Retail Confessions: The Neiman Marcus Flagship
"It was like, 'Oh, $6,000 earrings for my 12-year-old granddaughter.'"
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Loose Threads
There’s no better way for the Olsens to follow up their viral sample sale than their win for accessories designers of the year at Monday night’s CFDA Awards. In their speech, Instagrammed by The Cut, they thanked their “amazing customers.” Maybe the line sitters will get a shoutout next year.
Rihanna called the Alaïa look she wore to the CFDAs “postpartum forward.”I don’t know what that means but she makes the weirdest shit look cool.
Magasin’s Laura Reilly alerts us to “30 substantially discounted items” on Italist from Phoebe Philo’s namesake line. A small Cabas bag is $2,447 (marked down from $4,500). Beige jeans are $789 (marked down from $1,540). A black double-breasted jacket is $2,240 (marked down from $3,738).
I’ll have more on this Thursday for paid subscribers, but Teen Vogue is cutting staff and folding into Vogue under head of editorial content Chloe Malle. The NewsGuild union condemned the move as “clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most.” Still, it’s amazing a teen magazine lasted this long.
Michell Obama’s new book The Look is out today, prompting reflection on her high-low style as FLOTUS and how she created a sensation by wearing mall brands like Ann Taylor. The orange coat she wore is no longer on the site but there’s a similar style in red. (This camel coat is honesty giving Max Mara.)
Retail Confessions: The Neiman Marcus Flagship
Today’s installment of “Retail Confessions” is so juicy I couldn’t wait until Thursday to send it out.
If you’re new to Back Row: This column explores the psyche of luxury customers, through the stories of people working in retail, responsible for selling some of the most expensive fashion in the world. Today’s interviewee worked at a Neiman Marcus flagship in the U.S. until recently and pinged me because they thought the purchase amounts name-checked in a previous story on Intermix (RIP) were comically low by comparison.
This person’s clients spent “anywhere from $40,000 a year to upward of a million and a half a year.” The store is enormous and attracted a high number of wealthy shoppers who have homes all over the world and therefore basically live nowhere.
“There was so much money,” the former employee said, “and a lot of people just don’t know what to do with it.” After starting out on the sales floor, they were promoted to the personal styling suites, where sales were done by private appointment, sometimes accompanied by caviar and Champagne and — if it was a celebrity — stealth trips to the floor in a private elevator.
Ahead, we chat about shoe-throwing customers, getting clients into fashion shows, one person who spent seven figures on holiday gifts, and much more.
How much was your biggest sale?
One of my first clients was this Russian oligarch. I dealt with one of his many assistants. We sent him fabric samples, catalogs, everything from [brands that did made-to-measure suiting]. It sounds crazy, but he ordered 28 suits and tuxedos. I think the cheapest one was maybe $6,500 to upward of probably $18,000. Then the assistant says, “We need eight of each because he can’t pack when he travels, and we need to keep all the homes fully stocked.” He spent over $800,000 on the phone.
That’s wild but that sounds like an easy sale. Were clients difficult?
A man threw a shoe at me to get my attention.
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