, which is pretty much anything, everything
or nothing, and that's tonight's show. Having said this, in
the beginning, it was always difficult to come up with
subjects that were relevant. I remember my first program director
at the Other network, a fellow named Craig Schwab, one

(03:21):
of the only guys who really helped me at that station.
He was signed to me when I first arrived. I
asked him to help me navigate through radio. I was
the CEO of two massive companies, largest one of the
largest power companies in the United States out of Peril,
and the largest luxury company in the world, and it
was hard to be CEO and president of those companies.

(03:41):
But I gotta tell you, talking on the radio, coming
up with concepts, taking on podcasts, coming up with contests,
that our original content is so much harder than being
a CEO. Now, I can't tell you what the news is.
I can't tell you the weather. I can't talk politics, sports,
Hey them Yankees. It's almost easy. Subject matters right in
front of you to read and you talk about it

(04:02):
and you give your opinion. This, however, is not my venue.
I have to think about something that's riddily in front
of you, but not me. Something out there would always sit.
That's the interesting part. I would talk about it, hold
your interest, entertain you. I'm telling you it is harder
than being a CEO. You know. No matter what happens
as a CEO, I don't how to deal with the

(04:24):
issues retail. My products aren't selling, my goods aren't performing.
I know what to do. The President Institute's tariffs, I
know what to do. I either move my products to
another country for manufacturing, or whether the storm and fight
it and wait it out. We have a tax problem.
My account advises me what to do. We have legal
issues every day. I'm probably one of the best legal

(04:46):
executives that ever existed because of all the legal problems
I had to confront and deal with as a corporate executive,
real estate, employment, law, licensing contracts, It's all there and
around the world. As an executive, I only need it,
and I only needed a couple of people reporting directly
to the men. You know, as an executive. I put

(05:09):
it in context. I needed a salesman because I'm not
a seller. I hate seller. I'm a buyer. I'm not
a seller. I want to tell people what to do.
I don't want to be held out there waiting to
hear whether I like what they have to say. I
could corporate strategies sell with the best in them, but
I never took orders. I need a salesman who can
navigate the word no deal with disappointment. That's not me.

(05:34):
Sellers out there take a lot of junk, but I
appreciate it. I need them. Won't stop me from giving
them a hard time. Though I find sale is funny,
you know, I buy a car. Seller is funny. Every
time I'm in salesman in the store, they want to
talk to me. It's funny. I'm not a salesman. I
respect them. It's something I can do. I just can't do.
But while I'm out, and I'm not done, goofing on them.

(05:55):
Alvin Einstein is walking through Heaven, sees a guy walks
over them and says, hey, what was your IQ down there?
And the guy says two hundred and Albert says, what
did you do down there? I was a brain surgeon,
Albert system, you know I know something about a brain.
I have some information i'd love to share with you.
Let's get together for dinner. So he walks away, Albert Einstein.

(06:16):
He walks a little further and he sees a woman
and he says, to Hi, what was your outcome down there?
What I sees? She sees a woman says, Hi, what
is your IQ down there? Well? That was one hundred
and eighty nine and she said I was a rocket scientist.
He says, I know something about rocket ships the MC squared.
Why don't we have dinner? And they you agree to

(06:36):
have dinner. So he walks a little further. He's a guy.
He walks out of him, says, hey, guy, what was
your IQ down there when you weren't in Heaven? He
says eighty. Then he takes a minute to think and
he goes, how is sales all right? Enough? For salesman?
I also need a great chief financial officer. I need
someone who knows how to put all the numbers together.
I need someone who understands the county tricks of the

(06:59):
trade to present the numbers that need to be presented. Now,
you could be the CEO, the chief financial author of
a direct to line to the board. So even though
they work for you, there they were for the company, unless,
but not least, I need an attorney. Those are the
only three jobs I need next to me reporting to me.
Everything else I can figure out everything else I could

(07:21):
get done, but legally it was so complicated everything and
I understand what needed to be done to walk the
right path because honestly, I want to be able to
sleep a night. So back to original content. What are
you talking about anyway? I was talking about the skuy
Craig Schwab who gave me the opportunity to work and

(07:41):
teach me, and he taught me about ins and outs.
You know, when I leave the radio on the segment
I come back in, I have to be able to
talk to you and bring you up to date because
some pointe pull are getting in and out of the car.
They don't know what we talked about. So I learned
these things, but then the question of topics, I found
it impossible back to original content, and he was very helpful.

(08:01):
It's common to me at the beginning was think about
the calendar and follow the calendar. So for instance, it's July,
i'll talk about summertime, it's September, it's back to school.
I talked about the Vogue issues, and I talked about
what goes back in businesses. It's September, October is Halloween,
November is Thanksgiving. And I used the calendar de point
myself into in the right direction and deal with it.

(08:25):
But in the end, it all came down to being
and having an interest in life, being an interesting person,
reading all the time, listening all the time, and finding
new subjects that I can talk about on any given day.
And early in the process I came up with an
idea called anything goes like the Broadway show. And to
that end, I'm mixing it up tonight. There's no theme, anything,

(08:49):
everything and nothing. That's what we're talking about. I did
have an interesting week. I was entertained, and now it's
my turn to entertain you. Now, let me start with fashion.
In my world, you have to look your best, even
though this show's biz, I got to talk about how
you look anything in life. It shouldn't matter how you look,
but it does, and in particular with style. Sometimes I'm lazy,

(09:12):
I really don't care about what I'm doing. But if
I know I'm going out to be seen, I believe
I have an obligation to look my best, and I have.
But I think this is a funny story to make
that point. In the day before I was on radio,
I used to be important. I was an important guy.
I was honored on a number of occasions, big industries,

(09:33):
Black kai events, And one day I get a call
a fellow named Gary Boyson, who was representing the Boy
Scouts of America. His real career was executive vice president
of the huge retail conglomerate, and he called me and
picked up proponents of mark. I'm representing the boy Scouts.
We're having our debt together. We'd like to make humanity.

(09:53):
And that was very flattered. I mean, after all, you know,
you get an honor, you get offered an honor, it's impressive.
The reality, of course, is they were picking me because
with my name they could sell a lot of tables
for their charity, the Boy Scouts of America. But nevertheless,
I was excited to be recognized, and I had received
a number of awards along the way, and I've been

(10:15):
at the boy Scout event on very many occasions. It
was prestigious, it was well done, and it was covered
wildly by the press. They were all over it be
all over the wimswear Dale and every other press outlet
that was interested in the fashion of the business community.
So when he got me on the phone, I was thankful.

(10:35):
I was respectful. But here was the kicker. There's a
point of the ceremony when the awar d me. In
this case, the Manibia would be handed out a trophy.
But before you get a trophy, you have to put
on the boy Scout neckerchief and the boy Scout hat.
Well have any of you seen what that boy Scout

(10:57):
hat looks like. Well, I'll tell you, Smokey the bear,
this is Mark Webber. I cannot wear that hat. So
I say to mister Boyce, I'm really excited about the opportunity,
so I have to wear the hat, and he says, yes,
it's part of the history in the highlight of the sermon,

(11:18):
and I'm laughing at myself. I said, I can't wear
the hat. What do you mean you can't wear that?
I don't want to wear the hat. Well, you said
you can't wear it, you don't want to? Which is it? Said?
I won't wear that. It's not my style, but it's
the organization style. It's not me. Are you saying you
don't want the award? No, I want the award. I

(11:39):
just can't wear the hat. This guy now is laughing
his head off. He says, you know, since our history
in nineteen ten giving us this award, you're the only
guy who ever refused to wear our hat. Yep, that's me.
And I have to say to you, mister Boyson, the
entire fashion press will be that and no matter what
happens to me and the rest to my career, there's

(12:01):
always going to be a picture of me wearing that
smoking the bare hat. I can't let that happen. So
he laughed. He said, you're not serious. I said, yes,
I am. I'm deadly serious. I said, if I have
to wear the hat, I'm not accepting the award. And
lo and behold, I didn't get the award. He thought
I was crazy. I thought he was crazy to walk away.

(12:21):
I was a big drawer. As they said, I'm not
important now, but I used to be then. But I
never looked back. I always thought about how important it
is to understand who you are, what you stand for,
and be true to yourself. Don't get me wrong, it
was this prestigious award to be the idea of compromising
my brand. I couldn't do it, which got me to
thinking about this this week. Why am I thinking about that?

(12:43):
Because I've been watching a lot of sports, and I'm
of course a fan of the way the athletes dress.
You ever watch a basketball team arriving in the arena,
they dressed their best. They're all suits, tailored, respectful, dress up.
Too many accessories of mine an from my taste, many hats,
too much pocket Julie, pocket squares, sneakers with the white souls.

(13:05):
But I respect it all the pay layers giving their
best effort in fashion. In this case, I don't care
what they look like. I'm not going to be judgmental
because they care. Kudos for the NBA for creating this respect.
But at the same time, I like to be accurate.
I hate coaches wearing T shirts and jersey they're the management.

(13:29):
What are they wearing T shirts and jerseys for? It
looks like they're part of the team. I get it,
But where's pat Riley when you need him? The case
of baseball, same thing holds true. All these athletes coming
into the stadium are well dressed. I don't agree with
their fashion choices. I don't agree with the way they

(13:49):
style themselves, but it's their style right along.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
And I.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Watch it this past week the All Star Game. I
believe in the rules. A Baseball All Star game, entering
the players the field, coming into state and it was
a big day. It was a fashion event and I
loved it. But hopefully the style is right for their image.
In this case baseball, the coaches are in the dugout
and it's okay for them to be wearing the team
uniform or jerseys. I get it. Coach in a bugout

(14:19):
is with the team and it's very different. But I
am confused with baseball uniforms. Maybe you out there could
tell me, write me a note on Instagram or on LinkedIn.
Some guys are still wearing Founding Father's uniforms. You know
those knee high pants with the high socks. Get in
the history. You know, red sox, white Sox, black socks.

(14:40):
I get it. But others are wearing long pants. What's
the uniform? Is it the uniform or not? So I
think about sports and I watched Wimbleton tennis. I used
to have, As I said, I used to be important.
I had a front row box at the US Open
in New York and I would wear a Anybody would
wear whatever they like. I was always elegant, elegant casual,

(15:04):
a tennant sweater or a linen shirt, rolls, watch ray
ban aviators, swede shoes, not sneakers, white pants. I always
looked apart. Wimbledon is different. I've been to London. I
got dressed in a top hat for the racing at
Ascot and at Wimbledon I dressed up to the stands
or a suit or sport coast. But I do appreciate

(15:25):
the rules of white tennis apparel, which is different from
the rest of the world because tennis apparel has gone electric,
and then that electric electricity, I've implawed the color and excitement.
There's no people are wearing whatever that want in tennis,
and it's a little crazy at time, the dresses and
some of the athletic uniforms. But I respect it. It's

(15:47):
amazing the way they dress. But in Wimbledon, wearing white,
wearing tradition, looking a certain way, having a history, recognition
of the way the game was played. After all these years,
I admired. I love it. I love rules. Not necessarily
for me, but I think in fact we need them.
And it's interesting. If you sit in the boost of

(16:08):
the title sponsors of the US OAP and Tennis with
your CBS, you must wear jacket, a college shirt tie
I think is optional Wimbledon, the big Powell players whoever
are providing seats, particularly the royal family, you have to
have a dress code and many people understand it. It's
the way you have to be. So dressing can be powerful,

(16:30):
it's historical, it can be anything you want. But here
I am watching TV and thinking about anything. Everything, nothing
goes back in a moment.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Always in fashion.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl
Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
America through Car Lagofeld, Paris He has women's collections, men's collections,
ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house
Carlagofield also offers a range of watches I wear in

(17:06):
premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagophil collection at
car lagophelpowers 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's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it, and
they look amazing. If you want to look right, you

(17:29):
want to have clothes that fits you well. You want
to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's
exclusive for you and yours. You can find it at
very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com. Paris, the
women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as
the handbigs and the shoes. I for one, wear men's clothes,

(17:50):
unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy.
I want to look current. I want to look the
way I want to feel. I go out at night,
I'm in and Carl Lagafeld is my buddy. Carls are great,
they fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches,
whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or button at
the neck or on the shoulder. There's a lot of
details that go into Carlagafel because he's always been, he

(18:14):
always had been one of the world's great designers, and
this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak
enough about it except to say to you, you want
to feel good about yourself. You want to know that
you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well.
Carl Lagafeld, Paris at Macy's Orkarlagafel dot.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Com Always in Fashion.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Spent a lifetime of my career building the van Usen Brand,
and I am so pleased that they're back with us
now talking about suits. Men were dressing up again and
it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits can be
won on multip occasions in multiple ways. You could wear
a suit formally to go out at night or to

(18:56):
an event. You could wear a suit to the office
with or without a tie. If you look closely. Now
fashion trends, suits are being worn with turtlenecks or Mark next.
The choices are endless and every one of them looks right.
You could really really look the part. I believe that
packaging yourself this is important. Does the products you package

(19:18):
and wearing a suit is one of those things that
make men look their best. Venues In invented a new idea.
It's called the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with
stretched technology, giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility.
It's wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture WICKI. It makes
it perfect for all occasions. As we discussed just now,

(19:40):
this new style of looking sharp while feeling cool and
comfortable is amazing, and I'm so excited that the ven
using company is involved in this new technology and is
embracing the whole idea of dressing up. Let's not forget
Venues and made its name with dress shirts. It's only
proper that the suit business strongly in its way. You

(20:02):
can find van Ues and Koolflex Men's stretch suits at
Jcpenny are online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great,
you should go look at them.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
I started the show, talking about the fact that this
show is original content comes from my brain. It comes
from nowhere. I don't know where it comes from. To
be perfectly honest, we're different from any other show because
we're not news or weather or sports or politics. I
have to invent things that come into my mind. And
usually I have one theme that I cover for the night,
and just one theme was not on my mind. It's

(20:39):
week a lot of different things. When I decided this
show is considered tonight, it's title is everything, anything or nothing,
And that's what I'm going to talk about. And I
just thought about, you ever hear the term of course
you have you can't fight city Hall? But did you
ever hear the term you never want to get in
a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

(21:03):
Think about that one for a second, because another one
I want to think about you never want to put
anything in writing that you wouldn't be okay seeing on
the cover of the New York Times. But this is
a backtrap. I want to talk a little bit about
politics and how you deal with the press. First of all,
Donald Trump, I'm listening this week. He's been in office

(21:27):
for six months, and if you listen to the press,
or you listen to the Democrats. He has done nothing
right in six months. Is that the position you really
want to take? You know, I don't want to get
into it. But he's interceded in wars and conflicts. He's

(21:47):
strived to end wars in conflict. He's done some great
things with tariffs. As you see, it's unwieldy for my industry,
luxury retail and apparel manufacturing. It's been a nightmare. But
he's winning. There's no way around it. We have been
taking advantage of as a country that people have established

(22:07):
tariffs on their countries that we can't export freely, and
we've allowed them to export freely here. That doesn't make
any sense. We're not buying enough from their countries that
they should respect us. Of course, he's right. I like
what he's doing, and I'm knitting. It is terrible what's
going on as an industry figuring out what to do.
It's chaos. But he's right. We give him no credit whatsoever,

(22:32):
zero anyway. He can't win. No matter what he does,
he can't win. But I don't want to go there.
I'm not talking about politics. I want to go back away.
Many years ago, my first drawby was fired. Those are
you followers of the show? You'd be shaking your heads. Yeah.
I've talked about it a million times. I can only
tell you that being fired, particularly at a public company,

(22:55):
is the worst thing that ever happened to be, certainly
in business. And on a list of top ten things
in my life that went wrong, that was wrong, turned
out it was okay. I did nothing wrong. I just
wasn't the guy the board wanted to run their company
long term. But I'll never forget I had immediately, almost overnight,

(23:17):
started negotiating with LVMH Louis vetanmoh Ed Hennessy to become
their CEO of the America Is, to run a bunch
of companies and operations for them, and the information and
the whole thing was going very very well. And then
one day there was some leakage. I had been visiting
with Donna Karen talking about taking over a company, and frankly,

(23:40):
Donna Karen didn't like me. Why she didn't think I
had enough of a luxury background. I wasn't her kind
of guy. I was independent, and I have to tell
you when I met with Donna, I was tough as nails.
I did nothing to placate her. I did nothing to
make her feel warm and cuzy. My entire approach to
Donna Karen is I know what I'm doing. I'm a professional.

(24:00):
I have a track record to do. Your company isn't
making money. LVMH bought the company. They wanted to make money.
They want me to do it, and I know how
to do that. This is what I've done for the
last twenty five thirty years. I take companies and make
them better. I take companies and fix them. Anytime PVH.
Philips then using the company owns Calvin and Tommy company
I grew up in thirty years, anytime we bought something new,

(24:23):
I was given the assignment to fix it, bring it
in and make that acquisition successful. Anytime something had a problem,
I would be sent to the locale of that company
and not leave until it was fixed. But I told
Donna that, and she didn't like any of it. So
while this was going on, she leaked to the press
that I was interviewing. And the next day two things happen.

(24:46):
One there's an article written by Wimswear Daily and in
the article it said, rumor has it that LVMH is
interviewing Mark Weber for the head of the Donna Karrent company.
Why would they do that after him being CEO for
a year, being fired and let go the second thing

(25:07):
that happened. That's not bad enough. The second thing that
happened is how I get a call from the head
of human resources at Louis Vuittanmoheadessee in Paris, Madame Conchetto,
who I had met, who I had liked, that she
liked me, and screaming at me, Curson, you Americans? You

(25:28):
what do you do? Who do you think you are? Yes,
we offered you a job, Yes you have a contract,
but you have no right, no right to talk to
the press on our behalf. At the end of her screaming,
I said, Madame Conchetto, you're talking to the wrong person.
First of all, I'm in vacation in Arizona, and second

(25:48):
of all, I would never talk to the press about
your company. You know this is not my first radio
I was the CEO of a public company. I understand
how it worked. You, my friend, are talking to the
wrong person. I suggest you talked to Donna Karen and
her vast marketing and pr empire that exists in Manhattan.
You're talking to the wrong guy, so that I have

(26:11):
to deal with what's going on. Women's Wear Daily did
a smear job on me. How could they write that?
You know, I left the company. I was let go.
It was announced a week later by the Security Exchange Commission.
I was at see Over public company. They had to
make some kind of announcement to let the company, oh
in the world know and they'll share all this know

(26:32):
that what was in fact no wrongdoing, And they announced
it at the end of the week. It was no wrongdoing.
And then Mark Webber received the benefits from his contract
and all of the things that the company owed him.
So I was being alleviated of any wrongdoing. I will
tell you I had some close friends and thought maybe
I did real things by people who said I was radioactive,

(26:53):
But it wasn't true. I did nothing wrong. On the
board as a fiducial and financial responsibility to pick the
CEO of their choice, and when they named me CEO,
they were happy with it, but they had something else
in mind. They wanted their financial guy, and when they
felt they could make that choice, they did it. But

(27:13):
there's no way that I should be harassed or spoken
to that way by women's who are Daily. And what
happened was the publisher of Womensweardale. It was a fellow
named ed Nardozer, and I had known ed Nardoza. And
here I am. I get a call from my friend
I'm on vacation, say you just had a smear job

(27:33):
done by Womenswear Daily. You're interviewing with LVMH and they're
saying they shouldn't hire it. So I called ed Nardozer.
I got him on the phone. I said, Ed do
you look what was written about me today? He said, no,
tell me. I said, your paper said that I was
interviewing with elvim H and there's no way they should

(27:54):
hire me. I said, Ed, you know, with all the
respect I was let go from PVH. It was announced
that I had no wrong doing. Why in the world
would your reporter write that about me? And he was
quiet for a minute and he said, I won't say
whether my reporter did right or wrong. Let me read
the article and I'll come back to you. I said,

(28:16):
can I hold on? He said, why don't you hold on?
So I held on. He read the article. So time
is passing. I'll never forget where I was. I was
at the fourth Seasons Aviara in San Diego. I was
at the driving range, getting ready to play golf. I
was on vacation of my family and I'd been let go.
But you know what life goes on. And I read

(28:37):
this article, and he reads the article. It's back to
me on the punt, He said, Mark, here's what I'll
tell you. My reporter wrote what he believed to be
an accurate story, and in that regard, I will support him.
But I promise you that there will be no more
articles of that ILK written about you. I said, I
appreciate that, because I understand I was let go, but

(28:58):
it's your paper saying that I should never work again
in this industry. Mark, let's not go there. I promise
you that it won't happen again. And the point of
the story is you can't argue with people who buy
ink by the battle. And this week I've watched what's
happened to President Trump. Now happened to be supporter of

(29:21):
the president. But you know what's even more important, where
did it go? Where did our belief in this country
and institution go? We should want the president to be successful,
we should support him, this guy. You know, if you
don't like him personally, I get it. He's his own
worst enemy. But he is doing good. You can't find

(29:46):
in his list of things that he's doing anything that
makes sense, anything that is good for the country. Whether
you believe in immigration or not. The word in front
of the conversation and immigration is illegal. We had open borders,
no rules. He stopped it. He's done everything he can.

(30:06):
He stopped the war potential war between Pakistan and India.
He interceded with Russia a few times. He's trying to
get it fixed. He's put in trade issues. He's gotten
NATO members to spend five percent of their annual GDP
on protecting their own countries. And he said, I won't
do it unless.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
You do it.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
It's done a lot right those things that I'm not
covering that you might think he's not done right. Okay,
but you got to give him credit. But the problem
is even President Trump can't fight the people who are
buying ink by a barrel. So on my subject matter tonight,
I had to bring that up. And taking a break,
we'll be back in a minute. I'll talk some more business.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Always in fashion, this.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Is Mark Weber. We're living in strange times, but nonetheless
we all have to get dressed. Interestingly enough, we're dressing
differently because we're working at home and most people want
to wear clothes that they're comfortable in. And having said that,
I'm very excited to be affiliated with k and Y,
both men's and women's because they have some of the

(31:11):
best active wear collections that you've ever seen. Now, this
is not a time to be thinking about what's important
in business. It's the time to be thinking about a
lot of different things. We're all under the gun, we're
under attack, but at the same time, we have to
live our lives. We have to get up in the morning,
brush our teeth, get dressed, feel good about ourselves. I

(31:32):
can only tell you that DK and Y right now
has active wear that looks sensational. Now, the good news
is is as we dress up casually, we still are
working from home and working for home. You have to
believe in the adage. You still have to look your best,
particularly when you're having conference calls and video conferences with
different people. Nobody's looking at what you're wearing in your pants,

(31:55):
but wearing sweatpants form DK and Y that are comfortable
and look cool, great or portantly. The tops let you
look active, let you look comfortable, let you look fashionable,
and you don't have to give up your style. DKY
Activewear is incredible, as I say, both for men's and women's.
And here's the best news of all. This virus will

(32:16):
be behind us. Soon We'll be back out there making
an impression, taking care of business, going through the activities
our lives and on the casual side, whether we go
to the gym, whether we go to sporting events, whether
we go to our children's sporting events, we have to
look the part decay.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Y act always in fashion.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
A favorite brand has always been ISOD. My company at
one time bought that brand. The CEO of the company
handed it to me and said, you better make it work.
And I put everything in my career to make Eyesod
work and I fell in love with that brand, and
to this day it is one of the most exciting
endeavors I've ever got involved with. Is an incredibly strong

(33:01):
golf brand. If you play golf, if you play tennis
for that matter, They make a great polo shirts. I
mean great, They're fit perfect. The material is unique because
it's a PK fabric, that waffle weave you see, and
it's made of a blend of cotton and microfiber that

(33:23):
allows you to stretch. And very often they are treated
with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable,
and they breathe well. And one thing about Isaac, they
always fit. They'll never tug on you. You put it
in your waist, they'll fit you great. The colors patterns
are sensational. Now I will also tell you Isaac makes

(33:45):
great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and
you want to look good. You don't have to think
about how do I look. You want to think about
how you play, not how you feel. Isaad is the
brand for you. I know I was there when it
was created. The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's
one of my favorite brands. While I talk about it,
I should tell you about the men's sportswear. ISOD wasn't

(34:07):
enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just
great polo shirts with logos, without logos, incredible branded story
and history. ISOD makes salt weather programs. They have great
printed woven shirts, short sleeves that look excellent with colors.

(34:27):
Excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which they
also make this whole salt order relaxed line from Iso,
whether it be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts
and pants of a range of colors and fabrics that
are perfect for a guy wants to go casually in
the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing,

(34:50):
isod is affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this
brand can afford to buy it and know that there
are a lot of other brands that also have a
look like ISID. Although I don't believe it's fun as
Eyesida is. The brand has a lot of energy in it,
but at the price points no one can compete. You

(35:13):
can find ISAAC at You're leading retails and online at
isai dot com.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Welcome back to it Always in fashion. Here's your host, Mark.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Webber Tonight's show is Everything, Anything and Nothing, which basically
means anything goes. I'm talking about what I want to
talk about, and I'm going back and forth. Fuck business.
I talked a little bit about a bunch of stuff.
You know what I want to talk about right now?
I want to talk about books. I've been thinking about
the books I've written the last few weeks, and I
actually did a show not too long ago. But I

(35:43):
want to talk about Always in Fashion, the nameshake of
this show. I did this book. I wrote it. It
was a joy. It's a great book, and I'm told
that people who read it give it to their children.
It's just the must read. Now, am I trying to
sell books? No, this book is dated two thousand fifteen.
I'm working on a third version. Well, that's not what

(36:03):
I want to talk about. What I want to talk
about is recording a book out of nowhere. It was
on my mind. Why two things happened this week? They
caught my attention. First of all, Regis Philbin. I could
give you a long story about Regis Philbin, and I
will one of these days. I knew Regis hung out
with him a bit. Regis became the post a child

(36:25):
for a shirt and a collection that we did called
Regis Philbin the Regis Line where he's on the Millionaire
wearing all those dark shirts with the matching ties. We
sold hundreds of thousands of dozens of Regia's shirts and ties.
We sold tons of them, made a ton of money,
and I got to know Regis. That's another story for
another time, but reminded me of him. I was on

(36:46):
Instagram the other day and there was a recording of
one of the people that won the million dollars on
his show, and it starts with Regis getting on the
phone making the phone call. If you remember the show,
you were asked a bunch of questions, so you went
from twenty five dollars up to a million, and at
the last question, when you're going from five hundred thousand

(37:07):
to a million dollars, you had the ability if you
kept this perk that they offered you to call a
friend and get some help with an answer. And this
contestant was on and Regis was explaining it. Hi, John,
I'm here with your son, Jim. He's won five hundred
thousand dollars. He's one question away from a million dollars,
and in this show, he has the ability to make

(37:27):
a call to anyone he wants to ask for help.
And he's on the phone with you now, John, I
want to turn him over to you, and he has
a question for you. And the son gets on the
phone and he goes, Hi, Dad, I really don't have
a question for you. I'm calling you to let you
know that I'm going to win the million dollars. I

(37:48):
know the answer, and he goes the answer is Richard
Nixon is my final answer, and sure enough, Regis goes, hey,
that's it. I never had a call like that, and
you won a million dollars. And it got me thinking
about Regis Philbin, and I thought it was fascinating. And
I thought it thinking because in Regis Stilbin's book he
talked about how I spent some time within me and
the folks from my company and we had a big

(38:10):
press release when we launched the Regis line and we
went to twenty one Club for lunch. It was the
place he picked and he knew him and I hadn't
thought about it in a while and never re just
never told me other than sending me a book he wrote,
It's not easy being Me. And in the book, I
read the chapter he had tabbed and explained that we

(38:31):
had this great lunch, all of us together, and we
all left went home happy, and when he got home
he got the bill. I stuck him with the bill,
and I didn't realize even though it was my event.
So that got me thinking about this anyway, always in
fashion the book as they said, it's a good book
and it's It was translated into Mandarin or Chinese, and

(38:53):
it was translated into Japan into Japanese. Because fashion in
the world and the brands I represented in the name
an importance of the company, and I said, said earlier,
I used to be important. The book got translated into
many languages. It sold all over the world. But at
one point, after the book was written and we were
coming out, they asked me to do an oral version

(39:15):
of the book. That wanted me to read the book.
I said, why don't we hire Some said, though we
want you to read it, it has more significance. So I
reluctantly agreed to read the book and recorded for the
publishing company, which mcgrow helped. Sevy set me up in
a studio in Eleventh Avenue, and it was an interesting

(39:37):
place because the entire studio was devoted to book recordings.
And as I got there, I noticed thousands of books
on display in video cassettes or CDs that wey recorded
for other people. And while I was waiting to record,
I noticed that Michael Caine recorded a book and I

(40:00):
I thought it would be interesting to listen to him
coming to and from the city. When I was recording
a book, hold that to it for a second. So
I went, well, I went over to the front place
a receptionist and she said, I said to her, can
I borrow this? She said, yes, we view it as
a library. You get you to sign in and out.
We hope you bring it back. We're gonna trust that

(40:20):
you bring it back. But I signed my name, I
took the book and let's just hold that for a second.
So I go into this tiny recording booth like her
phone booth. And many of you have seen what it
looks like to record in a booth when artists records songs.
I'm in this tiny book. It's sound controlled. You put
on the headphones and you read the books. I can't

(40:41):
tell you how hard it was to read the book.
First of all, you have to read every word. Someone's
listening while I'm doing this, every single word. If I
put in uh instead of uh, they stopped me and
I had to go back and record it. I recorded
for three hours the first day, and I I will
tell you it was torture because it's not just reading.

(41:04):
This is my book. I want to talk. You have
to read it with emotion. You have to read it
with you know, your personality, and it was so difficult.
I left that day after three and a half hours.
I called mcroyhill and I said, really, I don't want
to do this, so you have to do it. I
don't want to do it, you have to do it.
So I ended up realizing I had to do it.
But let's go back to Michael Caine. Michael Caine one

(41:26):
of the world's best, most famous actors, right, great guy.
I go home on the car. In the car, I'm
listening to this thing, but it's Michael Caine, for christs sake.
The guy was unbelievable. It was like he was acting
out a role. And I got even more upset at
what I had to do. Can you imagine this, this guy,
Michael Caine, He was brilliant, brilliant, and I'm recording this

(41:50):
is always in fashion. Uh, That's what I've been thinking
about this week. It took me a month to record
the book because every three hour session I had to
do over and over and over again to try and
make my voice, my personality and do that. And that's
what has been going on, and that's what I thought
about this week. Now I could stop the segment right here,

(42:16):
but I've decided because everything, anything and nothing goes tonight,
and I wanted to talk about something else. I wanted
to talk about the law. I said earlier that there
are only three people I need to be successful in
running a company. A salesman, a chief financial officer, and
an attorney, because I know how important those three disciplines are,

(42:40):
and I know how important it has to be to
have experts at those functions. So I could be alone
in business. I could be my own cassel. I can
make my own decisions. But if you're good at what
you do and you get your opinions from people that
you need, you have to make decisions. And that's what
you do. You get paid to make decisions. And I
have a story I want to tell you. When I

(43:02):
was part of the LVMH Group, they gave me a
number of assignments. I had fancy titles, but the most
important one was being the CEO of Donna, Karen and DKY.
And the interesting thing is when you're operating big companies
like that, there's a part of the company that's an
operating company. It's those things you do where you have

(43:22):
an expertise so in the case of Donna Karen, we
manufactured and designed and sourced our own peril for both
Dona Karen Collection and DK and Y. We also then
are unmanufactured and design our own handbags and our own
shoes for women in both those collections. In the case
of men's LVMH believed that men should be licensed rather

(43:46):
than done in house. And what is licensing. Licensing is
a technique you use to expand your brand, to expand
the portion of your business that would enhance the brand
make you more money, but you wouldn't do it yourself
because you didn't have that expertise. And to that end,
dcayn Y had a licensee for Jenes as successful licensee.

(44:08):
It was the company that is now known as Tapestry
that owned Liz Claiborne, and at the time they gave
Liz Claiborne the license, Liz Claiborne was one of the
most successful women's companies in the history of women's wear,
and at the same time they had one of the
most successful men's wear businesses ever. Now, in perspective, did

(44:31):
we need a men'swear company to do it? No, But
we made a decision to take the easier route. Have
a licensee who would do it and just collect the
money oversee it. See licensing use a two edged sword
on the blunt edge of the sword. It's easy. Someone
else is designing it, buying the inventory, planning the business,
working with retailers, making the sale, taking back inventory that

(44:54):
didn't work, marking down inventory that wasn't sing. It's hard
to be an operating company, and you really need the expertise.
And Liz Claiborne was good at men, so I would
say to you it was a good decision. One day
Liz Claiborne has a management change, the CEO is out,
the new CEO is in, and they were all licensee
for jeans, and we had a huge business in jeans

(45:17):
in DCN. Why, in fact, all the research I ever
did when you asked people what they expected to find
at a Donna Karen's store, Now, mind you, Donna Karon
is a collection store on sixty eighth Street. The dresses
began at one thousand dollars, went up to ten thousand.
All the pants was five hundred to one thousand dollars,
the handbags one thousand. Well, we'd ask him what did

(45:37):
you expect to find in the Donna Karen store, and
they would say jeans and T shirts and there were
no genes in Donna Karen. They were not selling thirty
nine or forty nine dollars and fifty nine dollars jeans
DCN Why was so? Dkn why made a huge impression
And we shouldn't be surprised because it was doing three
hundred million dollars a year in sale for fifteen years.

(45:58):
That's a lot of billions of dollars in a company
that's known for collection merchandise like Donna Karen. Jeans and
T shirts matter. So anyway, Liz Claiborne had the rights
to jeans and they were doing your job. In fact,
I'll never forget one day when I first came in
and I was doing my due diligence on the company.
I just began first month, was learning before I had

(46:20):
to make decisions. I went to see the president of
the Macy's department store group. They were huge, and I
went to see them. The largest business we had in
jeans was there. The woman's name is let me think, oh,
Janet Grove. I have a thing with names. I'm pretty
good at it. Anyway, Janet Groove was there and she
agreed to see me. I went up to her offices
that were located actually in Macy's business and building on

(46:41):
thirty fourth Street, and she said, Mark, you don't have
to sit down. The DKY business is the best. She says.
Your jeans business is amazing. She said. Anytime someone comes
up to me and asked me at the company what
they need to do well in jeans in Macy's, I
tell them just look at Ukny. I go down on
the floor. Look at the way they present it, look

(47:03):
at the packaging, look at the items, look at the
price points. This is the most successful, genius business we have.
And I was thrilled. She said, Mark, we could talk
about other things. Then we did. I talked about other opportunities,
but the reality is that made me feel well. So
let's circle back to DKY Men's Lisz Clayborn. The men's business. Yeah,

(47:23):
I'll teach you something. In the world, the men's business
is pretty much set up in two lifestyles. There's a
traditional or modern traditional lifestyle. It's red, white and blue.
Companies like Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hillfigure Norica. They were leading.
They still do in many respects. The traditional modern traditional

(47:43):
part of the business, and then there was modern contemporary.
These are the black brands, those modern things rag and
Bone today. Back in the day it was kind of
coal to a degree. But the biggest, biggest business before
we launched Calvin Klink, which we did and that was
a black brand, was Liz Claiborne Men's. They had a

(48:06):
business in black in modern sports where contemporary sports are
to rival Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hill.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
For and Noerica.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
So now I'll hold that piece of information. There's a
new CEO of Liz Claiborne and I haven't met him yet,
so I call his office and I said, hey, it's
time we meet. Bill McCombe was his name, and bil
Ma coombe says, Mark, I am sorry, I could be
over there. Their office is down the block. He's I'll
be over there in five minutes, comes up to see me,
sits down. He said, look, Mark, you're going to be

(48:37):
reading that I'm selling off a lot of companies. I
need to do these things to make Liz Claiborne as
profitable as could be. But I want you to know
that your Jean's business is a shining star within our empire,
and it's the one thing. I can promise you we'll
never sell. Thank you, mister McComb, thank you. I appreciate it.
It's good to hear. But I have another idea for you.
I said, we have a men's business. We want to

(48:58):
light incense. Lvmage prefers me to license men and do
it myself. And I thought about your business is Liz Claiborne,
And I said to myself, if you have the bandwidth,
if you have the ability, I would like to license you,
Liz Clayborn. I would like to eat dk Y Modern
Sports and give you the opportunity to put it with
this Clayborn expand the size of your business. It be synergistic.

(49:22):
You have a lot of overhead that you can have
covered by two brands instead of one. Would you do it?
He says, I don't like that idea. I love that idea.
I know how powerful dcam, why is Give me a week.
I'll come back to you. We're going to do it.
It's a great idea, Okay, met the new CEO. Great
On A fast forward six months later, I'm going to

(49:43):
review the new DCM why sportswear line Modern Sports were
done by Liz Claiborne. I go up to see it.
The showrooms are let up. You know what actually used
to happen with me. Whenever anybody set up things to
show me the following day, I'd go the night before
and look at it myself when no one was there. Yeah,
I didn't need a dialogue. I didn't need someone explaining it.

(50:04):
I have questions, I'd ask him, and by the time
I would come to the meeting with them, I already
knew I had prospectives and I knew what I wanted
to do. So I went and I looked, and I
was shell shocked. And I don't use the word shocked lightly.
You're never supposed to be shocked in business. I was shocked.
Why it didn't look like a contemporary, modern men's sportswear line.

(50:26):
It looked like a jeans line that had other stuff
in it. I was really taken aback because we already
had a Gen's line that was successful. Why would it
look like Gens. Why didn't it look modern, dress up
elegant like the direction I did. We had the meeting
and it turned out that they didn't give it to
the list Clayborne group. They gave it to the dkmy

(50:48):
Gens group and undermine everything I had in mind. And
fast forward after a year it was not successful. Why
because it's in the gens line and they said they
didn't need it. So this is one of those times
I was right and they didn't want to be right.
I felt let down by Bill McCombe, but I moved on.

(51:09):
They wanted out of the contract. I said, sure, you
can get out of the contract, but you're going to
have to pay me for the full term of the license,
which is five years, which was a fortune, and they did.
Public company signed the contract. Want out. You have to
hold them to the contract, and they did, and I
collected the money in the inter I found the European
company to come in and licensed men's wear for globally

(51:30):
around the world as well as the United States. So
I double pumped and double collected. Hardship turned out to
be a great thing for us and for a financial
point of view. Until about a year later, I get
a call from investment banker who d very well. He's
the founder of a company called Financo Gill Haverson. He

(51:54):
has retired since then, he's still active, great guy and
came only on the phone and he said, Mark, you
have to take the jeans license back from Liz Clayburn.
What do you mean I have to I've got a
contract for next ten years if you have to take
it back. I said, I don't want it back. He says, Mark,
I'm trying to help you. I'm your friend. I said,
it doesn't sound like you're a friend. He said, but

(52:14):
you know what. Let me look into it. And I
find out that the Liz Claiborne effort on jeans Nicky
White is dying. We went from their best supplier to
the worst supplier under this new management, and it's going
to be a disaster. I get together again with Gil
but Harris, and he tells me, look, Mark, they're not
paying attention to it. They're gonna let it dwindle down.

(52:36):
If you're gonna lose image, they're gonna make junk. Blah
blah blah blah blah. What to do?

Speaker 2 (52:41):
What to do?

Speaker 3 (52:41):
So I range a meeting with Doll McCombe to sit
down and go over what we were going to do.
And he says, you're gonna come by yourself. I said, no,
I'm going to bring my chief operating officer to Cha Calber,
who is the chief financial officer, and operating office. He said,
I'm going to bring my chief financial officer and operating

(53:02):
officer who happened to be an attorney. And I said,
you know, mister McComb, I have a problem. I've grown
up on the fact that if you're in a meeting
and one of the other parties has an attorney in
the room, you should have your own attorney. So I
would prefer you're not bringing him to the meeting, he said, Mark.
He got pissed on me. He said, you can't tell

(53:22):
me who I have or not having a meeting. So
I said, okay. So I met the next day and
I brought my attorney. He went ballistic on me. I
mean really really angry, to the point that I was
grateful that tissue was there, because you know, even though
I'm a public company or the CEO of the company,
I have a problem. More importantly, you know you have

(53:43):
legal obligations. Now. He said, get rid of her, and
I said I'm not getting rid of And the meeting ended.
So I'm walking out the door and I'm saying to myself,
I don't want this negative feeling on me. I stopped
at his receptionist and I said, would you tell mister McComb,
I'm still here to talk to him. I wanted to
reconvene the meeting. So he comes out again and he's

(54:06):
I mean, I never saw anybody angry or lose his cool.
Now I grow off. The only argument I ever want
to get in it is when the other person is
in an independent position, he couldn't defend his behavior. It
turns out, by the way, from a legal point of view,
if the guy was acting not as a lawyer but
as a chief operating officer, I didn't need a lawyer
in the room with me. But anyway, I tried to

(54:27):
make it well and he went ballistic on me, and
it was one of the most uncomfortable things that got worse.
We ended up having the meeting. We agreed not to agree,
and in the end I bought back to Jean's company.
I bought back to Jeni's company. I collected on her,
but I brought it back. The moral of the story
is I'm a god. We'll tell you I love to
be alone. I'm a guy who's a recluse. I'm a

(54:48):
guy who really give me a choice to be with
people or be alone. I'll be my myself. There is
a time and place where you need people, and whether
I needed that lawyer or not, it was good to
have her there because I wanted to to see what's
going on, And even more importantly, if I didn't have
the lawyer, I had tissue there with me because she
was another point of view and I had a record

(55:09):
keeper and a witness to what went on. So tonight
I covered a mixture of subjects as I said I would.
Tonight I said anything goes, and I covered anything, everything
or nothing. I hope you enjoyed it. Fuck you soon.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Always in fashion,