Paul Wilmot

Well I am sitting here mouth agape as I get all of these wonderful responses to my initial blog posts. So my first response is to try to prove I’m not a one trick pony and do have some more things on my mind. I am not trying to channel Will Rogers, the late great William F. Buckley, Jr. or any other talented commentators on current events. Far from it, I am an unworthy publicist who just happens to have had some great life experiences and want to share them with any of you who care to pick up on them.

THE RECESSION…aw c’mon it’s a depression. Once you name the elephant in the room all of a sudden he doesn’t seem so big. 40% of our wealth is gone, our IRA’s are off an average of 35% unless you know people who were in cash. (I know two and I always thought they were dim bulbs but hey, they were just scared shit of being broke so they stuck it in the mattress). Somehow their bulb wattage just went up right? My Miami house, which I treasure, is off at least 35% in value. And here is my take on the loss of wealth. If we use 1776 as the baseline, it took us over 230 years to get to this level of net worth and 40% or so of it evaporated in six months. Yes I would say that’s a recession all right. Sort of like saying if we hit in a dry spell and if 40% of the Atlantic Ocean went away we could almost walk to London…not a dry spell a world catastrophe.

So now that we recognize what we have gotten ourselves into…yes ourselves.

“No Paul, it was the bankers.”

Yeah right…so we were forced into those jumbo mortgages, bought art with loans from the auction houses and financed jewelry for our gals. Hell, the guys in Palm Beach were charging private jets on Amex cards to collect awards points and to keep money in Madoff. The CEO’s weren’t the only greedy ones. Like the Swine Flu it was an airborne illness from which no one was safe. So what’s next?

RECOVERY. Like anyone who has been hit with a plague or a pestilence eventually it goes away and we have to rebuild. For the older folks it will have to be done in a shorter period of time and they will be working longer to make that retirement money but that might not be so bad. People are living longer and living healthier. So we will be going to the gym in our 70’s, going to meetings, taking business trips and generally making ourselves useful. What is wrong with that? It might just help to lengthen the lifespan if you think about it.

The younger ones will also have to work harder, smarter and hopefully have learned a big lesson about not trying to grab too much without having some backup plans to have some liquidity and elasticity in prep for the next downturn…yes there will be ups and downs forever. No two periods of economic change are ever the same. History tells us that but pshaw, we never listen to history…hello WW I, WW II, Korea, Viet Nam…IRAQ!!!!

But in my opinion, if we can come out of this humbler and feeling less entitled…more benevolent toward our fellow human beings and truly feeling the need to be socially responsible as a result of some of the pain we have either observed or endured then the depression will have at the very least left us better off in many ways than we were before. Poorer yes. Needing to get back some of what we lost, yes. But there are more important issues at stake here like the human condition and if democracy and capitalism are as good as we say they are then let them guide us toward a comeback and a new start. That smart guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is sure trying hard to make it work. We need to as well.

See you later.

Paul

Gee whiz, we just put up the blog last night and finished it with some of the art we had in the archive and I’m hearing from pals from all over. This is more than gratifying because I did spend some time putting the original blogs together and wanted them to have some information in them you would find amusing and maybe even helpful. So the initail blast from my friends in cyberspace is giving me a lot of motivation to press on and do more. You’ve been warned.

Thanks everybody.

PW

I thought I might weigh in on fashion shows today. Each season we do what is called the “front of the house” for eight to ten fashion designers in New York. In layman’s terms that means we coordinate all the invitations to the shows, the responses, seat them and handle the press interviews with the designers before and after the shows. It’s labor intensive, as it requires literally hundreds of phone calls, seating meetings (each person has an exact seat at each show) and of course, communication with the media so they get what they need to file for their publications or electronic media. We have been doing this for over 12 years, so we have many shows under our belt.

In the late 1980’s when I was public relations senior vice president of Calvin Klein, Inc. our shows were a far simpler affair. With all modesty, the shows Calvin put on were truly in the vanguard of what was going on in fashion at the time, but it was a smaller world then. Fashion wasn’t truly global and nobody, European or American had large businesses away from their own countries let alone continents. There were fewer media outlets…no Internet, a little television, newspapers and magazines. That was it.

We used to have two shows in the offices of the company on West 39th Street in Manhattan. We had the first show at 11:00 a.m. and that was the large circulation press, celebrities and friends of Calvin and the larger stores for sales opportunities. We had the second show at 2:00 p.m, which was attended by smaller circulation press and smaller stores carrying the brand. We were able to get a total of 500 people into both shows and never offended or excluded anybody who needed to come. Fade out 20 years later, and attendance at one show can easily swell to 700 and that means 200 or more are not invited who would like to come.

Now, the shows are up on the internet in almost real time and not only do hundreds of millions of people have access to the footage through Style.com, Elle.com, YouTube, and the like, there are bloggers going at it like mad. Then, the papers and television break the next day. The lifestyle magazines run the pictures the next week and finally the long lead magazines feature the runway photos closer to when the clothes are actually in stores. So there is an almost infinite number of ways these images get seen and even though people can’t buy the fashions in stores until months later, all agree that the shows do much to hype the idea of high fashion and keep the designers who show in the limelight.

Now comes the recession, and to put on a show is expensive. If you do it “cheap and cheerful” the minimum cost is somewhere between $150,000 and $250,000 depending on the price of the models and production. A lot of people in fashion are saying that the smarter way to spend that money is to do a presentation. No runway is present, a smaller venue is used and the girls come out in groups, get seen by the attendees and go back to change. So eight girls, three changes and you’ve shown 24 looks. Moreover, the presentations are usually held over a period of two hours so it’s sort of on a loop and people can drop in and out and not be held to the time constraints of a formal fashion show. With over 250 design houses showing during fashion week in New York this is welcomed because no one has an excuse not to get to a show they want to see. The presentation is a good solution in a time when people are being let go…it can save some wages.

However, to me the re-think has to be about when these clothes actually get delivered to the retailers. In times gone by fall or pre-fall collections are starting to get delivered in June. (Ahem. isn’t the first day of summer June 21st?) Fall is complete by September and I can remember some scorchers here in September. Now quickly follow…fall goes on sale in October, resort comes in November, all of it is on deep markdown in late December. January signals the first deliveries of spring (it’s January as I write this and it will be 5 degrees tonight in New York). The same daisy chain goes on…spring is complete by April, on sale in May and guess what? Just in time for first delivery of fall in uh…June.

We’ve done it to ourselves. We think that women out there are so eager to get their paws on the next season’s merchandise that she will buy it out of season at full price. Well I’ve got news for you gentle readers; she is buying clothes when she needs them and has gotten quite accustomed to buy it at half off or more, thank you very much. So everybody’s margins have been destroyed, stuff hangs in stores months before they’re bought or worn and the whole thing is coming down around our heads.

A Possible Solution… still hold the shows in the spring for the fall and vice versa. Only NOW don’t send the things into the stores until a customer just might possibly wear them. Deliver fall in September with maybe just a taste in August. Resort in December and ship spring in April with a taste in March. Simple. Easy peesy. How come we didn’t do this before? What have I overlooked? What is wrong?

I just don’t know…help me if you know the answer.

See you.

PW

[View with PicLens]

The answer to that is carefully…

Now look, I’m not a kid anymore and I’m 6′1″ tall weighing in at 190 pounds. I go to the gym and while not obese I am not a small fella. After 35 years of business and personal travel I have “retired” from economy class with the exception of JetBlue, which I will take in a pinch if the flight is short, if I have to be somewhere fast and if the other airlines are price gouging. Otherwise it’s business class for me all the way.

So how does one manage to get into the front part of the plane without cleaning out your wallet? First, book early. Come on. 90% of the time we know two weeks out if we’re going to take a trip. It’s the lazy louts who wait until five days before to reserve and that is where most of them have you. They make you pay for “emergency trips” by booking late.

Second, learn to surf the frequent flyer miles programs. Part of the success of getting what you want is to book early with frequent flyer miles but also find out how you can move around American Express or other charge card programs into your airline of choice’s frequency program. Let’s face it when you look at the junk available to buy for miles in the catalogues they mail out you are far better off saving some bucks and flying in more style with the redeemed miles.

Third, choose one airline and stick to it. About five years ago and after logging almost 1.3 million miles with an airline I won’t name, I decided to get a divorce. They had so many “privileged” members I almost never got the upgrade, the planes were shabby and when I did get the upgrade they charged me $50 per 500 miles. My usual destination in Florida is 1,075 miles from New York…that’s right $150 extra for the upgrade each way, so bye-bye old carrier and hello Continental Airlines.

Let me tell you that this has been a nice discovery, the planes are clean…know what I mean by clean? The windows have been washed, the lavatories have been gone over and the polyester blanket is in a plastic bag. That’s all we want. Next, they break their necks, the ground personnel to get you there on time. We pushed away from the gate 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time last week in order to ensure we made the arrival on time. When you think about it that is the number one thing we care about in air travel…whatever number two is I don’t know.

So now we’re there…Continental actually does get priority luggage off the plane first…I have no idea how, but it is a fact.

At the airport, I am met by a towncar or take a taxi directly to my hotel…if it’s a city where I am going to be driving; the rental car company has the car waiting for me there. I fill out the paperwork and leave it at the front desk. If you think about the half hour it takes to rent the car and make sure you know your way to the hotel (and not get lost) it is sure worth it. Time to check out…take the towncar or taxi back to the airport and the rental car company picks up the car at the hotel and you’ve saved yourself another 45 minutes of car check-in, not to mention avoiding the ride in the “clean” and “plush” auto rental van.

The hotel. The rate has been established before you arrive and if you’ve been there before hopefully they will or should offer you an automatic upgrade. If you’re a first timer, just ask if one is available. Most front desk types only offer it to regulars, but don’t forget to smile and be nice. They have the power to get you into a junior suite or better, or leave you in that double across from the elevator…so be nice.

Stay out of the damned mini bar. The stuff is crap, over priced and fattening. If you’re going to be there for a few days go to a liquor store. Buy Fiji and San Pellegrino water, a couple of bottles of white wine and a bottle of vodka if you think you might be entertaining…total outlay $75. Order it through room service and it would cost over $200. When it’s time for your guests to arrive order ice, glasses and lemons and limes…$10 including tip. Want more? Go to a market buy some fruit, a nice piece of cheddar and some good crackers. Yummy. If you’re going to be there for four or five days, stop at a florist and pick up a couple of mum plants…they cost $10 each and make the place nice to come back to.

Let’s close this out with the idea that the hotel can actually make a reservation for you at the restaurant of your choice. Not only will you get in, but if the place doesn’t know you they understand that you didn’t just wander in off the street and you probably get a better table.

Hey, I liked doing this…maybe more travel ideas later on.

PW

P.S. Don’t forget to tip and when you do look the guy the gal at the hotel or restaurant in the eye and smile…a handshake is a nice gesture too. Chances are they will remember you and treat you well on the return.

The fashion designer John Weitz (brilliant guy who never designed much but was a master of licensing a la Pierre Cardin) used to have a great catch phrase, “A gentleman should wear only one “fancy”" which was an arcane way of saying that a real guy shouldn’t get all duded up if he was going to be well dressed.

So, if he had a bright tie on he wore it with a plain, say gray suit, he looked good and you saw the tie and that was it. If he wore a white linen jacket, he might pair it with a plain silk knit tie and a white shirt and the suit made all the statement he needed to make to appear confidently well dressed. Got it?

Years ago the late great Jerry Zipkin (a character on whom I could easily do three blogs and not run out of anecdotes) was on Eleanor Lambert’s International Best Dressed List committee, until she died and willed it to three esteemed Vanity Fair editors, this was a scrappy little group of people she knew who would convene in her Upper East Side Fifth Avenue living room annually and pick ten men and ten women as the “best dressed” for that year. Then there would be a listing of the hall of fame…those people who had been on the list enough times that they would get elevated to that rank and never appear on the list again. Now don’t ask why, but I made the list for a couple of years and guess around 1995 or so, I was named to the hall of fame. (The also late and fabulous Nan Kempner who was in it too called it the “hall of the forgotten”…shit I miss that bird). I digress…Anyway, I was always a salaried guy from a nice family who made my own way in life and know that this recognition was just a couple of people trying to be nice to me, but truly, I like clothes.

I can’t abide anything that looks sartorial…hate patterns, checks and the like. I seek for myself and admire in others simplicity, some things of quality, “one fancy” like a good watch or a pocket square from Charvet, JM Weston shoes (always stored in trees, always shined, always with even heels and soles)…like that.

Now, along comes the recession and what do you do to maintain without ignoring that this is a different time than we’ve ever lived in before? A couple of things; first I took three watches that I never wore into Aaron Faber, the watch gallery here in New York and I horse traded them with a little bit of more money and got the most beautiful Patek Philippe I have ever seen. I have it on now and am leaving it to a pal in my will.

Next, I went through my closet and donated four suits, five jackets and a bunch of sweaters, ties and pants to Housing Works here on 17th Street in Manhattan. Then I made a list of what I really need and through the coming months, I am going to make some wise investments, a suit here… jacket there. I’m going to get what I need and imagine now that the purchases will certainly be more considered.

But here’s my point, it’s not going to get me down. I am not going to sacrifice quality or some idea of my own style. I’ll be careful, but dammit, some people treated me like a nice guy years ago and I am not going to go shabby chic. If I use my brain, I can keep up appearances and still be frugal.

PW