The Future Is Now

The Future Is Now

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
show is sponsored by G three Aparo. 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 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. Those of you follow Always in Fashion, recognize
that last week I was said, I changed it because
this suk is happy. It's the future. I'm living in it.
The future is now. It started by receiving an email
on LinkedIn from a woman named Kathleen. I've been listening
to your show. I think from the beginning, great show.

(01:01):
Last week you are my appointment radio, appointment Radio. I
loved it. There are people out there I know who
look forward to our show every week and it makes
me happy. I appreciate all of you now. In general,
I've always been different. I think different, I look different.
I'm my own person. I recognize that I embraced it.

(01:23):
I did learn to compromise to play the game when necessary.
I always knew it wasn't simple being me. I figured
so what I liked me. I grew up learning if
everyone thought the same way, why we would need everyone.
I worked surrounded by some brilliant people, I reasoned in
learning from them, I might not be brilliant, but I

(01:44):
sure would get a great education. I was proud I
asked questions no one else did, and often was applauded
for looking at things a different way. My way marksway
wasn't easy being me. Two stories come to mind right
out of the box about being different. I told you
the story about the way we're wired, the way we're
wired differently and allowed me to remind you, those of

(02:06):
you who listen every week, that it's okay to be different.
Those of you haven't heard the show. Let me tell
you the story between abstract and linear. I had a
close business associate. We were fighting. We never fought with
each other in our lives. It was amazing time. We
were both taken aback. We weren't happy with each other.
So my boss called an industrial psychologist said and he said, guys,

(02:31):
you two respect each other. I don't understand what's going on.
I want to interview you separately. So he spoke to
my boss about what was bothering him, and he spoke
to me about what was bothering me. A week later,
he brought us back together. He said, here's where we are.
He said to my boss. Listen, you're an incredibly smart guy.
You're very quick. You get from here to there instantaneously,

(02:54):
straight lying kind of guy. And he looked at me
and said, Mark, you're an incredible guy. You're super smart.
But you don't go linear. You meander. You go what
we call abstract. You get to the right conclusions. You
just approach it differently. You want to be shown that
those conclusions are right. You're doing your own form of
due diligence. Both of you get to the same place. Now,

(03:16):
stop fighting, recognize that each other. One of you is different,
and you respect each other and work together. And that
was the first time, really that I realized how differently
wired I was. The second story that comes to mind
here was I was always in trouble in my companies,
at least the first round of companies PVH, Philips and Usen.

(03:38):
I didn't go from a straight line talk about linear
to the top. Oh, I me and and I went
up and down and up and down. But I got
where I needed to get. I became the CEO of
the company, and a board member and the president. But
it wasn't easy. And there was a point in time
where I recount the story that I referred to as
the great lie talk about being different. Company signed an

(04:00):
exclusive agreement with j C. Penny to get the venues
and brand in this store. Going back, at this time,
j C. Penny didn't have access to all the great
national brands. They have a lot of them now, but
they still don't have them all. And at that time,
in order to get the venues and brand, they conceded
to buy one hundred million dollars worth of product from

(04:22):
our corporation in venues and it's some of the other
brands that we wanted to launch, even in private label.
This agreement was struck and it was etched in Stone.
I happened to have been in another division called PVH International.
I built a sourcing, a procurement arm of the company
for our retail stores. We had grown to a thousand stores,
and someone needed to buy all those products and import

(04:44):
them in the United States. We were primarily a dresser
company at the time, so we knew nothing about women's wear,
nothing about men's pans or sweaters for that matter. What
we knew with shirts. Someone had to build a resource,
a network to import products for all all those different
business We had five different retail formats, close to one
thousand stores, as I said, and we were doing tons

(05:06):
of business, making tons of money. That's what I had
been doing. But they needed a president for van Usen
and I had come back once again after taking a
fall and was allowed to become the president of two companies,
hold on to my pH International division for a while,
but take over the van using company came into the company.
I was astounded to see how much business we're doing

(05:29):
with J. C. Penny. I didn't know about the deal.
I was in another division. I was alerted to the
fact they were doing this huge business, and as the president,
I had to be briefed by the bureaucrats like you
have in government, that people who are in these business
they were great, they knew their jobs, but I didn't
do anything, and I was being briefed. I said, wow,
that's exciting j C. Penny buying all this product and

(05:49):
the company has grown dramatically. And there was a look
on their faces that basically said all is not well.
And I said what. And they explained to me that
because of the deal the chairman of the company, Larry
Phillips Phillips van Uesen, made it impossible. Were those of
the words they used for us to be successful at JAYC.

(06:10):
Penny And I said them, please explain. He said, well,
I could use an example of flannel men's sports shirts.
Flannel men's sports shirts are pre ticketed twenty five dollars,
but the true price going out the doors of Macy's
or Dillard's or Belk stores was fourteen ninety nine. So
even though they were pre ticketed, these are value of

(06:32):
twenty five dollars. When they came into the store for
a week or two, they stayed at twenty five dollars,
sold very little product, and immediately started pounding them out
of the store at fourteen ninety nine outs sale, and
then we'd sell hundreds of thousands of shirts. In the
case of J. C. Penny, because J C. Penny agreed
to this deal. They had no recourse in the negotiation.

(06:53):
So we were selling J. C. Penny flannel shirts that
would sell for twenty five dollars. Now, our friends at
Macy's in order to get or dulls or blooming deals, whoever,
in order to get their full margin, which was fifty
percent at fourteen ninety nine, we're paying seven dollars a shirt.
So once again, the pre ticketed at twenty our five dollars.

(07:15):
They leave it there for two weeks at regular price
and then put them on sale for fourteen ninety nine.
And because they were paying seven dollars for the shirt,
they were making their full margin at fourteen ninety nine
on sale. But in JC Penny they were paying twelve
fifty not seven dollars, so they couldn't put the shirts
on sale at all because they would have to pay

(07:37):
it out of their margin. So we had all the
departments store selling shirts at fourteen ninety nine. Well, JAC
Penny was at twenty five dollars, so there was a problem.
I said, well, how can we do this? What is
happening at Penny? I said, they're not selling the shirts,
but because they're forced to buy they're going to buy
whatever we need them to buy come next season. So
fast forward six months later, I'm showing up at the business.

(08:00):
I'm being told the great lie. Nobody wants to tell
Lawrence Phillips. JC Penny is not working. So when PVH
my team went in to sell flannel shirts for the
next season. They had bought in the original season four
hundred thousand units, four hundred thousand flannel shirts to sell

(08:22):
in the store. When they came in to sell flannel
shirts the following season, they sold four thousand, and my
sales manager, the people who are briefing me said they
didn't want to buy any more than four thousand. So
what did they say when you told them? They said, look,
you sold us to flannels at twenty five dollars. You
told us that's the price it needs to be. You've

(08:44):
charged us twelve fifty And in reality, all we sold
in the course of the year were four thousand units
of flannel. Were stuck with three hundred and ninety six
thousand units of flannel. We can't sell them. You can't
expect us to buy more, but you have an agreement.
I looked at us and they said, we're a retail store.
It can't be naive. If I didn't sell the product,

(09:05):
I can't buy invent something else for me to buy.
And the problem was that this is what we did
with them in our dress shirts, this is what we
did with them in sweaters, this is what we did
with any product, because we felt we had them captive.
So I said, well, how could this continue to be
going on? Nobody wants to tell Larry Phillips. So here
I am the new president. Have a huge problem with

(09:27):
jac Penny, who guaranteed one hundred million dollars in volume
and no longer will do it. And no one would
tell the powers to be the great lie that it
isn't working. So I'm always young, I'm always aggressive, I'm
always different. I'm not afraid to be different. I decide
to go talk to my boss and I told them, hey,
mister president, this isn't working, did you know? And he

(09:50):
kind of looked at me. He says, explain to me,
And I explained. In the example in this case, I
did it with dress shirts. Our dress shirts are twenty
five dollars. We're selling to J C. Penny twelve fifty,
so they can sell them at twenty five dollars and
make a full margin. The only problem is we sell
them at eight dollars to every other store in America
who sell them at nineteen ninety nine on sale. So

(10:13):
I boss says, to me, tell you what you need
to do. You need to detail us, put it in writing,
explain the situation. I'll review it before you send it.
We'll send it to Larry Phillips, and then we'll have
a meeting. So I spent the next day working on
a draft. I did it ten times to get the
draft perfect. I gave it to my boss. He said,
I'm going to change a couple of words here and there, Mark,

(10:34):
but this thing is great. I'm gonna send it to Larry.
We'll have a meeting. So now it turns out we're
gonna have the meeting with Larry Phillips on Friday. I
go down to his office. It's me, my boss, and
Larry Phillips, and you can see them in and I
walked in. He was angry. He says, you want to
explain this letter to me. I sell them, mister Phillips,
here's the problem. We went ahead and we've done then

(10:54):
this deal with jac Penney. They're excited to have the brand,
we're excited to sell them. However, taking them for granted,
we're not realizing that the prices we're selling to them out,
while they're great and advantageous for our markups, are not
good for their markeps. They're not making money. All our
competitors are able to put the merchandise on sale because
there are no guarantees with Macy's or Dillard's, or Nochim

(11:17):
or Belk stores. They buy it based on a price
that they could sell it, which is significantly less than
Jason Penny is selling. So while we're doing very well
with our other stores, we're not doing well with Jason Penny.
They don't understand how our competitors can do this, and
in frankly, we've come in the new season and they're
buying a lot less than they planned, and they're no
way they're going to hit the one hundred million dollar level.

(11:38):
He says, I'm going to call them up. I said, well,
before you call them, you have to realize what they're
selling to us. They buy in retail dollars. They're stuck
with merchandise for this whole year worth of selling. Before
they could buy new merchandise. They have to deal with
what they have on the floor. They asked us to
take it back. Of course we can't. So we need
to figure out how to sell them properly so that

(11:59):
we can make money and they can make money, and
most importantly, they can be competitive with our other customers.
And Larry Phillips looks at me. He said, this is
the worst letter I've ever read in my career. I
am embarrassed that you've presented to me. I don't agree
with you. I think this is terrible. I'm even upset

(12:20):
that you gave it to me on a Friday that
I had to look at it today, he said, meeting adjourn.
I go home that night and I'm in my house
and I'm telling my family we're in trouble. I can't
imagine I'm going to last another week in the company.
This is horrendous. I can't believe the beating I took.
My boss told me to do it. My boss agreed
with me. He felt that something happened. That happened. But

(12:43):
we're sitting there, Larry Phillips, he said, not a word.
And I took the heat. And Larry Phillips, I think
it's going to want to fire me Saturday morning. Next day,
seven forty five in the morning, my phone rings in
the house. I pick up and lo and behold it's
Larry Phillips. Hey, Mark, bright day. You're having a good day.
How you doing, Larry Phillips? What's going on? He said, Mark,

(13:05):
I want to tell you something. Then, after our meeting yesterday,
I took your letter home and read it with great
detail over again, and I have to tell you it's
one of the greatest pieces of work I've ever read
in my life. You outline the challenge facing the company.
You outline the issues facing the company. You outlined why
you believe our current proposals weren't working, and you gave

(13:29):
us a solution. And all I can tell you is
how proud I am of you, and how the future
will be bright. And I authorize you to do whatever
it takes to be successful. So I dealt with the
great lie. I told the truth. I was different from
everyone else. And the bottom line and the moral of
this story is we live in the future, and the

(13:49):
future is now, and we have to deal with the
future as we live it. We have to pick our spots.
I have generally a big personality. I'm not afraid to
be stood up and counted on. I do dress conservatively,
and my advice to you is fit in, but stand out.
The future is now back in a minute, always in fashion.

(14:14):
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl
Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
America through car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,
ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house
Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches, I wear and

(14:35):
premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagovo collection at
car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that. I
have for one, love to shop. I love going around
and seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what
would make me feel good to wear now. I don't
wear the women's wear, obviously, but I can appreciate it
and they look amazing. If you want to look right,

(14:56):
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 you can find it
at very affordable prices at Macy's. Orcarlagofel dot com, Paris.
The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well
as the handbigs and the shoes. I, for one, wear

(15:17):
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 Carlagafel is my buddy.
Carls are great, they fit great, and they have little
tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the sleeve
or button at the neck or on the shoulder. There's
a lot of details that go into Carlagafel because he's

(15:40):
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. You want to
know that you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that
fits you well. Carl Lagafeld Paris, Carl Lagofeldparis dot com.
I love polar fleece. It's lightweight, takes colors, beautifully. It's comfortable,

(16:05):
keeps you warm, and even if it's warm out, it
doesn't hamper you. It doesn't make you perspire. I love
polar fleas. 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 Izide. I used to be
the head of Iside. In fact, my company bought it

(16:28):
and at of bankruptcy and the CEO of the company
asked me to come in and fix it. 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 Eyeside the powerhouse that it is today. Now
I left a long time ago, and the company just
continues to thrive. Iseside is one of the great sweater makers,
pants make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, polar shirt makers.

(16:51):
They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,
you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
easy for you. If you're going to be actual, Go
in and look at Isaac. Now that doesn't say that
they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits,
Go find them. Isaac is a collective brand that offers
lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true, it's

(17:12):
a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun prices
everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of all
the brands that I'm involved with and you can name them,
think about PVH and LVMAH and all the brands, isaod
is the one that's most personal to me because I
was involved in crafting the future of this brand. The
close of great Fall is great. They're doing well. Isaad

(17:32):
dot com, isaacat jcpenny, go look for it. I think
you're going to be very happy. And ladies, those of
you the shopping for the guys in your lives, take
a look. I think they'll be very happy with your choices.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Isaad for men, welcome back to it. Always in fashion.
Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
I live in the future. The future is now. Every
second is the future, and we're all there the minute
I say these words to you. It's paths. We're now
in the future. And I like thinking about it that
way because it makes you smarter. You're planning in advance.
I think back when I was an executive in the
corporate world. I was an observer, always the outfront guy,

(18:11):
setting direction, making speeches. Yet I had an uncanny ability
to observe while I was in action, whether it was
in a boardroom or an auditorium, whether it was twenty
people or five hundred people, I could read the audience.
I looked around, I would see that they were either
smiling or not laughing at the right spots, or just engaged.

(18:33):
I just saw them, every one of them, and I
knew where I was at any given time in a presentation.
I realized early on that people all professed to love change. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
bring it on. I love change until they themselves had
a change and to be change agents. No one, no

(18:56):
one wants to change themselves. It was at this point
I coined the quote that behind anyone with vision, there
were fifty well intentioned people undermining that vision. They had
good hearts but weren't helping. So with this is a backdrop,
I want to discuss some of those people that are
living in the future, because the future is every second.

(19:18):
It's now. Elon musk Oh, my goodness, it was only
a year ago. Elon Musk is one of the most
respected men in the world, let alone in this country.
A man with vision, a man whose entire billion was
in the future. He had a vision. He single handedly
determined that the future of automobiles should be electric and

(19:40):
a time when no one else considered or let alone
could execute it, built the only, the unquestionably brilliant Tesla
in the United States, an automobile company making electric cars viable.
There's a lot of talk out there, but he made
it happen, and it was good for the world. It
was good for our health, it was good for tests.
Now there are a lot of copiers. Oh, being second, third,

(20:03):
fourth is easier than being the innovator. Elon Musk was
that man. And then there's space. While the United States
government basically gave up on space travel, Elon Musk set
his eyes on the stars and he privately led the
charge to space through his company Amazing and that's not it.
Then he bought Twitter, as it is said, to save

(20:26):
free speech. Then he supported Trump and overnight went from
superstar love by all, to a monster to some, a
hero still to many. He made the mistake. Then the
world changed of supporting chains and supporting a new government
energy called Trump Department of Government Efficiency DOGE, and he's

(20:47):
heading it up, and his brilliance at breakthrough speed under
the direction of the President of the United States began
and he began to eliminate and implement change, and everyone,
well not everyone, starts to hate of it. He getting
rid of the redundancy of the ridiculous waste, and he's
going after fraud and government. Who would argue with this,

(21:12):
It turns out one party in particular, and those people
are obsessed with the process. They don't like what he's doing.
They don't even comment on the results. They're not angry
to find corruption and waste. They're not unhappy that he's
fixing it or eliminating it, let alone applauding him for
what he's doing. And he's not on his own the

(21:34):
presence that go do it, which leads back to behind
anyone with vision, they're fifty well intentioned people undermining that vision.
Except in the Muske case, behind anyone vision, there are
fifty million people undermining the vision. How dairy uncover these
things rather than how could we have allowed this to

(21:54):
go on? It makes no sense and that is a
backtrup as far Ad Come would say, that's all I
have to say about that. But on subjects of visionaries
and the future is now, I met Jeff Bezos. He
wouldn't remember me, but I remember him, and I remember
his vision. At Amazon. I had a boss who had

(22:17):
his own vision. Those of you don't remember. I don't
know what you were talking about. But Amazon began as
a bookseller, a bookseller online. They had this interesting process.
You can go online and buy any book you want.
They would put it together the plastic bubble rapids, send
it to you overnight, and you'd have the book of
your choice. And Amazon became Amazon, and it was a phenomenon.

(22:41):
Even back then. My boss was a big user of Amazon.
You know, two of us, we traveled all over the
world bought books. That's the thing you do in those
days when you travel on a plane. Cell phones they
had them, but they weren't smartphones as they are now.
So he figured the following, If you could sell books
on Amazon on the internet shipped in plastic, why not

(23:04):
do the same thing for dress shirts? After all, all
our dress shirts, everyone knows their size, everyone knows what
it looks like. Most people are buying replacement shirts, are
the ones they have. If you are a Calvin Kleink customer,
if you're a Georgio money customer, if you're a fan
using customer, whoever it is, you know what your size

(23:25):
is and you know what to expect from the shirt
that you're buying. So why wouldn't you buy it online
and plastic and have it delivered if you can't get
out to do that? Brilliant idea. Wouldn't Jeff Bezos be
interested in talking to us? Because he started to dabble
in the fashion world. It turned out that Jeff Bezos
wasn't getting traction. It wasn't getting the brands because the

(23:47):
brands weren't seeing into the future. They weren't companies that
could see through his eyes. Nor did we at the time.
And that's where the story gets interesting. He needed brands,
he needed the fashion industry. We needed new distribution, another
view of a marriage to the future. We would love

(24:08):
to sell dress shirts on Amazon. They'd sell them at
the same price we sold them in department stores. There
would be a successful business, and our business would grow
dramatically in this new technology. But while my boss had
a vision, it wasn't twenty twenty vision, and I'll tell
you why we arranged a meeting. Jeff Bezos came to
our office. He was so excited to be sitting with

(24:30):
one of the large shirt companies in the world, who
admittedly for the purpose of this meeting, said we want
to sell you. This was a huge win for him.
One of the world's great brands, particularly in a channel
and particularly in a category that we were synonymous with shirts,
all of a sudden, it is coming to Amazon. And
he was thrilled, and he came in and he was happy,

(24:50):
and we started our meeting. Once we got going, we said,
you know, we have a number of different brands. We
owned Calvin Klein, we own Decay and Why, we owned
van Usen, we own Isza, we owned Jeffrey Bean at
the time said we have great Prince and Jeff Bezis
said that's great. I'd love to have them all. And

(25:10):
then my boss said, no, sir. What we want is
we want to control the dress shirt site on Amazon.
We want exclusivity. Anyone comes to Amazon to buy dress shirts,
we want it to be our brands. We want our
own portal. That's what we want. We don't want to
be part of anything else. We want to be the

(25:31):
dress shirt store on Amazon, and I'll never forget. He
got quiet, he shut his eyes. He thought for a moment,
this is Jeff Bezos on how we wanted to respond.
He opened his eyes and he said, we can't do that.
The Internet is free flowing. There's no such thing as exclusivity.
The customer decides what they want to buy, not us.

(25:54):
We're a portal to their soul. We want to provide
them with opportunity. And the idea of having a shirt
shop that's controlled by you and doesn't allow for other
brands doesn't work. How do you know? And that's when
Jeff bezos brilliance came out and he said it to us.
So I'll ask you all of you out there, do
you remember Saber?

Speaker 3 (26:15):
No?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
And now I'm gonna explain why don't hold me to it,
But I believe it was. American Airlines was one of
the first to go to the Internet to plot itineraries.
An American Express went on and built a vehicle called
Saber that if you wanted to know any single American
Airlines flight anywhere in the world, you can go on

(26:38):
and find it. And it was a brilliant idea, except
for one thing. That's not how people wanted to look
for airline flights. They wanted to know everything that was available,
not just American airlines. What was happening at United? What
was happening at Delta? Are they in the airport I

(26:58):
want to fly out of? Are they at the top
we want? And Saber did not work because it wasn't
universal enough. And the same thing, guys, you guys here,
the same thing applies to fashion. We can't let you
cut off the supply to our consumer base. That's not

(27:18):
how they want to shop. I noticed you didn't mention
Ralph Lauren. I know you didn't mention Tommy Hill figure.
I know you didn't mention a number of brands that
I would find in any department store. So, with all
due respect, as much as I want to do business
with you, I cannot make you exclusive. That's not the future.

(27:39):
And I thought it was a brilliant window into the future,
because the future is now. When I give thought to geniuses,
I think about Steve Jobs. When I think of brilliance
and people with their foot in the future who recognize
the future is now, I think of Steve Jobs. He's
my business idol. There's a lot of great businessmen out there,

(28:02):
and I've worked a couple of brilliant people that I'm
grateful for because they made me better than I would
ever been. But Steve's Jobs was inspirational to me. Steve
Jobs believed the true innovation often involves creating products that
people didn't even know they needed or they desired, and
he pushed boundaries to develop new things. He said, people

(28:24):
don't know what they want until you show it to them.
The fashion, retail and luxury business is filled with geniuses.
Now why do I say that. I gave a speech
in the July of twenty twenty three, I received a
Lifetime Achievement award, and during that presentation, I looked at
the audience and said, we're geniuses. We are the one

(28:46):
industry that has to reinvent ourselves every month of the year.
Just every month in the year, we were shipping new
product into our customers. It's not like the Apple phone,
which comes out with a new phone once a year. Now,
don't get me wrong, leave the Apple phone is a
lot more complicated than making a shirt or a dress
or a banket. But it's not the same. We in

(29:07):
our industry reinvent ourselves every month, every quarter, every year.
We have to be geniuses in order to do that.
The technological invasions, the dramatic issues associated with design selection, importing,
shipping makes this industry an incredible industry. And with that

(29:27):
is a backdrop, it makes me think about who, more
than anyone else in our industry understood that the future
is now, and it was Ralph Lauren. I never gave
much tention to Ralph Lauren. I couldn't wear it. I
competed with him until I became a radio guy and
a podcast guy. I now was able to wear Ralph Lauren.

(29:50):
From a business side. I knew who he was. I
knew who he was, but I more times than not
took a notice of what they were doing and put
my own version of something that Ralph Lauren did. But
Ralph Lauren, I was working in a store when I
was a kid, really back in the day. I was
working in a store and he I remember the boss
calling all the salesman's decide. The name of the store

(30:10):
was Bogarde. It was a luxury men's store, one of
the new malls that opened, and he said to us,
we're getting something special this week. It's new ties. We
sold a lot of suits and died said, they're different
from anything you ever saw before. They're very wide and
they are the rage. We were fortunate enough they agreed
to sell us some not many. So here's the deal.

(30:34):
You'll only show these ties to your best customers. They
can't buy more than two at a time. There's only
one price, the price that's on it. Don't come to
me with selling. This is exclusivity. There aren't going to
be enough of them, and that's how you have to
sell them. You have to look at the world differently.
You have to be innovative. I'll come back to this
in a second. Once again, those of you who are

(30:56):
fanatics of the show and listen every week, thank you.
I appreciate this story. I've told before, but it's a
good time to tell it again. There's a visionary entrepreneur
executive in the shoe business and he needs to grow
his business and he calls his two people, the two

(31:17):
best sellers in the company, into his office and said, listen,
I want you to go to Africa. We don't sell Africa.
There's a lot of people there, and I want you
to go to Africa and determine the possibility for us
to sell shoes into Africa. One guy says, great, when
can I get a flight? He says, you go to
the flight department. You'll talk to personnel and they'll get

(31:39):
your flights. And the other guy said, you know, whenever
I've seen a picture of Africa, I don't get the
sense that they're wearing shoes. The boss says, both of
you go to Africa. Report back. I want to know
if we could do business. They go. Two days later,
after jet leg the first salesman or in this case,
the second salesman, calls back and said, hey, boss, I
was right, no one's wearing shoes. I'm coming home. The

(32:03):
second salesman on the phone said to the boys, listen,
no one's wearing shoes. Send me all our samples. I'm
gonna be here for a while. Who's the visionary? Who
do you think one? What do you think happened? That's
Ralph Lauren. He saw something. They know what ever saw?
He thought that he could tie, if your pardon upun

(32:25):
his ties together with everything he invented dream merchandising. You
listen to Ferrari today. They tell you they don't sell cars,
they sell dreams. Ralph Laurence sold a lifestyle, the New
England Affluent Connecticut Lifestyle based on British royalty, and he
put together a lifestyle brand that started in the morning

(32:47):
from your underwear and your socks, to your workday where
your suits, your ties and your shirts, to the evening
when you wore blazers and pants and Swede shoes and
whatever else it was. And he put together lifestyle marketing.
And he's the greatest of the great even the luxury brands.
I don't care which one you talk to, or every

(33:09):
designer that ever walked the face of this sirs will
tell you thank God for Ralph Lauren leading the way.
Ralph Lauren from day one understood that the future is
now and that brings me to me. I never thought
of myself as brilliant. Anytime anyone would call me brilliant,
I'd laugh to myself and said I fooled him. But

(33:30):
in my book I did write that once in my
life I was brilliant. And as it turns out, when
I think about the future, maybe maybe during that period
of my life when I was young and aggressive and
bright eyed, bushy tailed and devoted to being special, I
was brilliant, perhaps more than once. I'll never forget when

(33:54):
I met with the people from LVMH about coming to
their company with all fancy titles. They wanted me to
run Decay Why Donna Karen. They had bought it, they
had three CEOs, They had never made a penny. They
spent six hundred and forty five million dollars for the
company and it always lost money. It didn't make money,
and they thought I could do something with it. And

(34:15):
in my first interview with the managing director of lvmhe
before I flew to Paris and met with Bernard Arnault,
he was talking to me about the business and he
asked what I thought about Donna Karen and dk why
And the first thing out of my mouth was the
brand is bigger than the business. And he looked at

(34:36):
me and said, how do you know that? I said,
I was a licensee for you of shirts. I had
more success in that shirt and the ramp up of
that collection overnight than any of the business I've ever
been involved with. This is one of the world's true
great brands. And based upon what you've told me about
the business and why you're looking for someone new, I
can tell you the brand is bigger than the business,

(34:57):
and he loved that line and he repeated it to
bern and know Who. Eventually I went and met had
my interview with him, and I've shared with you before.
The key question he asked me was a visionary question.
What's the future? He said, Mark, what do you bring
to business? And I said, mister, I know, I bring energy.
I bring energy to a company. And from that on
I knew I had the job. That's a story for

(35:20):
another time, but you know, John F. Kennedy once said
success has many fathers and failures, and often with that
in mind, I want to take a little stroll down
the future of Donna, Karen and DK and Why. I
was in Macy's the other day. I saw Donna Karon Deaco.
Why are Brilliant Great? It's doing well. I'm so happy

(35:41):
for G three the people who run that company today,
and I recalled my first day when I started with
DK and Why. And I saw the managing director. He
was in New York introducing me to the press and
introducing me to the company, keeping peace between Donna Karen
and I who. By the way, I saw this, I
was at the Polar Bar having dinner with my sons,

(36:02):
and there was Donna Karen with her daughter, and I
walked over to her had a nice chat. We did
spend eight years working together, so it was very pleasant.
It was very nice, made me happy. But I remembered
this story, and I remember on that first day he said, Mark,
you got a lot of work to do. I want
you to spend the next couple of months putting together
a business strategy and presenting to us on the board

(36:23):
on what you want to do with the company. Said
my pleasure. But I want you to know something, no
matter what happens here, I want you to know you
made the right decision hiring me. I'm going to able
to make this company profitable for you. But if I
don't reach the level of profits that you want, or
you don't feel comfortable owning an American designer brand in
the United States, or whatever, I'm telling you. The brand

(36:46):
is bigger than the business, and I will be able
to sell the company from you for more than you
paid for it, or at least what you paid for it.
He said to me. Impossible, Mark, impossible. We tried to
sell the company one time. The best we got from
one of the most famous stores in the country two
hundred million. You know what we paid for. I said,
the brand is bigger than the business. I'll show you.
We'll get there if, in fact, some day you want

(37:07):
to sell it. So as I say, many people will
take credit for the vision, But the vision that day
was I knew that the company had great value. Of
the course of eight years, every single year we made
more money. Every single year we did well. I was
proud to be there. I was proud of the people.
I was proud of the product. I was proud of
how we behaved ourselves. I was impressed the collection when

(37:30):
Donna Caaren got that collection going. When I was talking
to the other night and I talked about it, she
was an amazing talent. She was making dresses for ten
thousand dollars, pans for fifteen hundred dollars, sweaters for a
couple of thousand dollars. And then, of course DK why
was developed to be more affordable for all the women
in America and the men for that matter. I loved

(37:50):
the men's business. I loved involved with it. But back
to the issue. Came a time at the end of
my eight year run, I had a three year contract.
I ended up staying for eight years, elv Image made
a decision. Someone convinced them they should turn Donna Karen
into a luxury company again. After all, that is their
core business, luxury. I tried to explain to them, I

(38:10):
tried to beg them. I tried to make them understand
that you can't turn a company that is currently selling
hundreds of millions of dollars over the last twenty years
to popular prices to all of America into a luxury
brand won't work well. They were convinced by someone in
Paris whose name shall go and mention to turn it
into a luxury brand. In my parting, six months before

(38:34):
I left, I introduced them to G three and I
said to them, if you want to sell the company,
remember what I told you. The brand is bigger than
the business. What makes you think they would pay for
what we need them to pay, I said, I've already
met with them, I've had a discussion. They're prepared to
make you an offer better than anything you ever dreamed,
and you will be happy and you make and for

(38:55):
four months I ran point in getting this steel done
and we got to the point it was turning into Christmas.
At the end of the year, papers were about to
be signed and they vetoed it. Someone convinced Bernard or
No to turn it into a lection company, hundreds of
millions of dollars lost and trying to do that. Eventually

(39:15):
they decided to sell the company to G three. I
don't recall. I wasn't there. I was gone for a
year or was it two, I don't recall. They made
the decision to go forward with G three, who I
introduced them to, and it's been great for everyone involved.
Now many will say they had the foresight as I said.

(39:35):
John Kennedy said, success has many fathers, but failures and
orphan there are a lot of fathers to this deal.
Only the few know the truth, including you now, and
only one of us has a check to prove it.
With that in mind, the future is now back.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
In a moment always in fashion.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
I spent a lifetime of my career building the US
and 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 worn on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You
could wear a suit formally to go out at night

(40:17):
or to an event, you 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 is as important does

(40:37):
the products you package, and wearing a suit is one
of those things that make men look their best. Venues
and invented a new idea. It's called the cool Flex suit.
It's been engineered with stretch technology, giving you the most
comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool
moisture wiki. It makes it perfect for all occasions. As

(40:59):
we discussed just now, this new style of looking sharp
while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing and I'm 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 Usen made it's name with dress shirts.
It's only proper that the suit business follows strongly in

(41:22):
its way. You can find van Using Koolflex Men's stretch
suits at jcpenny or online at jcpenny dot com guys.
They're great. You should go look at them. Donna Karen
began her career as one of the finest, most successful,
powerful women in the fashion industry. She developed a collection

(41:42):
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 afford to buy the Donna Karen collection,
and Donna invented dk NY Donna Aaron, New York. It's

(42:06):
an offshoot of the Donna Karen collection. The same concept
a lifestyle brand. Then 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
dcan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products.
You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags,

(42:29):
and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing
about dk andy clothes for work, they work into the evening,
the dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters, the blouses,
extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that 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

(42:53):
did that under the DK and Y label. A vast
array of casual sports were 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 want to do, dkn Y
Jenes dk Y Sportswear is there for you. That's what

(43:14):
a lifestyle brand is. And I need to mention DKY Activewear,
which is extraordinary, the leggings, the sports bras, the sweats.
You can wear DKY Activewear certainly in the gym, certainly
when you're working out at home, and certainly if you
want on the street, because it's that well done. The

(43:35):
quality of dk Y 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 from the week into the Weekend DCN,
Why you can find DCNY and Macy's DKY dot com.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Weber.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
The theme of the night's show is the future is now.
I mean the minute something happens, it's gone. It's history everything.
Every second you're in the future. Sometimes we don't think
about that. We talk about the future. We think of
that way off down the road. Whatever. No, what I
just said is past and right this second, I'm creating
the future. I'm living in the future now. I've spent
a lot of time this week talking to people. Generally,

(44:28):
I hear a lot of stuff going on, a lot
of people, a lot of people aren't happy at work,
and a lot of reasons. There's a lot going on
and making people coming back from work. I don't know
why they're complaining. COVID was for a period of time
that companies let you work from home. Why would you
be arguing that you got to go back to work.
Federal government people are up in arms that you have

(44:50):
to work in the workplace. Me. I have no tolerance
for it. I don't understand it. But maybe you know
I'm too tough of a guy, which brings me to
the other point. I keep hearing everybody has a boss
they don't like. Everybody wants to complain about the boss.
Let me make this clear. Unless your boss does something illegal,

(45:11):
unless your boss hassles you or does something that is incorrect,
the boss is the boss. They're allowed to behave anywhere
they want. They're allowed to be tough, They're allowed to
be condensateding. They're allowed to hold back your raisors or
your bonuses. They're allowed to do whatever they want, as
long as they behave according to company rules, according to
life rules. Now, the question is what do you do

(45:33):
about it? I often say that if I wanted to
work with only people I like, I'd be in a
room by myself. You don't get to choose who your bosses.
You don't get to choose whether you like them or not.
You get to choose to work and be grateful for
your paycheck. I know this sounds ridiculous to many of you,
but it's not the way it is. Working for a company,
working for anyho was a gift. They're giving you an

(45:54):
opportunity to earn money to do all those things you
need to do. For yourself and your family, giving opportunity
to learn to grow to prosper. It's a gift. Now.
Having said that, there are a lot of mean people
out there. When I was growing up, I work for
a guy who was the meanest guy you would ever
meet in your life, and I learned the value of

(46:15):
working through the tough times. Now. The simple way to
talk about tough times. You work in a company. You're
better than the person sitting next to you. The person
next to you gets a bigger raise or gets a
promotion and you're angry. What do you do about it?
Go in and complain to the boss telling me he
doesn't know what he's doing. Or do you say to yourself?
I have to suck it up and ask myself, what

(46:36):
did that person do that I didn't do? Why were
they seen in a better life than me? And that's
what working through the tough time is being honest with
yourself and deciding what did I do wrong or what
haven't I done to demonstrate that I am the chosen one?
And I'll go back and deal with it. So anytime
I was disillusioned, anytime I had a setback, anytime I

(46:58):
was disappointed in what ever I asked myself, what can
I do to be better? Because it's not their fault,
it's mine. That's a great lesson for you. If and
I wanted to stop the story, i'd stop right then
in there. But I don't I go back. I was
working for a mean guy. I don't mean a bad guy.
I mean a mean guy. He had no life. He

(47:18):
was married, family situation he wasn't happy with. He would
work to all hours of the night. He didn't care
ten o'clock at night, he would go home. Now I
this young guy had a wife. I didn't want to
leave the office every day at ten o'clock, particularly I
was getting in early in the morning. But I had
no choice. I worked for a mean guy and never
understood anything. Hey, let's go out for a drink, let's

(47:40):
have dinner's let's this. You know I'm learning, I'm starting out.
This is in the beginning. I don't want to have
that life right now. It's not winning me. Friends. Ask
too much of everyone, everyone. No one was ever good
enough for him. He was really a rotten guy. Now
what did I do about it? I tried to remain
I tried to remain positive. He was a smart guy,

(48:03):
that was stuff to learn from him. I begrudgingly understood
that I had to live through this for a period
in time. It wouldn't be forever. And then one day
I met a sales meeting. We happened to be in
Florida at a meeting of the venues and company and
it was a national sales meeting. During the course of
the meeting, a vice president of operations, his name was

(48:26):
Bud Gilbert I'll never forget me. He rests in peace,
came over to me and said, Mark, I want to
talk to you, so I said sure. He said, do
you want to have a coke with me? I said yeah.
It was around two o'clock in the afternoon. The meeting
had just broken up. Everybody was going off to do
what everybody was going off to do, and I was there.
I was tidying up the showroom, getting ready for the
next presentations. Come have a coke with me, and I

(48:46):
sat down with him. He said to me, Mark, how
you doing. I said, I'm doing great, and he looked
at me. He said, Mark, I asked you how you're doing.
And I said I'm doing great, and he started to smile.
I said, look, Mark, I know you're not doing great.
I know who you're working for. Everyone in this company
knows who you're working for. Everyone in this company knows

(49:06):
and appreciates that you don't have an easy working there.
So I'm asking you how you're doing. I said. Look,
I don't want to mention his name. I said, he's
not easy. Very often, he's not fair. He works late
hours and forces us to be there with him. But
I understand it's his way. He's the boss, and I

(49:27):
respect the position he holds. I don't happen to like
everything that's going on, but I don't feel it's right
to complain. He said, here's the interesting thing, Mark, your
attitude has been seen by everyone that matters. Everyone, for
myself on up knows how hard you work, knows how
hard it is for you to navigate what you're dealing with,

(49:47):
and everyone respects you for doing it. And I want
you to know it's not gone unnoticed. Now go have
some fun. You're off for the rest of the afternoon,
rest assured that this company appreciates you. The point of
the story is working through the tough times is a
fascinating concept, and it's all about you. It's not about
the situation you're in. It's not about the people you're

(50:10):
surrounded with. It's not about the person you're reporting to.
It's not about the direction that the company has taken, right,
wrong or indifferent. You are in control of you. You
have to decide what it is you want to do
when things aren't going your way. I would often talk
when I was the president of the company about working

(50:30):
through the tough times or the American dream, and I
can tell you I've always believed it, and I still do.
When you work hard, you work smart, you learn everything
you can possibly learn. When you're curious, when you're respectful,
and you learn what it is you're supposed to learn,
and you learn what it is that you're not supposed
to learn. The more you learn, the better you're offer
in this world, in this country, and certainly the companies

(50:51):
I've worked for, You have a chance for success. That's
the American dream. Everything is easy when it's going your way.
It's not so easy when the times are But it's
the times that take measure of who you are. I
hope that's helpful. I hope you enjoyed tonight's show. I'm
talking about your future. I'm talking about the future because
the future is now. Good Night,