Evolution of Marc label
By Jessica Iredale |
November 28, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ON a Saturday afternoon at 403 Bleecker St in New York, home of the Marc by Marc Jacobs women's store, a 40-something woman, shopping with her two tweenish daughters, is standing by the door, looking a little scared.
"This is crazy," she says. "This is just crazy!" Staff aside, the three of them are just about the only people speaking English in the store. There's a quartet of Japanese girls huddled around the tote bags up front. A French couple assesses the ready-to-wear, while a group of Brazilians dig through the T-shirt display and two Nordic women pace the store with rubber rain boots in hand. A quick head count totals upward of 50 people in less than 1,800 square feet of sales floor space.
A steady stream of half as many customers had circulated through the store earlier this month, on a Friday. It was enough to prompt this reporter to remark how busy it seemed, only to be corrected by a manager. "This is dead," she said. "Come back on a weekend; there won't be anywhere for you to stand."
The scene on Saturday is a claustrophobic's nightmare and a retailer's dream, which, in this case, belongs to Robert Duffy, the president of Marc Jacobs. Duffy has been Jacobs' business partner since 1984, through the Perry Ellis days and up to and including Marc Jacobs collection and Louis Vuitton. But Marc by Marc is Duffy's baby. A decade after its launch, the secondary line has 161 freestanding stores, plus several hundred wholesale accounts. In honor of the 10-year anniversary, a capsule collection of greatest hits from the women's and men's collections is being reissued for the coming spring. The business is wildly successful, which makes it hard to believe that Duffy struggled to get the project green-lighted in the first place.
"After our partnership with LVMH, I really kept pushing the issue with Mr Arnault," says Duffy, referring to Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. "Most people (at LVMH) didn't understand it, because LVMH was a luxury group and, I mean, that's what they do and that's what they do really well. There was a lot of resistance to it. I had to pitch it to everybody underneath (Arnault), and everybody said no." Finally, Duffy got a private meeting with Arnault and convinced him that there was money to be made in the contemporary market.
While wholesale was robust from the start, and grew quickly into a global business, Marc by Marc Jacobs' own network of stores has made for a fascinating retail model. It started in New York's West Village, on the corner of Bleecker and West 11th Streets, where Duffy has gradually built the most idiosyncratic of flagships: an enclave that now stands at six individual stores, the most recent a Bookmarc that opened in September. Duffy says the New York stores are "a gold mine." They turn the highest volume and set the tone for the company.
Duffy added menswear, a big money maker for the company, in 2001. As the business grew, his own stores had to compete with department stores and their markdowns. In order to give his stores an edge without putting anything on sale - Marc by Marc stores never do - Duffy started offering specialty T-shirts, such as Stinky Rat, which grew into its own offshoot. When the market trended toward an even lower price point, rather than partner with mass retailers like Target or H&M, Duffy created a still lower-priced lineup known as Special Items, or "stuff" as he calls the merchandise under the "Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs in Collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs" label, including lipstick pens, tote bags, condoms, flip-flops and rain boots. With those, the Marc Jacobs experience can be had for as little as US$1. Between the T-shirts and trinkets, the Bleecker store has the air of a souvenir shop, thanks in large part to flocks of tourists. Duffy estimates that the special items make up 20 percent of the business.
Aside from savvy merchandising, Duffy credits his staff with the stores' success. In the beginning, he handpicked everyone and set up what has become a veritable retail vocational program, with people starting as doormen and working their way up to manager or corporate positions. Duffy met his West Coast manager, David Doidge, when he was skateboarding down the street and stopped in front of the windows. "He's like, 'It's so cool, I love your windows,' and we started talking. Now he manages all our stores on the West Coast," says Duffy. There's very little turnover in the company. Jobs are in demand, particularly in New York, where heavy traffic plus commission can make for a happy work force.
Over the course of a few hours at the Bleecker store, at least four people come in with resumes, though new hires are often found by word of mouth. But should they get placed, there's a good chance they'll move up in the company. Outside his office at 72 Spring St is a room full of young staffers. Every person in the room has worked in one of the stores.
"This is crazy," she says. "This is just crazy!" Staff aside, the three of them are just about the only people speaking English in the store. There's a quartet of Japanese girls huddled around the tote bags up front. A French couple assesses the ready-to-wear, while a group of Brazilians dig through the T-shirt display and two Nordic women pace the store with rubber rain boots in hand. A quick head count totals upward of 50 people in less than 1,800 square feet of sales floor space.
A steady stream of half as many customers had circulated through the store earlier this month, on a Friday. It was enough to prompt this reporter to remark how busy it seemed, only to be corrected by a manager. "This is dead," she said. "Come back on a weekend; there won't be anywhere for you to stand."
The scene on Saturday is a claustrophobic's nightmare and a retailer's dream, which, in this case, belongs to Robert Duffy, the president of Marc Jacobs. Duffy has been Jacobs' business partner since 1984, through the Perry Ellis days and up to and including Marc Jacobs collection and Louis Vuitton. But Marc by Marc is Duffy's baby. A decade after its launch, the secondary line has 161 freestanding stores, plus several hundred wholesale accounts. In honor of the 10-year anniversary, a capsule collection of greatest hits from the women's and men's collections is being reissued for the coming spring. The business is wildly successful, which makes it hard to believe that Duffy struggled to get the project green-lighted in the first place.
"After our partnership with LVMH, I really kept pushing the issue with Mr Arnault," says Duffy, referring to Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. "Most people (at LVMH) didn't understand it, because LVMH was a luxury group and, I mean, that's what they do and that's what they do really well. There was a lot of resistance to it. I had to pitch it to everybody underneath (Arnault), and everybody said no." Finally, Duffy got a private meeting with Arnault and convinced him that there was money to be made in the contemporary market.
While wholesale was robust from the start, and grew quickly into a global business, Marc by Marc Jacobs' own network of stores has made for a fascinating retail model. It started in New York's West Village, on the corner of Bleecker and West 11th Streets, where Duffy has gradually built the most idiosyncratic of flagships: an enclave that now stands at six individual stores, the most recent a Bookmarc that opened in September. Duffy says the New York stores are "a gold mine." They turn the highest volume and set the tone for the company.
Duffy added menswear, a big money maker for the company, in 2001. As the business grew, his own stores had to compete with department stores and their markdowns. In order to give his stores an edge without putting anything on sale - Marc by Marc stores never do - Duffy started offering specialty T-shirts, such as Stinky Rat, which grew into its own offshoot. When the market trended toward an even lower price point, rather than partner with mass retailers like Target or H&M, Duffy created a still lower-priced lineup known as Special Items, or "stuff" as he calls the merchandise under the "Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs in Collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs" label, including lipstick pens, tote bags, condoms, flip-flops and rain boots. With those, the Marc Jacobs experience can be had for as little as US$1. Between the T-shirts and trinkets, the Bleecker store has the air of a souvenir shop, thanks in large part to flocks of tourists. Duffy estimates that the special items make up 20 percent of the business.
Aside from savvy merchandising, Duffy credits his staff with the stores' success. In the beginning, he handpicked everyone and set up what has become a veritable retail vocational program, with people starting as doormen and working their way up to manager or corporate positions. Duffy met his West Coast manager, David Doidge, when he was skateboarding down the street and stopped in front of the windows. "He's like, 'It's so cool, I love your windows,' and we started talking. Now he manages all our stores on the West Coast," says Duffy. There's very little turnover in the company. Jobs are in demand, particularly in New York, where heavy traffic plus commission can make for a happy work force.
Over the course of a few hours at the Bleecker store, at least four people come in with resumes, though new hires are often found by word of mouth. But should they get placed, there's a good chance they'll move up in the company. Outside his office at 72 Spring St is a room full of young staffers. Every person in the room has worked in one of the stores.
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