Fashion Blog

One of the most important lessons I learned about being a buyer, I learned when I was 14 years old packing boxes at my uncle's warehouse—yes my uncle was into hard child labor.

I remember packing a box of old lady, polyester dresses for a store in Florida. I had run out of a style and the company policy was to just substitute the style for another style (this is a very common warehouse practice).

For some unknown reason, that day I decided to call my uncle in the showroom and ask him if it was ok to do the sub. After a second of silence he yelled into the phone, “Child do you have your head up your (censored)? You know what the company policy is! Do I have to baby sit you?” Slam…ok, I got it.

So I started to pull another style from the rack that had the same colors but different print, when the phone rang… “Whose box are you packing?” I’ll never forget, it was Tammy from Tampa. “Jesus that woman is a complete crazy psycho bitch, pull the style from another store and pack her shit right”.

Ok, in case you didn’t get it my uncle was not your huggy, lovey-dovey type of guy. So I had to unpack another store’s box….pull the style out and pack Tammy’s shipment correctly. I’ll phrase it a different way. I unpacked another box that was packed and ready to go—tape, postage and everything. That day I understood, it’s not about being liked it’s about fear and respect.

Years later when I started working with boutique store owners, they all had a common complaint about the same typical nonsense; short ships, subs, canceled orders & styles. They all thought it was a normal part of doing business. Each time I asked them, “Well how did you handle it?” And I got the same answer, “Well I tried to call/return/complain about it but I got no where.”

Do you know why they got know where? Because they were nice! You are not in business to win a popularity contest. You don’t need the vendors to be your friends; you need them to respect your business. Being “nice” is not always the way to get what you want and need. You have rights as buyers to demand what you paid for and what you bought.

How do you protect yourself? It starts with the paper trail.

1. Write your own orders on your own paper.

2. If you want goods shipped as a set or in groups, say so on your orders. Limit the amount of shipments they can do on the order.

3. Did you get a special deal, gift with purchase or free freight? Write the note on your order. I can’t tell you how rampant amnesia is in our industry.

4.Cancel and start dates? Yes you need to write one; “as ready” is NOT a start date…and cancel dates should never be more than 30 days from the start date.

5.Take photos of everything that you buy. Trust me this is the best way to insure what you bought is what you get.

6. Write a detailed description. “Top” is not a clear description.

7. Make sure you unpack and try on everything as soon as you get them in. You only have 5 days to make a claim.

8. Make any claims in writing (email or fax works) and follow up with a phone call. If they don’t answer you, start charging them a fee and write that if they don’t answer you in 15 days you are going to donate the goods to charity and charge them back the full amount plus freight. Yes, you can get away with this by calling your credit card company and reversing the charges.

Is the vendor going to get mad at you? Absolutely! Remember you are the one that should be mad, you bought and paid for the goods in good faith, they are they ones that are cheating you!

Be demanding and outrageous, the idea is that they remember you are not going to take their BS.

Having said all of this, I must also clarify that it is important to be fair and professional. Building strong relationships with your vendors is key, but keep in mind this is business, and they are not your friends.

Photo: Ed Yourdon

If there was a retail rabbit he would have come out of his hole…taken a look around…realized that “baby its cold out there” and told us that the next 6 weeks are going to be slow in sales.

This is normal! The first two weeks in January can be and usually are good for most retailers. The consumer has Christmas money (gift cards were again the number 1 gift item) and they haven’t yet received their credit card bills.

But they are BARGAIN hunting so unless you are at LEAST 50% off they are not stopping in. We have also found that if you have a touch of spring in (some call it resort) you will pick up a few full price sales and have the chance to test Spring/Sumer trends.

So what to do during this “off” time?

1. Clean out the old inventory! Do not pack it and save it for next year. Mark down and kill it. This is your chance to clean up shop and build cash flow for the next season.

2. Take inventory. Since your inventory is at a low this is the perfect time to take stock.

3. Take a good hard look at what makes money and what doesn’t. Do not keep repeating mistakes because the sales rep is so nice. If you have a vendor that is not profitable, kill them. It doesn’t matter what it took to get them in your store.

4. Clean and I mean CLEAN every tiny corner, nook and cranny.

5. Update the look of the store with some fresh paint. I like to paint the back focus wall the color of the season.

6. Move fixtures around, keeping in mind traffic flow and dead spots.

7. Review your overhead. Look at cell phone services, freight bills…this is a business of nickel and dimes. It’s important to keep that overhead from creeping up. Keep in mind that Wal-mart does everything 30% cheaper (read more efficient) than Target. That’s the bottom line.

8. Play games with the staff. See who is the first person to make the sale of the day? Play pass the $20—the person that makes a sale gets to hold onto the $20 until another person makes a sale. The person to make the last sale of the day keeps the $20. Or have a contest for most units sold to one person (UPT).

9. Plan your buys. You can’t sell from an empty cart. Look for new brands, bodies and adjust your price points.

10.Most important relax Spring is just around the corner!

It’s almost the end of the year; really it’s almost the end of another decade, the first of this new millennium. Taking a moment to look back and reflect…I’m trying to figure out what this decade will be known for? What was the fashion statement?

I can sum up this decade in one word….UGLY. Ugly is what sold!

Need proof….I’ll name you 3 of the best selling items of the decade: Uggs (even the name is ugly), Crocs, and my favorite, the Snuggie. You know it….the blanket with the arms. Need I say more?

Now we have to understand why these have been good sellers….I should really say great sellers. The one thing they all have in common is they give us comfort. This decade, if for nothing else will be known as a decade of crisis.

It started with Y2K (I still have ramen noodles I was hording at my country house), then came the attacks on 9/11 followed by the war in Iraq, SARS, Anthrax, (remember when you didn’t want to touch your mail?), the Tsunami in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina, Immigration Issues, Global Recession, Mortgage collapse, Ed Hardy, Gas Crisis, Auto company failures, the earthquake in China, Swine Flu, the death of Michael Jackson (that one might be personal) and rounding out the year with record high unemployment rates.

Other decades have had their share of problems…in fact as far as I can remember every decade had its hiccups. The 1980’s had the junk bonds, 1990’s had the dotcoms and 2000’s it was the mortgage and housing bubble. But you know what; we have always pushed through and made it. The trick is to find opportunity in these moments.

The Chinese symbol/word for chaos also means opportunity. People that invested in car parts and automotive shops are making a killing since few people are buying new cars, and instead are fixing their old ones. Investors that bought apt buildings are making a killing on rent since people are losing their homes and moving into apts. Even storage places are making a huge profit during these times.

Let’s talk about retail…this was also a decade of BIG! Please see my blog Open letter to the Fashion Industry. We didn’t need so many of the same type of retailers all doing a bad job…..and certainly we didn’t need another high-end ego driven contemporary boutique that someone opened because her friends told her she was a good dresser….

Yikes remember the 7 month ego trip of the retailer Kira Plastinia…just ‘cause Paris Hilton is your friend and you have a rich daddy, this does not make you a retailer!

National chains and department stores have become the “Rip Van Winkle” of the industry; they fell asleep and have yet to wake up. “Fast Fashion”- “Wear Now” is here to stay! We are living in Darwinism times. If you don’t evolve and change/grow/adapt to the new consumer you will be extinct. Just think Barney’s was a men’s discount store back in the day, Gap sold Levi jeans and sweat shirts. Change is part of business.

It’s time to put on our big boy and girl pants and build on those niches. Be fearless, take on the opportunity and capitalize on it. The moment of the future retailer is here…imagination, technology, innovation, and design are the mantra of the future merchant.

I plan on opening at least 2 new stores of my own this year….the rents, locations and advertising (social media) are just too cheap and available to sit by and not take advantage of it.

And keep in mind if ugly sells ugly is what we will continue to buy. You can’t not change the way people think…you cannot “educate them” you are not “encouraging them”, you cannot “judge them”. Your personal taste and likes have nothing to do with what people will buy.

I remember a store owner in the Midwest that wanted to “teach” the young men in the area how to dress New York City style….his reasoning was that every one liked the way he dressed (he went to college in NYC) and since all the young men dressed like “slobs” he would open a shop to sell to them. That lasted 8 months… Personally I joke if I buy one more tattoo print tee I will commit “seppuku”, but guess what I just placed an order for 100 units.

It’s about capitalizing on trend. You are merchants; you should not care if you sell peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or high-end designer goods. …then you can then take your money and buy what you like for yourself…laughing all the way to the bank.

I know I’ve talked your ear off about it, and sent emails on it, but here is the proof of how much GPC loves Brazil fashion! Watch my interview with Fashion Insider TV for their FI Special Report on the Minas Trends Fair, which took place from April to May 2009 in Bel Horizonte. Enjoy!

Watch interview here

Photo: .craig

It was exactly 10 months, 10 days and 10 hours when the store that I gave 6 months to close shut its doors.

I first met the new owners of Tony Mora when they were beside themselves with joy, having landed a retail location in the "center of the universe"—their quote, not mine. We met through a mutual friend who thought my retail experience could help them, at least with the hiring and training of the staff.

Our first meeting didn’t go well…I guess the truth is a bitter pill to take when everyone around you is your YES man. I have a rule in the office: if you want to hire me and not hear the truth, the fees are double. The meeting went downhill quickly after hearing the plan…they wanted to sell high-end cowboy boots made in Spain…my thought was, "How authentic can that be?" But the punch line was that they had just signed a lease in Time Square.

What? Holy mother of God…are they kidding? The look on my face must have given away my surprise, horror and doubt that I heard them right.

So they started throwing numbers at me…300,000 people cross that corner every week. The W hotel across the street has $500/night rooms. The investment banking offices of Morgan Stanley are on the other corner…"this is the best location, in the best city of the best state, in the best country in the world for retail!" "We only have to sell 20 pairs of boots a day to make the numbers!" They happily shouted to me.

This is why I say numbers lie, demographic studies can be used for toilet paper and all traffic is not the same. Shopping traffic is shopping traffic! Entertainment traffic, sight-seeing traffic or theatre traffic are not high-end shopping traffic.

I asked him if he had taken a walk around the block; if he had counted shopping bags. FYI the only shopping bags in the area are from the M&M store and tee shirts that say I love NY and run 3 for $10. He rudely informed me that he didn’t have to do this because he had hired the best team in the market to put together this store.

In fact, I think this was the part of the conversation where he asked me who I thought I was telling him this location “sucked” (ok really I said “wasn’t a good fit”, but I should have said sucked). I assured him that being a native New Yorker and having grown up in the business…oh yeah, and having opened up more than 1000 stores, sitting on the board of two universities (you get it); I might know a thing or two about this location.

Then the emails started coming in. First from Stetson, "your boots are the Rolls Royce of cowboy boots." Nice compliment, but that doesn’t pay the over $100k a month rent. Then came emails from Camper and TOUS, both Spanish brands, congratulating him on the great location and opening of the store. I think their stores are in Soho, right? Not Time Square.

This guy was killing me. I became obsessed with helping him; so many people where just taking advantage of him. Remember that team of industry professionals? Well I could write a book, not a blog, on how they oversold him, cheated him and ripped him off. For example, the insurance policy they sold him covered a million dollars of jewelry and furs, costing $30k (which by the way, he doesn’t sell!). We got him a full coverage one for under $8K.

Now it’s not that the owner Jose Maria Castresana is a stupid man. He is just not a retailer; he got into the business because the grass always seems greener and he put blind faith in what the “industry professionals” told him.

But 90% of the reason was for the ego! This was my first true encounter with the classic “emperor’s new clothes”.

It’s an odd phenomenon...think Michael Jackson…really no one could tell him “no more plastic surgery” and he had the best doctors. This team knew exactly what he wanted to hear, and that’s what made them the experts. Here’s a quick, fun example…..we were in the lawyers’ office…Oh, yeah fast forward 3 months—I started working with him after meeting in Spain and seeing that already he was in over his head…without the store even being open.

So back at the lawyers’ office…we were trying to find some type of exit clause, some loop hole out of the 10 year lease (!) and could not find anything to help us. Good thing he had such a great retail lawyer…but again with the punch line: as we are leaving the office, the lawyer comments to me, “You know I didn’t think that was a good retail location.”

Are you joking? Now you speak up. Ugh!

On a good day we could sell 4 pairs of boots, most days just 1. Cash flow was tight and the store wasn’t finished (we had no bathrooms, no access to the storage room), but some designer friend of his told the owner that he needed to put mirrors in the store. That doing this would make the store more high-end looking and chic. Meantime I was begging him to do some advertising…he spent the $6000 on the wall-to-wall mirror…which we left in the store when it closed.

There is a fine line between ranting and blogging so I am going to save the rest of my tale for a trade magazine story and for my book. But I should leave you with a few “morals of the story”:

- Do not let ego lead you.
- Do not make decisions based on emotion (only based on your pocket).
- Listen to that devil’s advocate.
- The people that give you “good advice”, question their motive.
- And my number one golden rule…people that sell you things are not your friend!

So I have a love-hate affair with Reva. I was one of the first to jump on the trend of the simple, chic, comfortable little gem flats. I had a standing order for black ones once a year at the Elizabeth street store.

When each new shipment came in, the sales associate would call to inform me of the newest, fabulous print or color of the season. I wore them and loved them to death. And then they were everywhere! I could not walk down one block in New York City without running into 2 people wearing a pair. It seemed Reva was everywhere. What was once hard to find and always out of stock was now common.

Common is a four letter word in fashion. 

I put away my gold, black, animal print pairs. I missed them, but I felt cheated. They would fade away..but they didn’t. They became a fashion basic. Often imitated but never the same, Reva had become the ‘little black dress’ of foot wear. Every fashionista and every ‘industry’ person didn’t have just one pair but at least half a dozen.

Now when we walk down the street and see another Reva wearer, we give each other a little grin and nod. Yes, we are part of the group a group of Jimmy, Manolo and Christian wearers but you know tucked deep into our designer bags is a pair of Revas, waiting to give us comfort. 

My story doesn’t end here. A week ago I was hit by a taxi! I landed on the hood of the cab and my foot under its wheel. The taxi ran over my foot and fractured it in two places.

The EMS and the Doctor that treated me at the hospital both asked me what shoe I was wearing. It turns out that if not for the metal logo on the shoe, for certain I would have lost a toe. The shoe had protected me, like a fashion lucky charm or a fashion amulet. I will forever be grateful for being a fashionable victim and not a victim of a horrible accident. 

Of course I can’t be seen in this hideous boot that has to be strapped to my leg for 6 weeks! So I took the metal logo off the ruined shoe and Velcro-ed it on the boot. I now happily walk/hobble the streets of the big apple, this time getting more than a grim and nod.

Lately I have been reading a lot of reviews on Yelp to better understand what consumers get ticked off by. It’s interesting how insanely demanding consumers are, but yet how little they want. This is what I have learned.

They basically want 4 things from you.

1. A sense of community.

No one craves generic cookie cutter retail. Consumers shop independent retailers because they expect to feel more welcomed and want to feel like they are a part of something.

I don’t care if you are selling a cup of coffee or $1000 gowns. It’s the environment that makes that difference and gives stores that sense of community. They also want to feel appreciated and even if they don’t go to all the events you plan, they still like to know about them. It gives them a sense that you have included them as a part of something.

The Starbucks guys tell us that we need to be in 3 places: home, work/school and somewhere else. That “somewhere else” should be our retail locations. The internet, with its ‘second life’, and thousands of retail fashion websites (none of which I’ve heard of making any profit) will never be able to appeal to consumers’ emotional needs like a brick and mortar store can. At the end of the day we need, crave, and want social contact.

2. They want easy, fast friendly service.

I can’t believe that about 90% of comments were on rude or poor service! See my review of Christian Louboutin on yelp. There is a thin line between being harassed and giving excellent customer service.

Take a walk in the Saks 5th ave shoe department if you want to know what being harassed at retail is like. It is important to train your staff on not just customer service but on building customer relationships, which means you get repeat sales from existing customers and aren’t just hustling for sales from new customer.

Recently I had a customer email me that she needed to pick up her layaway before Thursday because she was going out of town to a wedding. The store is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I had no one to open the store for her. So I overnighted her the keys so she could get it herself. She left the key with the shop next door and came in the following week to pay for it. Definitely not something I would recommend in the big city, but we knew her. The word of mouth we got from our “outrages” customer service could fill a phone book.

Going a little out of the way proved to go a long way when it came to customer reviews.

3. They are looking for value.

Note I didn’t say cheap prices. The consumer today is very savvy with websites like Shoptime where they have up-to-date sales and price information at their convenience. This is where, as a merchant, you need to know your consumers’ price resistance and costing. We can no longer afford to just pay the price the vendors ask for. We need to be in control and have an understanding of what it’s worth to our consumer.

So next time you’re in the market, before you ask for a price, ask yourself “how much would my customer pay for this?” Then ask the price. I think you will be surprised at how little the mark up might be and you will either have to rethink some of your brands or negotiate with them a littler harder. We are in business to make money, not to show off trendy brands that are over priced and only sell when marked down.

At the end of the day, a tee shirt is just a tee shirt and we have to look at garments for what they are at face value, not by their label.

4. They want something new…… they want to be the insider.

They want to be the first to try a new dish, new designer, or new idea. Diana Vreeland said it best. “give the consumer what they didn’t know they wanted.”

More of the same is what has been killing retail. Consumers want to talk to other people about something new that they have discovered or as happened to them. This type of word of mouth or social media is so important that no one has been able to put a dollar amount to it’s return… but I can tell you it’s priceless. I haven’t booked a hotel room without reading a review in years. I don’t care how pretty the ads look.

The consumers who have experienced it themselves are more credible than anything staged. Consumer experience is, at the end of the day, the key to having them come back, tell a friend—love you.

Do you know that girl with the hairy upper lip? She’s the one that looks at her lip everyday and assumes that no one else notices something so small so unimportant.

Each day when she walks into the office, you have to fight back that urge to tackle her to the ground and hot wax the thing off. Until the day she takes a photo of herself for Match.com, and she can see herself as others see her… the girl with a hairy upper lip.

Think of this letter as the hot wax of what is so obvious in retail (the hairy lip), yet no one has the nerve to RIP IT OFF (find a solution). They just let the small problems build up and become a huge hairy, ugly mess.

Are we really surprised that so many retailers are closing? Did we need a Home Depot and a Lowe’s at the edge of every new housing development? Did we really need a Best Buy and a Circuit City, or a Linen and Things and Bed Bath and Beyond? Did we really need 5 Starbucks on 4 NYC blocks? (I swear it’s true I live in the middle of that starbuck pentagon).

The Boutiques

Let’s start with the boutiques, since they are the ones closest to my heart. For too long, too many hobby stores where popping up all around the country. You know the boutique... the one which opens when the owners’ friends “all want to shop in my closet”… or who’s husband needed a tax write off (seems like a funny idea now huh) or my favorite, the store who "has to teach everyone how to dress."

Worst yet, the boutique who opens because they and all their friends need somewhere to shop that’s "unique” yet all those stores ended up looking exactly alike. You and your friends all put you out of business, because you (the owner) steals from the store and your friends all want discounts.

Here is some of the wax for boutique owners: If you don’t have a good location or you are just buying the things you like….if you are not negotiating hard with the vendors and looking for margin builders….if you work in the store and are just getting by….if you hate buying ugly things….you WILL NOT MAKE IT.

It’s time to take a hard look at your business and stop your losses.

The Department Stores

Department store….ugh! Where do I start? You are the bearded lady of the retail world.

I have seen buying plans that have 40% markdowns in them! Why would you buy things that you KNOW are not going to sell? The supply chain is decades old, meeting for how many buying meetings they should have is costing more than the budget they are meeting about buying.

But let’s take it to the most basic level. I was in Macy’s on 34th street about 3 weeks ago. I picked 4 dresses (none on sale) to try on. The only time anyone approached me was to ask me if I wanted a Macy’s credit card.

While in the dressing room the two attendants, who by the way did no LOSS PREVENTION (meaning they didn’t even count what I took in to the dressing room), chatted about how it was cheaper to shop at Conways. When I asked them if someone could run out (really, about 10 steps from the front of the dressing rooms) they said no ”that’s not my job”. I left $1,245 worth of FULL PRICE goods in the dressing room and walked out.

Some buzz words for the department stores, wear now, fashion, kill over production of product developments, service!

The Nationals

The nationals are not any better…I was at the BCBG store on 5th ave near 21st street and I was just running in before they closed. I grabbed 4 dresses (I was looking for 4 outfits to wear for the MAGIC tradeshow).

I asked if I tried them on at home and return what didn’t fit in the morning, could I get a refund. They replied ”store credit only”. I said, can you stay while I try them on…”the store closes in 5 minute”. For Pete’s sake is business so good at BCBG that they could just turn FULL PRICE customers away.

PS. I saw the same dress at Macy’s—I could have bought it there and returned it for a FULL refund, that is if the woman would have gone 10 steps out of the dressing room to find me a size.

Some of the other nationals. J.Jill, Cache, Coldwater, Chico’s, Ann Taylor - why are you chasing a customer you don’t have (younger) and why don’t you get to know your core who loves you? Cache? Do you know how much the Hispanic consumer loves you? When are you going to start expanding to Latin America?

Why is it that our “American” brands have such a hard time expending internationally? Why is it that Mango (from Spain) is in 22 countries (including Cuba) and we can’t get the airport Gap right?

How about Zara whose supply chain is beyond impressive and puts 12,000 fashion items out a year with only 18% markdowns at the end of a season while US department stores are at 40%. Zara, small tip for you: you would do more UPT's if you got rid of the huge center aisle you need a moment of interruption at the front door and more dressing rooms!

Abercrombie I have one thing to say to you….5 years of the same back-to school hoodie? The only thing that changes is the price. You can’t contuine on image you need to have a product! Fashion!

Internet Retailers

Internet retailers (no one is safe in this waxing of the market). What are you doing? You have created the worst type of price wars. People are now only shopping for fashion based on price or replenishment. If there is one internet retailer (fashion without a brick and mortar) out there making a profit PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

Zappos I know you are a billion dollar company, innovator of the year (Fast Company) but with your pricing and return policy are you making money? Bluefly, I love what you stand for, what you are doing, many try to copy but they don’t have it right (just yet), but please you need to find buyers that know how to negotiate. No more Saks buyers; you need “down and dirty” buyers that will fight tooth and nail for a nickel off. Old school.

The Vendors, Brands, Designers...

Last but not least the vendors, brands, designers, or whatever you are calling yourself these days. During the tradeshows I was lucky that Dr. Kevorkian was not one of my fav 5. So many vendors told me they couldn’t work with us because of “department store” cancellations and that they didn’t have any over cuts for independents.

What the heck is going on in this business? Doesn’t anyone remember when Federated lost their credit and took hundreds of vendors/brands with them?

How about this: start manufacturing here in the US! Have smaller cuts but more fashion short lead times and faster turn around.

Don’t worry about the production cost you make them up on speed and shipping. The boutiques can test it, sell it, and move on. If you have a hit then you can take it overseas and sell it to the department store.

Just ask Forever 21 if that doesn’t work for them…. (Forever let me know when you go public because you are one retailer I would invest in, but please think about over extension….it can sneak up on you.)

The Bottom Line

Whew that felt good. Here is the bottom line… people will always shop, in good times and bad. When people are sad and depressed….they shop!

Give them a little service, respect, value (don’t rip them off like the $695 Donna Karen Tee shirt on page 18 of the Neiman Marcus catalog) give them something new (young designers get it together it’s your time to shine), make it easy for them and make it a nice environment, keep the floor fresh and when you do have a sale…make it real.

For those that are doing it right, hang in and buckle up. Once this ride is over you will have better placement and a huge amount of market share.

Please don’t email me with your negative comments. I am venting because I know there is money to be made out there. This is a business where excuses don’t pay the rent. It’s not a business for the shy, weak or short sighted. Your business is a work in progress, whenever you think you know your customer base it changes, whenever you think you have your product mix right….you are wrong.

Does anyone remember when Barney’s was a men’s discount store? I rest my case.