Surveillance: Macy's Needs To Amaze Again, Telsey Says

lay up. John Authors has been on fire. You know, he's publishing like every three or four days and you can cherry pick any given for it's an official award. It's a Turkey award, which turkey sandwich. Yeah, but he's just been on fire, whether it's on the earnings, idiocy or that. John, Why don't you bring him in his new essay here on the whole E. S G. Vote. We're very E s G this morning. Can we start

with the Reasons we Should be Thankful? Which is his most recent piece, which might be more interesting Jonathan's Bloomberg opinion columnist. Investors have plenty of reasons to give thanks. Let's go to the edition of Reasons to be Thankful? John. Where do we begin? Well, the main reason to be thankful this this year. But for my reason to be thankful that everybody is being so nice to me to Broomberg, the main reason do you thankful, obvious is that the

market has gone up an awful lot. So if you're in stocks, you did very well. And a lot of that is through factors that we're not going to see repeated very easily. You've seen populist politicians misplay their hands quite badly around the world. I think that's an important one. Inflation stays within the box that you've seen, American consumer confidence stay remarkably are given. However, many other things are happening.

And yes, well no, but John Jonathan Farall was talking up out this earlier, how we've seen people get the call for the economy right, they got markets wrong. They were not expecting the rally that delivered. If you just stuck your money and an index and put your feet up, as you put it, is this all due to central bank easy? It's mostly used central bank easy. Yes, people

were not expecting that. The reason we had that, the main reason we had the big sell off going into Christmas Eve last year was the belief that j Powell was going to go through with being you know, um reducing the balance seat is the FED balance seats on also pilots to use his own term and keep raising rates.

The fact that he stopped doing that and then actually went into a very major U turn is the main reason we've seen the recovery that we've we've seen, and the fact that there was this sell off obviously mixed makes the markets look much better than they would do if bass other than the years date basis that we're so used to thinking in terms of a calendar that you know, the stock monket is not performed, not rallying in the way that you would normally think of rise.

It's because of this rather arbitrary timing ever sell off last year. One of the things we have to be thankful for is you wrote an essay on the earnings what I call the earnings idiot. See how we're complete drugs fixated on every ninety days. How did the earnings madness do this year? Did we get revenue growth right? Did we get earnings growth right? Just as an industry broadly speaking? Yes, but it doesn't again, it doesn't. It doesn't seem to matter very very greatly. That's what what

we've had in this year so far. Has been a succession of really very unimpressive earnings data, but that hasn't stopped the stock monket from doing what it's doing. Uh. If you want to play the game of have we beaten expectations or not? Um, I've made the argument that we should be junking both there. Certain we should certainly be junking earnings guidance by companies completely because this becomes part of the distraction of we all know about this,

setting barrious to yourself so you can beat them. Um. But the in broad terms, no, we're not seeing anything like the kind of the kind of strength in earnings that you normally expected to have to have results going like this. Earnings earnings momens is very weak globally, and it's pretty flat within the States. John, Thank you so much. John Arthur's Plumberg opinion. Lisa bramwods some time, King, thank you for being with us. Uh. This morning, at least

the men got to get dressed up, don't they. Yeah? I love this title trying to get boys to dress like men. Uh. That Our next guest helped to author Joseph Aboud joining us here, And I gotta say this is really an interesting question which is what do people wear to work? And Tom Keene, I know you're going to mention what I wear to our Uh, well, there's you know, Lisa's like a lot of people, there's different looks depending on the day as well. But what's a

trend right now? Are we getting all fancy or we still get It's interesting, you know, Lisa, Guys are getting dressed again, And it depends on where you work, and you know what your occupation is. If you're dressing for radio, it's one thing. If you're dressing for tvOS, right, But I love to see that Tom is is sporting is double breasted sport code and it's nice to see that people do that. Joseph Bood, fashion designer and chief creative director of Tailored Brands. You make your products in the

United States tailored suits. Yet, and you do make tailored suits, How is that industry changing where you actually have a custom made product? Are people gravitating more to that? Yeah, it's the whole customization thing is really interesting because it's more about your own personality. So it used to be that custom suits were only for the elite, and now

it's much more democratic. So we uh, we produce a great number of suits in our Massachusetts factory where we have over eight hundred employees, and we've been doing that for over thirty years. Say good morning to Boston one or six one of them with Boston as well. You've got a sport code up here, Lisa says, time you gotta squeeze into this one, and it is one Cashmere, the fabric woven in Italy. It is four dollars for a sport code, which gets you, you know, into it.

But it looks like it's out of Louise. I mean, how do you pull off that price point out of the Louise that you and I knew on news right and goes such an iconic store, Lisa, It was a great, great men's wear store that carried the best of the product. But because we're vertical, Tom, the fact that we buy our own fabrics and we don't have the traditional wholesale retail margin, we're able to bring a much better value to the customer. And what's what's simple here is is

I'm seeing on your website, Joseph, a boot. I'm seeing a more upscale look. Is that what the audience wants right now? Yeah? I think individuality, I think style, as I said to you before, men are the new women. Um, they really want to get dressed. They want to I will say, I met, are the new women. Does Black Friday matter in your line of work? I think it does. Yeah. I think not necessarily for custom suits perhaps, but for all the accessories. For example, the great gift is a

cashmere sweater. To me, that's a great piece of uh of a man's wardrobe and that's something that you know you can get as a gift, or a great cashmere scarf. So Black Friday matters probably more with the accessories and sports. Where men are the new women, I'm thinking in the female area, Instagram, uh influencers really have become the hot thing, and I'm wondering for men, if it is the same thing. Who what type of individuals are the main influencers here

driving this. I think they're fashion guys. I think there's a lot of them are have been editors in the past, and now they're talking style and they're talking to the millennial. The millennial really understands where fashion is going. And I love the fact that that's a new buying group for us. That young consumer is getting dressed and the young guy is wearing suits because he wants to, not because he has Okay, but what about the younger I'm gonna call

it broadly conservative guy. They don't want cutting a Gucci, they don't want they don't want that somebody that says, look, I really don't want to spend money on this, and they're going to go into Joseph A Bood for a reasonable going to get a lot better. Look. How's out with a millennial? Well, I think that's true. If you think a lot of the younger guys who have stepped into the financial world, they want style, but they don't want aggressive fashion. That's a really great point because they

still will we will wear something conservative. Yet at the same time they were like their cuts to be slimmer and trimmer and more to their generations. So we have to speak to them on their terms. Lisa, do you see me in a black turtleneck? Definitely? I think I think that off. Yeah. I woke up today and I said, oh my god, boots with us, so I got a style so well, this is a gift from the dun Hill people of London. They do a great job they do and I wore this for you today because it's

the flair thing that well. I love the black watch Tart. John has a style, I mean Tom has at doesn't have jo are English moment. You know when we say men are the new women. With the women, you're seeing an increasing move towards the yoga pants and away from where I mean, I just want much in the men's where. But are we seeing a reversal here? It could be It really could be pretty here first bloom, that could be. I think we see women changing their style, but we

also see that happening with men. Can I talk about something sensitive? Of course? Why in God's name are people like you and others? And you've provided leadership on this. I'm setting you up for tall clothes, big and tall big, not so much big and tall, but just there's a huge body of men out there. Nothing fits a lot of American men, that's correct. That's why custom, you know, Tom, Custom is so important for those guys. And now that it's more affordable, we can fit all body types. So

and you did just have a partnership with the NFL. Yes, yes, yes, And does this sort of play to that a little bit? Well, it does. We've done these great stylized linings and individual linings that you could put into your custom clothing. But what some of my best customers are not forty regular so they're bigger guys. And I've always have I've always had the good fortune of understanding how American men are built and how to dress them because, as I said,

not every guy is a runway model. Yeah, what fabrics are hot? Uh? Well, for the fall season, Kashmere has become more affordable, I think, Tawn to your point, you know, a great kashmere jacket kashmere because the natural fibers still are important, Kashmir camel here, but we are seeing a lot of performance fabrics now, so that within suits there's stretch and there's uh yeah, but but it's there's still nothing more beautiful than all wool or great cashmere. You're

moving the burgundy floral modern fit vest for a vest back. Yeah, you know, think about men have so few options really in the wardrobe. Vests are a great category. They can wear them with without their jackets, and it just gives again another level of individuality. So yeah, that makes those tall and help me here, we could certainly you got the size thing going, but the I'm fascinating had to Steve Sadov was in the Giant of Sex with the

Avenue of the Other. Yes, said us, And I said to Steve, I said, it's like women in zero and double zero in that going the other way with men. Well, you know, the vanity sizing thing is always an interesting thing. Guys kind of fall into that trap a little bit. But when you do get into custom, you don't have to worry about that. Who is your biggest competitor at this point? You know, I think when we talk about competition, we look at everyone. Really, I think everybody is fighting

for the same guy. Yeah, but increasingly if you talk to Macy's, you'll hear that Target and Walmart have actually emerged as competitors in a way that they hadn't. It's so interesting that you said that. I mean, we really look at the sort of the psychographics of the guy and the price veto graphics of the guy. The band in high school called sex No, so really to understand what a guy really wants, not so much about what do they really want? What I think that what guys

really want is their own personal style. And I love that about them, and it's all, you know, it's not I think the greatest myth is that men shot price. They don't. They shot product for the best price, and that's the price value proposition. So to me, it isn't so much of what a guy can spend, it's what he thinks he should pay for something of value. So value is really the game, not price, but value. You're killing it today with the look. We'll get that out

on the radio. Black turtle. I got to consider the black turtle. You know you could carry it off. Yeah, it's slimming. And I did have a good I did have the good fortune of visiting the building, uh, the Bloomburn building in London Victoria Street. From a design point of view, an amazing feat. You know, I just learned what a guy wants here. I mean, this is this is hard for wisos. You women can help us guys. Let's real. Yeah, women play sun, you know. Joseph of Bood,

thank you so much. Greatly appreciated. Employing in New Bedford, Massachusetts. American made Joseph of Bood and you go to their website and check it out. It's a it's a really different website from so much of retail today. Joining us now and we're thrilled that she could find time with us. This is one of our busiest days of the year. Joe Feldman with us earlier, and now Dana Telsey joins.

I'm a Telsee Advisory Group. She built a franchise at bear Stearns a few years ago and his uh moved it over to her own Telsee Advisory Group, which is a required read on Wall Street. Dana, I got about eight topics to go through and no time, so let me go through this quickly. I love what you're saying your note Nordstrom, O, MG, Target, Wow. And then you go and under Macy's you have, Huh. What does Macy's

need to do to begin to staunch the damage? I think overall, one of the things that all of these department stores need to do is they're focused on reinventing to maintain relevancy. I think whether it is address the fact that when you think about managing experiences into the purchases of buying, what used to be amazing is now the new expected. So they have to figure out ways to amaze the consumer again. And I think service becomes

a much more important part of it. And look what you're saying, I mean, Macy's is all of a sudden now having options within the store where that's the destination businesses that they're focused on story, You've got a surprise, and I think Macy's needs to surprise the customer again, and I think it's a work in progress. Your heritage is the heritage of fifty seven and fifth Avenue, literally, folks, and I say this was a great respect to Robert

Burke and berg door. If you lived at Dana Telsey with your family at that storied corners, what should LVMH do with Tiffany's. They've got Bulgary, they've got Louis Vuton, than Clief is over there with somebody else. What's the Dana Telsey prescription for Tiffany's at fifty seven and fifth. When you think about jewelry and you think about Tiffany's, you think about engagement jewelry. When you think about people who get engaged and get married, typically they're in their twenties, thirties,

couldn't even be forties. You think about the experience in Tiffany's and it's older than that. You need to match the experience of what the store is to the age of the customers who are coming in for that special occasion. And I think when you think about l V m H five years ago, ten years ago, the word pop up would never even be a part of their vocabulary because they thought longevity, heritage, and authenticity meant being there for ever. And it does mean in that location, certainly forever.

But what has to be the experience inside the store has to be a magic wow, and I think they're going to create that. Look at the what you have on the LV store now, whether it's the symbolic LV and the different colors that are going down the side of the building, or every time you walk by their windows, that's wait, what's different now? And I think that what's different equation is what needs to be recreated at Tiffany's. And they talk about good better best. Steve Sayto was

talking about that at LVMH and at Louis Vuton. How do they do good better best at your Bergdorf? I mean, what what does Bergdorf do to defend the franchise? Well, think about the opportunities that Bergdorf's has with Barney's now basically closing its stores just two or three doors away. A lot of the people who want designer brand clothing.

While they used to shop both Bergdorf's and Barney's before Now you're can have Burgdorf's and so some of those brands, and whether it's the exclusive collaborations where it's design, miner, meat and grads, whether it's continuing to invest in the store and make it a difference in a while along with the service aspects. There's a personal connection there. Internet is certainly important, but you've got to marry it with the pictures and going in the store and saying I

want to be in there. You got to create the want again. How how do you fill the empty retail of upskill shopping? And whether it's Barney's or Bond or whatever, do you just lower the You just have to lower the rent. Is it just that simple? What's the new concepts that are gonna go in there? What's the new

exciting wows? Look at what they're doing on Fifth Avenue now, where they have a designer who put in basically different pictures based on some of the empty storefronts in order not to have a fifth Avenue that you walk down where you count they can see vacancy, vacancy, and it just feels like there's more and more. So my sense is that we need not only just new stores selling goods, but who else is going to sell experiences? And those experiences can be activities, It could be services like spot

services or beauty. Over the next ten years, we're gonna have a reiteration of what fifth Avenue is. What's the middle market look like? Did we go up and low and nothing in between? Or is there an in between up there? For American retail I think overall, value and convenience matters, and that's why you're seeing the off prices do so well, and that's why you're seeing the discounts do so well too. But you bet mid market matters,

and what are we going to see? I think we're gonna see some of these online only retailers get into physical also, so is it a new generation of brands. And also when you think about those services, look at rental, rent the runway head story, look at subscription like stitch Fix, or look at consignment like Real Real opening on seventy one in Madison. Rental, consignment and subscription over the next years are going to become more important. H and M

is looking at rent the runway equivalency as well. Does luxury have to go to or rent the runway mode isn't I think some of the luxury good of companies themselves, whether they do it or not, but they're going to have offshoots do it like the real reels out there. When you think of thread up and and Posh Mark or Vesti are collective. There's a lot of opportunities because millennials or even Gen zs, the permanency of ownership may not be as realistic for them as it was for

their parents. For you, and this is a critical question. It's really come up not only at the things giving table, but with team surveillance. Do you find the value point of rent the runway attractive for women and that you know they look at whatever it is per three months or whatever is an attractive point versus by and own. I think for some it all depends. Now all of a sudden, renting is not just for special occasion, it's for every day and the ability to have new items

all the time makes it appealing to them. But there's another thing that we're going to be talking about, sustainability and what does it mean to understand what your garments are made of and where they're made of the story behind the garment is going to be come front and center. Give us the item this holiday season. Dana Telsey, what's the thing that every woman needs? I think boots are back. I think, come on, this is just you're killing me, Dana.

You like boots every year? Oh no, last year boots weren't back. I think fashion sneakers are swelling. I think boots are back. And you know what, we're still going to see the strength in outerwear. This is this is always callin make a note, this is always too short with Dana Telsey. And of course we know that what she's zeroing in on is a Jimmy Choo one d millimeter mirror and booty, no doubt named after the acclaimed actress, the mirror booty that's priced in a one thousand dollars.

Dana Telsey, thank you so much. Telse the advisory group there is well from London to Paris, and maybe we can start there with the recovery of the violence in Paris that we saw a few years ago. There are we getting hundreds of books, as you can imagine, every day and a couple of times a year a book

just simply stops you in its tracks. That was the case with the Sin se I any the river that made Paris because Elaine Sheiolino went to the art director and they went through fifteen cover ideas before they absolutely nailed the image of how we see this river through Paris. She is of course beyond uh claimed with their decades of work at the New York Times and any number of books before the Sin. How did the book cover come out? I mean the book cover captures everything we believe,

doesn't it. Well, it's a it's always a work in progress, and you don't know. And then as you said, you know, somehow it all comes together like a big minestrone soup and it rises to the occasion. And it's a great cover because it's a great photograph from photographer Peter Turnley that captures the mood, the romance, the ethos and culture of this great river in my childhood and the immense

privilege of going to France. And I remember they took us out the Fontain Blow and you know we did the money man anything the money I should say out there when we think of the sin, for most Americans, it's going to be three our own disment. And maybe they get over to the Eiffel Tower. How north and southy of the sun. Did you go, oh, I went

from one end to the other. It begins in the middle of nowhere, in deep Burgundy, and not the famous wine part of Burgundy, but this poor agricultural area kind of north of Dijon, and then it moves through Paris all the way to the sea at Lave, the famous port at Lave. It's almost five miles long. And what did you learn that you didn't know? I mean a lane Shielan knows everything there was about France. We know that already. And and what did you what was the

biggest surprise for you in putting three pages together? That there was an Gallo Roman goddess of the sin, a healing goddess named Sequana, and it was she who guided the sin. And in the end it was the sin water. And I think the spirit of Sequana that saved the Notre Dame Cathedral because half the water and then put out that fire came from the seat there for this horrific tragedy that afternoon, I was not I was in New York and and saw it actually on television images here.

I mean, you see it. What was the emotion as you saw? I mean, we we knew someday it would happen, and it was. No one was surprised, and yet it was just shocking. Where does that stand right now? No one was surprised that it happened, but everyone was surprised at the gravity of it, and the fact that that the that the that the cathedral almost uh, it's in what we call plane transfer marcillon full transformation. Right now,

they're still doing studies on it. They're still cleaning out tons and tons of lead that had fallen from the roof, and it's going to be a good year before they before they start the actual renovation. When they started, and I assume that you know, with do Joy they say one year, five year or whatever, and it's going to be forever to replace it. As I think of ken follow and all of his historical fiction, how these cathedrals take forever to redo? To you, is it a forever

to get Notre Dame back? Notre damn is there? Notre Dame is an organic kind of entity because it's changed and transformed over the centuries. It. You know, the President of France says it's going to take five years for it to be rebuilt. I think within five years it will be open, but it will probably take much longer than that for it to be completely restored to its former glory. This book, Folks, is so important. Sun the River that made Paris is an economics finance investment. No.

Is it something about the politics at the moment. No, But it's a single book that we saw for the holiday season and said, you know, forget about I'm going to Paris. I got to read it. It's just readable about the culture in the fabric that transcends a five miles of the sin, and with it you nail it because to us, it's always that woman outside Tiffany's um, you know, she's breakfast at Tiffany's. But there is Audrey in your book with the quintessential photo. How important is

that to our state of mind of the sin right now? Well, it's very important to our state of mind in the world right now, because what I find back here in the United States, where I'm doing a two month book tour, is that everybody is so angry, you know, and fighting with each other. And when you think about communing with the river and just being one with nature, there's just something we call it the partage sharing, and this notion of making contact with the other in a calm, peaceful way.

And what I tried to do in this book was to say, let me share my Paris, my France with you, and dear reader, may you forget a little bit about all of your daily woes, whether it's impeachment or fires in California or climate change. Just let's think about what we share together about this incredible country and this incredible river. Jillian Jackson, we did his deal spectacular, one volume on Deal. We have a new to call. His name is McCraw.

We've got the transformation with Germany right now, give us the Alania update on how young mcrow is doing well. It's interesting you you evoked de Gal because he has Degal's memoirs on his desk and he kind of sees himself as a modern day de Gal. Rather while it doesn't because he's too young and too green, and you know,

he's not a politician. He's more of a revolutionary and he wants change and he wants Jane immediately, and Degal was patient, and that's the crucial difference between the two leaders. We got an email, someone's listening. Mrs Keene emails in and says, why is it so expensive to fly to Paris. You're the expert on this. Compared to London, there's a

price differentially. Well, what I would say is travel on the in the in the dead of winter, you know, forget about going in May or September, and just set up one of those sky scanner alerts. And and because you can get a fair. You can get a five round trip New York Paris air fair if you try hard enough. And when you come to Paris, come and I'll show you my my Paris. It'll it'll what is your Paris versus what we see, you know in the

three streets we run wander around? Well both I'm now starting to travel along the Sin as a as a as a first time tourist, and I'm looking at the bridges of the Sin for example, and looking at them as a cultural entity. And my last book was on one Street in Paris. And what I what I have done is I have taken people on my own kind of intimate amateur tour of a secret Paris. That's the Singapore new for what's the single bridge in Paris? It

really captures all this. Oh my my, I love the Pont de la Trounelle because before dawn you can stand on it and you can look at the sun rising and it lights up the back of Notre Dame Cathedral in bright orange with the sun rising on it, and you own Paris. If you do that, that's not something that everybody knows. Congratulations on a book where you go, damn, I've got to read this, and you don't have time

to read it, but you will. The sen the river that made Paris, Cellancilena with the authority over decades of work for The New York Times on h on France, because it much more than just on Paris. In Paris is the image, but um there it is the sun, the river that made Paris. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Saveilla's podcast. Subscribe and listen to interviews on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,

or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm on Twitter at Tom Keene Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio