<\/p>\n
\n\tMore than 50 years ago, Morris Goldfarb took the reins of his family\u2019s leather goods company and over the ensuing decades turned it into the G-III Apparel Group. He initially transformed it into a New York licensing powerhouse and now is honing the company into a brand builder, one that is ready to shape the next chapters of Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan.<\/p>\n
\n\tBeing chief executive officer and in charge is hard enough. Staying in charge \u2014 and over such a long stretch with so many seismic changes in the fashion industry \u2014 is something else entirely.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo pull it off, and build a $3 billion business, he has displayed stamina, tenacity, quick wittedness, nimbleness and a healthy dose of creativity.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat is why Goldfarb, who\u2019s chairman and CEO of G-III, is the recipient of this year\u2019s WWD Honor for Creative Leadership.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe sat down with WWD to talk leadership, the entrepreneurial drive and a wild ride on Seventh Avenue.<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Spirit of the Entrepreneur\t<\/p>\n
\n\tEven when Goldfarb was just a marketing major at Long Island University and interviewing with advertising firms, still unsure the family business would be the right fit, he knew where his trajectory would eventually take him.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs he proposed to his wife \u2014 presumably after some romantic overture \u2014 he told her: \u201cNo matter what I do, I\u2019m going to be the best at what I do. If I start out driving a cab, I\u2019m going to own a cab company.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBig words for a young man, but what he knew about himself, others came to realize soon enough.<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb recalled a much later instance when his \u201cright hand\u201d in business told him that she planned to retire and go to Hawaii to open a little tiki bar.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m coming with you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe comes in my office an hour later and says, \u2018No, you can\u2019t come with me.\u2019 I said, \u2018Why? We do this together so well.\u2019 Jokingly, she said, \u2018Because by the time you\u2019re done, you\u2019re going to have 500 tiki bars.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMost likely, she was right.<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb has a home on St. Barths, where he has been engaged in various ventures. So, a vacation on the island for Goldfarb, a 24\/7 CEO in Manhattan, is a chance for him to check in on his hotel project or one of the other businesses he has a hand in there.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYes,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason beyond relaxing that provides comfort for me. It\u2019s not a job. It\u2019s a comfort. It occupies my brain, occupies my time, and hopefully it makes a little bit of income for myself and generations to come.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve had a million investments and those investments in most cases are investments in individuals that have strength in the area that I\u2019m investing in,\u201d he said. \u201cMy strength is to find those talents and the industries or sector or isolated void that I can exploit for financial gain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s a talent that he clearly puts to work at both his many side hustles and his main gig at G-III.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve had one job in my life and this is it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMorris Goldfarb and the G-III crew at the Nasdaq stock exchange.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLibby Greene<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Start\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb\u2019s father Aron was a Holocaust survivor who in 1956 founded the smaller leather goods business that would become G-III.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut father stepped aside for son very quickly and in just two years, the younger Goldfarb was running the front end of the business and would soon be CEO, the perch he would lead the business from for more than half a century.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was a beginning in a world that is now gone or just utterly transformed.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI had a hundred customers, maybe more that were New York based, that came up to the showroom,\u201d Goldfarb remembered. \u201cMy warehouse was literally behind the showroom. They\u2019d pick out their 24 jackets. They\u2019d be delivered to their car or their truck that was waiting downstairs. A lot of the traffic that you saw was that kind of stuff \u2014 in and out traffic that was amazing.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt had a unique vibe that was almost spiritual for the industry,\u201d he said. \u201cYou kind of loved those streets. My shoes would get all scuffed up because I kicked a rack as I was walking the streets. My shoes were always in terrible shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe had 400 or 500 people working in a factory down the block and would use nearby warehousing.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tSeventh Avenue in New York\u2019s Garment Center.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdobe Stock<\/p>\n
\t\tEveryman Outerwear\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIt has been a long journey from that on-the-ground Garment Center hustle and bustle to the refined boardroom in the skyscraper G-III almost wholly occupies at 512 Seventh Avenue.<\/p>\n
\n\tAlong the way, Goldfarb was able to put his creative business mind to work.<\/p>\n
\n\tLike nearly everybody in 1986, he went to see a young Tom Cruise in \u201cTop Gun,\u201d and instantly recognized the potential of the aviator jacket.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cEverybody would buy that aviator jacket,\u201d he recalled thinking. \u201cIt was easy. I was a leather guy. It was a leather bomber jacket. We did the same thing with Michael Jackson\u201d and his famous zipper jacket.<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb \u2014 who clearly still has a soft spot for his years focusing on outerwear, when his hands were more directly on the wheel \u2014 recalled another jacket adventure, this time with the JL Colebrook brand.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe apparel collection was being rounded out with down jackets and active jackets, but nothing was hitting.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe kept making great product, but it didn\u2019t retail,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cI walked into a showroom in Hong Kong. I stepped on this jacket and I pick it up and it\u2019s this orange jacket with a chambray lining in it. And I said [to the producer], \u2018How much is this jacket?\u2019 He said, \u2018$12.\u2019 I said, \u2018I understand this jacket. I don\u2019t understand the retails that we\u2019ve created for elevated down jackets and we keep trying and we just don\u2019t find success.\u2019 This I get.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018OK, let\u2019s make this jacket.\u2019 I didn\u2019t have a designer at my side. I said, \u2018Let\u2019s roll the sleeves up a little bit. And this is the new soccer mom\u2019s jacket.\u2019 And [that outrigger jacket] became celebrated as probably the best jacket of that era,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tNow, G-III makes 20,000 stock keeping units a month in factories all over the world and Goldfarb knows the company is a different beast today. Knowing what will sell and what won\u2019t is a trickier question.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cCan I identify the winner? Possibly. But the odds were much more in my favor when I was a coat company,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, we\u2019re different. We have 400 designers, 400 people in the design area of our business. And their mission is to be current, to be fast, to be affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tNot Ralph\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb understands the fashion industry and knows where he sits in it.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe pointed to the branding purity of Ralph Lauren.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ve done an amazing job,\u201d he said. \u201cRalph has stayed pure to it from the moment he started. Look at early Ralph, you could look at Ralph today and he and his messengers, all the people that he\u2019s brought on over the decades \u2014 it\u2019s a beautiful model.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re just not in that business,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not Ralph. And I think Ralph is pretty much maybe the only one in the U.S. that has created that in scale.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe, on the other hand, we were brought onto this earth by a founder [his father Aron] who couldn\u2019t care if he made a leather jacket or if he made socks; he cared about making a living. That\u2019s all he cared about and providing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb\u2019s own cares are very much the same.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe recalled when longtime partner and vice chairman and president Sammy Aaron walked into his office and asked, \u201cDo you ever think about all the lives you\u2019ve affected?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI do,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cI love the fact that I knew a kid that started here in the mail room that evolved into sales and got married and bought his home and had a kid. I look at them with fondness and said, \u2018That\u2019s success.\u2019 Success isn\u2019t, I\u2019ve kept my payroll down to the barest minimum. Fondness and success for me is just seeing the growth and the maturity of people and that they\u2019ve become good citizens. It\u2019s a tribute to this company.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re not known to be villains,\u201d he said, pointing as well to the company\u2019s quietly charitable nature. \u201cThis is a tough industry and we\u2019ve survived so many years with integrity. There\u2019s an important part of G-III, which is giving. It\u2019s been an important part of my life. We don\u2019t celebrate it. We don\u2019t talk about it. We do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tThe China Story\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb said he has \u201ca million stories\u201d about how the well-being of its workers has long been a metric of success for G-III.<\/p>\n
\n\tRather than test him on that \u2014 Goldfarb excels as a storyteller \u2014 WWD asked for just one to illustrate the company\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n
\n\tG-III was late to move production to China as the relatively high-ticket leather business is complicated and was already established in South Korea.<\/p>\n
\n\tBy 1990, though, China started to look good and Qingdao was just a 12- or 13-hour ferry ride across the Yellow Sea.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe made a deal with the local government,\u201d he said. \u201cThey would build the factory. They would provide the employees \u2014 and there were about 2,000 employees \u2014 and we would provide the technical help, the orders, the materials, and we\u2019d have a joint venture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe government was contractually obligated to provide for the workers\u2019 accommodations.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey warranted that they would have, I believe it was six people in a dorm room, which I thought was crazy high. And then I was taught that the norm was about 10 people in a dorm room,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cThere were cots and there was a common bathroom and showers for the staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe CEO couldn\u2019t make the grand opening of the factory, but said there were parades and 10,000 people marching with dragons and fireworks.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd amid it all, he received a call from one of his employees on site.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201c\u2019There are 12 people in a room,\u2019\u201d he told Goldfarb. \u201c\u2019There\u2019s no common dining room. There is no heat and no hot running water.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018No, that\u2019s not going to work.\u2019 So I have a fit. I call my partners. One of them was granted the factory as a military gift. He was a military hero and he was who he was. I said, \u2018No, no, it\u2019s not acceptable. It\u2019s not in contract.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSo my partners say, [more or less] \u2018Morris, leave. You\u2019ve got your investment, write it off and leave.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis was a time when a lot of Western businesses were setting up in China, but not necessarily following through on the deals they made.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere was doubt that I was going to be able to perform and I said, \u2018I can leave right now and these people will never know what they\u2019re going to miss or I can stay and show them.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSo we stayed and less than a year later, they come to New York with this great trophy that was presented to the factory by the Shandong province, which is 80 million people large. So I tell my partners, \u2018That\u2019s great. We\u2019re done. We\u2019re leaving. Joint venture is not going to continue. We\u2019re going to another region.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey said, \u2018Why? We\u2019ve succeeded.\u2019 I said, \u2018You didn\u2019t succeed. You didn\u2019t take care of the people the way you told me that you would. There\u2019s no heat. There\u2019s no hot running water, and if you can\u2019t afford it, I\u2019m going to go.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey said, \u2018No, no, no, no. There\u2019s just no way we\u2019re going to let you leave.\u2019 I said, \u2018Then you got to make me happy.\u2019 They built more dorm rooms and hot water and heat were provided all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLooks from the Donna Karan New York spring 2027 collection.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMasato Onoda\/WWD<\/p>\n
\t\tAt the Negotiating Table\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe story also shines a light on Goldfarb as a negotiator.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile not afraid to take a hard stand, he prides himself on reaching a balanced deal.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI always put myself, I don\u2019t want to call it the opponent\u2019s side, but in every deal and everything I look at, it\u2019s how\u2019s this guy\u2019s going to feel if we make this deal?\u201d Goldfarb said \u201cIs he coerced? Is he going to hate the deal? Is he going to be happy that the deal was made? Is he going to go home and celebrate or b\u2014h about the fact that he\u2019s been had and retribution is soon to come?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the end of a transaction, he said the person on the other side of the table should feel, \u201cAs good as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb credited a good chunk of this outlook to his work with Lyle Berman, a top poker player and regular collaborator.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve had many partnerships and he originated from, of all things, a leather retail company,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cHe taught me the art of a fair deal. He taught me how to limit a risk. He taught me fairness. He taught me, just deliver what you promise. And he and I, we had Rainforest Caf\u00e9 that succeeded. That was his vision and I hated it. We had Grand Casino, which ultimately became Hilton Gaming and many other smaller deals that we partnered in. I went to China, to Hong Kong, Taiwan and [South] Korea with him for the first time in 1978.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tParis Hilton and Choupette DJ Herald Square for Karl Lagerfeld\u2019s spring 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLexie Moreland\/WWD<\/p>\n
\t\tStaying Power\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGoldfarb\u2019s journey has been a long one, from small leather goods company to a Seventh Avenue powerhouse. For years, G-III developed big licensed department store businesses for PVH Corp.\u2019s Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut the CEO remembers talking to former PVH CEO Manny Chirico about a possible deal that never materialized.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cManny put me on a path,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cHe said something at a meeting that stuck, that I had no chips.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe man\u2019s right. I need some chips,\u201d he remembers. \u201cWe went out and we bought brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tG-III\u2019s portfolio of owned brands came in handy when PVH\u2019s current management moved to pull back the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger licenses in 2022, effectively walking away with what was half of the company\u2019s sales.<\/p>\n
\n\tNow G-III\u2019s owned stable of brands includes Donna Karan, DKNY, Karl Lagerfeld, Vilebrequin, Sonia Rykiel, Andrew Marc, G.H. Bass, Wilsons Leather and others, along with the newest addition, Marc Jacobs, which the company bought with WHP Global this year. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe trick to lasting so long and thriving in each new phase?<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou do that by listening, by associations, by a desire to succeed and a never-ending drive to be the best at what you do and surround yourself with talents that support your weaknesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s an attitude Goldfarb has held to, at G-III and beyond.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy wife will tell you I never met a deal I didn\u2019t like. I love exploring deals, whether it\u2019s friends or my children\u2019s friends who come to me for advice. I really get entrenched in problem solving. I just kind of like it. I like playing chess, not literally. I\u2019m an OK chess player, but moving people and concepts around has been an innate skill. I guess I was kind of born with a desire to problem solve.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy strength is leadership and finding the appropriate solutions for whatever weakness I have on this sector that I\u2019m exploiting,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s design, I\u2019m going to hire the best designer. If I feel that there\u2019s a weakness in creative financing, I\u2019m going to have the strongest finance person at my side and I\u2019ve succeeded in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tBackstage at the Marc Jacobs fall 2027 show.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNina Westervelt\/WWD<\/p>\n
\t\tWelcoming Marc\t<\/p>\n
\n\tNow Goldfarb has teamed with Marc Jacobs, who\u2019s stayed on as creative director and whose brand marks one of G-III\u2019s biggest steps into designer fashion.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Marc Jacobs is set to hit about $360 million in sales this year, which began under the ownership of LVMH Mo\u00ebt Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Goldfarb sees an opportunity to drive that up to $1 billion over the long term.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMarc and I have spent a fair amount of time together,\u201d he said. \u201cWe meet because I\u2019d like to be transparent and I\u2019d like his involvement. Marc is welcoming that.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cLooking at Marc, seeing that G-III\u2019s, who\u2019s kind of a known entity in moderate department stores, partnered with a brand management company [WHP].\u2026He had to be rattled as to what to expect,\u201d Goldfarb said.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd how does one unrattle a top-tier designer at such a delicate time?<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBy engaging him, being as transparent as I could,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cWhat was very important to him was the fashion shows. We\u2019ve retained that and we are going to distribute into multi-distribution channels contrary to where LVMH has been. I think he\u2019s OK with it. He\u2019s commercial, he\u2019s very bright, and we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd that\u2019s classic Goldfarb.<\/p>\n
\n\tOpen, fair, realistic, ready to try new things \u2014 and alert enough to see how the world is changing and nimble enough to meet it.<\/p>\n
#WWD #Honor #Creative #Leadership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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