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 ten wor or iHeartMedia. Who is Mark Weber. 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 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.
Mark Weber.
I have been living by a quote Benjamin Franklin. I love it. Made it my operational business to use this quote. Well done is better than well said. I became a fan. Yes, I hear what you're going to do, Just show me. I don't want to hear. I want you to show me all the best plans, just that plans until you deliver, they're just words. I have little patience in hearing what you're going to do. I'm only interested in what you do. I voted for a president on his positions and promises,
my fingers across, hoping that he delivers. I don't like humans. You listen to the show, you know that it's just too many disappointments. I've learned, in turn not to expect anything, because that guarantees disappointment in the end. Like most things, it's about character, your character, living up to your promises, doing the right thing. Having integrity is not a concept, it's a choice. There's no version of the truth. There's only truth. Who you are, who we are, who a
brand is. How companies behave toward their customers. It's all about character and who I, who we, who they are? How do companies behave and react to their constituents. There's so many hopes, so many aspirations, wishes, promises. They all sound so good, They feel so good, look so good. The question is is life good? From far? But far from good? I wonder. I have to admit you might
not like where. I first heard this quote when I was young, a teenager, actually a close friend went out on a date and showed me her profile, her picture. After the date, I asked them the next day, was she as pretty as the photo? And the exact quote? I never forgot it all these years, she was good from far, but far from good. Now, before you start calling me a chauvin as, first of all, it wasn't me, it was him, And then of course it could have been a woman saying about a man, So give me
a break. The point is, how often does the reality live up to the promise? I could tell you not often enough. People are often wrong, but they're never in doubt. How often does one phone call solve your problem of the day. Used to be you made an appointment, and you had an appointment. Now this follow up emails, follow up reminders, the threat of canceling on time, the threat of getting charged if you don't show up. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this or anything.
I think it's a good thing. But then you get to the doctor's office, after all of that, and you wait for an hour good from far but far from good, waiting for your haircut, your nails, ladies, after all of that, not good tonight, she they him them It looks good from far, but it's far from good. A throwback to my early years. Now joining me, he who looks good from far but even better up close. The lawyer on my show, My co host my son Jesse Weber. And by the way, Jesse, the camera loves you.
That's very very nice of you to say.
You know, one of the I gotta compliment once that was I don't know if you consider this a backhanded compliment, but.
Tell me what you think of it.
At one point in my life, I did acting school and one of the classes that I did was acting on camera.
And every day the professor, the teacher.
Would film different skits and he looks at the footage and he looks at me and he goes, you know, you're one of those rare people. You look so much better on camera than you do in person.
Oh great, life, you don't look good. It's a banded compliment.
I go, thank you. He goes, it's in this career, it's better to be that way.
Yeah.
I was like, all right, for acting school, not for life. Good.
Yeah, well, oh, thank you, very very kind of you to say thank you, But you know, putting the looks aside.
But I like that I'm getting credibility.
Over the last few years, I built up credibility in the legal space, the political space that I'm able to break down these complex topics.
And by the way, I.
Will tell you that it's not only kind comments I'm getting from people online, and I also get some hate mail too.
Let's call it what it is. But I can't reveal who.
But I have been having very well notable people, celebrities in fact, reaching out talking about my coverage and actually, in one instance, a celebrity I won't tell you wanted me to cover one of their cases. And it's incredible that people who I know and admire and have watched and love for years apparently are watching my content now reaching out. It's a very surreal experience. You said it to me once before. I think when we were first starting out in radio, you never know who's listening, You
never know who's watching. You really don't, and so you always have to give one hundred and ten percent. And by the way, by the way, Joe Rogan, if you ever listened to Joe Rogan when he first started, nobody was watching him.
Nobody was watching him.
But because he put in the effort, because he created an enjoyable show, he got a following and it built up, and it built up and it built up. So whatever you do, you have to put in the effort, even if you think that you're not getting the return that you want to meet.
Well, Joe Rogan is a funny guy. I never knew he's a comedian until you took me to one of his concerts in Vegas. But I didn't realize how smart he is. He's very articulate, and he's very knowledgeable on a lot of subjects and certainly has a point of view. So he deserves it. But you know me, I was back in Bloomingdale's and I got an update for you of my obnoxious you know.
Can you explain that? Can you explain what happened? So everybody remembers, Yeah.
I went into Bloomingdale's a couple of weeks ago and I was paying for something and the guy looks up at me and he says, are you Mark Weber? I said, yeah, I just gave you my credit card. He says, no, are you Mark Weber? From the radio And I'm looking around. What is this candid camera? Someone has taken a picture. I said, yeah, that's me. I knew it from your name and I heard your voice. My family, we love you. We listened to you every Saturday night at seven o'clock live.
It's amazing. We think you great. So it just so happened. When I bought, I had to bring back. So I went back the next day and I brought it back and he said, I told my wife that I met you. She was so excited. And he shows me the email. He says, let me show you what she wrote me, and the email says, is he obnoxious? I still haven't gotten over it. So anyway, I'm back in Bloomy Dale's. I waved to the guy. He sees you come running down the hole to see me, and he says, man,
oh man, I've listened to your show. You were talking about innoxious. You took it the wrong way. We love you. We don't think you're obnoxious that hey, you know. You show me an email and the only thing it says is you're asking if obnoxious. Well, my wife she thinks all celebrities innoxious. We love you.
So anyway you are.
You are such a baby. You are such a baby that you needed this. I'm glad the guy said something to him. Glad he tried to calm things down. By the way, By the way, talking of this, it kind of relates to something else.
I am starting a new show.
I'm starting a new show where I call out celebrity, mostly politicians, people in media, not that they're necessarily babies, but I call him out for things that they say and do it. So I'm glad that you got called out for things that you say and do. It's a show that I'm starting with another one of Dan Abram's companies. It's called Mediaite. So the show is currently called The Spin Room and it's gonna be on YouTube.
But this is it.
It's you would be a prime candidate. I would have loved to cover this. You talking out about this, and I would have loved to cover it on our first episode.
It's not too late to do it. Meanwhile, I too have a new show called The Ceo Exchange if we ever get the deal signed. It's gonna be on Saturdays and one to two where I interview CEOs. In fact, my next CEO is the chairman of SAX Global, the guy who just bought Neiman Marcus and bergdoff Goodman's and put it together with Sachs. So we got a lot going on in that. Yeah, but you're the big shot.
I'm just why I'm not interviewing the head of SACK So you didn't really, It's funny.
For the first interview, that's a that's a big get.
Well, actually the second interview. The first interview you remember was a fellow named Jamie Salter, the CEO of Aumhantic Brands that owns thirty billion dollars worth of company. And it was a very articulate guy, and I thought he handled himself well. But the concept of my show is me a CEO talking to another CEO, Mono Tomano, with a different perspective than any other pundit might have because they don't really run businesses.
So that was a great interview. That was a great first episode of the show. With the one with Tom Well, it was.
Great because he was so articulate because he was able to talk about his business. He didn't need much prompting and we have a history together, so it's nice. But back to being called obnoxious, I don't like it. I'm getting over it. To my friends in Bloomingdales, I'm forgiving you. You know, you tried to make right. But either way I would tell you that I think being vulnerable never goes out of style, particularly when you're on the border of taking a stand. You know, when we stand up
and we give our opinions. We're taking a stand, and in my case, I'm demanding new ways of doing things, which is another way of saying change. I'm offering help. It's upfront and personal. But you have to look who's changing change more than the president. President Trump is leading massive government changes and taking heat. And the question I ask on tonight does he look good from far? But
he's far from good. Let's break it down, Jesse with some common sense, because cons common well, on that we agree Trump. I want to talk about Trump. Trump is one of the world's great communicators. He sells everything. He sells everything. Certainly, he's the best politician communicator that I think I've ever heard. He's always selling Maga hats, sold millions of them, Trump Golden Sneakers, I don't know how many sold. He even sells Trump time and watches. But
now he's selling change. He's changing America into the Golden Age of America. The issue is Trump is selling Trump change. The question is he's selling are we buying it? Now? Before we get started here, let me get this out of the way. The Democrats shamefully, embarrassingly, stupidly a buying nothing. He's offering The majority of Americans are ready for change. What's for sale under President Trump? I gotta admit it looks good from far, but I'm questioning whether it's far
from good. So let's you and me, Jess take a few of them apart for a second, because I guess, let's see where we are the war. Is he doing right? Does he look good? And is it far from good? Or is great?
Difficult to say.
If he can create a lasting ceasefire, how could you say it's not a good thing. Some people will say, well, you know, in the long run, is it a good thing? I don't have the answer. But if he could put an.
End to the violence immediately, how could you say it's a bad thing.
I'm with you. I would make it very simple. His position on the war from day one has been the same. People are dying. I don't want to see people dying. They're dying needlessly. This war will not end perfect. Russia's not going to go away. It's not a question that Russia did wrong. You want to think that Russia did wrong, great, you believe Russia did wrong. Great, did Russia do wrong? It's not for me to say. It's not for me to say. I don't want to talk about that. What
I want to talk about is an ending. He's the only one in two years that's talked about a ceasefile. Enough is enough. There's got to be some compromise to end this thing. So from a far or from up close, I give Trump a ten for trying to get it done. Now vers Selenski behaved, bought properly, and now Russia's behaving improperly. We got to get them both back on track. Stop the killing. It is devastating. Let's go to number two. Immigration good from far, but far from good.
What do you say, Jesse, If you look at the numbers, if you look at the way I understand it, the US Border Patrol arrested a lot less migrants than it has in the past. I think in February it was a lot lower than it had been. I mean, I'm looking at this from Reuters, right.
So the Border.
Patrol's monthly enforcement stats, they go back to two thousand. The lowest monthly total on record previously was April twenty seventeen. They rested a little over eleven thousand they arrested in February after Trump took over eighty three hundred. So there's less people that they need to arrest. And then then if you look at the migrant arrest, it was a steep drop from over one hundred and forty one thousand migrants they picked up in February of twenty twenty four.
Now it's much different now, so it seems to be effective.
Yeah, I think he's doing a great job. I think the world is seeing the borders being closed and it's almost down to a trickle. So you got to give him a lot of credit for that. And on top of which, the Biden administration was doing nothing. The borders were poorous, they were open, nobody cared. So the building the wall, the stopping at the giving ice, the giving the head of Homeland Security the power to enforce a
sport of laws. I think it's great. So I think good from far, but it's good up close as well. And then of course let's go number three. Doge what does those stand for?
Department of Government Efficiency?
Uh?
Huh?
What do you think?
I think the spirit in the goal is right to try to cut down on fraud, waste, and abuse, which mostly seems more if you hear elon Musk, is mostly waste than it is fraud.
I think the goal is great.
The way they're going about it, how quickly they're going about it, the legal mechanisms, their way they're going about it, obviously, I think is a concern. They might need a little bit more transparency and a little more clarification on what they're doing. To be clear, it's not like Dozeho's doing it on itself. They're providing recommendations and then the Trump administration is doing it again. Question about how they do it.
I think the spirit of it is the right way the biggest concern, And this is one of those things time will tell you. Hope they're not cutting things and doing and taking initiatives that are going to negatively affect the country moving forward. He won't know that maybe until time will tell you. Don't want to be like, oh, all these people were let go when they provide a
really important service to the country. But as of right now, things they're uncovering are definitely a sign of waste that needed to be cut.
And why wasn't a cut in the past. That's a good question.
Well, first thing you said was about the speed. I can't imagine why they would go slow. I think it's amazing what they're uncovering. I think they're doing a great job. I know he's afraid of the fraud. I mean, Eli Musk even said he's going to be assassinated if he keeps going on the fraud component, which is scary to think about. He's one of the world's smartest individuals. A year ago, two years ago, he was the darling of
the world, the darling of the Democrats. He was great, and now he's hated for doing a job, by the way, which all he could do is recommend. He has and has been serving at the desire of the president. He has no power except to do what he offers up. He's finding, so I think they're doing an amazing job of unculavering nonsense. I can tell you any company that I've ever gotten involved with, any company I've ever acquired, any company I've involved with merging, any company that ever
went in in a new position. I have thirty positions in my first twenty five years at PVH. So there's always change. There's always room for your structure, always places to save money. Sometimes it was people, sometimes it's the way you spend money. So I don't want to waste any time. And if it looks like it's coming fast and furious, so be it. This is about change. John Kennedy said, you can't stub your toes standing still. We all know you can't make an obilet without breaking some eggs.
So they're making it complicated. There's a lot to deal with, so many things to uncover. Why throw away money? I live by. I don't mind spending money, but I hate wasting it. And there's a lot of waste in this government, and it's time for it to stop. And I love it. I give them big, big marks. For example, they offered the work force the government worked for us pretty much. Anyone quit your job will pay you seventy thousand dollars. You remember that test, oh I do?
I do remember that.
We have no idea how many people took it. We have no idea if it was successful. We don't now have any idea if they're going to do it again or offer more money, so that bothers me. I'd like to know. And then the question is how many agencies have been closed, which one, how many people, how many people will put out of work? And then of course how much money we're going to save and less, but not at least on this subject, I'm not saying slow
it down. I'm not saying do anything different. What are the unintended consequences with masses and the number of people put out of work? They're talked that a lot of veterans went into government after serving, should they be let go? I don't think so. Anyone who served this country in the military should be able to work for the country, and therefore, maybe they have to be reassigned, maybe they have to be looked at, maybe they have to be handled specially. I know, once you say that, then those
other people who should be considered. I know, But when it comes to the military, I feel different than anything else. But the things that those are doing, I got to give them very, very high marks. Which then brings me to tariffs and the question of whether in the tariffs are working. There's a lot of market and certainty. I can tell you the retail and fashion luxury community are really struggling, really struggling. But I want to hold that
off for a minute. I have a clip from a speech that Ronald Reagan made back in the day on tariffs.
At first, when someone says let's impose tariffs on foreign imports, it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs, and sometimes for a short while it works, but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is first homegrown industry start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then while all this
is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying.
Then the worst happens. Market shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs. The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.
So to put things in perspective, right now, you've now heard Ronald Reagan talk about the issues of tariffs and the pitfalls. Tonight we're discussing things are good from far, but are they far from good or are they doing well? I want to take a moment, We'll have a break, we'll come back, and I want to talk to you about tariffs in detail.
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Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
When I was a teenager, a friend of mine went out on a date. He had a picture of this girl. It was kind of like a blind date. It's profile on the internet. And I asked him the next day whether she was as cute as she was in her photo, and he looked at me and he said something I never forgot all these years later. She was good from far but far from good. Now, ladies, don't get mad at me. You could have been you saying it about a man. So let's be an equal opportunity offender here.
And I'm probably not finished offending tonight.
Oh, don't worry, you'll I'm sure more people will think you're obnoxious by the end of this.
Don't worry you'll.
Get more comments about that. Hey, listen, I got to run. I gotta go do a show tonight.
So it's fun.
I know.
I'm sorry I'm not on the show more.
I feel bad, but I love being able to do it as much as I can with you. So sorry, I have to run, but have a good rest of the show.
Okay, Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you. Talk to you later. Okay, everyone out there, if you're tuning in, I want to talk about tariffs, whether or not they're working or not. I played a clip before of Ronald Reagan when he was pressing talk about tariffs. Let me play it again.
At first, when someone says let's impose tariffs on foreign imports, it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs, and sometimes for a short while it works. But only for a short time. What eventually occurs is first homegrown industry start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then while all this
is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So soon, because of the price is made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying.
Then the worst happens. Market shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs. The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.
Ronald Reagan made some very interesting points, and Donald Trump has made some very interesting points about tariffs. But now we're in it, and it's starting to look like serious trade war where there's a lot of reciprocal behaving. No one's backing down. I never expected President she to back down. He's toughest nails. That guy from China, that premiere president of China, he's the real deal. But he can be reasoned with. And that's what Trump is saying he's hoping for.
And I'll come back to that in a minute. The guy from Canada, new president, he got to show himself as a big shot. Don't you threaten me? And by the way, when fifty percent of our oil and gas come from Canada, you better be careful who you're pushing and bullying. And once again, there needs to be reason in tariff. The idea of talking to Mexico and Canada about threatening him over the fent and ol that's coming into this country, good plan, good dialogue, How we gonna
stop it, what needs to be done? All well and good, But the question of tariffs basically come down to the history of tariffs. They were always about protecting American industry. Now here's where I'm at. And if you listen to the show, I've mentioned this before, and I want to come back to tariffs in this way. First I'll tell tell you that when you protect American industry. You are to be protecting it for a good reason. If you're going to put tariffs on apparel and all the products
coming in from China. T shirts that are nine ninety nine, Polo shirts that are nineteen ninety nine in the discount price points, pants that are twenty nine ninety nine, you better have ability to make them here in this country. I can tell you right now, with minimal exception minimal, you can't afford to manufacture those products here and make them at those prices. We just can't compete. It just
can't compete. Look, when it first came out that there was an after the North American Free Trade Agreement, what it was supposed to be treating Canada and Mexico and the United States. We're supposed to be able to import an export amongst ourselves, with us being able to share in each other's good fortune. We would ship fabric to Mexico,
they would in turn make it. They in turn would make the products with our fabric send it back to the United States, so the textiles would make a lot of sense, and the same for Canada, and on and on. The truth be told, American fabric was not available to make the products we had and the quantities we had, it just didn't work. What also does it work is America is one of the richest countries in the world,
if not the richest country in the world. Why because our minimum wage is such that itffords families the ability to live. Now, we could argue with minimum wages never enough, but minimum wage was designed to give a family of two or four the ability to live in this country and thrive. There's always been opportunities to grow. This is the land of America where there's opportunity everywhere. But between minimum wage and benefits, our standard of living is higher
than the people we're importing from. That's just the way it is. If you go to China and you look at workers making a peril. The wages are so low, the health benefits are so low. The government may subsidize it with playing with the currency, or may provide food and other benefits, but price to price, we are just
not competing. So if you put tariffs up protecting apparel here in this United States, whether we don't have the manufacturing capability, we don't have the textiles, we don't have the parts because we disassemble those industries, right wrong or indifferent because we're not competitive. If you're going to protect what are we protecting? And there is a real question mark here right now. Now, I'll come back to this in a moment. I want to talk to you about unions.
When unions were established in this country, they were established to help the individual worker. There were sweatshops, there were abuses that the people that built this country in the Industrial Revolution were worried about putting up buildings, putting up railroads, building facilities. They weren't worried necessary at the work. An
individual worker in those days was treated unfairly. The unions, someone had the idea of bringing collective bargaining into place and bringing all these laborers together and giving them a bigger voice so they could fight for themselves and improve their working conditions and their lives. And at that time, it worked, It helped, and it changed the world to changed the United States forever. I for one, had grown up in a union family. My father was a worker.
He worked in the printing business. My father was a hard working guy. He wasn't able to negotiate for himself, but he belonged to a union and he pretty much had a job for life and when anything ever got mechanized when he was doing type work and they put it on computer. They found another job and trained him in another capacity to be a worker, and he worked for his entire life for the union. At one point he was offered buyout, like the American people in government
were offered biots. My father took the buyout. I was too young to understand why he did it. I was too undersdostand whether it would work or not. I only know he had to get another job after he got that money, for far less pay, far less dignified. He became a greeter in a restaurant. There's nothing wrong with that, But why did he leave a job where he was making five times the amount to do that? I just don't think he was sophisticated enough. But it was his choice.
I remember him and my mother talking about it. But the union saved our lives. It gave us a life, and I grew up with that. When I went into business myself and I started to become an executive, I realized that the unions had different functions, that the unions protected their own, that the unions were in between the management of the company and the workers. And as an executive. It started to become a parent to me that the rules had changed. Now I'm not saying it wasn't good
for our factory workers. I'm not saying it wasn't good for warehouse workers. It probably very was. I only know that in the southern factories that we worked in the Southern warehouses, unions and workers versus the owners of the company had conflict. Fortunately for me, I never got involved in. I never had to learn it, Which brings me back to industry. Interestingly enough, the United Order Workers make automobiles. They're a union shop and they make automobiles for the
Big three in this year United States. And they make cars. They make good cars, they make them profitably. They put in a position that they could deliver. And I would say to you that kind of industry can support protection. They can support having a union that's looking out for the workers. Because the price points are higher. There's enough in that system to support a union. I can tell you. I just read that Louis is going to start manufacturing
in the United States. Why because they eat handbags and their quality of handbags is extraordinary, and they believe in American labor. And there's so much markup to be had when you're a fine luxury brand. Louis Vuitton is not the only one. There's many luxury handbag makers that in fact make their handbags out of plastic. They triven them in leather. They sell for three thousand dollars. They make
a lot of money. And those products can be bought here in the United States and can be manufactured here for export around the world. So when it comes to the unions, I've always been a fan. I recognize that the unions can be problematic when it comes to price oriented products. So the real question is what are we protecting? Is their protection in the apparel and luxury industry, And I will tell you there's a problem right now. I've talked or heard many conversations that the industry is in
a state of flux right now. They don't know what to do. They're going to be hit or have been hit by ten or twenty percent of growing tariffs on the products they're importing from the United States. They're importing them buying large because there's very little industry back here, and they're getting the advantage of price and they're passing it along to the American consumer. Right now, with those increases.
Can they go back to their vendors who supply these goods from China or Taiwan or Career and ask for them to reduce the price. Yes. Is it going to be easy? No? Are they going to be able to collect everything they want to offset those tariffs? No, they're not. These are going to raise prices. Are the retailers going to eat these price increases?
No.
If you're a manufacturer, you're buying from China, you're bringing it in. You're a brand and you're selling to Macy's and you told them this is the price for your shirts or your sweater or your dresses or whatever, and now going to try and go to Macy's or Blooming those anyone else for that matter, and tell them that they have to raise the price. No way they going to do it. The only one who's going to pay is the consumer. And the problem I'm having is this
tariff good from far but far from good. I'm starting to wonder. I've been a staunch supporter of the President, I still am. I am hoping they're looking at the unintended consequences between raising tariffs across the board or raising them strategically. And I have my doubts if you want to deal with free trade, if you want to deal with fair trade. Although in this world fair is a word that I believe is for kids, it doesn't exist.
I believe that the President should go to Canada very simply, not with punitive damages, not for fentanyl, not for these other things. But when it comes to trade, gentlemen, ladies, we buy six hundred billion dollars worth of products and goods and services from you every year. We want you to buy from US an equivalent amount six hundred billion dollars. We're your closest trading partner. We share a border of thousands of miles. We're close to each other. We're partners
in this world. We live together. I want you to buy an equal amount of goods from me that you're buying from the rest of the world. So if you are not buying your buses, your airplanes, your trucks from America, tell me why before you give any orders to anywhere else in the world. Satisfy our needs, balance trade between
the two countries. Buy our products. We'll be competitive. If I have a factory and you want to buy from me, and I have to make less money, I'm going to make less money selling it to you, to keep my factory busy. Mexico, you're on our border. We share a border of one thousand miles. We're close, we're friends, we share a common heritage. This is our country, this is
our continent, this is our our hemisphere. We're together. If we're buying a billion dollars worth of goods for you a year, or one hundred billion, or five hundred billion, we want you to buy the same from us. Buy our crops, buy our flooring, buy our textiles, buy our planes, buy our electric cars, buy whatever it is. Buy an equal amount that we're buying from you, and the same
goes for China. Whatever quantity of business we're doing with you by importing your products, import from us before you worry about someone else. Once again, we're each largest trading product partner, and we need to be friends. We need to love each other, we need to work together. Why not? Why not?
See?
I believe in a theory. I've often said the only argument I ever want to get into with another person is when that person is in an indefensible position. They can't defend what they're doing. So if we're saying a trillion dollars worth of goods from China. China, you are a huge consuming nation, you have billions of people. You're the most populous country in the world. You have to be able to buy a trillion dollars from US. Why
wouldn't you give me a reason defend your position. I guarantee you, President Trump, I guarantee you all of the people in the US government, if you focus on what is indefensible if we buy from you, buy from US. Forget everything else. That will solve the trade war. Stop with the tariffs, Stop with all these things. Because President Trump, I want you to look good from far, but I want you to look even better close up. That's the
theme for tonight. Take a break, Make trade not war back in a moment.
Always in fashion.
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, car Lagerfeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to America through car Lagafeld 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 car Lagovol collection at car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that. I
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I left a long time ago, and the company just continues to thrive. ISOT is one of the great sweater makers, pant make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polo shirt makers. 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 casual, go in and look at ISID. Now that doesn't say that they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits. You go find them. ISOD is a collective brand that
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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.
Isaad for men, welcome back to it always in fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
I started this show tonight with a comment that a friend of mine made when he was a teenager. We're talking about a young girl he met online, looked at a photo, and I asked him did she look as cute as a photo? Innocent question. He answered me she was good from far but far from good. I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard, and it
was a statement in life about promises and delivering. I have to tell you, at the risk of being controversial, I want to talk about driving cars for a moment, in particular females driving cars. I should start with. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've noticed Stanika Patrick doing commercials. I think she's in her forties. She is beautiful. She's so well spoken. She's such a pleasure to listen to. I tell you, when I watch her,
I just wow. I think she's special and yeah, on the fact forget you know, the way she looks and speaks. I can't help if I'm being. I don't know what I'm being. She drives cars. She's a race car driver, which I find incredible. What a talent, what a set of skills, particularly because my experience has been that, uh oh, here we go, that female drivers are unique. That's the best way I could say it now, before you all
start screaming at me. Ladies, if you're a great drivers, you could find me on Instagram and they're always in fashion. Or you can find me on LinkedIn and complain to me that I have no right saying that I find your driving questionable. Now, I'm picking this subject because I think it's fun. This week alone, I can tell you I avoided three three close calls with women drivers. Men are obnoxious, Okay, all you guys out there and me included, we're obnoxious. We think we own the road, we think
we could do whatever we want. And I get it. But you know, I'm in the city. I'm watching people drive. It's impossible to drive in New York City. I was in New York City the other day, which got me thinking about this, and I met a bunch of people and we were hanging out, and one young lady said, I have to practice my driving. I said, what do you keep a car here? I said, yeah, Would you let me drive your car? I said, no, is why not? I said, you know, my experience with female drivers hasn't
been all like great. I'm a great driver, trust me. I just need some driving time I have to make I have to go downtown. Can I borrow your car? Said no, but I'll come with you. So, with all due respect to ladies, let me just be careful here. My experience with female drivers has not been all that good. And I say to you, on the other side, my experience with men's drivers. I get cursed at, I get screamed at, I get the finger, I get everything. So
I don't like men drivers either. But anyway, I'm back in. And I offered the woman a chance to drive the car. But I had to be there. I'd go downtown. I hadn't been downtown. Oh, I had to go to Brookfield Center. Get in the car. The first thing that happens, the car's driving. First thing that happens, first stop sign. She goes right through it. I said, there's a stop sign. She said, oh, it's nothing. So we're following the GPS. And I said, now where the GPS won't be the
best way to go. You got to make a left at this corner. She makes the right turn. I said, that's not left. But the thing that got me more than anything was we're driving down the street. She had to change lanes, and she changed lanes without looking. And I said to her, after I finished screaming, we missed the car next to us by two inches. If I'm lying, it's five inches. I mean, I said, what was that? She said, Look, when I want to change lanes, I
know the other guy will move over. I'm saying to myself, I've drive knowing that if I'm a good driver, I'm more worried about the other drivers. I was screaming. I was beside myself, and anyway, kudos to Danica Patrick and my experience in driving. I got that out of the way. If I've offended the female community, give me a break, please, Okay. On the issue of screaming for my life, I'm worried at the moment about that future of retail, luxury and fashion.
There have been more and more difficulties had Hudson Bay and Canada, the largest running retail, the largest operational business sixteen seventy established in Canada, just filed for protection under the equivalent of bankruptcy. It looks like they'll still be operators. What makes it concerning is the parent company of Hudson Bay also owned Sacks, Demons and Bergdoff Goodman. And in fact, I have such great and high regard for the CEO. The next CEO Exchange interview for this show will be
with the CEO of that company. But the issue is what is going on. I've been shopping a lot. Part of my ability to function on this show is staying current in the business that I grew up in, luxury fashion and retail. I've been in the malls. I was traveling. I was in one of the malls in Long Island a friend of mine and I said, the place is packed. He says, yeah, business must be great. And I looked at him and I said, you're not from this industry.
Look closely. Is business great? And he looked at me and he said, yeah, the place is packed. I said, is it doing well? Is you know? Mark? What what are you talking about? I said, very few people are carrying bags. And he stopped in his tracks and he said, you're right, very few people are carrying bags. What does that mean? I said, it means that they're not doing as well as the mall is. They're coming here for different reasons. Shopping malls are still entertainment. There's still theater.
There are place to go, there are a place to have lunch or a drink, the place to hang out with your friends. That doesn't mean that everybody here is here at a shop. And it caught his attention, and it caught mine again because I know about this business, and yes, a lot of business is online now. I remember when I was operating before I retired and went into radio and podcasting, that retails were becoming stronger and stronger.
They were all consolidating, they're all buying each other. In my day, there was a huge corporation called Macy's Zinc and the huge corporation called Make Company, and both of them headed out and beat it up head to head. They fought off every more. Robinson's May versus Macy's in San Francisco, and that's the way it went, and the two powerful giants four billion each at one point were
consolidated under the Macy's Corporation. And now all of a sudden, once they did that, they came to me whatever company I was running, said, the rules are going to change. Now, these are the new rules. We're going to want more markup. We're going to want you to take back merchandise, We're gonna want, We're gonna want, going to want. And even though make company didn't exist anymore, or they basically used to have a saying it's the main way or the highway.
You do what we tell you, or you're not gonna do business with us, and they took and exerted in tremendous pressure over us in the wholesale side. I've been thinking about the tariffs. I mentioned them before. Tariffs are raising prices and what does that mean. I'm gonna make it very simple. When retailers do a sales plan. If last year they did one hundred million dollars in men's apparel at Macy's, they planned to grow from one hundred million to one hundred and five million this year. The
problem is they buy in retail dollars. Therefore, if you make things more expensive, they will buy less items. They buy less items there's less chance for you to be as successful. They're going to be buying less from you. So this whole situation of retail and wholesale is getting
to be a concern. I remember going through this whole thought that we said at the time, in the end of the day, there's going to be one retailer and one manufacturer or wholesaler, and the retailer is going to say to the wholesaler, we don't want to buy from you anymore. That was the end of the industry. That's it. It's over. And when you watch what's going on right now with the advent of online shopping, which is extraordinary. You know, anything I need, the first thing I do
is I look to Amazon. But I will tell you when it comes to fashion. Unless I'm looking for a commodity iron like a T shirt that I don't care what brand it is, I'm not going to Amazon. Amazon has brands, but they don't have the full assortment that you'll find in a department store or a specialty store. If you want a Nike sneaker, Amazon very well may have a Nike sneaker, but they won't have the range. You go to Champ you'll see everything from Nike if they want to buy it. So Amazon has its place,
but it's only so far. I've been reading that Coles is struggling. Coals is a discount department store that is in eleven hundred stores around the United States, and they're struggling. The CEO is just let go. It wasn't clear. They were a few skating on whether he was terminated or let go by choice. But in the articles you read about why he's no longer there, they talked about that he forego their private label programs in favor of brands and it was not serving them. Well, so what's the
future of brands at Coals. I'm sure they'll have them. Some of my favorite brands, some of the brands that I work with my whole life, are there. I hope they survive. The off price business is extraordinary. You want to talk about exerting pressure. They live to give the consumer a discount. They don't live to like the manufacturers. They live to get deals for their consumers. I'll never forget.
After spending a week in Harvard Business School with one of the senior retailers, the CEO of TJ Max at the time, asked to see me About three weeks later, it came up with his team and he said to me, I hope you're the greatest merchants in the world. I hope you have to. I hope you have people that know how to plan merchandising, because anything you stuck with I'm going to own you. I'm going to need fifty billion dollars worth of merchandise, so I'm going to be
a great customer. But for that business, you're going to pay the price. So the less problems you have, the better off. It's going to be once again exerting pressure over the wholesale To his credit, if I was TJ Max, I would be only. I would be the toughest negotiator in the world. I wouldn't make it easy for any manufacturer. Yes, I would covet your brand. Yes, van Usen is great for my custom but if it wasn't van us And,
I'd find a different brand. Unless you are smart, unless you know how to manage the business, you're going to have your hands full going into the future. There's no channel of distribution that hasn't struggled at one point or another. Walmart this year said they're taking down their earnings number Walmart.
They never have problems. The future of retailing is going to be from the brands, multi brand stores like Macy's, like Coal's, like Targets like Walmart, like Bergdoff's, like Sachs, like Neemans, like Nordstrom, all of these retailers putting together the best assortments with the best brands and having the best working relationships with their vendors to maximize those businesses. Will they remains to be seen. The future of retail is also in the hands of people who have their
name over the door. They have one brand in this store. It's called Zara, it's called H and M, it's called the Gap, It's called American Eagle Outfits who looks great continuously after season. It's called my own name above the door. Specialty stores and in a luxury sector you know the more Viton, Gavanci dioor they're there somewhere in all of this is going to be a combination of multi brand stores and stores that are specialty stores with their name
over the head of the door. And someone each of these stores, any department store, any specialty store, is online. And the world has yet the scene where this is all going to end. The question I asked tonight, Are you smart enough to position yourself to be good from far but not far from good? I love this show. I hope you enjoyed it. Back next week. Talk to you soon.