Here's what changes.

Amoungst other things, peoples desires and focus change every now and then.

Recently, I spent a day in the Garment district of NYC with a client of mine. As we entered the Lincoln Tunnel, I looked up and noticed a Mercedes Benz billboard ad. It showed a Mercedes on an empty beach and said something like “Tan lines fade; a Mercedes lasts forever”. I thought that was a strange and rather meaningless statement. My client pointed out that with summer on the way, everyone’s mind is on the beach and this may be Mercedes' way of tying in to that.

Over the course of our day in Manhattan, we met with the executive director of the GDIC. When he saw me, the first thing he asked was “Are you from the old school or are you new to the garment district?” I looked at him strangely, not sure what he meant by “old school”. He looked at me sadly, shook his head and said, “It’s been a long time since we had yarmulkes (head coverings that orthodox Jews wear) here”. Now I understood. There was once a time when the garment industry teemed orthodox Jews. Many Hassidic Jews worked hand in hand with some of the best-known designers. My grandfather- an orthodox Jew himself, was a textile manufacturer. He had a spinning mill the size of an Airport hangar and dye vats the size of swimming pools. I remember them vaguely. His clients included Kimberly and Zegna, amoungst others. But that all came to a crashing halt in the 80’s.

What happened? Why did things change so abruptly? Well many things changed, such as off shore manufacturing, new government regulations, government incentives to export all our raw materials, cheap labor in Asia, polyester, etc. Nevertheless, from a branding and marketing perspective, something else changed as well, that is very noteworthy.

Back in the 70’s, dry goods such as clothing were valued based on the quality of the goods. People primarily cared about how long a garment would last, how it stood up to heavy washing, the quality of its workmanship, etc. During the late 80’s things shifted. The defining criterion of a good garment was not high quality anymore. Comfort was the new benchmark. Casual Friday became vogue and whoever manufactured the most comfortable clothing was considered the best. As we moved to the turn of the century, that changed as well. The defining criterion was no longer comfort but rather figure. Whichever designer created the most figure enhancing clothing won. Currently, we are still in the Fashion Forward era and more important than longevity, function or comfort, is form and figure. What will come next? Who knows- but give it a few years and it will most certainly change.

Orthodox Jews, especially Hassidic Jews understood quality well- because all you need is common sense to understand good quality. To a lesser extent, they also understood comfort- because it is also common sense. When it came to the Fashion Forward trend however, they were totally lost. Its not something that is rational but rather intuitive. Additionally, figure-enhancing clothing generally goes against our tradition of modesty. Therefore, the orthodox Jews ended up closing up shop and are currently a rarity in the garment district.

To go back to the Mercedes Benz beach ad- while the billboard made no sense to me- the tie in to a tan certainly makes reference to the figure enhancing, fashion forward era we are now in- and that may be all Mercedes was trying to say. In some way you should imagine a Mercedes Benz to be your form and figure statement as well.

My point with this is that while principles never change and strategies rarely change, desires and purpose do change. Be cognizant of that, keep up with current and evolving fads and roll with the punches! Good Luck!