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 Webber. He's a self made business executive here to help you find your success, from the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His global success story in the luxury world of fashion 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 Webber. Mark Webber. I've been thinking about what it is I like. I've been wondering what it takes to like anything. There's a real combination of human sense, his life experiences, human evolution necessary to form likes. I walked here tonight, looked in the window at Bergdor just liked the jacket,
instantaneous, easy. I noticed the city noises. They were louder than I like the smell of the streets. Store selling food not my style, but I had to admit I liked the smell. Without thought, I determined likes. As I walked along, a million years of evolution came into play. My sixth sense told me that there were predators all around, not the first time I thought the city could be separated by victims and predators. However,
this instance was light out. Myers told me not to worry anyway. Breaking through all these life events, actions and activities, I worked through the clutter to determine and feel what it is. I like that and of itself is amazing. It's like in the genes or it's learned. I prefer black SUVs, but silver sports cars, women in heels, men in suits, modern buildings or heritage protected buildings. I don't like cluttered streets. I don't like taxis until I need them. Like Ralph, I don't like cores. I
like American Eagle over Ara pistyle. I like restaurants first for food, then for amviance service is a given. I like the Cheesecake Factory, but not tjif interesting likes can change over time, I'm fascinated by why my las can come and go. I used to like CBS, now it's Fox or News Nation. One is on the right, one is neut for the other of the original who are they now? I used to like the New York Times. I trusted them, Now not so much. Wall Street Journer gets business
Reichs still like them. I like Taylor Swift for her success. I don't know her music. I like Tom Cruise in spite of Tom Cruise. Funny when you think about like. Some likes are ingrained, some are learned, Some likes are tort some likes by experience. Some likes for fashioned by my parents, some from friends. Many of my likes come from my children. All business likes are dislikes. I'll learn to experience politics. Politicians liked or
disliked by what they do. Yes, I've been thinking the last few days about the concept of liking, and walking to the studio, I realized I liked doing this show. I've been thinking about likes and one of my favorite stories is on the subject of liking. And I learned this simple allegory and I think you might like it. There was a CEO of a consumer goods
company who needed to grow his business. One division of all the product categories in his company he believed was underperforming, and that was his pet division. As the story goes, the CEO was a dog lover, and it occurred to him. Although there were a million dog foods that dog owners could choose from, he felt there was an opportunity to create a luxury dog food to appeal to affluent dog owners. As he thought about it, he became even
more excited when he considered the dog owners. Everyone, not just a fluent owners would pay pay extra for dog food for their dogies. His simbleans management team, ladies and gentlemen, I've had an epiphany. I want our company to create a luxury dog food to appeal to luxury affluent owners. The team nodded their heads, thinking, great idea. Why did I think of it?
He went further, Here's the beauty of the idea. Yes, it will be more expensive than our other products, but every dog owner wants what's best for their pet. Everyone will buy it, and everyone in the meeting, like good executives started shaking their head, loving the idea, and they all decided let's go after affluent dog owners. The CEO then instructed the packaging
team to create a striking, luxury looking package. To the chef and curated create a dog food from the best ingredients, to the marketing team develop an exciting advertising campaign and to the head of stairs, start meeting with your retail accounts. I want twenty percent of their purchases in total to be the introduction of our new luxury dog food, and not at the expense of our existing business. There must be a creative, namely growth in our overall business.
Our prices are higher, therefore we'll make more money. And everyone left inspired, eager to build a company. Now, then let's fast forward six months later, there was a new product in luxury dog food being launched across America, the most striking packaging, the greatest advactansing campaign. You can carry a vtone handbag. Doesn't your dog deserve the best as well? The store shelves in every pet store, every food store, every pet section was stocked with
a new luxury dog food. There's a new day in dog food. The CEO is amazed at his team and so happy with his idea. On a new day, everyone opened their doors. The consumers, the dog owners came and bought multiple cans. The inventory was sold out in a week, huge success. Everyone was patting each other on the back. In week two, the stores were restocked. Interesting though week two sales were slow, no one was buying the luxury dog food. Another week went by. It was a
disaster. No one was buying the dog food. The CEO brought his team together, what's going on? No one wanted to talk. Finally, the sales executive raised his hands and said, Boss, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, the dogs didn't like it. Sometimes we forget who's in charge. It's not the pet owners, but the actual consumer of the dogs. The dogs gotta like it. Tonight, I want to remind us
what's important. Now. This is really where I would introduce my lawyer, my son, my co host Jesse Weber, but just he's not here tonight. His courage in the world, particularly the Trump trial, the rest of the seleverties out there in trouble, the blockade of Columbia University, and all the college protests have him on assignments for Law and Crime Network, Serious Radio in particularly his legal commentary for News Nation, oh and fill in host on
the network, as well as a beyond busy as a father. I made it easy of him let those responsibilities take priority. I fly solo tonight. Now, speaking of my sons. Last week the show followed my son Jared, who was in Asia, which brought to mine a series of stories and events that I had experienced many years earlier, memories of a number of years ago I walked the same streets that he did of Shanghai and in particular Tokyo
as well. During the show, I shared a story of integrity whereby custom of gifting in Japan left me vulnerable to the theory of impropriety, namely, even the appearance of impropriety is a problem. Now, I was offered a gift, and I'll talk about that in a minute. Think of our politicians question now and insider information at stock trading, or the Supreme Court accepting airline flights for personal use, whether it's true or not, it makes us wonder
about our leaders. I was given an expensive set of Mickey Myrtle pearls after a large deal was signed. What if I accepted them? But I didn't. I refuse to accept them now, Jared, in essence, led tonight its story. Don't forget relating to your consumer, daddy, not everyone's the CEO. Jared said, bring it to the real world, daddy. Most young people never are confronted with your life experience. They're not offered fifty thousand dollars pearl necklaces, embrace it, and I thought he was right. So
philosophically, the dog's got alken in this case. Understand it. So let me help you and offer some advice for your consideration. Don't compromise yourself. Don't business dinners. Do you know there are companies that forbid their employees for having company dinners with suppliers. They feel that should you accept, you might be compromising in your objective decisions on who to purchase from in the future.
Therefore, first learn and understand your company policy on gifts in outside social interaction. My personal experience for costco buyers, they're instructed no business thinners, only working lunches. If they're in the office, then I think about second to thine own self be true? Will you feel compromise if you accept a favor? Sport tickets? Yankees are back, the playoffs are on in basketball and hockey. Most companies have access to the best sporting events. I have hosted
people at the US Open tennis matches. I've been a guest of others. Can you separate your decision making and being neutral after you've accepted this very generous offer for a very common night out or a sports event. But nonetheless, can you separate yourself while I'm at it? Samples in your office they may appear to have little or no value, but they're not yours. You want a sample, you have to ask to buy it. Do you realize your
companies computer is not yours? It's the companies. Your time at work is not yours. Your time is paid for by the company. They pay to work, not to watch Instagram on their computer. This is all just food for thought. Maybe I'm Dudley do right, but my conscience is clear. I wanted to share that with you tonight. It's dog eat dog or the Dog's Gotta like it back in a minute. Always in fashion. As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational
and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to America through Carlagofeld 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, eyewear, and premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagophl 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, what catches my attention, what would make me feel good to wear Now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it, and they look amazing. If you want to look right, you want to have clothes that fits you well. You want to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours. You can
find it at very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot Comparis. The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as the handbigs and the shoes. I, for one, wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I want to look the way I want to feel. I go out at night, I'm in black and Carlago felt is my buddy. Calls 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 Carlagofel because he's always been, he always had been one of the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak enough about it except to say to you, you want to feel good about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris at Macy's
Orcarl Lagafel dot com. A favorite brand has always been ISOD. My company at one time bought that brand. The CEO of the company handed it to me and said, you better make it work. And I put everything in my career to make ISOD work, and I fell in love with that brand, and to this day it is one of the most exciting endeavors I've ever got involved with. Isod is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you play golf, if you play tennis for that matter. They make a great polo
shirts. I mean great, They're fit perfect. The material is unique because it's a PK fabric that waffle weave you see, and it's made of a blend of cotton and microfiber that allows you to stretch in very often they are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable, and they breathe well. And one thing about Isaac they always fit. They'll never tug on you. You put it in your waist, they'll fit you great.
The colors, patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell you Isaad makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and you want to look good. You don't have to think about how do I look. You want to think about how you play, not how you feel. Isaad is the brand for you. I know I was there when it was created. The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's one of my favorite brands. While I talk about it, I should tell you about the men's sportswear.
Isaad wasn't enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just great polo shirts with logos, without logos. Incredible brands and story and history. Isaad makes salt weather programs. They have great printed woven shirts, short sleeves.
They look excellent with colors, excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which they also make This whole salt order relaxed line from Ison whether it be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts and pants of a range of colors and fabrics that are perfect for a guy wants to go casually in the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing Isoon is
affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this brand can afford to buy it and know that there are a lot of other brands that also have a look like Io. Although I don't believe it's fun as isond is. The brand has a lot of energy in it, but at the price points, no one can compete. You can find Isaac at your leading retailers and online at ion dot com. Talk to you later, guys. I wish you. I'm very happy spring in summer, and I hope you by telling you if
you were eyesight, you're going to look great. Welcome back to it always in fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber. The Dog's gotta like it. I love the title. I thought it was clever. You have to remember who you're in customers. I talked earlier about you go and prepare dog food. You make it the best. It could be the best package, the best. This the best advertising aim that they are dog owners but the reality is the dogs gotta eat it, and that's what I want to talk
about. I want to talk tonight, specifically about who are we talking to, and are we talking clearly them. I'm a car guy. I love cars at any time. I have more cars than people can drive, and cars in general are exciting to me. I want to talk about one brand in particular. I have been my entire life on an emotional roller coaster with Jaguar. I love Jaguar, at least I did. My first car, when I was in college, was a Jaguar XKE, one of the most
beautiful sports cars in the history of mankind. In fact, Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, said, the Jaguars K is the most beautiful car that's ever been designed. I bought one, a used one. I was so happy with it until I brought it home and started to drive it. I worked all week, I went to school. On Friday nights, I would take the car out. It never fail. Every Friday night I would go out. I feel like a billion dollars and every Friday night I'd have
to have a toad somewhere. Now. The interesting thing about the car taught me a couple of lessons, because in those days Jaguars could not be trusted. British motor cars cannot be trusted. Today they're much better. I'll get to that in a minute. But I learned the very important lesson ordered by that Jaguar ks Cay, which was used and was not too expensive for me at the time. It's more expensive that I could afford. I remember borrowing money from my mother and father and they said to me, Mark, I
don't know if this is the car you should buy. You know, it looks beautiful, but it doesn't have a good reputation. I said, I'm not worried about it. My mother was right. Every Friday night, either it was towed or I had to have it delivered to a car dealership to be repaired. For the next two weeks it would be repaired. I'd get a bill far more than I could afford. But I borrowed money for my parents to buy the car great lesson. My mother and father looked at me
and they said, Mark, we're going to lend this money. We expect you to give us a check every week to pay it off. And we came up with a small number that would come from my paycheck of working in a clothing store. And it was interesting. Every week I showed up, sat down with my mom. I gave her fifty dollars at the time, I think that was the number, and she had a little ledger that had the number I owed her at the top. Every week she would deduct that
number from what I owed her until it was completely paid up. And it taught me a lesson that when you borrow money, it's a sacred trust. You are making a personal commitment to whoever you borrowed it from, whether it be your mother, whether it be a friend, whether it be a bank. I am borrowing money and I promise you I will pay it back, which brings me to student loans. Just while I'm on the subject, I am against forgiving people of student loans. Every single student made a decision to
purchase college education. They decided to borrow money to pay for it. Now, I get it. School is not free in this country. Some countries it is, some it isn't You have choices when you went to school. I went to a city college. My city college at the time was eight thousand dollars a year versus my son's education at forty two thousand dollars a year if you decided to go to the University of Michigan or the University of Virginia or any of the other great schools around the country. Why is it my
problem? Why is it the taxpayer's problem for you to have a forty two thousand dollars year education, or if you went to local school, it could be ten or fifteen thousand. I'm totally against it. But that's only one part of my Jaguar lesson. See, I always liked Jaguars. I bought that Jaguar. It was so bad, I never enjoyed it. It was always in the shop, never drove it more than a couple of days at a time, because it always broke down. God forbid. You get caught
in the rain and the wires got wet. You never get it home. But as time went on, I'll never forget. I was in Las Vegas. I was at the Forum Shops, great shopping center where my favorite in the country. And this beautiful car pulls up, a black coop. I had never seen anything like it. There was a Jaguar XKR. I was taken by it. I loved it. I'll never forget. I went home with the boys, and I tried to convince my wife that we needed another
car. She looked at me, what are you crazy? Don't need another car, but we all want it, we want to drive and we love him. Come on, momy. She agreed. We bought the car and was amazing, and I learned from that day on the Jaguars were reliable again. And I've been in favor of Jaguar for so long because now they're reliable, they're great looking. I enjoy driving them. And then something happened. Jaguar decided that they were going to close operations. I think I've mentioned this
before and stop making new cars until twenty twenty five. And what were they doing. They were turning their entire Jaguar offering to evs electric vehicles. You can't buy a Jaguar that's not an electric vehicle. Now I have a hybrid. I have an expensive hybrid. Whatever you think is expensive, double it. And the thing is a problem, a problem, a problem. It's in the shop all the time. It's not a Jaguar, but something's wrong
and it's only a hybrid. I hear all these rumors about these electric fields, not starting in the cold, not having places to charge them nightmares, and Jaguar has decided to turn their entire fleet of Audibo wheels into electric vehicles. You're reading articles now the showrooms in the country. This country, I think, has two and a half million electric vehicles that are unsold. They're
piling up in their parking lots. People are voting to go ahead. There are increases in electric vehicles, but nowhere near the numbers needed to sustain this business. Nowhere near the government's stepping in and forcing most vehicles to be electric vehicles by two thy thirty two. And it got me to thinking on a night that I'm talking the dog's God to love it all the noble goals of
saving our planet. Jaguar is forgetting that they have to make the dogs happy, the dogs God to love it. Come on, Jaguar, I wake up before it's too late. I'll take a break back in a minute. Always in fashion, I spent a lifetime of my career building the van Usen Brand, and I am so pleased that they're back with us now talking about suits. Men were dressing up again and it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits can be won on multiple occasions, in multiple ways. You could
wear a suit formally to go out at night 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 packaging yourself is as important as the products you package, and wearing a suit is one of those things that make
men look their best. Venuesn't 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. Its wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wicki it makes it perfect for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfort 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 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. D k and why. Donna Karen, New York. Donna Karen began her career as one of the finest, most successful, powerful women in the fashion
industry. She developed a collection aimed at the luxury market for women on the go, women who were powerful in their workplace, women who had lives that extended beyond the workplace. And her clothes went from day and 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 Karon collection, and Donna invented dk n Y Donna Karen, New York. It's 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 dcaan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products you're getting dressed for work. You
get accessorized shoes, handbags, and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing about dk and Y clothes for work, 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 did that under the DKNY label. A vast array of casual sports where that make women look great as they navigate their busy lives. Whether you going to soccer games for your children, or whether you're going out to the movies, whatever you want to do, dk Y Jeans, dk Y Sportswear is there for you. That's what 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 quality of dk why is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be because it was born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women of America. DK and Why, a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and tonight, from the week into the weekend. DCN, Why you can find DCNY
and Macy's DKY dot com. Welcome back to it Always in fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber. I've been thinking about a lot of stuff on the way to this studio, and I've been thinking about a concept that I call interrupters. Probably none of you ever confronted something and thought of that as an interrupter, but I do. My creative eye sees interrupters, you know, in your own way. We did during the SAT tests back in the
days. One of the intelligence questions happened to deal with interrupters. They didn't call it that. They would show you a picture of four things apples, pears, oranges, truck which doesn't fit and of course it's the trucks. And there's a way to understand your aptitude and where you understand learning. That's what an interrupter is. And I see them everywhere. A friend of mine recently was talking about interrupters. Told me a story about a chair she had
bought for her apartment. She said it was gorgeous white leather, beautiful trim, and had these beautiful blue stripes on the back of it. It was a designer chair. She didn't share how much it costs, but she said it was amazing by the time I got it into my part and I put it here, I put it there, I put it everywhere, and never did it feel like it fit. Because she didn't use the interrupter word,
but that's what it was. An interrupter. Back in the day when magazines were extraordinary, I was very much involved in the advertising world, and when you would shoot a photograph to be in a magazine, there really were two choices of how that fogotograph would be presented. Some photographs are on one page, either right or left, and some photographs are what they call spreads. They spread out over the two pages. And the interesting thing when you open
a magazine, there's always a fold line. Magazines curl when you open them. If you shoot a photograph that's supposed to be seen on two pages. If you don't allow and the photographer doesn't allow space for the fold, your picture will be cut off. Anytime you see a picture cut off in the middle because of the fold, line. You're dealing with amateurs, people who didn't realize what they're doing because they are interrupted. We've allowed that photograph to
be interrupted. I've often found where people put their logos, either on garments or in these magazine pictures, can be interrupters. Where do they put the name on the ad. It always drove me crazy because I have an eye pro proportion and I look very closely at these things. And then there are interrupters in the way you dress. I've talked about my uniform many times.
Navy blue suit, white French collar shirt, navy blue tie, sterling, silver cuffling, stainless steel, rollic, stetona, watch, black shoes, black sock. You look at me, it all comes into play. You have a look at figure skaters. Guy wears black pants, black shoes. Why it's an uninterrupted line in the form of his body. The women do the same thing. They try and pick flesh colored tones very often in their skates to match the flesh tots that they're wearing for their stockings or tights or
whatever you call them. It's non interrupters, and I don't believe in interrupters. I believe that everything has a place. This spring fashion starting again, I will dress in ecru tan. I love tans, I love neutrals. I love it all blending together. If I'm wearing tan, I'm going to wear tan shoes, I'm going to wear a tan watchpant. I'm going to make everything blend in because I believe in interrupters. Now I have a great
story that deals with interrupters. Planned interrupters in the form of print dresses. Is there any woman in the world that doesn't own a black dress? Every woman has to have a black dress or ten of them in their closet because when in doubt you put on the black dress LBD little black dress. Everyone has them. I would venture to say every woman in the world has a
print dress or multiple print dresses. And imagine my chagrin when I show up at Donna, Karen and dk Y and find out that the head creative person at DK and Y does not believe Prince belong in DK and why I was shocked. I mean, that's like being in the men's dress shirt business and not having white dress shirts. It's impossible. Everyone wears a white dress shirt, they wear a dress shirt. How could you not have them? They didn't believe in printresses. This was amazing. Now how do I find out?
One night, at the end of the day, the head of sales for dk Y asked to see me. She waited to the end of the day because she was intimidated and was concerned for what the subject matter would be. That she came to see me, and she didn't know the politics of it all. Was concerned. I figured this is going to be a doozy. So I know she comes to my office in Mark I need help, I said, what can I do for you? You know, we're trying
to build a business. We've done so many things that are right this company, volume and opportunities exploding, but we've hit a roadblock. So what's the problem? She's print tresses? I said, I love printresses. What's wrong with printresses? You're right to love them, she said, Dresses right now are forty percent of our business. If you ask anyone, they'll tell you that fifty percent of their dresses are prints. Okay, great, So what
are you asking me? She says? Our designed director and the design team do not believe in prin dresses for DKY. What do you mean they don't believe in them? They said they won't believe in them. Well, they're gonna make them. She said, well, that's the problem. They're not. We told them last season we lost out in this opportunity. We're now coming into the spring season where we would plan even more than fifty percent of
our assortment and prin dresses. They won't do it. Thumb struck. Here you're telling me this brilliant company, Donna Karen DK, why we don't have printresses. I've seen printresses in Donna Karen. They're very sophisticated. The collection has them. They're beautiful colors, they're very neutral. They fit with the cole concept, but they're gorgeous. Said, you have them in Donna Karen Mark, but we don't have them DK. Why The following morning, I
send out a memo and I convene a meeting. Before the meeting, I asked the head of design to come see me. I said, I'm told we don't believe in printresses. She's we don't and why is that? She says the Dkmy urban modern city girl doesn't wear print dresses. I said, you know, I'm standing now in the women's business. I look at women all the time to see what they're wearing. The shoes, the dresses, the pants. I'm a student of women's wear. I have to be.
I've no choice. Most of the women I see coming to work are wearing dresses now, and an awful lot of them are wearing print dresses. She says, well, Prince, we don't believe Adana Karen let alone, DCAM, why just not all? Look, I said, you know, dresses represent in some cases up to fifty percent of the business, and I'm told more than fifty percent could be. Prince, it's not okay that we don't have print dresses. She's well, we don't believe in Okay, here's what
we're going to do. I need you for the next two days to work with the team exclusively on finding prints, a balanced print assortment that would represent thirty to fifty percent of our business. If I said we're in the print business, mark you do that. After I told you I don't believe in
princesses. I respect that you don't believe in print dresses. But we're having a meeting in two days time, and I think it would be great if you would be prepared with a series of print dresses that if you were forced that if you believe you wanted to understand what to do. You have an idea of what printresses would look like. She begrudgingly left and said she would do it. Two days later, a meeting convenes three o'clock and decayn Wise
showroom. One side of the table of the design is the other side of the cellar. The rest of the people just fit in wherever they could. Now, I've had meetings with a bunch of you and we've talked about it. Some of you believe that we need prints, some of you believe we don't. I'm going to make this simple. I see what's going on in
the street. I'm not a woman. I don't wear your clothes, but I do know if I was a stylish woman in this world right now, part of my wardrobe would be printeresses because I see women on the street wearing tons of them and it doesn't make any sense for us and not to have them. For someone to come up with the idea that k Why is a different lifestyle or what you have to do is come up with prints that fit
the image of dk Why. I'm not telling you to look like Ralph ralfis a traditional company that Prince may be plaids when not a plaid company or a modern company. Our Prince would reflect the modern style of the company. Quiet. So then I say to the head of design. In preparation for this meeting, I asked Jane, the head of design, to put a line
of prints together, and I wanted to see them in the room. So she and the team lay out of our twenty five prints, and my impression was they didn't do them with all of their heart in because I've seen when they create things, they believe in their extraordinary and right away I know it wasn't good. So the first last thing I had to do is talk about balancing the line. You can't only have little prints. You need some that are engineered. You need big florals, you need a whole range and choices.
So someone would come into our store at Bloomingdale's and macy and see a plethora of Prince throughout the shop, colorful, bright, etc. They didn't have them put that aside, and they said we're gonna have Princes, and everybody's like uncomfortable. I said, you know what, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna play a game. I call it the ballot game. Hold on a minute, I called my assistant, Judy Luke. I said, Judy, bring down the jelly bean jar, bring down twenty pieces of
paper and twenty pencils. Make sure the paper and the pencils are all the same. Everybody's asking me what are we doing? I said, I'm gonna tell you. We're gonna play a game. I'm going to ask you two questions. Question number one should we have prince? And question number two are these prints good enough that we've seen today? And here's the great thing about this. None of you are going to put your name on the piece of paper, so this is anonymous. Therefore, we're taking all the politics out,
We're taking all the loyaltily out because it's misplaced. What I want is this group of people, twenty of you people together to give me the honest opinion without fear of reprisal. You could be honest this way, no one's gonna know. You all have the same paper, you all have the same pencils. So here's question one, should we have prints? And here's how you do it. Zero if you believe you should have no prince, and
ten if you should have prints. And I'll do the same rating system for the collection with your sewer zero if you don't like it, ten if you think it was great. Okay, fill out your papers, and one by one I passed the ball around. Everybody wrote on their answers, crumpled them up, threw them at the ball. I asked the head of operations and finance, please make one column that says should we have Prince? And will list all the scores, and the other column did we like these prints?
And let's see the rating? I'm on them. So first thing, something comes up, should we have Prince? One to ten? Ten? What'd you think of these prints? Five? Should we have Prince? One says nine? How are these prints? Four? The end of the thing, one person had a zero for should we have Prince, and that the same person in the rating had a tend for the Prince and their excellence. I
figured that was the design director. But after all is said and done, everyone in the room except for one person, believe we should have Prince. No one thought the Prince were good enough. And the exercise is, you gotta make sure you know what the dogs want. The dog's gotta be happening, And in this case it was the woman's consumer. For dk y back in a minute. Always in fashion then use it. For over one hundred
and fifty years now has been a mainstay in American fashion. This brand that was invented for dress shirts was given to cold miners when they exited the mills, dirty and dusty. The Phillips Venues and Company Phillips families there to give them fresh new shirts that they could wear at home and feel their best. Over the course of time, venues and dress shirts grew and grew and grew to suit shirts and ties for the dress up. But now sportswear has become
a dominant part of the venues and collection. You can find these products including sweaters, polos, quarter zips, trousers, and even the best of fashion has to be preserved. I don't know if I ever mentioned to you the advent of the men's necktie. There's nothing better in a men's necktie business than the business lunch. Because guys would go out, they'd have their lunch that have their salads or their beef and potatoes, and snow stout about it.
They would always stain their tie, and therefore the business grew and grew us and today doesn't want to make money on your hardships. They want to do it and prevent you from having to go through that. And they invented Stainshield. It's a technology that was invented to protect your favorite items. The Stainshield collection provides extreme defense again water based stains by causing spills to beat up before
they can be absorbed into the fabric. This collection, by the way, in addition to regular fits, is also often in all body sizes, including big and tall. You can find Vanues and Stainshield and the great venues in styled sports were at vanuesing dot com. That's Vanusen dot com. As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
America through 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 Watchers eyewear and premium fragrances. You can explore the Carlagofil collection at Carlagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that, I for one love to shop. I love going around and seeing what's happening and what catches my
attention, what would make me feel good to wear now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it, and they look amazing. If you want to look right, you want to have clothes that fits you well. You want to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours. You can find it at very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com Paris. The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary,
as well as the handbigs and the shoes. I, for one, wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I want to look the way I want to feel. I go out at night, I'm in black and Carlagofel is my buddy. Calls 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 Carl Lagafel because he's always been he always had been one of the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak enough about it except to say to you, you want to feel good about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing properly. You want clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris at Macy's Orcarlagafel dot com. Welcome back to
it Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber Tonight, I picked a funny title. I've got a kick out of it when I thought about it, that you got to make the dogs happy. It relates to a lot of different things, understanding who your end user is for your products, who you're trying to make your happy in life. I'm having fun doing this, and now I want to talk seriously about work. I came across a quote that I thought was really interesting on this subject that the magic you are
looking for is in the work you're avoiding. I'll tell you what, at this stage of my life, there are so many things I don't want to do. I can avoid him like the plague. I get up in the morning if I have to return a phone call, I'm miserable the night before. I don't even like the idea for turning phone calls tell me I have to meet someone. I'm distraught. I'm a recluse by nature. I like being by myself. I don't want to spend time with anyone. I don't
want to be told I have to spend time with anyone. I don't want to do anything I don't want to do. Well. Why am I telling you this? Because you're working? You have a life, You want a little success. Who doesn't want success? Who doesn't want to make more money? Who doesn't want to earn more? Who doesn't want to have a better life? It's crazy everyone. The magic you are looking for is in the work you're avoiding. You see, while I avoid everything and anything I possibly
want to avoid now, I didn't do it when I was working. No no, no, no, no no no. I realized that in order to have some measure of success, that I couldn't only have fun and do the things I like to do. No. Work isn't about Hey, everything's great. It's about what do you do when things aren't great? What do you do all those things you have no interest in but are so important to learn? I have two sons that are attorneys. They could kick and scream
blame me, ignore me, what have you? They wanted to be One wanted to try it because no other idea. The other did it because He'll admit Jesse said I forced them, but he'll Althos thanked me every day because he did it. They both did things that were hard, that necessarily what they wanted to do, but they did it because they should. When I was young, my mother would force me to drink milk. I hated it, but the only way I could get a cookie or a sweet was with
milk. Now, hindsight, maybe that's why I like sweets too much. Now, maybe if I wasn't compromised or for negotiated with, I wouldn't like sweets as much. I'm not going to blame my mother. I only have myself to blame. The reality is the magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding, because that's where the success is. We can't always do what we want to do. In my case, I learned early on that success would come from those things that I did well, supported by those things
that I should know in order to be successful. One of my favorite stories when we bought Calvin Klein. Calvin Klein when he sold the company didn't want to work anymore. His partner, Barry Schwartz, disappeared completely. Never came back to the company for a day after he got his money, not a day, had no interest, even invited all of us to dinner, and then changed his mind. Never saw him again. He went on to work for the New York Racing Authority, very very successful, and Calvin granted us
a certain number of days because he didn't want to work either. And what he really didn't want to do is he didn't want to be told no. If he came in a room and he told you this is what he believed in, if you didn't do it, he wouldn't come back. Now I respect that. I don't want to be told no, especially if I was Calvin kleinb with all that success and everything I built, who knows more than
me. And we had a guy named Francisco Costa, who's an amazing designer, who took over the women's collection business, the designing of it, and Francisco, because he was at Calvin, developed a name for himself. He got very well known. But at the same time he was very good at
what he did. And I remember one day Calvin was looking at the offering and making some suggestions, and Francisco, now that he was the lead designer, was pushing back on Calvin and telling him why he would do this and do that and do this, because before that he would make a suggestion and Calvin would decide this time and I remember Calvin said, this is not what I want to do. But in particular, Calvin was great that when we needed him, he would come up. We had at the time a license
from Waunaco. Warnaco is a separate company who had the rights to manufacture genes and underwear. Calvin Kleine underwear is a phenomenon. Walk into any store in the men's and women's underwear or intimate apparel areas, and Calvin Kleine underwear, the cotton underwear, the stretch underwear dominates, huge, huge, amazing, how big the Calvin Kleine underwear is. We were having a problem that Calvin Kleine, the underwear, the bottoms t shirts were doing amazing, but they
company, Warnaco could never sell Calvin Kleine Bras couldn't do it. So one day he said to me, the head of the division, could you get Calvin to see if he can come here and help us, and I'll never forget. Calvin came in. He said, I understand we're having a problem with Braze. Tell me what it is. It's Calvin. The colors are beautiful, the fabrics are great, but nobody wants to buy him. So
he looked at us and he said, are they comfortable? The president of the division, a guy, scratched his head and he said, you know, I never really asked that question. Well, next thing we know, we've got a series of models in asking what worked, what didn't work. When we learned an awful lot about what makes a bra comfortable or not, we had another meeting with Calvin. He said, did you learn about hydraulics? I said, what's hydraulics? He said, you know, if you
think about it, a bra is like a building crane. Your pully straps and adjusts the shoulders like you would do a crane to lift the item. And it has to work and it has to be comfortable. I can't tell you how many millions of bras we said after that, an amazing story. So here I am on a night talking to humans. I'm talking about making dogs happy. Yeah, you gotta make the dogs happy? And what did it mean? Tonight, you have to understand where you are in this world.
You got to understand who the end user is. You got to understand who your customers. You got to understand who you are and what you look like to the rest of the world. Because, whether you think it or not, packaging yourself is as important as the products you package. Whether you believe it or not, it shouldn't matter what you look like, but it does. Shouldn't matter how you sound like, but it does. You want to get ahead in life, you have to think about what you know and
what you don't know. And the more you concentrate on what is important, the more you add to your chances for success. With that in mind, I wish you good night, and remember the dog's gotta like it. Good Night.