On The Runway: Enterprising Business Students Turn to Fashion

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times

Stanford college students with an entrepreneurial bent are strengthening their fluency in the business of brand names like Chanel, Lanvin and Hermès.

This week I’m on the street, traveling amongst Palo Alto, Calif., exactly where I did a speak with Ron Johnson, the former J.C. Penney chief executive, at Stanford University, and Dallas, the place Karl Lagerfeld will place on a Texas-dimension extravaganza for Chanel. That’s much more contrast than you typically get in a week. And maybe that’s a good argument for receiving out of the workplace.

My conversation with Mr. Johnson was the initial in a series I’m undertaking at the university, called “Fashion at Stanford.” In the coming months, I’ll be speaking to Pascal Dangin and Annie Leibovitz about picture-creating, Antoine Arnault of LVMH about luxury and Alexander Wang about developing for his label and Balenciaga.

A single factor I’ve realized right after two lengthy visits to Stanford in the last three years is that students are focused on the company of fashion. For the duration of my first check out, a number of seniors explained their dream occupation was to operate for Mickey Drexler of J. Crew or Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter.

Not a hot designer in London? Nope. They recognized two chief executives who defined accomplishment in their retail classes.

Stanford is a inventive spot, despite the informal design on campus, and manufacturers need to be interested in its college students due to the fact many are entrepreneurial.

During our speak, Mr. Johnson, a Stanford graduate who went to Harvard Enterprise College ahead of starting up his job at the Mervyns chain, talked about Bonobos, a net organization founded in 2007 by two Stanford company school college students, Andy Dunn and Brian Spaly. Their notion was far better fitting pants. He also brought up Warby Parker, the eyewear organization started by four classmates at the Wharton College.

I sensed that the audience discovered Mr. Johnson’s phrases inspiring, specially about his many years at Target, when he produced the line with Michael Graves — one particular of the very initial of the large-low collaborations — and then opening Apple’s first shops. So a lot of Apple’s retail good results, he stated, had to do with the culture of creativity that Steve Jobs encouraged, which incorporated searching for easy remedies.

And Mr. Johnson spoke candidly about his time at Penney’s, the first time he has completed so publicly. In essence, he explained he did also significantly also speedily.

Ahead of our speak, he and I met informally with college students, primarily from the Graduate College of Company. One factor that was on their minds was luxury. A group of students had just returned from Paris, where they met with Alber Elbaz of Lanvin, and executives at Chanel, Hermès and Kering, which owns brand names like Saint Laurent and Gucci.

Taking into consideration the appeal of start-ups like Bonobos, I was curious to know what attracted them to the luxury enterprise. Following all, it’s old-school and, as many students mentioned, very reluctant to use e-commerce. Later on, I exchanged electronic mail with two students, Hannah Hale, an organizer of the trip, and Kevin Kelleher.

“I loved the consistent message from all these brands that you are only as powerful as the top quality of your item,” wrote Mr. Kelleher, who worked at Bonobos just before enrolling at Stanford. “I believe a lot of nonluxury brand names feel they can heighten the perceived top quality via messaging, even though a brand like Hermès is really clear that the top quality can never ever be compromised.”

I wondered how interested French companies are in recruiting American M.B.A.’s. Ms. Hale replied: “I believe it depends on the kind of organization and ownership structure. For example, holding firms such as Kering seem to realize the relevance of enterprise acumen to the good results of their portfolio firms. However, if you search a lot more broadly at the luxury apparel group, there is significantly less of a desire to recruit M.B.A.’s. I think the onus is on M.B.A.’s who are self-motivated and willing to start off in more junior positions and move their way by means of the ranks.” That was Mr. Johnson’s guidance, too.

Each Mr. Kelleher and Ms. Hale, a former investment banker, seem motivated to challenge conventional thinking. As Ms. Hale noted, there is, except for Ralph Lauren, a lack of luxury organizations based mostly in the United States, though North America contributes to luxury development.

“My get is that there’s a sentiment in Europe that Americans are too ‘rational’ or lack the creativity for luxury, and I don’t agree with this notion,” she wrote. “In light of the developing demand for upscale informal clothing in the U.S., I think there’s an opportunity for M.B.A. college students who are creatively inclined to start off luxury businesses in this room.” Naturally, she extra, it’s an undertaking of a lot of many years.

But note her emphasis on inventive thinking, not to mention “upscale casual.” That’s what the industry requirements much more of, not just clever designs.

On The Runway: Enterprising Business Students Turn to Fashion