Genuine Authentic by Michael Gross

Author:Michael Gross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

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Weber’s ever more lavish productions were paid for by a business that minted money at mach speed. Initially, at least. The Kreisler Group’s bankruptcy appeared to be the best thing that could have happened to Ralph Lauren. Ralph’s talents, but also his foibles, flourished, fed by the fabulous amounts of cash that now poured in from Bidermann, USA.

Stuart Kreisler had told his staff nothing would change, but things had—immediately. Bidermann computerized Kreisler’s messy records within days of the takeover. At first, Kreisler wasn’t allowed to sign checks, and his colleagues watched warily as his marriage crumbled, and his Porsche was repossessed, but, eventually, he won the trust of his new bosses, using his personal relationships to ensure there was no blip in the Lauren business, and his responsibilities increased. His skills complemented those of his boss, Michel Zelnik, the president of Bidermann in America. “Michel has a hot temper,” says one of Zelnik’s intimates. “Stuart kept him in check. Michel was a dealmaker. Stuart was good at managing people day to day. And there’s no question, Stuart was way up Ralph’s butt. To keep Ralph controlled and working and approving things was no small matter.”

At first, Kreisler was seen as Ralph’s guy, “but he became part of us,” says a Bidermann colleague. That’s because Bidermann was good for him, too. Surrounded by production experts, he could concentrate on what he did best—selling. As a result, “we all did very well,” the Bidermann exec chuckles. “A new marble bathroom every year.”

It was all about the basics. Bidermann executives had noticed that Calvin Clothing, the infelicitously named firm that held the license for Polo’s boys’ wear, was selling a lot of simple items like shorts and T-shirts to women—and decided they needed to take that business back from the boys’ licensee by lowering prices of their women’s clothes and offering more commodity items like basic shirts and khaki pants.

Zelnik quickly moved production of the most important of those basics, notably women’s versions of Polo’s knit shirt, to Hong Kong. Although Chinese manufacturing was still considered second-rate, Zelnik knew better; he’d made goods for Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent there. Zelnik showed Ralph samples of knit shirts made in China, and Ralph couldn’t tell the difference between them and ones made in Maine. Lower production costs led to lower prices and higher volume. “Ralph would still be a losing proposition if Michel hadn’t gone to Hong Kong with the Polo pony to get the gross margins,” a fashion friend of Zelnik’s says. “Overnight, you blinked, and there was a big company there.”

Zelnik claims that in the next three years he raised Lauren’s women’s volume from $9 million to $119 million annually. Such figures are often exaggerated, but there’s no denying the benefit of moving knit shirt production to China. “That one product helps turn around the whole business,” says Marvin Traub of Bloomingdale’s, which also profited.

Offshore manufacturing was a big hurdle for Ralph to get over. “One thing we both agreed on—and

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