This conversation between Barrie Wurzburg, President of the Joseph Stores, and Stuart Weitzman, took place on January 28, 2010. Mr. Weitzman was in Spain at the time.
Among the people to whom
Mr. Weitzman refers are:
Alfred Wexner, Barrie's father & co-founder
of the company that operates the Joseph stores. He passed away in
2008. An article
about Mr. Wexner and Joseph may be found here.
Shirley Wexner was Alfred's wife and is Joseph's owner and apparel buyer.
Charlie Barton is a shoe buyer and manager who has been with Joseph for thirty-five years. |
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An Interview
with Stuart Weitzman
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Barrie |
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Right, and that’s pretty much non-existent today . . .
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Stuart |
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| That’s true. I’m one of the very few designers left who still owns my own factories. As you know, Barrie, only a handful of the brands today make their own shoes. The rest contract with somebody else to make them, and then they are at the mercy of those people. We established our own manufacturing operations in Spain very early on because I would not give up that control. |
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Actually, now that you've got me thinking about it, that's really the answer to your original question. We're a great match because we're both totally hands on about everything. My best customers are people who really love and appreciate design and craftsmanship. And so are yours. So you and Charlie personally pick and choose every shoe you buy. That's the way your father did it and that's how you learned. And I'm the same way – I personally deal with every single shoe we make, from design all the way through production in the factories. So it's the same thing, the same attitude. |
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Barrie |
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You're right, I wouldn't know any other way. And I've seen how you run around your factories. How many do you operate now, Stuart?
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Stuart |
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Ten. All around the town of Allecante. You know, they still have real shoemakers in Spain and Italy, unlike the U.S. Unfortunately.
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Anyway, we need the ten small factories because we make so many different kinds of shoes, and if you tried to put them all together in one giant facility it would be total chaos. We make evening sandals, we make moccasins, boots, dress pumps, platforms and . . . well, you know the whole line. And different machinery is used to produce all these different shapes. You can’t make pointed toe shoes on the same machine as round toed shoes because it’s set up to finish the toe in a certain shape, and there’s no practical way of changing the set-up. |
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Barrie |
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| Yeah, and that kind of leads to the other thing I wanted to talk about. I mean all the variety in fashion these days. It wasn’t always like that. How do you think things have changed over the years? |
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Stuart |
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Well, we’ve been talking about some of the changes, mostly the ones that were changes for the worse. Like some of the big operators turning into mass marketers, and the retail chain buyers who don’t really know what they’re buying. That’s definitely not true of all the big outfits, not by any means, and you know the ones I’m thinking of. But a lot of them, the buyers just walk in with a stack of computer printouts and order by category according to their numbers from the previous season or year. They barely have to look at the shoes, and frankly, some of them wouldn’t know what they were looking at anyway. |
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| That is not how Alfred Wexner worked, as you well know. When you and your father came in, you guys were giving me ideas. You know, let’s change that top, let’s lower this side. And you picked and you chose. And you did and do make those judgments on the basis of knowing your customer. The way most of them do things now kind of takes the excitement and creativity out of it for me. |
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Barrie |
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But what about the positive side?
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Stuart |
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Right. And I understand what you were getting to. We are in a much more liberated fashion world now. Much greater variety in styling (which is why I run ten factories). Fashion is like beauty – it’s in the eye of the beholder. And I’ve always felt that to look at fashion in the right way, it has to make you feel that you are wearing what is right for the moment and right for you in that moment.
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When I grew up in this business and for many, many years, we used to knock our brains out over what toe shape to launch for the next few seasons. And that was it, whatever we decided, that was the toe shape. So the beauty was in the eyes of the different designers, not necessarily of the individual customers. And women used to be more willing to accept that.
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| Today, we produce lines with round toes, oval toes, square toes, snub toes, bumpy toes and sexy pointed toes. So women can put together great looks that are all very contemporary because so much variety gets produced. Your mother is brilliant with that, in your apparel department and with all your accessories. And I think it’s wonderful for women and for designers, because it enables us to design more appropriate product for a greater variety of occasions. We’re not limited to one look, and the public wants more than one look. So I think fashion has to be modern, but what that means is it has to make that individual customer look and feel great in a modern way. |
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Barrie |
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Stuart, what time is it now in Spain?
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Stuart |
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Barrie |
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Stuart |
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| Regards to your mother, Barrie, and I guess I'll see you in a couple of months. |
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