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Read My Letter! Choose Your Battle Cry For The Gucci Empire Catch Me If You Can Run The World Dream Big! Let It Be. To Do List
Dear Fashion Lovers, Creatives & my beloved friends,
One more year is coming to an end. No words can express my feelings while working on this project throughout the year. Every step we move, we learn, we fail, we stand up and keep moving. You are my inspiration and motivation. Just like fashion, this love is “the best of all.”
Should we name it “unconditional love” for the sake of art? While we live in a world where love is hard to find, this love brings us together as a small community where we can choose our character to play in each chapter. In this chapter, I am a learner and a creator.
I hope you enjoy this chapter of my life. This is the risk I am taking, if I fail, I will stand up and keep moving again.
The best of all,
Khanh Ma
giving season giving love
It’s been a year since I’ve been doing this job. Briefly, this is how my day goes as a sales associate.
I woke up and put on my uniform. My hair always had to be slicked, and my lips were glossy. I got on a bus and another train. I clocked in, and my day started as it counted.
What is selling? Do you have any specific definition? What is fashion?
Some clients come in and get the items without thinking; others spend their whole lives convincing themselves and the salesperson not to buy them. None of these clients can define it because of the brand, the product, the service, or the marketing that got them to this stage.
Being a salesperson is more than just selling. I often feel like a lawyer or a judge. I defend the brand and debate with clients that all the negativities they pointed out are incorrect as they don’t have the evidence. If in doubt, just get the item and check it with the experience. Boom, close the deal.
At other times, I am a marketer and a communicator. OUTREACH, OUTREACH, OUTREACH. The important thing is that I have to repeat it three times. I am sending these messages, emails or calls to ensure my clients are still alive and ready to pay for another item they probably won’t need. But their spending is my income and the brand’s fame, so we must keep bothering each other until we get blocked. I’ve never experienced that; however, getting ghosted was the worst thing I could ever receive. I don’t fear or feel it anymore, as I’m using dating apps, and they all strengthen me mentally and spiritually.
I am a stylist. Who wants to add a bag to their collection without matching shoes? But who needs another pair of shoes? Nobody does; all I need to do is convert them to join my cult - luxury fashion.
I am a priest. I want them to respect the brands, fashion, the fabric, the feel, the effort, the spirit, and all the invisible things. All they need to do is trust and believe. I want them to know that their spending never ends at the products. The clients can never imagine how a bag or a dress was made. I don’t know if they even care about the nights our designers or creative directors work with many versions of mood boards and sketches, scouting places for quality materials but saving the production cost. After that, the craftsmanship from the master hands, sewing, twilling, knitting, and whatever else came from the highest quality academies like Italy or France.
These are real people, and I’m not joking. Another team of creatives has to develop new strategies for marketing the new pieces before they bring them to life. These are all the things clients will never see, but they need to feel through the item. And it is hard. Do they care? Or do they need to care? All clients want is to look fabulous, and the money they spend brings more benefits and value to their image and closet.
I still could not close the deal. I blamed the marketing team for not doing their job correctly, as the client needed to learn about the brand or the products. Other times, I blamed the design team for not learning about the market. Their creativity goes straight to the underground as nobody sees the art of the function it could be.
Fashion is a small society where you can see and feel the social classes within the industry. It is a mysterious, small world. Today, you will see this person work for this brand; tomorrow, they will be replaced with a young guy from another brand. Real clients do not care much; they must look nice and be treated well.
I am a gambler. Every turn is an opportunity. Everybody knows that not every customer enters the store to get something home that day. However, every interaction counts. I don’t want my client to come back another day and buy from someone else after making me introduce 7749 styles of shoes and handbags.
This is a LOTTO game with many rules. Believe it or not, this job is mainly based on luck and luck. Let me tell you a story about when I closed the deal on two high tickets of handbags. A week later, the guy returned, as he was always like that with other brands. And it was my turn; I could not reject my turn.
ChooseThe same thing happened with different clients who bought and returned as they needed to have the intention in the first place.
Sometimes, I went on my break and lost a couple of potential opportunities in sales. But then, sometimes, I covered a department for 10 minutes and closed some excellent deals.
Iam a psychologist and a therapist. One of my bosses taught me about this philosophy: it was never about the products; it was all about the person, the client. Learn this, and I can sell anything. Is it true? I need to dig deeper into what’s going on in their life and make sure there could be something missing, like a backpack for a future trip that hasn’t happened or a wallet that hopefully they will need a bag to match after. Or it could be anything that can fill the hole—the hole of expectation and validation. My clients need to be seen and heard. If they went through a heartbreak, a pair of shoes would make their day as they vent about their relationship. A pair of shoes can also be a spirit item for their special day, even a wedding or engagement, but a pair of shoes will surely fill the hole.
I am a researcher and know that luxury fashion is no longer at its prime. Most styles out there in the market look the same. However, if a creative director does something different, nobody buys. Nobody buys, and the corporation blames the sales, marketing, and product development teams for not doing well. Whose fault is that?
All of us may be.
I love this job. I unlearned and learned, changed, then grew. The primary knowledge that not many people know about is that nothing in this world does not need selling. When you go to the gym, they try to sell you a training package. When you come to the dentist, there is something about your teeth that needs to be fixed. When you visit a language center, your parents will be informed that your skills are imperfect and you must take other extra courses to improve. But who can be perfect at everything? You need to sell yourself when you are looking for a job (that is me).
We are human beings, and this is how society operates; that is why we need each other to add and exchange values to enrich our lives. Selling is a tough job; selling on the floor (associates, advisors, consultants, servers, etc.) or selling in the office (marketing, design, etc.) is the same and requires patience, endurance, and resilience.
Have we ever checked how often we accidentally or purposely looked down on “customer service” workers? They never mean to bother you, but it takes five times “No” to get one “yes.” This is their job, and it’s okay to reject or be rejected sometimes. We learned, unlearned and tried the other way around. I strongly believe this big lesson will follow us through life, handling rejection contributes to our growth. In Vietnamese culture, “Failure is the mother of all success.”
Written by Khanh Ma
Cry empirefortheGucci
Early January 2023, Sabato de Sarno was officially named Creative Director of Gucci. Is the fourteen-year career at Valentino enough for Sabato to claim Gucci’s halo? Does Gucci have more effect on him, or will he bring Gucci back to the elite era?
It was almost two years since Sabato started his new life in Milan. His name is praised in the industry as he is a talented young man expected to be a “guardian angel” of the Gucci Empire, although Gucci does not make any movements out of that. His aesthetics and deep research through Gucci archives and history are admirable but insufficient. He is an artist, a designer, a creative yet businessman. His items are hardly sold, and nobody wants to own one. The debut of the Horsebit platform created a controversial trend in the industry; everyone can see that platforms had been an inevitable core this summer.
However, wearing a 9-inch platform loafer is unreal; how many times can one person wear a pair like that? It doesn’t have to stop there; that is maybe the only Gucci item that looks the most Gucci. Gucci, do you know what your clients are looking for?
They asked to bring back all the spirit animals, the bees, the snakes, the butterflies,... the complication of design, and the powerful colour combinations. It would be so mean if people said that they were looking for Alessandro years ago when they had to be on that long waitlist to get a bag, a pair of shoes or just a headband. Clients out there laughed at the new platform heels from this recent Fall Winter collection; they pointed at the item and laughed like Sabato had created something weirdest ever. Little did they know in the 90s, people wore these to school.
Photos and Written by Khanh Ma
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It was fashion back then. Besides being an unforgettable leader, every creative person should have a mindset of commerce and entrepreneurship. As creatives, we care about culture, origin and history. Whenever we have a chance to work on a project, it is a vast opportunity to dive into the flow of the golden ages; we live several lives when we dig deeper into the archives. However, the clients need that luck; they cannot travel back, not even last week, 50 or 100 years ago, to understand all the styles and designs. If many people cannot agree with it, that does not mean the design was right or wrong; it was just not accordant in this lifetime. Fashion is a sign of time, and time flies; it might be a trend 12 years later. To be a successful designer or creative is to balance one’s ego with brand equity and clientele. It is a tough job if creatives do something too fast and too easy. They better start over again.
Someone has said that the brand was dead along with the creator when he was no longer alive, which means everything after that should have been perceived with an open mind. The Gucci brand name remains there, but the spirit has been replaced. We must embrace the fact that they still try to keep it going. A fashion brand is a maison that raises talented young creatives to dare to think and risk to do. Who is Tom Ford without Gucci, and who is Alessandro? When Alessandro took over, there was a shift in the clienteling markets. Never a doubt, from Europe to America, it turned out that Asians were the biggest consumers of all time. Yes, we love to be loud, we need statement pieces, we want to be the spotlight, and we need the spiritual connection with the storytelling of the products.
Alessandro was perfect for us. Gucci should be inclusive, and Gucci was. Yet Gucci has its personality, and every creative director has approached it from a different angle, which they can exploit from the name Gucci. Just like humans, we have different personas; some people get preference from others, and some don’t. As a brand, they must decide what character Gucci should play: a feminine angel, a quiet corporate girl, a seductive lady, or a maximalist animal. All is one, and all is Gucci, but choose the one who helps Gucci stand in the luxury war.
Quiet luxury is a trend, and loud luxury is also a trend. As a brand, consistency with your chosen path is more important. Fashion is a cycle, and Gucci needs to be more patient. Fashion is not just art but a significant business. Gucci is not only a creative playground; it is a battleground.
Photo by Khanh Ma Saje disffuser blend 30ml
RUNThe World
In Vogue Magazine in 2023, there was an article, “Why are so many creative directors white men?” and it hit me. The recent rotation of creative directors between brands has just again proved that. However, we can see an improvement in that POC and males with colour have a fair chance to be in this “Hunger Games.” Peter Do takes over Helmut Lang like Pharell Williams takes over Louis Vuitton.
Creative Directors are pawns in this game. They need to move strategically to protect the queen and the king. The more inclusive the pawns move to, the more promising the future of these brands will be. The same article mentioned that people are still complaining that white men run the world, but the numbers are still going up, and that is how capitalism works.
From the male gaze, fashion is an art that emphasizes the figure's beauty, specifically, women's figure. However, according to this economy, whether we agree or not, a woman who needs to run after the bus or train needs a huge tote bag to put almost everything in. It would be more impressive if that tote bag could turn into the evening bag for the night event. Nowadays, customers focus on convenience and the benefits the items bring back beyond the budget they are willing to give.
Who can understand women more than a female designer. No matter how many male directors run the creative industry, the balance between men and women will affect customers' user habits. Fashion can be art, but beyond that, it is a tool to make our lives beautifully easier.
Written by Khanh Ma
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Khanh Ma
Dream Big!
Our dream is “big” when we assume we cannot reach it. To end this magazine, this chapter, and the year of learning and growing, I want again to send my gratitude to the Gucci team and Gucci company, which helped me realize any dream I can make. As a dream-maker, making a client’s dream come true is tremendous, but making my dream is more significant. How wonderful it will be if we can make our dreams come true.
For my future journey, no matter where I go or which company takes me with them, I will continue to make my dreams come true. My dream is to turn our thoughts and imagination into actions that bring actual results. And guess what? Another dream of mine just came true. I made my first magazine.
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Khanh Ma