Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Weekend.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
The show is sponsored by G three Aparo.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor
or iHeartMedia. Who is Mark Webber. He's a self made
business executive here to help you find your success from
the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
His global success story in the luxury world of fashion

(00:28):
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. It is Mother's Day weekend and thanks to
my producer Peter Aolano, we decided to do a Mother's
Day show. Now, I should start right from the bat.
I was a mama's boy. I just knew it. My
mother loved me. I could tell every time she looked
in me, every time we talked. It was special. My

(01:03):
mother loved me. She was firm, she was a friend.
She was my mother and it meant a lot. She
was a bookkeeper. My mother understood numbers, she understood discipline
and make sure in her own way. Well, I don't
recall her ever telling me what to do. I always
knew what to do. There was no question what the

(01:25):
right thing was. She was a mother. She was stucking
out for me. School never a question. I had to
be in school, I had to be on time, whatever
it had to do, I was going to school. My
mother made it clear, more so than my dad. My
mother made it clear, I'm going to college. Whether I
liked it or not, I didn't know. You know, I
was a kid growing up in the city projects. I

(01:47):
had no idea what to do with my life. But
I know I was going to college. I also knew
that alcohol was not a part of my life. Noah, drugs.
It was made clear. The basics were what we were
all about. My mother always said I could work, but
she made it clear that the money you earned from
working is for you, not for me. You need to work.
And perhaps the best story I could tell about my

(02:10):
mom and my dad, but pretty much my mother the bookkeeper,
had to do with purchasing a car. I wanted my
own car. I was young. Now I'm in college. I
needed to get around. I wanted to meet girls. I
wanted a cool car and I wanted to get a car.
My parents made it clear that they needed their car
and that they couldn't afford to buy me a car.

(02:32):
So if I wanted to buy a car, they were
willing to lend me money as long as I agreed
to pay the money back and installments every week. And
as luck would have it, I turned out and I
bought a car. At that time. It was not a
lot of money today, but it was enough that every week,
for twenty four weeks, I had to give my parents
one hundred dollars. My mom did a chart, a bookkeeping shot,

(02:56):
and she put it in front of me, listed all
twenty four months, and each month I made a payment
that she deducted the one hundred dollars from that payment.
And I learned the value of money, and I learned
how important was to settle your debts. More importantly, it
drove me crazy that I owed money. I didn't like
the feeling of owing money. I didn't like the feeling

(03:18):
that every week I had to go to work, if
nothing else, to pay off a loan. To this day,
all these years later, I am debt free. I believe
in paying off everything, house cards, whatever it is, I
do not have debt. I would mention credit cards because
I think anybody who takes a loan on a credit
card is insane. Somebody mentioned the interest is thirty six percent.

(03:41):
You get a credit card, you pay it off every month.
It is insane to have credit card debt. And I
learned this from my parents. But as time went on,
I have to admit, for some reason, even though I
had great parents, even though I was a mama's boy
and I always loved my Mohami should always talk to
me and always make sure I was okay, I didn't

(04:03):
have many questions. I seem to have figured out most
things in my life on my own until I met Susie,
the girl who became my wife. Mommy, Susie Jesse's mother, Jesse,
my lawyer, my co host, and my son Jesse. It's
Mother's Day Weekend. You were always a mama's boy. Actually,

(04:24):
it was always very clear to me that you love
mommy more than me. I love both of you equally, but.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Mama's boy a thousand percent, one thousand percent, and I
was Mommy's little baby.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Look for me.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
This is a tough holiday. It's tough to be thinking
about it. Mommy passed away a few years ago. Mommy
was the best. She was absolutely everything to me. She
was always always there for me and Jared talk to me,
patient with me, caring, sweet, You know what the number

(05:03):
one life lesson she always had for me when in
terms of becoming a parent, she said, talk to your children.
Always know that they can come to you to talk
about whatever's bothering them. And I did about everything. And
she always had this way of making me feel safe,
feeling special. She had a way of literally turning my
day upside down always.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
And I don't know if you know this.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
She and I never ever, ever, ever once got into
a fight ever ever. And I think about her every day.
There's not a day that goes by when I don't think, Wow,
what would have been like to have her here for
this moment or for that, or what she would say
about this or that I still need her advice. Just

(05:48):
an incredibly special person And I like to think about
her a lot, not just every day, but particularly on
Mother's Day.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, I remember you and Jared coming to me after
Mommy passed away, and we were talking about it and
coming to grips with it, where both of you have
told me daddy. You're a pretty good tough love guy,
but you also now have to become the sweet one.
You have to fill in for mommy. I wasn't quite
sure how to do that.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Well, with all due respect, I mean your incredible father
that I don't think you ever figured that one out.
And I don't blame you. It's a very it's tough,
it's a tough role to fill, and you're always you're
always there for us. But it's just it's different.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
It's just different. It's the truth. I don't know how
else to say it. Well, the Weber boys were always
Mamma's boys, and that's just the way it is. Because
Mommy was so special. You talk about mothers so special.
Mommy Susy was the architect of our family. I don't
know how Look, we both got married. I was married
by the time I was twenty four. She was younger
than me, and you know, we're babies, really and you

(06:50):
think about that today. I don't know people get married
that young. But what did we know? I knew nothing. Me.
I was like a guy that fell out of a tree.
I knew as how to smile and how to convince
Mommy to go out with me and date me and
eventually married. But Mommy was the architect of our family.
And it all became clear to me when we first
got it going out, because she respected her parents in

(07:15):
a way I had never seen before on anyone, let
alone a girl you go out with. I mean, I
could have said she loved to parents, and we all
love our parents, or were supposed to. But she was different.
When her parents talk, she was actually listening. And no,
Mommy was beautiful, she carried herself with grace. But that

(07:36):
respect she had for her parents is what changed my
feelings towards her. It's something I never came to grips
with and I never saw someone like that. And there
was no hiding anything from her parents. She had no secrets.
When her parents talked, she listened. My favorite story, well,
the great stories of respect. I hadn't met her parents

(07:58):
for the first month, and after a month we were
Mommy and I were like words and music. We were
really connected, and she said it's time to meet my parents.
I said, really, She says, yeah, it's time to meet
my parents. Do I have to? And she stopped and
he looked at me, so are you serious? Of course
you have to meet my parents. I'm going out with

(08:19):
you either like me, you don't. You want to go
out with me, you don't, but you have to meet
my parents. I went to meet the parents, and it
was funny because in those days I was known as
the prints of the Projects. I look cool. I behaved
like a cool guy, except I made my mistakes. I
remember I had the most beautiful European brogue shoes, you know,

(08:39):
the kind with the perforated fronts and laces. The only
problem with and they were orange, so they looked great
with tan pants and they look very special. White v
Nex sweater, white well light blue shirt under the v
Nex sweat. I show up for the parents house. I
sit down and you know, talking to the father, and
I put my cross my legs and put my foot up,

(09:00):
and none be knownst to me. I had a hole
in the bottom of my souls. I couldn't afford to
replace them, or I didn't think I needed to, so
I was kept a piece of cardboard there so that
I wouldn't bet step on the floor and get nail
on my foot. That would help. But I put my
foot up and the cardboard had moved, and my father
in law was looking at the bottom of my foot
through my shoes, and I found out that about later.

(09:22):
The point being we went out, I met the parents,
so I was very polite. They seemed to like me.
And when Mommy and I, Susie and I are getting
to the front door, they walk us out of our
house and the father says to me, Joe, he says,
Mark brings Susie back by eleven o'clock. I looked at sure,
and I'm laughing to myself. Eleven o'clock with this guy nuts.

(09:43):
So I'm opening the door. We walk out and I,
you know, next to Susie and I lean over and
it's say, eleven o'clock. What are your father kidding? When
I come back at eleven o'clock, so I was walking
down the road, you know. I walked down the stairs
of the house to the car and I looked to
opened the door for Sissy and she's not there. I

(10:04):
didn't know what happened. Where is she? I turned around
and she's still by the door in the front of
her house. I said, what's going on? So I had
to walk back to the front of the house. She's
standing on the doorway and she said to me, if
my father says, I'm coming back at eleven o'clock. You're
bringing me back at eleven o'clock. And it was then
and there that I realized she was special, a woman

(10:27):
who respect her family, would respect anything, and she was
the architect of everything we did. She brought our family together.
She knew what to do. I didn't when we would
have kids. Her decision, how many kids we would have,
her decision, how would we behave, how we behave as
a family, her decisions. She clearly taught me what mattered

(10:48):
in life, what we should care about, how to be
a father. I'll never forget. I was a successful guy
young and you guys, Jesse, you and your brother were
playing sports, basketball, baseball, sokka, karate, and you know. I
was working, but I had all the reasons in the
world not to be around. I got home one night

(11:08):
for dinner, Susy says to me, I need to talk
to you. I said, okay, is it serious? She says,
I think so. I said what She said, are you
having success? I said, yeah, we're doing great. She said,
what good is success if you're not with your children
when they need you? And I was quiet. She said,

(11:29):
I expect you to be at all their games. I
expect you to be there. Otherwise, what a success money,
You'll have to be with your children. So she taught
me right away. That changed my life. Now, I won't
say it was every game during the week, but I tried.
I didn't miss much the weekends. I was always there
and during the week. She was right, what's the sense
of being a big shot if you're not with your family.

(11:52):
By the way, that's a great point.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
I always talked sense in you always talk sense into you.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
We were a tight unit. Anybody who knows Weber, whether
it's you, me, Jared, whoever, the family, the girls, they
know we're a tight unit. We roll together, we're a family.
We're a tight unit. We have few friends, and the
people that are friends are very special people. Otherwise we
don't want them. They wouldn't want us. We're about doing

(12:20):
the right thing and being close. And that was always Mommy,
and I got news for you. It wasn't always about being
a father of how the family should behave. Susie was very,
very elegant, composed, confident. Her parents taught her how to
behave and how to feel good about yourself, and that's
self confidence came always I always think of the song

(12:44):
that saved the last day for me? Have I talked
to you about this Dresley now by the Drifters? Soho
You can dance and go and carry on till the
night is young. You can have your fun, but don't
forget who's taking you home and who in your heart
is gonna be Oh darling, save the last dance for me.
That song. Every time I think of Mommy, I think

(13:05):
of that song when it comes to business, because any
function we ever went to, she was my wife. She
was the better half. She was smart, she was elegant,
She grew up around a family that was in her
own businesses. She had the sense about everything. And I
would show up an event, the two of us would
say hello to a few people. We would part our ways.

(13:26):
She would work the room, I would work the room.
We go our separate ways, but we knew that we'd
be coming back together for the last dance. And it
was such a powerful partner to have in business, who
would look the part, act a part, be charming, and
be able to do whatever she needed to do for
our careers. Together at any event we ever went to,

(13:48):
Mommy was extraordinary and perhaps the best story that I
can tell how to do at my worst moment of
my career. She and I began together at PVH. She
was my wife. I started working. She was my partner.
She was able to dvise me. She was always level headed.

(14:11):
My wife never went up and down. She was level headed.
You've heard me talk of time to time that the
way to behave in business is like an eagle through
a snowstorm. Whatever happens, no matter how high the winds are,
no matter what the challenge is, just fly level, don't
let it affect you. Make the right decisions based on
common sense and logic. That's who she was. And the

(14:32):
worst moment in my life was getting fired. I got
fired for van Usen, and not just as a clerk,
but as CEO. It was a public firing. It was
going to be one of the most embarrassing situations in
my life. Let alone ruined my life. I had worked
my entire career there as a clerk, I became the president,
I became a board member and CEO, and I got

(14:53):
fired because basically the board didn't want me. It wasn't
associated with not performing because the day I got let go, oh,
they took up the earnings estimate on Wall Street. A
week later, when the SEC did a filing on my firing,
they said it clearly, I'll get the terms of my
contract and then some because there was no wrongdoing. It
just wasn't the guy they wanted. Now. Did I hate

(15:15):
them for it? Absolutely? Was I angry for it? Yes?
Was I bitter for it? Yes? Was I said, Yes,
all of those things is part of the effort when
you get fired. But the truth was, I knew the
board has a sacred duty to manage the CEO and
the company they are in acting and the interests of

(15:37):
the shareholders. And if they made a decision that they
didn't want me there, it's their decision to make and
I had to respect it. And yes, I was unhappy,
but I had to respect it. But what frightened me
more than anything else was having to tell Susie the
idea of me sitting down with my wife, who all
of these years we've been together, who she's looked up

(15:58):
to me as a business guy who had achieved incredible
heights from where I began. She saw me from the
beginning walking around like John Travolta and not knowing anything
about the complexities of business, or how to behave, or
how to dress or how to speak for that matter,
all those things we're talking about. Packaging yourself is as
important as the products you package. I was a good

(16:20):
looking guy who knew how to smile. That's all I had.
Mommy and I together built this career. Now I have
to tell her I was fired. So I call her
up during the day and I said, I don't want
to meet you said, what do you mean, It's just
I kind of meet you. I want to talk to you.
What's wrong, moke, I said, let's just meet It's nothing.
So I meet her in a restaur and I sit
down with her, and you know, I was obviously shaken.

(16:43):
I didn't want to tell her this, and I was
very depressed. And I said, Sue, I have some very
bad news to tell you. And she looked at me
and now her face changed. She was nervous, she was worried.
And I'm sitting across the table from her, and I said, Cusia,
I have terrible news. And she's waiting and I said, look,
I got fired. I would tell you in a manner

(17:06):
of seconds. She reached across the table. My demune wife,
Susie in a manner of seconds punches me in the arm.
I can still remember how much it hurts. I can
still remember the black and blue mark, and I remember
more importantly what she said. She said, I thought it
was something important. You scared me. This was a woman

(17:28):
who knew right from raw, who understood what was important
in life, and on Mother's Day, can't help but think
about Susie back in a moment always in fashion. As
one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld
was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style.

(17:51):
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 Carlagofeld
also offers a range of watches I wear in premium fragrances.
You can explore the Carlagofhol collection at carlagofilpowers dot com.
But it's more than that. I, for one, love to shop.

(18:13):
I love going around and seeing what's happening and what
catches my attention, what would make me feel good to
wear now? I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but
I can appreciate it and they look amazing. If you
want to look right, you want to have clothes that
fits you well. You want to look like you're wearing
something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours.

(18:34):
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 handbags and the shoes. I,
for one, wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes.
I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I
want to look the way I want to feel. I
go out at night, I'm in black and Carlagofel is

(18:57):
my buddy. Calls are great. They fit 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 Carl Lagafel
because he's always been, he always had been, one of
the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on
and on. I can't speak enough about it except to
say to you, you want to feel good about yourself,

(19:19):
you want to know that you're dressing properly. You want
to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris, Carl
Lagafeldparis dot com. I love Polar fleece. It's lightweight, takes
colors beautifully, It's comfortable, keeps you warm and even if
it's warm out, it doesn't hamper you. It doesn't make

(19:40):
you perspire. I love Polar fleece. I also love sweatshirts
and sweatpants, love them, love them, love them. I'm a
big fan of khaki pants and a big fan of
a golf clothes, and I'm a big fan of Iszide.
I used to be the head of Iszide. In fact,
my company bought it at of bankruptcy and the CEO
of the company asked me to come in and fix it.

(20:00):
And he said to me, Mark, the future of the
company's in your hands. Can you do this? And I said,
I will do it. I put everything, my heart and
soul into making Isesid the powerhouse that it is today. Now.
I left a long time ago, and the company just
continues to thrive. Isaot is one of the great sweater makers,
pant make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polar shirt makers,
They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,

(20:25):
you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
easy for you. If you're going to be casual, go
in and look at ist. Now that doesn't say that
they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits,
you go find them. Isaot is a collective brand that
offers lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true,
it's a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun
prices everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of

(20:46):
all the brands that I'm involved with, and you can
name them, think about PVH and LVMH and all the brands,
Isaot is the one that's most personal to me because
I was involved in crafting the future of this brand.
The clothes are great, fall is great. They're doing well.
Isa dot com, isaacat jcpenny. Go look for it. I
think you're going to be very happy. And ladies, those

(21:07):
of you the shopping for the guys in your lives,
take a look. I think they'll be very happy with
your choices. Isaac for men, welcome back to it. Always
in fashion.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
It's mother's Day Weekend tribute to women all over the world,
particularly moms. Congratulations we are well. We wouldn't be here
without you. You're the best. I'll tell you what talking
the best. I have spent a career in luxury fashion
and retail, and I have to tell you the women
in this business are amazing in many respects. There's so

(21:44):
much more attuned to this industry than men are. Sorry,
guys myself included. I was always in awe of the
women I work with in business. In fact, when I
started coming up, when I first started working, I worked
for a guy. It was brilliant assistant designer. He kept
moving up and before I moved up, I was working

(22:05):
in the children's division, the boy's division, and I was
given a new boss one day, a woman. Her name
was Darlene Johnston. She was trained at rob Roy, which
was one of the big children's companies in the world
at the time, but more importantly in Ralph Lauren, and
she knew knitwear like no one you ever saw. She

(22:25):
knew everything about the weights of the fabric, the yarn sizes,
how to manage all the machinery, how to design it,
cut it, style it. And I learned from her, and
I have to tell you I got a brilliant education
from her, and that's how I started actually to be
perfectly frank in my company venues. And at the time,

(22:45):
I believe I was the first guy who ever worked
for a woman in that company. And from there on
everything changed. The women accelerated during my course at van
Us and I work with two young ladies who both
of them I would say are probably five feet tall stature,
but in capability where they were incredible, Helen Katz and
Island Combatis. One was dresshirts Eileen, and the other was

(23:07):
sports for Helen. And those two young ladies who I
work with over the course of time, helped make PVH
brilliant and I was incredibly lucky and aware of what
they were able to do. As time went on, I
met a woman named Kathy Bremberg who was an operations genius.
I met another operation's genius, all women, financial people, Pam Koton,

(23:31):
the treasurer of the company. All women. But perhaps the
most important story of all of them was before I
became a board member, I was head of marketing for
the company, head of merchandise, had a bunch of big titles.
I become president of the company. I become a member
of the board, and I remember that I always struggled
with what a van Usen was, and I started getting

(23:51):
confused because van Usen we made women's wear. At this time,
we had a big women's were business in our outlet stores.
We made men's pants, men's sports where a lot of
different items, even men's baiting sits. We had licensees and
made belts and small leather goods, pajamas, underwear. We had
everything in van Using. And here I am responsible for

(24:12):
creating the marketing for the company and the advertising, and
I was always struggling, should I make pictures that have
all these products in it? We had eyewear. Should I
do spend money on eyewear? What is van Using? You
could call it a lifestyle brand, but everybody calls themselves
a lifestyle brand. I was struggling how to make venues
in distinctive Now. Over the course of time, there was

(24:35):
a lot of shirt advertising. Seymour Philips, the son of
the founder back in the day, created advertising in baseball
parks around the country and made venues and what it
was a big national brand. There was a woman in
our company. Her name was a Stelle Ellis. I've talked
about her often, maybe even recently, and she was on
the board. She was the marketing spokesman on the board.

(24:57):
She was one of those women who grew up in
New York City. By the time I met her, she
was in her early eighties, sharpest attack, and had a
point of view, and she gravitated towards me because I
was younger. I had a point of view. I wasn't
afraid to give it. I had a creative bent. She
was creative. So we always talked before and after the
board meetings. And one day I walked into the meeting

(25:18):
and we were there alone. I said, I need your help.
So what do you need more? I said, I'm struggling.
I'm about to do a major campaign on van Usen.
We have a lot of money that we want to
spend on the brand, and I'm not sure what does
the van use it. And I'll never forget I've I've
told the story. She put her head down for a minute,
looked back up at me and smiled and she said,

(25:39):
mark van Usen the shirts for men. I looked at
her and I said, that's so simple and brilliant, but
does it cover everything? Says it doesn't have it. Shirts
for Men is what we are, how people know us.
We're the best in the industry, one of the most
recognized brands in the world, and you have a right
to have all those other brands and all those other

(25:59):
products around. Don't worry about it. And I went on
a tear creating all kinds of advertising of shirts and faces,
and it was one of the most proudest moments the
company ever had. The advertising we created was brilliant, so
Shirts for Men and I really really always enjoyed working
with her. As I moved to LVMH, and I spent

(26:21):
most of my time focusing on Donna, Karen and the company.
While they gave me all the titles chairman and CEO
of elvmanche Well, I was just member of the executive
committee in Paris. While I oversaw the Thomas Pink Shirt Company.
My responsibility was take the Donna Aaron company that only
I Madge spent six hundred and fifty million dollars six
forty five to be exact, that they never made money

(26:42):
on it and turned into a profitable entity. And I
focused on that. And I get to LVMH and I
meet Donna who's a whirling dervish, brilliant, you know, million
miles an hour, and I can come back to her
in a moment. But I met my first dkmy meeting
in because it was my first day, they arranged a

(27:02):
meeting in the boardroom with my new group of executives,
all of my direct reports, including Judy Lougo, my assistant,
Kathy Volker, Jennifer Morris, the heads of licensing, Jackie Bowser,
the head of marketing, Patty Cohen, the head of PRN Marketing,
and of course Donna Karen. There was also Tricia Calber,
the head of Finance and chief operating officer, as well

(27:26):
as Mary Wong, the head of decayn Y Sportswear, Carol Kerner,
the head of Donna Karen Collection. And I'm sitting in
the boardroom and I said, hi, boys and girls, and
I look around and said, oh, I'm the only board
The whole place was all women, and their direct reports
was all women. So I was in with the Amazons.
I was with the most powerful women in the world,

(27:46):
all these capable people, every one of them was a woman.
And in speaking with them and having this first meeting,
I realized how lucky I was, and it was something
that made very clear to me how important women were
in our industry. Any question I had with finance, Tricia
had the answer. Anything I needed to know about how
Bloomingdale's thought, Mary would have the answer. Anything I needed

(28:09):
to know about women's collection, Carol had the answer. And
I worked with women my entire career and it was
really extraordinary experience. Now, I've always had a philosophy that
I want to work with people that I struggled to
be value added. Think about what that means. That means
that the smarter they were, the more capable they were,

(28:32):
the better I would like it, and I would find
a way to fit in and be productive. And it
was tough with this group because they knew a lot
about a lot of things, and I wanted to make
an impression, and I did. My contribution to the group
came down to I understood corporate life, and I understood

(28:52):
what ELV Maje was accounting for and what they needed.
While this was one of the great brands in the world,
they weren't getting a return. And the reason they weren't
getting a turn is for whatever reason, the former CEOs,
who were all very capable, one was a lawyer. One
was from Sacks if they have anyone was from Georgia Romani.
They never ran an American or apparel company, an accessory

(29:15):
company and licensing company that had a collection component. They
were all familiar with the collection, the very expensive thing,
but they didn't understand the mass peal of the dkm
Y Brandon how to make it profitable. And of course
I knew that, and in order to get these things
in place, I had to put in disciplines that would

(29:35):
make it profitable and expense I remember the first day
in meeting with them, when I started to ask what
I thought were difficult questions, not intentionally, but they were
questions that needed to be answered. Every answer I'd get
from one of those people would be can I be
honest with you? I said, no, what I always do,
No lie to me, and they would look at me

(29:55):
like and laugh, And I said, the most important thing,
I'm asking questions. You shouldn't be afraid to answer them
the way you feel. I want your opinions. You're being
paid for your pinons. I don't have to agree, but
we need to get on board. And it was really
bad for the first week till finally I said to
my assistant Judy, empty out the jelly bean jar. I
had a big I guess it was a trophy. Someone

(30:16):
went it was filled with jelly beans. Anybody came into
my office conference room could have the jelly beans. And
I emptied it out. And I said to the team
we had a meeting. I said, from here on in,
anybody who says to me, can I be honest with you,
He's going to have to put a dollar in that bowl.
I mean the dollar bowl filled up in like minutes.
But we eliminated that habit, and we all agreed that

(30:38):
in ordered us to be productive, we had to be
honest with each other. Of course we did number one.
Number two we had to focus on money. We had
to get the shareholders healthy image money. They had to
make money. This is something was foreign to these people.
Not that they were bad, because in Donna's world, the
most important thing is build a brand and the money

(31:00):
will flow. That's true. The more powerful you make the brand,
the higher prices you could sell, the more goods you'll
sell at regular price. It should work, but it didn't.
You had to be focused on the margins. You had
to be focused on all those financial things. And I
was adamant, and I refused to give in an inn
an inch, and we changed the profile of the company

(31:20):
who made a ton of money. And part of it
doing was I made everyone vested in the company. I
set up financial plans that if we hit everyone would
not only get their bonuses, but special bonuses. I had
career veteran Patty Khaneh's been thirty years with Donna. I'll
never forget. After the first l TIP long term incentive

(31:41):
plan came out and she received her check, she came
into my office with tears in her eyes and she said,
first of all, when you said that we were going
to do this, I never believed it. Number one. Number two,
even if it was real, I never would believe we
would collect what you promised. And number three, this is
the most money myself or my associates I've ever made

(32:03):
working here. We've always worked hard, but we've never participated
in the profit sharing. And I can't tell you how
much I respect you and how much we all appreciate
what you did. It was one of the great moments
of my life because I delivered on what we promised.
You focus on financials. If we make the return for
lvmheal all benefit, and we did year after year after

(32:25):
the year. One of my favorite stories had to do
with intimate apparel, ladies underwear, men's under it, but particularly
ladies underwear. When I was at Calvin Klein, we had
the most profitable women's underwear business in the world. It
was huge, It was amazing and DK and why Donna
Karen To this day, I'm sure Donna Karen's hosiery, you know,
stockings and leggings and stuff, is one of their biggest business.

(32:47):
It's an annuity every year to just keep making it
and filling in it and make a ton of money.
I get to the company, I said, I want to
meet the underwear people. Why because I went to Macy's
and the Donna shop was in shadow, because Calvin Klein's
shop was so big and so powerful that the lights

(33:07):
from their shop were blocking out our shop because we
were so small. And I went to meet the licensee
with Kathy in with Jennifer Morris and Kathy Volga, and
I said to them, listen, I came from the biggest
underwear company in the world. We have to invest in this.
This is so much money. Even though Donna Karon is
doing great. Deca't want should be big. It's not digging up.

(33:28):
I went to the licensee. I said to the licensee, listen.
I had an idea. I said, you know, we're not
spending enough money. I'm building shops. I want you to
take our business in Macy's and rebuild the shop. He said,
I don't have money for that. I say, I'll tell
you what we should do. Whether it's one year or
two year. Let's take a hiatus on advertising underwear. I said,

(33:48):
we're not spending enough to mean anything. They said, we
can't do that. We have to have it. I said,
listen to me. You're spending a million dollars when we
do a photo shoot for this category and this kind
of models. You're spending quarter of a million dollars just
on that, adding another one hundred thousand of the photographer.
Then take with the money that's left after paying royalties
and guarantees to the models or whatever, you got maybe

(34:12):
half a million dollars. At the time, an advertising page
was fifty thousand dollars. So if the course of the
year we would have ten pages over the cost of
the year, that's one magazine a month. Even less. If
you put two pages in Vogue. You're only going to
have five insertions the whole year. I said, you're not
spending enough money to be meaningful. So what I want
you to do is authorize us to take that money

(34:34):
and let's build shops with it. The guy said no.
So I walked out and I said to Kathy and Jennifer,
I can't do business here anymore. I don't want them
in our licensees. They said, but you know, I said, listen, guys,
we worked well as a team. There are certain things
that are important to you. There are certain things that
important to me. We could do better. Find us a
licensee who needs this. Our licensee was with Jacoll, great

(34:56):
underwear maker. They were amazing, but they just weren't what
we needed to do. We were tiny. Cavin was big.
So they found maiden Form and we signed a twenty
five year deal with maiden Form with the CEO public
company to do Donna Carna dk Y and they were
desperate for it, and in order for us to give

(35:17):
them twenty five years, we did a deal that was
ten times richer than we had with more coal, and
included in that was building shops and doing everything to
build the brand and for maiden Form. We were the
star on the top of the Christmas tree and we
built a strong business. But all the women that we
work with, all the people there, I struggled to find

(35:37):
a way to be valuated and I did. And the
reason I struggled because they were great and I had
a tremendous respect and I still do for women in retail.
I worked with women in retail that were courageous. Here's
a simple thing that most people don't know. If you're
a manufacturer, you put a line together, you put your
ideas down to whether it shoes, handbase, whatever, you make samples,

(35:58):
and you go out and sell it. If you sell
a lot, you make a lot. If you don't sell
a lot, you don't make a lot. You're not making
a decision. You're going to retailers who have to stand
up and buy it. They're the most courageous people in
the world. If you're at Bloomingdale's and you come with
Donna Karen shoes, they're the ones who step out and say,
I want a thousand pair for all my stores. They

(36:20):
make the commitment. They're the ones religiously aggressive. Most of
the buyers and people I met along the way and
the women's dis industry put together were women and it
was amazing to work with women. And not only that,
when you stop and think about it, give me a break.
You know. Men work, they go home, have their dinner
and go to sleep. Women work, They have families, They

(36:42):
go home, they have children, they have to feed, they
have hundreds they have to take care of. They are
working more hours than we could ever work. Now, I
don't want to make light of men, and you know
I'm one of them. I committed myself to hard work
and effort and think about the business all the time.
But if you think about a women's life, it doesn't
end six o'clock. She has families to manage and all

(37:03):
these things. So I always had a great respect for
women in business. Well, i'm on the subject of women
in business. Let's go back to LVMH. I'm meeting with
LVMH Corporate in Paris and part of the yearly efforts
of LVMH. This is a company that cares very deeply
about their people, recognizes that there are people, they are associates.

(37:23):
Their workforce is what makes them special, and every year
they want to make sure first things first, a tenant
in business then I learned in my PVH days is
when you have someone working for you that's really good,
you need to promote them, obviously, but sometimes you have
them in jobs that are really important and there are
other opportunities that open up, but you don't want to

(37:45):
give those people up because they're too important to your
You're a part of the organization that might be in sales,
and now you have a job in merchant, you don't
want to give them up. Well, in that day, our
CEO came up with a policy at one point, and
I stay with me when I became CEO that any
job that opens up in the company, I don't care
how important you are to the division you're in. If

(38:08):
something opens up and it would be a promotion, we're
going to give you an opportunity to the interviewed you
for it, or give you that job. Because if you're
going to end up holding people back, you're going to
eventually lose them. So your idea should be, rather than
lose them to another company, lose them to yourself. You
can't hold people back. And this was a tenet of

(38:32):
LVMH as well, which I was proud to be a
part of and excited to hear. LVMH had sixty thousand employers,
I believe at the time, and they had policies in
place and one of the most sophisticated HR teams globally
that I ever saw in my life. And there were
constant updates and reviews on people, and the whole review
process took a very long time, doing reviews, doing self evaluations,

(38:54):
talking about where someone can or cannot be, what other
opportunities in the company might be afford to those people.
And it was a brilliant set of circumstances. And I'll
never forget. I am at this meeting in human resources,
in the human resource part of my financial meetings and
these strategic planning, and I had gone through the evaluations

(39:16):
of all my direct reports, some of which you heard before,
all of which were women. And the women that I
work with either had lives that they established in the
United States in New York, they owned their own homes,
they owned their own businesses. You know, they had lives.
Many of them were single or had significant others, and

(39:37):
some of them were married. I had children, They had
their roots in New York. Before in preparation for this
meeting that I was going to have in LVMH. I
asked each of the individuals whether or not they would
be movable, because a big part of elval image global
is they move people all over the world. If you're
in New York and there's a great opportunity happening in

(39:58):
Paris or in London, you should be transportable if you
want to be. And I had these meetings with each
of the individuals and Hey, Patty, would you be willing
to move to Paris? You know, Mark, my life is here,
my husband's here, our work is here. We love New York.
I've been with Donna. This is where I belong, this
is where I want to finish out my career. And

(40:20):
I went one by one with all the different women,
and pretty much across the board, every single one of
them wanted to remain in New York. All of them
had different reasons. And I asked them, if there was
an opportunity for you to be promoted to make more money,
to go live in Paris, or go live in London
or Rome or Antwerp or Hong Kong or Japan, do

(40:41):
you want to live and move there? And the answer,
pretty much across the board, if not exactly, was no,
I'm New York born and bred. This is where I
want to be. This is where I want to have
my career. Thank you for asking. I'm thankful for lv
IMAH that they would consider it, but I belong here.
Fast forward. Now I'm at the meeting with the head
of HR who outlines the entirety of a plan that

(41:04):
She was a brilliant woman, shot and tell, and I
liked hering it along well with her. She just laid
out the whole plan and said, now I'm going to
leave you in the hands of I forgot his name,
some French guy. And she left the meeting with the
meeting started. So I'm looking through all the notes Mark
in a French accent. I see you have some very
high rated women in your division. They're all getting better
than average or exceptional. These are women that we could

(41:26):
use in the organization. Let's talk about opportunities. And when
I get into the conversation with him, I said, in
preparation for this meeting, Shot whatever his name was, I said,
none of my directports, none of my direct reports, want
to move. They're all happy, and they're in New York
and there's silence in the room just like this. You

(41:48):
mean to tell me if we have an opportunity for
them in Paris, they wouldn't want to move to Paris
and work in our corporate office here. I said no.
He said, well, I don't believe that. How could that be?
And I made them one of the great mistakes of
my life that I loved. I paid a price for
it in terms of good will. I said, they live
in the greatest city in the world. They all have

(42:10):
significant others, they all have husbands, they all have routsia,
they're happy in New York and they don't want to
move even to Paris. And he goes, you didn't even
focus on He goes right to You're saying New York
is the greatest city in the world. And I said,
m yeah, I thought that was Everyone knew that. He
got pissed at me. You have no idea, He says,

(42:31):
I can't believe you say that to me, especially to
us in Paris here, that's the greatest city of the world.
What is Paris? Blah blah blah blah blah. I said, listen,
can we get off of this. This is not about
who has the greatest city in the world. You asked me.
They have rootsia, they don't want to leave. They're powerful women.
They deserve to have what they want. I've asked them,
if it was promotable more money, do they want to

(42:51):
leave to the person. Every one of them said, no,
that's what this is about. So having said all of that,
I really will tell you that I have the highest regard.
In my career, was surrounded by great women who've done
great things for our country, for our industry, for our company,
and for the all the people that were lucky enough

(43:12):
to be around them. Happy Mother's Day to all of you,
and happy Ladies Day. Back in a moment, Always in
Fashion spent a lifetime of my career building the van
Usen Brand, and I am so pleased that they're back
with us now talking about suits. Men were dressing up
again and it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits

(43:34):
can be won on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You
could wear a suit formally to go out at night
or to an event, wear a suit to the office
with or without a tie. If you look closely, now
fashion trends, suits are being worn with turtlenecks or mark next.
The choices are endless and every one of them looks right.

(43:55):
You could really really look the part. I believe that
packaging yourself is important does the products you package, and
wearing a suit is one of those things that make
men look their best. Venuesing invented a new idea. It's
called the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology,
giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle

(44:17):
resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect
for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new
style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
and I'm so excited that the 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

(44:39):
it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the
suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find
Vanues in cool Flex Men's stretch suits at jcpenny are
online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great, you should
go look at them. Done. Karen began a Career is
one of the finest, most successful, powerful women in the

(45:03):
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 tonight.
An extraordinary collection. But the interesting thing Donna Karen had
a young daughter, and she had friends, and they couldn't

(45:23):
afford to buy the Donna Karon 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 Donna Karen decan why as intimate apparel,

(45:46):
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 andy clothes for work,
they work into the evening. The dresses, the suit boots,
the pants, the sweaters, the blouses. Extraordinary clothes at affordable
prices that go from day in tonight. Part of your

(46:09):
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 you're going out to the movies, whatever you

(46:31):
want to do, dkn Y Jeans, DC and Y Sportswear
is there for you. That's what a lifestyle brand is.
And I need to mention DKY active Wear, which is extraordinary,
the leggings, the sports bras, the sweats. You can wear
DKY active Wear certainly in the gym, certainly when you're

(46:53):
working out at home, and certainly if you want on
the street, because it's that well done. The quality of
DK why is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't
it be because it was born from the idea of
luxury made affordable for women of America. DK and Why
a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and tonight,

(47:14):
from the week into the weekend. D can why you
can find dcn Why and Macy's DKY dot com.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Welcome back to Always in Fashion.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Here's your host, Mark Webber. It's Mother's Day and Mother's
Day weekend. It's an emotional time for me. I was
married to a woman my entire life, a great woman, Susie,
sweet Sue, and she passed away. It's someone seven years
ago and it was like yesterday. Never dreamed that she
wouldn't be with us. So when this holiday comes around,

(47:48):
it it leaves me and Jesse and the boys and
our daughter in laws and everyone since state happy. We
had our time with her, and we did, but a
sad state. But it's a time to reflect on mothers
appreciate it. I had a great mother who loved me.

(48:10):
I was a MoMA's boy. The boys and MoMA's boys,
they all love their mother's more than they love their father's.
I have to admit it. My children, I know, love me,
but not like they love their mommy. It's like, you know,
I talk about this all the time. I think it's hysterical.
For a lighter note, you know, I took the boys.
You see all these professional athletes, okay, football players whatever.

(48:32):
The father's in the backyard. He's running around on the ground.
He's teaching them how to throw the ball, catch the ball,
tackle the boys, all the stuff. Then the guy wins
the Super Bowl. He catches the past and he puts
his hand up, he says, hey, Mom, Hi, Mom. And
it's like me with the boys. No matter what I
ever do, they found my wife to be exceptional. That's
something I had to live with and the something I

(48:53):
had to get used to, and I did because she
was great. And I've been fortunate enough to know a
lot of great women and personally and professionally. And I
hope you all do, and I hope you appreciate it.
That life for women is even more complicated than men.
They have to be the brains of the outfit. They
have to manage the family. They have to help pay

(49:15):
the bills. They have to take care of the children.
They have to get them to everywhere they need to go.
I'll tell you once I did a radio show and
a demo long before I got on the radio, and
I talked about being missed the mom. That my wife's
mom hurt her leg. She had to go to Florida
help her. She broke her leg. I was alone with
the kids for a week. It was the toughest job

(49:35):
I ever had in my life, not including or notwithstanding
the fact that I went shopping bought a couple of
bottles of milk and I threw some stuff on it.
The milk spilled all over the car. The car smelled
from milk. I had two little guys. I had to
feed them every day. It was during the summer. I
had to take them to the beach. I had to
keep them clean. In the midst of all of this,

(49:55):
one of the boys got the measles. I mean, I
had a nightmare in my life. I couldn't handle how
hard it was to be mister mom. So I salute
you ladies tonight. I salute the mothers of America, I sayes,
I salute the mothers of the world, because none of
us would be here without you. With that happy Mother's Day,
and I hope you enjoyed always in fashion, taking a

(50:15):
little life experience and a little cultural aside away from
business and away from the hardcore, to talk about really
what's important in life, our mom's good night.