“Never again,” I told myself as a I struggled not to grind my teeth. I was ten minutes into a phone call with the Fabletics Customer Service Team, answering a painstaking list of “are you sure” questions from their CX rep. I’d tried to cancel my policy the self-respecting way… online, with minimal human interaction. But Fabletics has no online cancellation form. You have to call and answer a list of questions from a live customer service rep who is desperately trying to get you to stay just to cancel your membership –– an experience that …
Experience
An Insider’s Look at Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani
Becoming YSL Born in Algeria, Saint Laurent moved to Paris when he was seventeen. He studied at Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Yves won several fashion design contests. In one, sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat, he beat out a young German student named Karl Lagerfeld. Michel de Brunhoff, editor in chief of French Vogue, recognized the similarity in some of Yves sketches and Christian Dior’s. He introduced them, and Dior hired him immediately. Yves reportedly was so shy he said he “could not speak in front of the famous …
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Fame, Fortune…Debauchery
Genius fashion designers catapulted into fame, fortune, and even debauchery in the 70s and 80s. Their excessive talent changed the fashion world forever. Many of these extreme creatives worked and lived in beautiful, over-the-top settings, revelling in some of the best unabashedly engaged in heavy drinking, excessive drug use, and free-wheeling sex. Studio 54 was a metaphor for the time. What was it that enabled them to become fashion legends? Sure, they were creative and had great taste, but it took a lot more to change the landscape of the …
Be My Guest…Starting at $3500 a Night
You can’t really check in...but you’ll never want to check out. The RH Guesthouse, the (very) boutique hotel property that was years in the making is only the latest manifestation of the home furnishings retailer’s quest to become a luxury brand across any number of formats and disciplines. It also represents the newest entry into the hospitality space for companies in the home and fashion sectors looking to continue to build out their connections with their uber-upscale customers. RH Ups the Private Guest Experience Uber-upscale only …
The Inside Story on Two Decades of Fashion Madness
As the top editor of Women’s Wear Daily and W magazine, and CEO of Fairchild Publications, Michael Coady had a front row seat at the collections in Paris, Milan, Rome, London, and New York for 30 years and his book is filled with personal observations and edgy anecdotes. The Robin Report is exclusively bringing you a series of five excerpts from Fashion Madness. Read on, and order Coady’s e-book to get the complete inside story. Fashion Madness Fashion was turned upside down and inside out in the 70s and 80s by the greatest collection …
Are You Measuring What Matters?
I’m going to take a philosophical position here as a cautionary tale about the future of retail. “Measure what is measurable and make measurable what is not.” Is this a new edict from the ever-more-intrusive analytics team? A proclamation from anyone under the age of 35 roaming the cubicles? A chapter on marketing in an MBA classroom? The Past as Prelude No. It’s Galileo. Centuries ago it must have been breathtakingly innovative, whispered about in the corridors of the Vatican and debated in the salons of Florence. Or not. Perhaps just a …
Living Icon: Serena Williams’ Legacy
This year is such a bittersweet moment for the legendary Serena Williams. In a cover story for Vogue magazine, she announced that she would be stepping away from her first love, tennis, after this year’s U.S. Open Tournament. The game of tennis has opened an innumerable number of doors for the 40-year-old superstar -- with the most notable being fashion and a major cultural influencer. Williams decided to announce her exit in the most famous fashion magazine in the world, and that alone speaks volumes about who she is and her impact. Plus, she …
What Is Your North Star?
Do you know your organization’s North Star? Or maybe a better question is whether your organization even has a North Star. Not to get all astronomical on you, but Dr. E.C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and a world-renowned expert in ancient astronomy explains, “The north pole of the sky and whatever stars were close to that point told the ancients there was foundation and structure in their lives. It was an anchor that held the world in place, the stable, motionless hub of the night’s orderly parade of stars. …