In Fashion Part 32

"You have to learn the craft. Young people get caught up in the conceptual before they master the skills. You have to understand how to take it apart and put it back together. Rei Kawakubo [Comme des Garcons], who is one of our great conceptual designers, is the most amazing master tailor."

WHAT ANN LOVES ABOUT FASHION RETAIL.

"It is the only medium that is absorbing and reflecting pop culture at the same time.

"Nothing moves as fast as fashion retail. By comparison, the hotel and media businesses are slow. It's one of the rare platforms that allows creativity within a fast-paced business, fosters the entrepreneurial spirit, and feeds off direct contact with consumers."

DAILY WALKABOUT.

"I am constantly in stores. I live with my customer. I see her making decisions, trying things on, coming out of the dressing room. I interface with her day in and day out."

SYRACUSE MOTTO THAT ANN EMBODIES.

Knowledge crowns those who seek her.

ANN WATSON'S ADVICE ON YOU HOW YOU SHOULD START IN RETAIL "First get the foundation down. You can put that foundation down only with a big company. If you want to be in retail, explore the training programs at Saks, Neiman Marcus, Macy's, and Bloomingdale's.

"At the end of the day, this is a people business. It's about building relationships. And the best place to build relationships is at a retail company. The people I grew up with in the business now have jobs as the publisher of In Style or the president of Valentino. They are now all top dogs."

SNAPSHOP: KEY U.S. FASHION RETAILERS.

Listed below are eight places where you can start your retail career: Barneys is fully owned by Ist.i.thmar, a Dubai-based investment group, with stores in key U.S. cities. It is the coolest of the big stores, with the edgiest designers and most original product mix (www.barneys.com).

Bergdorf Goodman is the most posh of specialty stores, with one luminous location, on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue at Fifty-seventh Street. It is fully owned by the Neiman Marcus group (www.bergdorfgoodman.com).

Bloomingdale's** is part of the Federated group, which is publicly traded. This is the store that invented "shop-u-tain-ment," with in-store events and themes (www.bloomingdales.com).

Henri Bendel is owned by The Limited, which is a publicly traded company. It has recently decided to sell only beauty and accessories, eliminating its fashion trade (www.henribendel.com).

Macy's,** like Bloomingdale's, is a Federated store, and, like Bloomingdale's, it is a "department" store, which means that it sells kitchenware, housewares, appliances, furniture, and so on. The Herald Square flagship is a sprawling, often overwhelming and impersonal, urban destination (www.macys.com).

Neiman Marcus is privately held by the Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus. Founded in Dallas and still headquartered there, Neiman Marcus exudes an over-the-top Texas luxe and exuberance (www.neimanmarcus.com).

Nordstrom is a publicly traded company, but Nordstrom family members are still in its executive ranks. It is famous for treating its salespeople with great respect, who, in turn, treat customers in a kind, unpushy manner. Seattle-based and West Coast dominant, Nordstrom was founded by a Swedish immigrant as a shoe store (www.nordstrom.com).

Saks Fifth Avenue** is a publicly traded company, and it attracts an urban sophisticated shopper. When the economy took a nosedive, Saks was the first store to take dramatic markdowns and roll sales racks into its designer boutiques (www.saksfifthavenue.com).

PROFILE.

CHRISTELE WIELGUS Corporate Director of Visual Display, Prada Her t.i.tle contains the word "corporate," but there is nothing corporate about Christele Wielgus. In fact, if you were to meet her, as I did for coffee on Mercer Street one day, you would probably take her for an artist, an actress, or a dancer. First, there's the way she dresses herself, combining vintage and homemade pieces with luxe current items in stunningly original ways: brocade Prada silk pajamas with purple python cowboy boots; an Asian flea market colorful padded coat worn over a narrow black skirt and crisp white blouse. Then there's her more-than-waist-long dark wavy hair-more nineteenth-century than twenty-first-and the way she applies red lipstick, more for effect than an attempt at prettiness. Yes, Christele screams original, and that's the precise quality fashion houses desire in their visual merchandisers: someone with the ability to separate his or her presentation from all others; to curate the season's line so that it comes across as cooler, chicer, artier, more outrageous, or more elegant than all others; to communicate throughout the stores and its windows references that have the power to elevate the brand above the commercial to art. A tall, and extremely physical, task. One that Wielgus seems destined to do.

BACKGROUND.

Christele was born and raised in a small town one hour from Paris, the younger of two sisters.

CHILDHOOD DISCIPLINE.

Christele studied ballet for twelve years.

INSPIRATION AND ALTER EGO.

Christele's mother studied couture millinery in Paris, and she had her own fashion label and custom clothing boutique for ten years before marrying Christele's father and having her two daughters. Christele feels extremely close to her mother: "It's a total connection."

A friend of Christele's, photographer Martha Camarillo, has taken a portrait of Christele and her mother, and hopes to film a doc.u.mentary about their relationship.

FREE FARE TO PARIS.

As Christele's father worked as an engineer/draftsman for the Syndicat National des Chemins de Fer (SNCF), the French national train system, Christele's mother would take advantage of free train fares to take her daughters to visit Paris at least twice each month throughout their childhoods.

CHILDHOOD DREAM.

To work and live in Paris.

EDUCATION.

Finished high school and pa.s.sed her Baccalaureate; then, moving to Paris, completed the equivalent of a BFA program at L'Inst.i.tute Superior des Arts Appliques de la Mode (LISAA).

MARGIELA MODEL, ETC.

Once she had her degree, Christele spent many years searching for the right career fit. Among her many roles was a fashion week gig with Lolita Lempicka and a turn as a runway "model" for Martin Margiela, the famously reclusive Belgian fashion designer who always used friends or acquaintances instead of professional models for his presentations.

PEt.i.t BATEAU.

In the end, Christele took a job as a sales a.s.sociate at Pet.i.t Bateau (the French fine cotton brand) near the Place Madeleine in Paris. "I was doing the windows without realizing that this job had a name."

MORE EDUCATION.

Inst.i.tute Francais de la Mode (www.ifm-paris.com), Paris, master's degree.

THREE MONTHS AT RALPH LAUREN.

After writing to apply for an internship, Christele spent three months working at the original Paris store of this most American of designers.

SIX MONTHS AT SONIA RYKIEL.

Here Christele, thinking she'd taken a job as a design a.s.sistant, was drafted into working as a fit model for the iconic French designer one day when the normal fit model was late. "The young designers were afterward very rude to me."

DANCING FLAMENCO FOR SHOP GIRLS AT PRADA.

As a sales a.s.sociate at the Paris Prada shop on the Rue de Grenelle, Christele would dance the flamenco on the sales floor to amuse her colleagues. During this period, when not dancing, she became friends with a guy who was a manager at the store.

BIG BREAK.

Christele got her first job in her eventual field as a.s.sistant director of visual merchandising with the French designer Thierry Mugler, a post she would hold for two years.

NEXT STEP: YSL.

During the four years Christele worked as the European coordinator of visual merchandising at Yves Saint Laurent, she worked at the end of M. Saint Laurent's career, for the entirety of Tom Ford's stint designing there, as well as at the beginnings of Italian designer Stefano Pilati's era at the house.

"I always teach my boys. You have to understand what you are seeing. We spent a lot of time at the YSL archives." At the end, Christele found herself starting to "feel bored," and she sensed that, with a change in management, she would no longer be in favor. "I am always full of intuition for these things. When I don't feel comfortable, I know it is not my time."

THE MOMENT CHRISTELE HAD BEEN WAITING FOR.

During Christele's time at YSL, the Prada manager she'd fallen out of touch with reconnected with her and asked her to move from Paris to Hong Kong, where he'd since relocated, to be the head of visual display there for Prada. "I wanted my own city. This was the chance for which I had been waiting many years."

PRADA HONG KONG? OR PRADA PARIS?.

When Christele went to Milan to meet with a Prada fashion coordinator to discuss the job, it was unclear to her which job was being discussed. Apparently, there'd been a crisis in Paris, and she was being considered for a role there. Christele, however, was ready for a bigger change.

PRADA HONG KONG? OR PRADA SHANGHAI?.

When Christele arrived in Hong Kong, there was some discussion about whether she should head the visual merchandising in Shanghai instead. Ironically, Christele's sister and her family had at the same time just moved to Shanghai, ruling it out as a destination: "I wanted my own city."

IN LOVE.

"The first six months were difficult. But then I'd fallen in love with Hong Kong. I wanted to stay in Hong Kong."

SUMMONED TO PRADA TUSCANY.

"But after a year and a half, I was asked to fly to Terra Nova to meet with Prada executives."

Christele was permitted to fly business cla.s.s for the eighteen-hour flight from Hong Kong to Rome. She then traveled to Florence, which is nearby Prada's Terra Nova factory where much of the manufacturing for the brand is done.

"NO. I NEED A SHOWER"

Christele arrived in Florence and had budgeted thirty minutes during which time she would go to her hotel to shower and dress for the interview. The office called to ask if she could come early for her 2:30 p.m. appointment. Christele responded that she would do her best to arrive quickly, but, no, she absolutely needed to pa.s.s by the hotel for a shower.

CAREER MANTRA.

"You can say no."

"DO YOU LIKE THE UNITED STATES, YES OR NO?"

Te piace la U.S., si o non? Christele had traveled from Hong Kong to Terra Nova, Italy, essentially to hear this question in a meeting of only several minutes. Almost twenty-four hours of travel for a fifteen-minute meeting. "That is just the way they do things at Prada. Face to face."

h.e.l.lO, U.S.A.

As director of visual merchandising for the United States, Christele directed a staff of eight people, two of whom oversaw the wholesale side of the business, managing the look of the brand at specialty stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.

WHAT CHRISTELE IS WEARING TODAY?.

Deep purple python Prada boots, Prada silk pajamas, a coat that her mother designed and sewed from vintage couture fabric.

WHAT CHRISTELE IS DOING TODAY?.

"A floor move-redoing floor displays every [three weeks] in the SoHo, which is a major undertaking that looks something like a military operation."

HOW CHRISTELE WORKS.

In one sweep she changes the way one of her people had put sweaters on a table, and then she removes two items from a rack of eighteen, and instantly makes it. She literally flies inside the store adjusting piles of sweaters here, luggage there. a.s.sistants, cameras in hand, record her every move.

WHY CHRISTELE EATS A SANDWICH AND A QUICHE FOR LUNCH.

Visual display is a physical job. Moving, unpacking, loading, pushing racks. Walking the sidewalks outside the store to see the windows from all angles. Christele rarely sits down.

Pa.s.sION OUTSIDE PRADA.

Flamenco dancing, which she continues to practice two to three days per week. "I thought about Tango, but you need a partner. I needed something where I could go to cla.s.ses and dance on my own."

FASHION DREAM NUMBER 1.

"Of course I am interested in creating a concept store. To find an idea and build it up."

FASHION DREAM NUMBER 2.

Or to realize her own bag line, made from vintage couture fabrics. "I want to create something. I do feel I need someday to do my own project. To be free and independent."

CHILDHOOD DREAM REVISITED.

After her stint in the United States (and after being interviewed for this book), Christele has now happily returned to Paris with Prada to continue her visual merchandising work.

HOT JOBS: STARTING YOUR OWN STORE?.

Then you'd better really stand out. Be all about something in particular. Something you live for and love. Here are a few retail entrepreneurs with strong points of view.

BE ALL ABOUT FASHION.

Among the first and most seismic fashion concept shops in the world was Colette (213 Rue St. Honore, Paris) where guest curators and high/low mixings keep this address a mecca for fashion pilgrims. www.colette.fr The Italian fashion hub is undoubtedly 10 Corso Como with its gallery, book shop, restaurant, and store loosely collected at the end of a courtyard. The brainchild of Carla Sozzani, this high-minded bazaar is now faithfully re-created in Tokyo and Seoul and in the beginnings of the fashion label, 10 Corso Como. www.10corsocomo.com In Los Angeles, fashion meccas include Fred Segal Hollywood www.fredsegal.com and Santa Monica www.fredsegalfun.com BE ALL ABOUT SKATEBOARDING.

Established in 1994 by James Jebbia in downtown Manhattan on Lafayette Street, Supreme continually expresses its cool through collaborations with designers like Thom Browne, photographer Larry Clark, artists like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Takashi Murakami. The kidney-shaped skate bowl in Supreme Los Angeles is a natural theater for groovy guys making moves. www.supremenewyork.com BE ALL ABOUT SERVICE.

One swimsuit store in So Paulo, Brazil, delivers a selection of suits for women to try on at home. Understanding that the bikini shopper isn't loyal to a single brand because fits and styles change from season to season, the Selection of Unbelievable Beachwear (SUB) store carries a rich mix of swimwear brands, from Rosa Cha, Brazil's most famous swim brand, to Agua de Coco, Vix, Fernanda Niemeyer, and Jo de Mer.

BE ALL ABOUT PARTYING.

There's a new Berlin venue that's a groovy sneaker, T-shirt, and coffee shop by day and a happening dis...o...b.. night. And, Paris' Techtonik store feeds off a teenage desire to party, selling Techtonik clothes in a nightclub setting with a DJ booth, booming music, and a disco sidewalk scene.

* Names have been withheld to protect their employers from losing them to the compet.i.tion.

** Postcollege executive training programs that are worth exploring.

FASHIONISTA SURVIVAL GUIDE.