Fall Seven Times Stand Up Eight

Fall Seven Times Stand Up Eight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
show is sponsored by G three Aparol. The views expressed
in the following program are those at the sponsor and
not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor or iHeartMedia. Who
is Mark Weber. He's a self made business executive here
to help you find your success, from the New York

(00:21):
City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His global
success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational.
He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark is classic
proof that the American dream is alive. And well, here's
your host of always in Fashion, Mark Weber.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Mark Weber very interesting. I absolutely have nothing to do,
but I don't have enough time to do it. And
yet this week was a week of reflection. The weather
turned nice for a minute. I sat up back, I
looked at the trees. I looked at the sky. I
looked out at the water. What a wonderful life. How
great it is to finally have spring and summer these times. Generally,

(01:05):
when I'm reflecting, I think about how often I think
about how those cartoons that you see in the newspapers
where they have the little clouds over the person's head
in the cartoon, and it's telling you what they're thinking. Well,
my cloud is empty right now. I got nothing to
think about, nothing to do, But I can't help but
reflect on things that caught my attention this week and

(01:29):
things that were impactful for me. I thought about second chances.
I think about, in fact, if you don't succeed, how
you have to never give up and keep trying. I
came across a quote this week. It's a Japanese proverb
fall seven times and stand up eight. For me, I

(01:49):
means think about doing those things that make the most sense,
never giving up, working towards the future, because that's where
I'll be spending my life, my time. Those of you
looking for lessons in life, maybe you'll find some here
on this show. Those of you striving for some common
sense and practical answers, maybe you'll find some here as well.

(02:10):
Those of you have nothing to do and just want
to be occupied. I might just be able to entertain you,
but I could ssure you this week was an interesting
week for me because you got me thinking. I have
some stories I want to tell, some funny, some er smart,
interesting stuff and just maybe, just maybe tonight this week,
Fall seven times, stand up eight just might be something

(02:33):
that you find helpful. Now, first up, I want to
talk about the subject of perseverance, keep going, never give up.
I want to talk about working through the tough times.
It is so easy to enjoy life, in this instance, particular,
to enjoy your job when everything's going well. It's fun

(02:54):
when nothing's in the way. You're getting the accolades, you're
doing well, you're getting the raises, you have power your position,
you're getting money, lucky, smart. It's easy to enjoy life
when everything going your way. But if you ask me
why have I had any measure of success? I would
tell you I didn't have a simple career from the

(03:15):
bottom to the top. It wasn't only about doing well
and being happy. I didn't have a straight line to winning,
no way. I had zigzags along the way. The boss
that I worked with, he had a straight line right
from the bottom to the top. When I think back
and look at where I am today and why I
had a measure of success, I often thought about the

(03:35):
American Dream speech that I would give to my people
that were listening. I often spoke to three hundred, five
hundred people on business and success, and of course America
is the land of opportunity. Of course you can do
well here if you put your mind to it. But
I always ended up focusing on talking through the tough times. Yes,

(03:58):
work smart, be curious, that's the plan. But what about
the bad times? As I said, I didn't have it easy.
I had so many disappointments. And it was at those
times when I reached the bottom where things were at
the worst and Pointswood just didn't work out. I came
across a quote that became important to me. It was
from General George Patten, where he said, it isn't how

(04:21):
far you fall, it's how high you bounce back. And
here I am in the radio talking to you. It's
not because I was smart or not because I was
more talented. It really came down to how I behaved
when I was not doing well and I was disappointed.
We all have disappointments. Nobody has a life without disappointments.

(04:42):
I had so many, but each and every time I
had a problem, I had the wherewithal to sit down
and think about what went wrong. I might tell you
that many of my issues were self inflicted, opening my
big mouth at the wrong time, maybe not being prepared,
maybe being a wise guy, maybe not thinking about the

(05:03):
big picture, maybe not understanding that the company came first,
not me. But for whatever the reason, it could have
been the girl or guy sitting next to me. They
got the promotion I wanted. I did get the raise
I thought I was entitled to or I deserve. Nothing matters.
What matters is what you do with your setback. Do
you get angry withdraw behave poorly or do you pick

(05:26):
yourself up and say, what could I have done better?
It's important to remember to apply yourself. You could do
much anything you want. But I will tell you I'm
not one of those guys to tell you to find
something you're passionate about and chase it. No passion, that's
just something else, and that's another story for another time.
You have to find something that you're good at, perhaps
be great at, get behind it, and do everything you

(05:49):
can to be successful. For me, back to disappointments, I
had so many. Do you wear them on your sleep
or do you sit down and think about where you
went wrong? I would think about what I could have
done better. I would think about how to improve myself.
I would let this disappointment build into ugly character. In
no way, I was improved. I would improve and improve.

(06:11):
How you present yourself at tough times matters. When your
boss those you're let down, that could be the defining moment.
That's when I raised up to my highest level. I
thought about George Patton bounced back, and I pushed back successfully.
At times I was respectful. I didn't get a raise,
asked why, but I always declared my loyalty. I always
promised to perform better. I never wore my disappointment on

(06:36):
my sleeves. Not me. I'm the motivated guy. I understand
everything I'm gonna do well. But I have a great
story to tell you. Back in the day, when I
first started out, maybe I was two years in. I
used to work for a guy who was terrible. But
before I go there, I had a mentor of mine.
His name was Robert J. Solomon, senior vice president of merchandising.

(06:59):
It turned out to be a great guy, and I'll
never forget meeting him in his office for the first time.
He had a tapestry behind his desk hanging on the wall,
and the tapestry said yeay. Though I walked through the
valley of the shadow of Death. I shall fear no
evil because I'm the meanest son of the bitch in
the valley. And I never forgot it. And the story

(07:20):
goes on. I was working at van Usen. I remembered
that sign behind him. But unlike him, I met the
meanest son of bitch in the valley. I was working
for him. Should I mention his name, you know what,
I'll tell you his last name. I won't tell you
his first name. His name was Bitna. And this guy,
Bittana was a jerk. He was just impossible. He didn't

(07:43):
like anyone. No one liked him. He was just mean.
I'm pleasant guy. He didn't like anyone who work for him,
and he certainly didn't like anyone ahead of him. Oh
he showed them respect, but all he was thinking about
is getting them out. He was smart, he was capable.
He came out of sales and he was really really

(08:03):
a tough, driven seller and he could sell. But mean.
He didn't care about people's time. He didn't care about
making them wait. He didn't care about working nights or
on the weekends. And he expected you all to do
the same. And by the way, that wasn't the company's culture.
I can't explain it. Really. He was just unpleasant and
I was his direct report. I was his senior guy,

(08:26):
and I was there to do his bidding. Now, the
good news is it was good at what I did,
so it wasn't questioning me. He respected me. He didn't
necessarily like me or anyone, but when you spoke to me,
he no question. He respected me. There were things to
learn from him. I would tell you that because he
came from sales, I wanted a seller. But I was

(08:46):
able to put up with him because as I did,
I could take the pain. It wasn't okay that nobody
liked him. I mean, everybody respected what it was capable of,
but he knew everybody disliked him. I was lucky enough,
and I'll say lucky with it grain of salt. When
I go back in the day. He had a sales
convention at the time, and I remember getting up in
front of the entire sales division, one hundred salesmen, all

(09:09):
the merchants, all the designers, all the executives in the company,
and I would present my lines and I would do
a pretty good job of presenting, and I felt great
about it. And this particular salesman. He was in Washington, DC.
I don't ever forget the course of the events. There
were so many exciting things. I always loved these meetings.

(09:29):
I always liked to present. I got my ideas for
the next collection, and I would do it. One day,
I presented my ideas, and right after my presentation was done,
a vice president of operations came over to me and said, Hey, Mark,
would you like to have a drink with me later?
And when he said it, I said, well, okay, sure
tell me when you like to do it. And he said,

(09:51):
how about right now. I said okay, and I went
with him to booth in the coffee shop and I
sat right across from his name was Bud Gilbert, and
Bud was a very intellectual guy. He was very respected.
Everybody knew he made the trains run in time. And
Bud Gilbert sat down and the first question he asked
me was, Hi, Mark, how you doing? And I said

(10:14):
to myself, you know I'm going to give him the
standard answer. I'm really happy. I love the company. And
I know that's the right answer. Of course, because you're
talking to an office in the company. You don't want
to hear about your problems. So he looked at me
again and said, Mark, if it's okay with you, I'm
going to ask you the same question. How are you doing? Mark?

(10:35):
And now I know this is not an ordinary conversation.
And as the story went on, he looked at me.
I said, mister Gilbert, you know, as I said, it
is a great company. I'm learning every day. I'm doing great.
And he got quiet and he said, let me try
this another way. He said, Mark, I know you're working Forbidden.

(10:58):
How's it working for him? Now I'm quiet, and I
realize this is not an ordinary conversation. Where is this going.
I'm a young guy. I don't know where it's going.
And I said, well, he's a very smart guy. He's
a tough guy. He's demanding. But I'm doing fine. I
could deal with this. And then he looked at me

(11:18):
and he said, look, Mark, you said the right word.
They'd deal with it. Everyone in this company knows how
difficult Bittner is to work for. Everybody knows how difficult
it is for you to work for Bittner. Everybody knows
you're struggling to be genuine and to get through it.

(11:42):
And everybody knows how impressive you are for being able
to do that. And he said to me, Mark, not
every course is easy. Not everyone you'll work for will
be like guys like me, or guys like Robert Solomon,
or guys like Stangellette, or honest to goodness geniuses, people
that care about people. Not everyone's like that. What separates

(12:03):
the men from the let's see, I want to say
that it separates the winners from the sorry people are
the ones that can put up with the difficulty and
work through the tough times. You're having a tough time,
whether you say it or not. And I looked at him.
I didn't correct him. He said, we respect you for that,
We appreciate you for that, and it isn't going unnoticed

(12:27):
now here. I am two years in, not more than
a clerk being called out by the senior vice president
and telling me that they understand that hard work and
perseverance and working through the tough times is important. Interestingly enough,
I ended up doing something that most people don't realize.
I left van Usen. If you look at my track record,

(12:48):
there's no mention that I left van Usen after three
years to go work at the Capitol Marker shirt company.
It wasn't because of Bittnes. As they pointed out, he
was long gone. He moved on to somewhere else in
the coming to make someone else miserable until such time.
A couple of years later, he burnt himself out and
he was no longer part of the company. And Bud

(13:08):
Gilbert was right. I worked through him, and I did well.
But I was reflecting on I'd just gotten the mail
and noticed that one of my favorite authors a new
book came out, or I want to buy the book.
I read all the time. There is never a time
that I'm not reading something, either books, magazines, something to
make myself better. But I also read for escapism, and

(13:31):
I have been following an author called Stuart Woods. There's
a collection of books about a guy named Well, before
I tell you his name, i'll tell you the story. Anyway.
My friend, my closest friend at the time, whose name
was Bill Montooth. Whenever we go out to dinner, we'll
never make reservations for golf, whatever you do. He would

(13:51):
put his name in his Stone Barrington. I'd say to him,
where'd you come up with that? He says, Hey, it's
my alter ego. I'm Stone Barrington. I said, okay, you
want me to call your Stone no So I would
go out and everywhere I go Stone Barrington. One day,
I'm traveling, I'm at the airport, I don't have a
book to read, and I start looking for the books.
And I'm currently current on all the new espionage, knowledge

(14:13):
and mystery novels. I have them all, and I'm looking
and I see Stuart Woods and the title intrigued me.
I don't remember it was, and I pick it up
and I read the headline. Another Stone Barrington level, another
Stone Barrington novel right then and there I called my
friend Bill. I said, Stone Barrington, Stuart Woods, and he
starts to lift. Yeah. It turns out the Stone Barrington

(14:34):
character someone I like. I've read sixty six of the books,
and I'm reflecting now. I went out to dinner the
other day and Stone Barrington and his Paladino Barchetti was
in the book The Commission of the Police in New York,
eating Elaine's restaurant. And it turns out Elaine died and
the restaurant either closed or it's not the same. And

(14:56):
Stone and his friend moved to Patroon, and it got
me thinking about my days a Capitol Marker's Shirt Company.
See what happened was is I had a friend in
the button business who's the president of a large button company,
and he came to me one day, it's in the market.
You have to leave the company. So what do you

(15:17):
mean I have to leave the company? He says, you're
not making enough money and you can't expect to work
for the same company your whole life. I said, I'm
working for van Us and they're treating me well. I
love it here. I'm not leaving. He says, yes you are,
and if you don't leave, you're at least going to
take this interview. And he explained to me that Capitol
Marker's Shirt Company was a one hundred and fifty million
dollars shirt company, a big company by private stands, and

(15:39):
not compared to PVH. It was a few hundred million
in a publicly traded company, say had five hundred million.
But it's a great company. Mark They're looking for someone
just like you. And what is just like you mean?
He said, you come from the big brands, you have
a vision, your greater product development. They in the private
label business and anytime they'll walk into Macy's Macy's won't

(16:02):
treat them with the same degree of respects they'll treat
van Usen because van Usen is known for innovations and
new ideas. So if they could bring in designers who
could bring innovation and new ideas and talk about what
the brands would be doing, they would get a higher
degree of respect and they would pay you a lot
more money than you're making. Mark, can I ask you
what you're making? I said, you could ask, I'm not

(16:23):
telling you, Well, this company's going to pay you fifty
five thousand dollars. That put a silence in me. Why
Because I was making eighteen thousand dollars and I just
got a large raise to go from eighteen to fifty
five thousand overnight. I had no choice but to go
and listen. And I looked at him. I said, that's
more money than I'm making. He says, I know it is.

(16:43):
That's enough money that'll change the course and tenure of
your career, because if you get that much money now,
everything you do after that will be layered on top
of the fifty five thousand. You'll be ahead of all
your peers. You won't even have to think about money.
You'll think about doing your job. I went, I met
with them, I decided to join the company. I left.
I'll never forget. Going to my best friend at the time, BJK,

(17:06):
who was my boss thirty years, I told him I'm
leave and he said, you're crazy. I said, listen, it's
a lot of money, an opportunity to learn new things,
an opportunity for work for another company, and when I
come back here, I'll be better for it is. What
do you mean come back? He said, I'm not leaving
to leave. I'm going for the money. I'm going to
leave there however long I stay, I'm coming back. What

(17:29):
makes you think you're going to come back in more?
Because you're going to get me back in how do
you know? And I was quiet. He said, never mind,
you can come back. Let's leave in the right way.
I ended up resigning from my actual boss at the time,
a guy named John, and I told him I was leaving.
He begged me to say. I said, look, I'm leaving.
I've made up my mind. I love it here. I'll
come back, John, I'll come back and work for you.

(17:51):
It's just got to give me some time. I am
never going to be leaving van Usen, but I have
to do it now, and I left and I made
fifty five. Thus and then, by the way, at the time,
my friend Bruce, who was making thirty couldn't believe I
was making fifty five and he was a VP and
I wasn't. And sure enough I went and it was
true after that, money was never a thing for me
because I was always ahead of the game. So I

(18:14):
get there and the reality was it was more like
off Broadway than Broadway. Great company, proud people. They did
a great job. But I never felt I was in
the big leagues. I always felt I was a step down,
and I wanted to be in the big leagues. And
after three months I decided I learned a lot. I
had two bosses, one who I admired, one who I didn't.

(18:37):
And I ended up wanting to come back. And sure
enough I went and asked my friend to meet me.
I want to come back to the company. See, so
let's have dinner, you, me and his wife, who I
knew very well. We'll have dinner and let's go to Patroon. Now,
why am I telling you all?

Speaker 3 (18:53):
This?

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Was the new STUDT Woods book just came back. I
thought about Patroon looking out of the backyard, thinking about
the past, thinking about the future. Here I am a patroon,
and I thought about this story. So I went in
at the time, and I think I've told this to
some of you before, but it's a great lesson. I
resigned from a gentleman named Don Cooper. Donald Cooper one
of the founders of Capital Mercury. He was a prestigious guy,

(19:16):
walked around a suit, jacket and tie. When he was
in his office, he hung the jacket on the back
of his chair. Always elegant, A gentleman, a real man
of class. And I walked in and I had asked
the secretary and I have a meeting, and they set
me up and I went to see sat down. I
walked in and he said, sit down, walk what's up? Said,
you know, I have to tell you how much I
love working here, how much I respect you and the team,

(19:39):
but I am sorry to say that I'm leaving the company.
And he looked at me and he got up from
behind his desk walked to me. I stood up. He
shook my hand. He took my hand in both his hands.
He shook my hand, looked at me and said, I
can't tell you how happy. I am for you. If
you're leaving, I know it's for a good reason. We

(20:01):
really like you. Here he went, shook my hand, went
back to his desk and sat down, and then he
looked at me and he said, and I quote, what
will it take to keep you? And I never forgot that,
in fact, the entirety of my career, when anyone resigned
from a company that I was working for, if they

(20:21):
wanted to resign and I wanted them to stay, I
did exactly what Donald Cooper did. I got up, shook
the hand, wished him luck, sat down behind the desk,
and told them I'd love you to say what can
I do? Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. So
the point of this is on reflection. This week, I
thought about how you're supposed to behave. I thought about

(20:43):
my career. I thought about how I dealt with the
difficult times. By the way, I met my friend at
Patroon's and there we negotiated my comeback to the company
for more money than I was making. Go figure. But
that is a backdrop. I'm reflecting this week and reminding
you that you fall seven times, you get up eight

(21:04):
back in a moment, always in fashion than 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
multipleccasions in multiple ways. You could wear a suit formally

(21:28):
to go out at night or to an event, to
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 in packaging yourself

(21:48):
is as important does the products you package, and wearing
a suit is one of those things that make men
look their best. Then Using invented a new idea. It's
called the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology,
giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle
resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect

(22:09):
for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new
style of looking shop while feeling cool and comfortable is
amazing and I am so excited that the van Using
company is involved in this new technology and is embracing
the whole idea of dressing up. Let's not forget van
Using made its name with dress shirts. It's only proper

(22:31):
that the soup business follows strongly in its way. You
can find van Using cool flex men's stretch suits at
jcpenny are online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great.
You should go look at them. My favorite brand has
always been Izod. My company at one time bought that brand.
The CEO of the company handed it to me and said,

(22:51):
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 gotten involved with.
Isod is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you play golf,
if you play tennis for that matter. They make a

(23:14):
great polo shirts. I mean great. They're fit perfect. The
material is unique because it's a PK fabric that waffle leave,
you see, and it's made of a blend of cotton
and microfiber that allows you to stretch. And very often
they are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch.

(23:38):
They're comfortable and they breathe well. And one thing about
ISOD they always fit. They'll never tug on you. You
put it in your waist that they'll fit you great.
The colors, patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell
you ISOT makes great shorts and great golf bands. You're
a golf friend. 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 ISZOD

(24:01):
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
enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just
great polo shirts with logos, without logos. Incredible brand and
story and history. ISOD makes salt weather programs. They have

(24:26):
great printed woven shirts, short sleeves. They look excellent with colors,
excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which they
also make. This whole salt order relaxed line from ISAD,
whether it be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts,

(24:46):
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,
isod is affordable. Every One listening to me talk about
this brand can afford to buy it and know that

(25:06):
there are a lot of other brands that also have
a look like ISID. Although I don't believe it's fun
as Eyaada is, the brand has a lot of energy
in it, but at the price points no one can compete.
You can find eyaa at You're leading retails and online
at ion dot com. Talk to you, lady guys. I
wish you are very happy springing summer, and I help

(25:31):
you by telling you if you were eya on, You're
gonna look great.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Welcome back to it always in fashion.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Here's your host, Mark Webber. I'm in a reflecting mood tonight.
I've been in a reflecting mood this week. Finally June,
after losing April and May and having almost no sunshine
in New York, this has been terrible. June has started
out pretty and I've been reflecting sitting out the back
of my house looking at the sky, the grass, whatever,

(25:57):
I'm happy these beautiful sundays having me think about my
life experiences. I'm looking to the future. I'm enthusiastic, and
yet I'm sad at the same time. I loved working.
I miss it, but I tell you I love not
working even more now. Yes, I'm on the radio and podcast,
and somebody could say that's work, But I'm not in

(26:19):
it for the money. I'm in it for the joy
of talking and telling my stories and hopefully making everyone
a little happier and perhaps a little smarter by the
benefit of learning from my experiences. And at the moment,
I'm guilty, I'm a co conspirator. I'm no better. I
should have known better. I should have asked you sure

(26:40):
we should be doing this. Let's hold that thought. For
those of you who want to hear this, you're going
to be excited. Those of you don't, you won't be.
But the truth is the truth. Trump is right. We
need change tariffs. Tariffs are offering us a different angle,
and they're important. I grew up in a great manufacturing company.

(27:06):
I spend as much time in factories walking factory floors
as I spent time in my favorite restaurants. I was
a manufacturer. I knew manufacturing, and because of that, I
grew up in an environment obsessed with quality. You know,
it's one thing to buy products overseas and hand them
a sample and say make this for me. It's another

(27:29):
thing to hand them a product that you made in
your own factory and said, I want to start importing.
Here's a shirt. This is the linings I want you
to use. This is the level of heat and pressure
I want you to put on the collar when you're
top fusing it. This is the number of stitches per inch.
I want you to sew on my side seams and
on my pockets in front of the shirt. These are

(27:52):
the buttons you must use. I will accept no other
find them. This is the packaging I need you to use.
And why because I came from a company and an
environment that was obsessed with quality. I was at the
van Us and Shirt Company, the second largest shirt company
in the United States, perhaps the world. It's also perhaps

(28:14):
not the case because who knew who makes a billion
shirts for a billion people in China every year, So
they may have had bigger shirt companies, but in the
branded world and the world of the West, were the
second largest shirt company in the world. On the subject
of China, Let's hold that for a second. When I

(28:35):
joined van Usen, we had ten factories making our shirts,
ten factories making millions of dozens of shirts. I mean,
it was pretty incredible. They're all in the South. I
remember names like Brinkley, Arkansas, Fort Payne, Alabama, Oazark, Alabama.
We had a warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we did
have an exception. The key factory, the operations center for

(28:59):
the company was Potsville, Pennsylvania. Why potsvill Pennsylvania because Moses Phillips,
who started the Venues and Shirt company back in the
eighteen hundreds, lived in Potsville, Pennsylvania, and he started a
shirt factory. And his initial business in the shirt business
was when miners came out of the coal mines in Pennsylvania.
He came there with shirts and sold them clean shirts

(29:20):
that they could wear after they took their showers when
they got at home. And he began this business. He
spent a ton of money on advertising at the time.
His son Seymour in the fifties increased the level of
advertising in may Ven Neusland a national off not a
global brand. We also had a warehouse in School, cool Haven, Pennsylvania,
and I traveled to all these locations and I learned

(29:42):
about manufacturing. We were manufacturing, we knew product, we knew costs,
we understood efficiency. We weren't importers yet, but there was
a time where companies had to decide where they can
continue to be manufacturers or are they going to outsource

(30:04):
and give up all the manufacturing, which is where we
are as a country today. And I want to talk
about that a bit, you know. The first tip off
was see in the Obama administration. President Obama almost said
the right thing. If he listened, he would have known

(30:25):
there was something else afoot, that the situation we would
find ourselves in would be a sorry situation. He was
meeting with the then president of China. It wasn't she,
I don't remember. His name, could have been Ping. I'm sorry,
I don't remember his name, Xiaoujing Ping. Maybe I don't remember.
But they were having a conversation and it was in

(30:45):
front of the world. I don't remember if it was
live or I read it. And the President of China
asked President Obama what kept him awake at night, and
at the time, Obama said the proliferation of nuclear weapons
North Korea, you know whatever he was going on with,
he was worried about war and said and then President

(31:06):
Obama asked the Premier of China, what keeps you awake
at night? And he said, every year, I have to
find twenty million more new jobs for my people. Now,
it's interesting to note because China was backward. They're behind
the eight ball. They weren't the country you know today.
They weren't westernized, they weren't industrialized, not to the point

(31:28):
they are today. And the Premier of China recognized that
the future of China was developing jobs and developing industry.
Hold that thought. Let's go back to my days as
manufacturing in venues, and I was a vice president of shirts.
I worked for the president of the company. His name
was BJK my buddy for life and business. And we

(31:48):
worked for Larry Phillips, the grandson of Seymour Phillips, who
was the CEO of the company. And we knew that
imports were coming into play. We knew that our competitors
were importing. We knew that the price of our shirts
might be questionable in the long run, and we knew
we had to start importing to some degree or another.
Even if we didn't want to, we would be forced

(32:10):
to if our competitors did. Even if we didn't want to.
We knew that retailers like Macy's and bird Eyes and
all these retails in the country were starting to import.
They already began, but now they're accelerating. We had ten factories.
What to do. The history of the company was that
we would have the amount of manufacturing necessary in the

(32:30):
United States to survive the company during wartime, so if
there was war with the outside world, it wouldn't matter
to us. But the level is what is comfortable. So
Larry Phillips engaged KSA Kurt Salmon Associates. I don't even
know if they exist anymore, but they were one of
the premier consulting companies in the world. He engaged them

(32:53):
in a preliminary meeting to talk about how should we
determine comfort for the amount of manufacturing and the degree
of ownership of our own supply to live a comfortable
life to sustain the company in times of war. I
remember he called the CEO of KSA. I think his
name was David Cole. I'm only calling it out because

(33:16):
I'm at marvel my ability to recollect names and events
and places. There's a history in here of these companies
that I retained. So David Coley called them up and
we had a meeting in our boardroom and Larry articulated,
who I just said to you. We've been a manufacturing
our whole company, our whole lives. We know we have
to start importing. We believe there's opportunities outside the world.

(33:38):
We respect our manufacturing and made us who we are.
When we do what we do, we do it with
a level of expertise that no one else has, and
it's a core differentiator between our competition. When we talk
to retailers, we have the details on how to make
the finest quality from every element of it. And he
looked at David Bone and said, can you help me

(34:00):
determine a degree of comfort? Let's hold that thought for
a while. Okay, you live in New York City. Are
you comfortable walking down Sixth Avenue at five o'clock? Yeah?
I would say, how about seven o'clock? Sure, now it's
winter at eight o'clock. Do you feel safe in New
York at eight o'clock at night in the dark in
New York City on Sixth Avenue? I wonder. I often

(34:22):
wonder about how safe the city is or isn't. I
sometimes wonder if the city is filled with only victims
and predators. But that's a whole other story. Hey mayor
whoever you are, make the city safe again. But back
to Cole, back to Ksa, back to Larry Phillips in
the boardroom. I'm one of three people from PVH Phillips

(34:43):
Venues and City in the meeting. David Cole KSA, how
do we determine what is comfortable? We're ready to do
his survey and the credit of David Cole at the
opportunity to make I don't know at the time one
hundred thousand dollars in consultting fees and determining what would
be comfortable for PVH. He looked at us and he said,

(35:07):
I can't help you. Only you can determine what you're
comfortable with. I can't do that for you. Only you can.
And that was something that I thought about this week
watching the news, hearing about tariffs, knowing that the fashion,

(35:28):
luxury and retail industry sent an emissary to Washington, d C.
To meet with the government about eliminating tariffs or putting
a check on the tariffs because it's severely affecting our industry.
It's creating discomfort. That's why this story of comfort, This
whole industry is in a state of flux. No one

(35:50):
knows what to do. You look at the stock market
our country. There's an appetite to buy. We're buyers, also
a problem. But hold that thought. But discomfort and not
knowing you are as affecting the stock market as playing havoc.
Now I'm going to take another step further. I'm on Instagram.

(36:11):
I find Instagram fascinating. It has some strange stuff. All
you do is flip go to the stuff that is restraints.
I find it. You know, there's a lot of made
up stuff and you ought to be able to sort
through that. But on general, in general, I find it fascinating,
It educates, it entertains me. I love Instagram. And I
came across a guy I don't know his name. He's

(36:33):
a China influencer, and he's talking about tariffs and where
China is versus the USA. Now, once again, before I
played for you what he had to say, I want
to remind you that we made a decision to import
from China. My company made a decision after importing from

(36:55):
the rest of the world, which we started to do,
end up closing our acories. We had a few left.
We went to China. I was part of a team
and I was told when I went, you're going to
offer them the know how. You're going to teach them
to how to manufacture shirts. I said, what are you
talking about. They have a billion people. You know how

(37:17):
many shirts they must make if they're not importing. They said,
they make all their own shirts. You're right, but they
can't make the shirts they need to sell in the
Western hemisphere and the rest of the world. The standards
in China might be right for China, but we wouldn't
accept them. They don't make the collars they way we
need them. We fuse our collars. For example. Fusing is

(37:37):
a process where collar linings have glue in them. I'll
make it simple. Glue and when you apply heat and
pressure to the collar, they had stay together and the
collars never bubble. You have shirts that bubble in your
collar they weren't fused. They don't have to do that.
Maybe this is simple. You know, you ever see something
you buy in red, you sit down on a white couch.

(37:58):
It comes off because they and have the right dye
stuffs to make sure that the color was fast. It's
called color fast. It stays, it will never come out
once it apply the dye in the fabric. You know.
I had a period in time where I was the
head of the shirt company and every week we would
get a box of letters from consumers. And every week,

(38:20):
being the head of the shirt company, the president of
the company would hand me a bunch of letters, and finally,
at one point he said, I'm sick of this mark
fix it said, fix what. You know what read these letters?
So I read the letters and people are complaining about
buttons broken on their dress shirt, either the collar, the

(38:40):
front buttons. They're all breaking all the time. Now, the
most expensive buttons in the world are mother of pearl.
They're actually made I think of oysters. If I ought
to get shirts made of mother of pearl, you're gonna
have to import them. You can't import them in the
country till food and wed life go in and examine
and understand where these pearls were or oysters were forested

(39:01):
or farmed. I mean, it's a big deal. But the
most expensive ones in the world are the ones that
break the quickest. The ones that break the least are plastic.
But it also depends on the shape of the plastic,
so a lot goes into it. Every week we're getting
lettuce from consumers or shirts or broken buttons. I guess
when you look at shirts or sweaters for that matter,

(39:24):
and you see extra buttons or thread they attached to
expensive sweater. If the sweater have buttons, so you lose
a button, they don't want you to have to replace
them all. They don't want you have to give up
on the sweater. They give you an extra button, case
of nit where it pulls. Sometimes you get a hole.
They give you extra thread so you could sew that
fred on there and eliminate the whole. And dress shirts,

(39:44):
in particular men's sports shirt, they started doing extra buttons
in the tail or the front of the shirt where
it's hidden in the waist, to give you buttons if
you have to change in because they break. Maybe that's
where it began. Anyway, I get all these letters. Buttons
are breaking. I mentioned earlier in the show. I had
a friend and the button business. His name is bud Winstream.
He was in the president of a company called Copper's

(40:05):
button again, Koppers. I don't even know if they exists anymore.
I should look it up, call them in. I said,
I have a problem, but it's what's your problem? Said,
all my buttons are breaking, And the problem is is
all my buttons on buy from you? He said, you
can't lay that on me. You're buying all these fancy buttons,
thin shapes. They're not right. He said that they're gonna happen.

(40:25):
I said, why are they happening? He says, you tell
me Mark, I said, you changed the wave shirts are pressed.
Used to be, shirts were pressed by hand. Everything was
done by hand, simple, nice, elegant. But they invented what's
called cabinet presses for speed and efficiency. They look like
the body of a man. If you will, you wrap

(40:45):
the shirt right on it. You press a button, some
h three hundred and sixty degree iron comes on that
shirt in a matter of seconds. The whole shirt is pressed.
When you use it, though, and it hits the buttons,
it breaks it because you're not ironing a wrap. He says,
I have one button here, then I guarantee you will
not break against any cabin pressing or anything else. Show

(41:07):
it to me. I looked at it was boring. I
didn't like it. He said to me, you don't want
broken buttons, use this button. So I called in my
head of engineering, Burt Blackman from Warving the Jersey, and
I said to him, look at this. What do you
think He says, it makes sense. Get me a couple
dozen of these buttons. I will take them to the lab.
I'll come back. Burt Blagman comes back to me, tells

(41:30):
me the buttons are great. He says, they will not break,
they will stand up to the force of cabinet pressing.
And I made a decision that every one of our
shirts would have those buttons, particularly the basic shirts, the
simple shirts that people buy day in, day out. They
use them for replenishment. You stain your shirt, you rip
your shirt, whatever, make case. You will use these shirts

(41:52):
and they'll all have those buttons. I made a decision.
Went to the president of the company. I said, I
solved that this is a button might not be as
nice as our other buttons. He looked. They said it
won't break, won't break the lab test, and the lab
testin all right, let's start. I started doing that, and
sure enough, buttons didn't break. But that's back to manufacturing
being obsessed with quality. So now what happens we make

(42:14):
a decision to import, we started importing, we use the
same buttons. We don't longer have that problem, but we're
losing our ability to manufacture in the United States. And
the last bastion is China. We go to China. Back
to China, they make builliings of shirts. They can't make
the shirts that we need in America because they're not,
if not the quality. They don't think it's the way

(42:34):
we need it. They don't understand we need And I'm
going to China with a team of people. We're going
to teach them how to make shirts for us and
how to make shirts for the rest of the world.
And I remember sitting there because it was awkward. The
first meetings you have over the government office at the
time was Beijing Peeking Head Office. You walk in, you
meet with the heads of government. They come into military

(42:56):
uniforms and they tell you where you're going to manufact
You don't get a choice. You don't go and look
around and choose the fact you're going to manufacture. Yeap.
Our first factory was called Beijing Number one. From there
we went to Beijing number one. We met with the
factory people and we took a tour of the factory.
I had my head of engineering at Downheim from Hong Kong.
When we walked through the sewing floor and they were

(43:19):
making shirts like anyone else would, and I noticed a
few things. I noticed. First of all, there were no
overhead fans. Now why are overhead fans important? Not just fans,
more of importantly, vacuum cleaners, because in factories, particularly if
there's dust, which there was plenty of in China, particularly
if you're making white shirts, the dust can accumulate on

(43:39):
the shirts and be a problem. They didn't have that,
So the first thing we talked we put on checknote
there they need to have vacuums. From there, we watched
the entire operations, and while they didn't have our stitch count,
which at the time was twelve SPUs twelve stitches burge,
they had less, which allowed them to sew fast. They

(44:00):
get so slower and do what we needed. But we
got to the end of operations, there was a table
as long as the city block, with two sides of
the table and a conveyor belt, and everyone sitting at
the conveyor belt had in front of a little silver bowl,
a toothbrush, and a bar of soap. And I'm with
my head of engineering and said, what is that all about?

(44:21):
So we walk over and we watch and as shirts
come off a conveyor belt, mostly white. These people are
sitting there, hundreds of them, with their toothbrush, their bowl
and the soap and brushing the shirts where they have
little marks and stains from the dust in the air.
My head of engineering as and what it's back and

(44:42):
he looks at them and they tell him blah blah
blah and amandarin Chinese, and he explains to them what
I just explained to you. They're making sure that the
shirts are spotless and the clean. And we started to talk.
He said, could you imagine how great their quality is
if they can throw this many people at the operations
because everything there was a people. Afterwards, we had a meeting.
We said to them, we presented them a list of

(45:04):
things that we would do differently. They said they'll do it.
They thanked us for talking. We asked them, why do
you have all those people? And they said, we have
to keep people working. So we knew right then and
there a lot of things were going afoot that were
helping China keep their people working. That we could have
excellent quality in China because they were willing to work

(45:26):
with us, and we get these incredible prices. As I
told you the last time, we were making shirts and
they cost one hundred and twenty five dollars a dozen
in the United States, we could do them in China
for thirty five dollars a dozen. It was really crazy,
and we decided to give our know how and our
technology to China in favor of lower prices. China did

(45:49):
nothing wrong. They accepted us, they treated us gratefully, they
appreciated what we were going to teach them, and we
moved on from there. But that is a backdrop. I'm
reflecting week and reminding you that you fall seven times,
you get up eight back in a moment. Always in fashion,
Donna Karen began her career as one of the finest,

(46:13):
most successful, powerful women in the fashion industry. She developed
a collection aimed at the luxury market for women on
the go, women who were powerful in their workplace, women
who had lives that extended beyond the workplace, and her
clothes went from day and to night. An extraordinary collection,
but The interesting thing, Donna Karen had a young daughter,

(46:35):
and she had friends and they couldn't afford to buy
the Donna Karen collection, and Donna invented dk NY Donna Aaron,
New York. It's an offshoot of the Donna Karen collection.
The same concept a lifestyle brand. Now we talk about
lifestyle brands, what does that really mean? Simply what they say,
there are brands that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You
get up in the morning, you start to get dressed

(46:57):
Donna Karen decan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as
all those products. You're getting dressed for work. You get
accessorized shoes, handbags, and it takes you through the day.
The remarkable thing about DK and Y clothes for work,
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the sweaters, the blouses, extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that

(47:20):
go from day in tonight. Part of your lifestyle is active.
You have weekends, you have events, you participate in sports.
Donna Karen's casual clothes did that under the DK and
Y label. A vast array of casual sportswear that make
women look great as they navigate their busy lives. Whether
you're going to soccer games for your children, or whether

(47:43):
you're going out to the movies, whatever you want to do,
dcn Y Jeans, dcay Hy Sportswear is there for you.
That's what a lifestyle brand is. I need to mention
DKY active Wear, which is extraordinary, the leggings, the sports
bras hett You can wear DKY activewear certainly in the gym,

(48:05):
certainly when you're working out at home, and certainly if
you want on the street because it's that well done.
The quality of DKY is nothing short of exceptional. And
why shouldn't it be because it was born from the
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and Why a true lifestyle brand that takes you from

(48:26):
day and tonight, from the week into the weekend. DCN
Why you can find DCNY and Macy's DKY dot com.
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl
Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
America through Carlagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,

(48:51):
ready to wear accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house
Carlagafeld also offers a range of watches, eyewear, and premium fragrances.
You can explore the Carlagovol collection at carlagofelpowers 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

(49:13):
wear now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but
I can appreciate it and they look amazing. If you
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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

(49:36):
is extraordinary, as well as the handbigs and the shoes.
I for one wear men's clothes unlike my appreciation of
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I want to look the way I want to feel.
I go out at night, I'm in black and Carlagofel
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(49:58):
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Carl Lagafeld because he's always been, he always had been,
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You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld,

(50:20):
Paris at Macy's Orcarl Lagafel dot com.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
I want to play this video from a Chinese influencer
that's gone viral over the course of the last few weeks.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
They Robbie blind and you thank them for it. That's
the tragedy, that's a scan.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
That's why I'm saying this right now, Americans, you don't
need a turn, You need a revolution. For decades, your
Guman and Odigarch's will ship your job to China, not
for the promise, not for peace, but to explore cheap labors,
and in the process they hollowed out your middle class,

(51:03):
crashed your working class, and told you to be proud
while they sold your future for profit. And yes, China
made money, but we used it to build roads, leave
millions out of property, fund healthcare, raised living standard. We
reinvested in our people. My family also benefited from it.

(51:24):
What did your audigarchs do? They bought yacks, private jets
and mansions with golf course rightways. They manipulate market, dodge attacks,
and poured billions into endless walls. And you you get
stagnate wages, crippling healthcare costs, cheap dopeming debt, and flagged

(51:46):
wave probably made in China while they picked your pocket
for forty years. Both China and the United States benefit
from the trade, the manufacturing, but only one of us
use that else to build. This in China's fault, This
is yours. You let this happen. You let autogos fit

(52:07):
your lice.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Well.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
They made you fat, pooh and addicted. Now they blame
China for mass they made. I don't think so. I
don't think you need another tariff. You need to wake up.
You needed to take your country back. I think you
need a revolution.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
I couldn't help but listening and playing it for you
because I thought it was brilliant. Now let me make
it clear. I'm not supporting communists China here as a
propaganda I am only saying that. I think what they
said was very telling. I think what they said about
their country and our country was very telling. I think

(52:45):
I said to you up front, we're the greatest country
in the world. We've done things, But where was our government?
Where were the people who were leading us? I said
I'd get back to it later, And here I am.
I'm back to it later. I said, I was a
co conspirator. I did this with my eyes open. I
was part of the problem. I was no better. I

(53:06):
should have known better. I remember when we were doing this,
I had a feeling something didn't feel right. That the
proprietary technology that we owned and cherished, this manufacturer we
were giving away, if not for free, but for low
price manufacturing. And here we are finding ourselves there. So
I'm not paying for China right now, just the opposite.

(53:28):
I'm played for you a Chinese citizen reaching out perhaps
to help America be great again and get back on track.
We're a great country. We led the industrialized world. We
invented everything, airplanes, air conditioning, telephone, the smartphone. Were brilliant.
Everyone copied us. The Japanese, who were even more brilliant,

(53:50):
copied our ideas and miniaturized them. But we developed everyone.
Everyone else just followed. We were and we are amazing.
We had the most innovation, that best economy. We were
the world's darling. We were envied, we were miird. We
made everything from railroads to bridges, to office tours to
planes and cars. We cured disease, We mass produced, We

(54:13):
clothed the world until we stopped. We were manufacturers, and
then we stopped manufacturing. We gave up manufacturing for consuming.
Who are we?

Speaker 1 (54:26):
What are we?

Speaker 2 (54:28):
I'll tell you what we are. We buy stuff. That's
who we are now. We're consumers and government and business
and as people, we buy stuff.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Now.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
There are certain exceptions, not completely. We still grow crops
and make food, We make automobiles. We even continue to
make some pharmaceuticals. But we found out we don't make penicillins,
we don't make antibiotics. What's going on? We made everything
until we didn't what we did. We gave up making

(55:02):
things for making money. We have dollars and we have
nothing to spend it on. We have dollars, we spent
it on the wrong stuff. We are no longer the
leader the way we once were. We're almost becoming obsolete,
and our leaders are to blame. We voted for them.
So is it them or is it us our executives

(55:23):
to blame. We gave them free reign to do whatever
they want. I'm thankful for it. I did whatever I wanted.
We like things, but it seems that we forgot how
to like ourselves. I ask you Republicans Democrats consider as
Trump getting our dignity back? Are we applying common sense

(55:43):
to the future of America and the world? I say
it to as a co conspirator. I gave away technology.
I remember in my guts something felt off. I was
a kid. What did I know? We protected our technology
and now we don't. We're proud of our expert Matisa's manufacture.
We were a differentiator this whole country. We exchanged our

(56:05):
knowledge for low priced goods. We made more money, our
stock prices rose. Where is and was the American system?
Where are our leaders? Where are visionaries? Where are protectors?
Our protectors? We handed China our knowledge and now we're
manned at them for taking it. They did nothing wrong

(56:27):
we did. You want to talk about stealing, That's a
different subject. I'm not equipped to talk with any authority
on that. You want to talk a copyright infringement again,
goes on, I'm not a proficient to talk about that.
We talk about espionage. I'm sure it goes both ways,
but I'm not able to talk about that. All I
could talk about is what is America? Where are we going?

(56:51):
We should eliminate tariffs, and let's make American decisions for
Americans and remember fall seven times, Stand up eight, Good Night,