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FASHION JOURNAL
Saks Gets a Daring Makeover Saks President Bets on Edgier Labels, Splurges for Women Who 'Have Everything'
Updated April 2, 2014 7:45 p.m. ET
A new boss is giving Saks Fifth Avenue a fashion-forward makeover. Expect top-flight designer looks and
service levels—with higher prices to match—as well as black-and-white décor that recalls Saks's
midcentury glory days.
Fashions that would have been too daring or expensive for Saks in recent years, such as Burberry
Prorsum's hand-painted shearling coats for fall 2014, are being produced in quantities for Saks now. For
fall, the retailer expanded its orders of runway clothing and accessories from Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Celine,
Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa and other leading labels. Safer, more "commercial" styles are being scaled
back.
"Our customers already have everything they really truly need," says Marigay McKee, Saks's new
president. "We really have to offer rarer, more unique things."
Saks Fifth Av e nue Ge ts a Face lift
Saks Fifth Avenue's m erchandise has grown blander each year. But a new boss, im ported in January from London's Harrods,
is m aking over the departm ent store chain. WSJ's Christina Binkley reports. Photo: Elizabeth Lippm an for The Wall Street
Journal
By C H R ISTIN A BIN KL EY
It is a new direction for a store whose merchandise has been bland in recent years. While other luxury
department stores have focused on fashion-forward looks, Saks has been known since the 2008 financial
crisis for seeking cost-conscious luxury looks and shying away from exotic materials and complex
fabrications.
But Ms. McKee, an energetic 48-year-old imported in January from London's Harrods, seems not to know
the meaning of hesitation. She has pressed Saks buyers to add more emerging designers—a group whose
inexperience and often-shaky finances scare off many retailers. Saks recently placed an order with Marco
de Vincenzo, a fledgling darling of Milan Fashion Week.
In a meeting last week, Ms. McKee asked the company's financial planners to relax their budgeting
systems to give more leeway to buyers in the field, who she says must be able to buy fashion based on
"passion" and instinct. "What I was telling them," she says, "is we have to buy from the gut."
When fall 2014 clothes—the first full collection since Ms. McKee arrived at Saks—begin shipping to stores
in June, the racks will offer more singular looks, with prices rising to more than $20,000 for some coats and
dresses. Flashy, rock-n-roll Balmain and urban Alexander Wang have just been added. Saks just added
back Balenciaga, after "taking a break" from the pricey, fashion-forward label for several years, says
Colleen Sherin, Saks's longtime fashion director. "Pieces that were once icing on the cake really need to be
the core of the buy," says Ms. Sherin. "We need more wow."
Men, too, will find more fashionable styles at Saks, which has added the trendy Kenzo and Fendi men's
lines and is buying heavily into Givenchy, says Eric Jennings, fashion director for men's and home wares.
He says he is spending more time studying labels and trends in Paris and London, where designers tend to
be most daring, although Milan, with more classic styles, continues to be a mainstay.
More cutting-edge trends such as a darker color palette, mixed-media looks that blend materials such as
suede and flannel, studded apparel and accessories will make their way into the men's departments. Saks
New boss Marigay McKee is giving Saks Fifth Avenue a fashion-forward m akeover. Elizab eth Lippm an for The Wall Street
Journal
is also going long on a trend with youth appeal: banded-
bottom track pants for dressy as well as casual wear.
A new department called Sneaks caters to the huge interest
in fashion sneakers that range in price from $300 to $1,000
or more. "The colors are aggressive and the prices are
aggressive," says Mr. Jennings. "There is zero price
resistance."
Saks will expand its own private-label apparel and will
continue to buy less challenging "commercial" fashions. "We
don't want to alienate the customers we have," says Ms.
McKee. The changes will include dropping some labels—
though executives declined to name any of them.
Saks's look, too, is changing. The flagship New York City
Saks sports new black awnings, topiary at the doors, and
doormen in black livery. New black-and-white boxes and
bags will arrive in coming months. Previously, Saks cycled
through color schemes as often as seasonally.
Saks, which has some 40 stores, is ordering more of its
high-end fashions for its smaller stores, as well as its
flagships. Three weeks ago, the stores shifted their
purchasing strategy so that buyers are responsible for both
stores and online inventory, rather than having separate
teams buying for each. This is expected to create more
flexibility for Saks to move merchandise around.
Saks, which opened on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1924,
was long a leading high-fashion retailer, trying out new
directions and carrying high-end fashions from Paris. The
name still carries panache, but the chain has catered to
broader audiences as it expanded.
The 2008 financial crash had a dramatic impact. Caught with
huge inventories that fall, Saks began slashing prices by as
much as 80% within a few weeks. The move helped pull its
rivals into a discounting tailspin, and consumers quickly
learned that if they wait a few weeks, fashions were likely to
go on sale.
In recent quarters, Saks's price-conscious, discount-based
strategy left it posting quarterly losses on relatively flat sales.
Meanwhile, rival Neiman Marcus, focused on top-tier luxury,
saw its sales and profits grow.
When Hudson's Bay Co. agreed to buy Saks last year, a handful of senior executives quickly departed
before Ms. McKee's hiring as president was announced. Hudson's Bay Co. will release its results for the
Colleen Sherin, f ashion director of Saks Elizabeth
Lippman for The Wall Street Journal
Saks ordered up one-of -a-kind looks such as a hand-
painted Burberry Prorsum coat. Getty Images
fourth quarter on Thursday.
Ms. McKee, who has plunged into New York's social scene,
is a far cry from the conservative gray-suited men who ran
Saks before her. She looks more like a customer,
barelegged in steeple-high heels and designer dresses. She
notes that the average Saks client is a 48-year-old woman.
"So I am Mrs. Average," she says.
Ms. McKee went to 23 cities in two weeks, visiting Saks's
stores, during December. She says she spent two days
digging through store archives in "jeans and T-shirt, ponytail,
no makeup—on the floor." She found photos of John Lennon
and Elizabeth Taylor shopping at Saks and references to
Saks firsts such as selling Estée Lauder. She created a new
tagline for the company, Live the Legacy, and decided to
take the stores back to Saks's graphic black-and-white look,
recalling the "glamour of the '50s, '60s, '70s." She stocks a
jar of black and white M&Ms in her office.
She also intends to restore pomp and circumstance at the
cash register. "When I buy a $4,000 dress," says Ms.
McKee, "I want it wrapped with care."
Write to Christina Binkley at christina.binkley@wsj.com
A Chanel coat. Getty Images
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