Keeping an open dialogue is critical to making partnerships such as the one between WHP Global and Vera Wang work.
WHP Global, the brand management and acquisitions firm, acquired the intellectual property of the Vera Wang fashion brand last January. Vera Wang has continued in her role as founder and chief creative officer, and joined WHP Global as a shareholder.
Yehuda Shmidman, chief executive officer of WHP Global, and Wang spoke on a panel at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, moderated by Amanda Smith, chief executive officer of Fairchild Media Group.
In addition to Wang, WHP’s brands include Rag & Bone, Joe’s Jeans, G-Star, Anne Klein and Bonobos, among others. First and foremost, Shmidman was asked what he looks for when he acquires brands.
“We look for brands that are exactly like the brand that Vera Wang built,” Shmidman said. “We look for brands that have awareness, entity and purchase intent to the desired audience. We look for brands that are already great brands, that are big brands that are established,” he said. These brands, which have been built over long periods of time, “still have an unlock left to be achieved.”
Shmidman said areas of growth can be geographical, categories, experiences, lifestyle or hospitality.
Started six years ago with zero in revenue, WHP Global is on track to surpass $8 billion in retail sales this year, Shmidman said.
Asked how they empower creatives while also driving business performance, Wang said there has to be a constant dialogue. “You have to be able to pivot, you have to be able to think out of the box, particularly in these times. And I think one thing’s sort of exciting, despite the uncertainty we experience as an industry, is the fact you go to other places which would have been unthinkable even five years ago,” Wang said.
Vera Wang
Katie Jone/WWD
She said she and Shmidman speak three times a day. “I think that kind of interchange, that kind of dialogue is so important, because you really have to be flexible. You really have to pivot. You really have to realize that whatever went before may not be valid anymore, and you really have to move on. You can’t sit on something like this for three years,” said Wang.
In fact, Shmidman said that he had been chasing Wang for probably 10 years or more, with lunches at The Carlyle. “But in that time period, what I learned is really what Vera is describing, which is through this communication, trying to understand, we could unlock that again. That really priceless creativity. Creativity is one aspect, but it was the business side, which is really fantastic and well-documented. And all the years that Vera built the business, there was a proven concept of this trifecta. Let’s say undeniable bridal history combined with fashion experience. And then the third part of that trifecta is of course the passion and the interest.”
Shmidman said that Wang — the person, bridal and fashion — is really powerful. “We put that team that we have to work around Vera to maximize and take advantage of what is a crazy world out there, and try to maximize it for new opportunities,” he said.
Wang said she has an enormous résumé that has served her well, running the gamut from being an editor at Vogue to working at Ralph Lauren — “that’s like the Harvard B. School of fashion,” she said.
At Ralph Lauren, she saw a certainty about what the iconic designer’s belief system was, and that he was somebody not only focused on creativity, but on consistency in branding and vision. Wang said she would have been happy to stay at Lauren forever.
“And then when I got married, that sort of launched this insanity, this sort of wedding world that I stepped in because I was an older bride. So that really was what launched it all. From there, opportunities sort of came about that I never would have dreamt of. The licensing that we eventually built was something that was not intentional, but was something that happened,” Wang said.
A lot of her success has been accidental, she said. “[At Vogue], I was the woman behind the camera creating an image. And then I went to Ralph. It was so great to be part of that team because everything was so available to me, and I could make things happen. And that’s something you don’t get in a small company. You don’t have the infrastructure, you don’t have the budget. But at Ralph, he’s one of those people where if you say this is an idea, he will really listen, and if he likes it, he’s going to go with it. He’ll give you that freedom to do it.”
Shmidman talked about the importance of pivoting. He said since the second wave of COVID-19, we have been been living in a world of fears, inflation, supply chain, tariffs, etc. “We actually are embracing all the craziness because inequality of macro, volatility and uncertainty and this need to pivot. From an investment standpoint, if you believe humans will shop in the future, you believe in fashion, if you believe that people want to look great…I think we all do fashion entertainment.” He said not just next week, but in 10, 20, 30 years, you should be always invested in fashion and in brands.
“Of course we’re not always going to be right. It’s super hard. Obviously we’re all in the same boat together, but the one thing we all do consistently is place those bets, and that’s why I think in a very short period of time, our company has been able to grow far faster, frankly than we ever thought possible.”
Wang said she moved into entertainment quite a while ago. She said so many of the creative directors of major companies come from entertainment. “I think they want that star power, that energy and that entertainment factor.” She said she has frequently dressed stars in her clothes.
Wang said she’s in the midst of doing a documentary about her life. “I dress Hollywood, but I’m not Hollywood. It’s just another new chapter for me. I must say it’s hard to make a film about yourself.
“I’ve lived a very crazy life. Sometimes I don’t believe it. I think I’m a washing machine on full cycle, spinning around,” Wang said.
On the subject of whether there are any regions or categories they’re seeing that are exciting, Shmidman said that of the $8 billion WHP expects to do this year, about $2 billion to $2.5 billion will be done outside the U.S. There are partnerships with retailers in Japan, South Korea and India, as well as Tmall and Alibaba.
“We’re actually seeing a lot of demand in both mature and emerging markets.” he said. He’s seeing demand in the Middle East and the Gulf, and they’re opening stores in China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
From a category standpoint, Shmidman said, “It’s hard to really not be fascinated by the world of hospitality, and yes, content and commerce are obviously intertwined, but now hospitality is intertwined with luxury, with fashion, with branding, and that’s an area we are really working on.”
Wang pointed to airport stores in London, which are architectural masterpieces with cafés inside. She said the younger generation travels so much and is seeking new experiences. “Now no one thinks twice about asking their guests to come to Marrakech for a wedding, in Italy or Capri,” Wang said.
Asked to describe a creative risk she has taken, Wang said that years ago she didn’t have the money for a fashion show and decided to dress one movie star in her designs instead. “Today we do hundreds of dresses for Hollywood, but it happened with Sharon Stone,” Wang said. She said Stone had just come out with “Basic Instinct,” and it was one of those moments where the world went crazy. ‘It was one dress I had to make. I sort of learned that lesson that maybe it isn’t always what you design, but who you’re dressing,” Wang said.
In discussing what advice she would give to designers looking to enter the fashion business, Wang said, “I always say the first thing you should do is not start your own company, having worked for other people over 20 years before I started my own company.” She said she would tell students to get a job at a design house you admire, and you can get paid to learn. “They’re going to pay you and you’re going to learn more things than you could ever even imagine, and not just doing messenger slips.”
She said she’s seen a lot of young people lately opening their own companies, and they’re doing artisanal work and they’re hand-dyeing or hand-knitting or hand-sculpting and there’s something wonderful about that. “But it really had to do with your intention in fashion. Do you want to make money? Is that your first intention, to grow a brand and be profitable and make money?”
Wang spoke about when she did her first collection for Kohl’s — Simply Vera Vera Wang — and she worked hard on the collection, and it didn’t sell. They put a lot of investment teams and designers on it, and they found that everything they made for them, the 58 categories of product such as clothing and sheets and towels, the customer couldn’t afford because of the dry cleaning it required. That was quickly remedied.
Shmidman said over the years the Simply Vera Vera Wang business “has done literally billions and billions of dollars at Kohl’s, he said.
Finally, when asked about consumer shifts in spending, Shmidman said, “I think the biggest surprise in the shift over the past five, 10 or 15 years, is the non-shift in spending. Even during COVID-19, retail sales in America grew. So the biggest shift is the shock that there is no shift in the pie growing.” He said there are all these shifts about how we shop and how we search and how we look. “That’s all changing, but the one that is constant is consumers love to shop,” he said.
