Tamara Mellon

Transcription

INTERVIEWER: Thank you, thank you Holly. And welcome, Tamara. We're so excited to have you here today. TAMARA MELLON: I'm excited to be here. INTERVIEWER: So before we jump into it, I have to call out the elephant in the room. TAMARA MELLON: OK. INTERVIEWER: I am only wearing one Jimmy Choo shoe. I wanted to wear two, but one was really all I could muster. Have you ever been interviewed by someone only wearing one shoe? TAMARA MELLON: No I haven't. This is a new experience. INTERVIEWER: OK, hopefully we can make it a great one. So your new book, "In My Issues," is a very honest memoir, a tell-all if you will. As Holly mentioned about your early career at British "Vogue" through to co-founding Jimmy Choo, and then exiting the company and really turning a new leaf in your life. So why now? What prompted you to write the book now? TAMARA MELLON: Well, starting a new chapter, I thought it was a great way to close one chapter and enter a new one. And I also thought, no one's going to really believe what was really going on behind the scenes at Jimmy Choo. INTERVIEWER: Yeah, there's some pretty salacious stories there-- really, really exciting and challenging, certainly. So you're somewhat of a self-taught business women. In the book, you talk about your father's influence. Tamara's father, for those of you that don't know, co-founded Vidal Sassoon. So, a very savvy businessman in his own right. But you talk about how he offered you insights and guidance, but a great deal of your learning was through trial and error. So for example your experience with private equity deals and your troubles there. So for those of us in the audience who have an entrepreneurial bent, or perhaps want to start our own companies, what advice do you have? TAMARA MELLON: Well when I set out, when I founded Jimmy Choo, you know obviously my goal was to make beautiful shoes. I didn't realize that I'd be getting into the private equity world. And I entered it because Jimmy decided to sell his shares in 2001. And obviously he had a right to sell them to whomever wanted. And that's how private equity came into the business. So I had to learn very quickly. I was dealing with investment bankers, the financial world, and so it was really a self-education. INTERVIEWER: Definitely. And something you just mentioned, going through the business world, I imagine that sometimes it felt very much like a man's world. What were the challenges that you found in being a woman in this sometimes man's world? TAMARA MELLON: It was-- yeah, I faced things which I really didn't expect to face in today's world. Very much as a woman, you still get diminished and discounted. Your Opinions are very much discounted. And strangely enough I ended up being on the board of Jimmy Choo with 10 men. And I was the only woman, which is sort of illogical, really, if you think about it. And also I was dealing with unequal pay. So discovering all these things on my journey was also part of why I wrote the book. Because I wanted to really address a lot of these issues. And things I noticed about women's behavior in the workplace compared to men was very different. And I wanted to address that in the book as well. INTERVIEWER: Fantastic, yes there's definitely a theme of empowerment as a woman, as a businesswomen in the book. You also have some fantastic charitable efforts that we'd love to hear more about. TAMARA MELLON: Well I'm going to be starting a foundation when the Tamara Mellon brand. And its to work on women's rights, for gender discrimination and equal pay and also dealing with the sex-slave trade. INTERVIEWER: Wonderful. Wonderful. You became something of a celebrity during the course of running Jimmy Choo shoes. A funny out take from your book, which I loved, someone came up to you and asked for your autograph on their receipt from their first pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. So a great indicator of this fan base that you created. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about that experience, and how you really leveraged it to build the brand. TAMARA MELLON: What's important for a brand, particularly starting off, is that you have someone that embodies the brand, and a story to tell, and someone that they can buy in to, or identify with. So really, if you think about most big brands, they have a personality attached. And you buy into that person. You buy the story they're telling. Because when you're also creating a brand, you're creating a woman. So it's a fancy in my head, maybe, about the woman I want to be. And maybe other women want to be that as well. So when you're creating the product, when you're creating-- it's one woman, it's her world. And it's a vision. INTERVIEWER: And you really lived that life to a degree. TAMARA MELLON: And then I ended up-- I didn't expect that. But then when we realized that journalists wanted to do interviews about the company, that was really the only one who could do it because I was creating the product and I was running the operations of the business. So that really I was the only one that could speak to what was going on in the business. So it happened to me by default, really. And then once you're in the limelight, then people become fascinated with your personal life and they become sort of-- so it all kind of opens up. INTERVIEWER: Right. So you talked a little bit about really understanding this woman that you're catering to and her aesthetic. With the launch of your need collection, the Tamara Mellon Namesake Collection, which is coming out very, very soon-- it includes ready-to-wear accessories, handbags, and more. What type of woman are you designing for? You mentioned a lot that you inject your own personal DNA, you know, being a working mother, as well as a globetrotter, being very modern. These are aspects that we've seen in the Jimmy Choo line. Are they things that we'll also see in the Tamara Mellon line? TAMARA MELLON: Definitely it follows with me because it's my DNA. But in a very modern way. The most exciting thing with the new brand was starting with a clean slate. And thinking about the woman today, particularly with the business model. That's very different. Of our psychology and how we want to shop today. Because the world has changed since I started Jimmy Choo. We're living in a very different world. INTERVIEWER: Right, right. Well nobody's a bigger digital enthusiast than we are. And the way you're using digital to launch your new brand is very, very interesting. You're really turning the traditional model on its head. So you're leading with digital. The e-commerce platform is going to be pretty much the primary outlet for this brand with brick and mortar locations coming up later next year. Can you tell us a little bit about that strategy? TAMARA MELLON: It's-- when I looked at the way we live today, what happens is a fashion show goes up online as soon as it happens. And everybody sees it. And that never used to happen. Only the press and buyers would see the fashion show. And the customer would see the product when it was in a magazine and went into a store. So as a customer, we're looking at that product for six months before it gets into the store. So by the time it's the shop floor, we're a bit like, oh god, I've over it now. I've looked at it for too long. And we want the next new thing. And also the world is-- we're buying things in the wrong season because the department stores have really pushed to get things on the floor early so they can sell it. They can beat their customers, which means we've ended up with coats on the floor in July, spring/ summer dresses going in in January. Who wants to but that? I don't want a coat in July. And I don't know any woman that wants to do that. Or who can even think about a product that they're going to wear in four months time. You want to buy something now and you want to wear it tomorrow. So I have a business model that is seasonless. And it goes into stores monthly. And it's a different fashion concept every month. But it's what you're going to want to wear in that month. INTERVIEWER: Interesting, interesting. And how are you finding that this is being received in the fashion industry? Because again, this is not the traditional model. I don't know why you're the first person to do this because it makes so much sense. But I'm wondering how you found the reception. TAMARA MELLON: The customer is clear and loud, yes. I mean I love communicating with my customers on Twitter and Instagram. And the messages I'm getting back is thank god someone's finally doing this. This is what we want. So the customer is there. The industry, we're pushing them a little bit to get on board with it. Department store, you know-- they bought it. We're going to be in Bergdorf's, Nieman's, and Net-a-Porter. Net-a-Porter is actually there. They're also pushing designers to do it. But the traditional bricks-and-mortar department stores are worried about, well if you have new product going in January when all our autumn/winter is on sale, how's it going to look on the floor? How's the customer going to react? But I'm pushing, and I'm just saying, you know what, just test the customer because I know it's what she wants. So I think once they see the customer's response, then they'll really get behind it. INTERVIEWER: So this isn't the first time you've pushed the envelope. With Jimmy Choo, you definitely pushed the creative envelope and launched new products. What was your favorite throughout your time being there? Was there a specific collection or project you worked on that comes to mind as being a favorite? TAMARA MELLON: Oh I have a lot of babies from Jimmy Choo. But I would say my favorite things are animal prints, leopard prints, zebra, I love fringe, studs, glitter. So if you see a product with any of those things on, you know-- INTERVIEWER: A little bit of rock 'n roll, OK. So just going back to your new collection, the way it's being released, this puts an even larger importance on staying ahead of trend, which is something that fashion brands grapple with all the time. How do you manage to say ahead of trends? TAMARA MELLON: Well a normal fashion brand designs a year ahead. And it's often what you want in you life then. But you've got to wait a year for it. It's very frustrating. So now I can design something. And I can have it on the shop floor three months later. So from design, from a sketch, to on shop floor, it's a much shorter window. So I can really gauge the temperature of the customer and what we're feeling and what we want right then in that moment. INTERVIEWER: OK, OK. So you are all about taking on challenges and reinventing yourself to a degree. What's next for you? TAMARA MELLON: Next? I've hardly started this one yet. INTERVIEWER: Well in your book-- I'm sure you guys will all enjoy reading it-- but Tamara takes on challenge after challenge, often at the same very time. So while you were working on Jimmy Choo, you also started reinventing Houston. TAMARA MELLON: Yes. INTERVIEWER: And so it wouldn't be out of character for you to take on multiple projects at the time. But I could completely understand if a vacation was what you needed in the near future. TAMARA MELLON: You're absolutely right actually. While I was writing the book, launching a new brand, I decided to renovate my apartment at the same time. INTERVIEWER: Yes. TAMARA MELLON: So yeah. INTERVIEWER: And you have a young daughter Minty Melon whose name I'm very jealous of-- that's the best name ever. And you're splitting your time between New York are London as well. TAMARA MELLON: And yeah, I have a design studio in Paris and here in New York. All my shoes and bags are manufactured in Italy. I'm working with the same factories that I've worked with for 15 years. So it's a pure luxury product. But what I'm doing is I'm going to take a smaller margin so I can deliver an amazing product to my customer at a more affordable price point. And then also the ready-to-wear is-- what I've done with the pricing is actually an interesting hybrid. Because the ready-to-wear dress is about $800, a skirt is $600, which is a contemporary price point. It's not a pure designer luxury. If you had a brand at that price point, you'd normally find the shoes at $300. INTERVIEWER: Right. TAMARA MELLON: But my shoes are higher because they're pure luxury. So I have high contemporary clothing, and pure luxury shoes and bags. INTERVIEWER: Is there a brand in the luxury space or the contemporary market, or even unrelated, that you think is doing a really great job of establishing themselves as a brand but also activating themselves digitally? TAMARA MELLON: Burberry has been a real pioneer in that area. And I'm really working with social media today. Because for me also it's different from when I started Jimmy Choo. We didn't have social media. And times have changed. And just having that direct communication with the customer is the most important thing today. When I started Jimmy Choo, there was a new wave. Accessories where exploding. And magazines realize that if they put an actress on the cover, their readership went up. So the whole celebrity and fashion relationship started. And that's why I took Jimmy Choo to the Oscars within the first two years of business. But today, it's very different now. Now it's direct the customer. Is communicating with them on Instagram, on Twitter, on things like YouTube, Android. All these get you direct communication, which is what they want now. INTERVIEWER: Do you find that there's a challenge between asserting yourself as a luxury brand but also having that two-way communication, because that's certainly a lot of what we hear in the luxury sector, that you want to establish yourself as being elite and sophisticated and top-of-market, but also approachable and someone that you can communicate with as a brand. So do you have any strategy in terms of social media and how you're going to structure that for the Tamara Mellon line? TAMARA MELLON: I think that being elite is an old-fashioned view. I think you can be absolutely luxury and still communicate with your customer. So, no I'm direct all the time, myself talking with them. And I don't think designers should sit in their ivory tower and not communicate with their customer. INTERVIEWER: Right, you mentioned Twitter. Is your favorite social media platform right now? TAMARA MELLON: I like Instagram. Yeah, Instagram is a really fun. And now you can put little videos out, which is great. Yeah, so Twitter, Instagram. We still do pretty much everything. INTERVIEWER: Wonderful. Wonderful. Well thank you so much for sharing all this with us. We love your new book. Again it's at the back if anyone would like to pick up a copy. I'd love to turn it to the audience and ask if you guys have any questions, anything we haven't touched on. AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]? TAMARA MELLON: In November. Yeah, it'll be in Bergdorf's, Nieman's and Net-a-Porter and Harrod's in London in case anyone's there in November. AUDIENCE: I have one. You mentioned, while you were in your discussion, that at one point you were one woman out an entire board of all men, especially for products that are targeted towards women. How did you feel in those moments? And was there ever a time where you had to strongly advocated particularly from like a female perspective? TAMARA MELLON: The difficult thing was that all the men on my board were from the private equity industry. So your interests are not really always aligned with their interests. They're really looking at just getting [INAUDIBLE] profits up so they can sell. They want to come in and out as quickly as they can. And as a founder, you really care about the quality of the product, the people working in the business. And also, what's very difficult for them, because it's not tangible, is it's an emotional business. It's an emotional connection with the product. So you could predict something that's going to sell in the future but they may not have the confidence to put the money behind it because they don't understand why. But it's just an emotional connection. INTERVIEWER: So I have one last question before we wrap. You share with us so many personal stories in "In My Shoes," really difficult things that you went through your childhood, in your adult life. And something that really shines through as you read the book is how resilient you are. And that you use these tumultuous experiences really to become a stronger person. And that's something that led you through even to your business career. How did you manage to do that? Because I think that's something that we as people struggle with. And you've done an amazing job at just growing and becoming even stronger through those difficult times. TAMARA MELLON: Well part of it really is growing up in an alcoholic home. It actually-- the only benefit, you have a very high tolerance level for abuse, or dealing with difficult situations because you're used to it. Other than that, and then knowing really it's believing in yourself. You've just got to believe in yourself. And passion. You've got to keep following your passion. I always say, passion is the number one thing. Once you have that, everything else follows. But I think because I was so passionate about the product, and that company, it ran through my veins like the blood runs through my veins, that I kept fighting for it. INTERVIEWER: OK, well thank you so much again. It was a pleasure having you here. Best of luck with the new collection and everything else. I'm sure we'll hear about something else that you're launching very soon. TAMARA MELLON: Thank you, thanks for having me. INTERVIEWER: Thank you so much.