Ewa Abrams, president of Kering Americas, had almost no retail experience when she started in her role. On October 21, she told an FIT audience that in her first year overseeing the luxury conglomerate whose houses include Bottega Veneta, Gucci, and Alexander McQueen, she “wore herself ragged” visiting the brand’s stores, learning the business from the ground up.
At the third Future//Forward Presidential Speaker Series conversation on October 21, President Jason Schupbach and Abrams discussed the many aspects of a successful fashion career. Trained as a lawyer, she never dreamed of having a corner office in the fashion world.
“I think there’s something to be said about not planning every element of your life, which is really hard now with social media and comparing your journey to your classmates’,” she said.
For FIT students seeking careers in luxury, Abrams says, there are many ways into the field. Perhaps the most underestimated? The sales floor.
Schupbach said, “I think you told me that all the heads of LVMH started on the sales floor.” Yes, Abrams replied. There are more opportunities there than most people realize. Many client advisors, she pointed out, manage multimillion-dollar books of business; store leaders also spearhead substantial operations. “We need to shift from the idea that retail is just a job instead of a career.”
Abrams was born in Poland, and her family emigrated when she was 3. A Vogue subscription she received for her 12th birthday sparked her interest in fashion. An engaging professor at Brooklyn Law School taught her about intellectual property, which she found intriguing, though at the time, the field of fashion law did not exist.
But you don’t need experience in the luxury field to work as an attorney in luxury, Abrams said. When she joined Kering as general counsel and was tasked with creating the brand’s legal team, she didn’t hire any attorneys from the luxury world.
The conversation touched on what Schupbach called the “drama” in luxury. The sector is “not immune to volatility,” Abrams said, “in terms of the regulatory landscape, supply chain, AI risk and opportunities.” Some things remained the same, however, she said. “Physical retail will remain physical. The retail environment is a community hub. It’s called ‘retail therapy’ for a reason. It sparks joy.”
One student said she herself was starting a luxury brand and asked for Abrams’ advice. “Sometimes we forget that brands are not just the runway and the beautiful product,” Abrams said. “So my one piece of advice is find a trusted team that will be the engine to be able to make the right relationships with the right distributors, get the right contracts in place with your producers and manufacturers, and to have a CFO that can help you with the balance sheet and the and the P and L. So it’s really the idea of marrying the business with the creative.”
Upcoming talks in the FIT Future//Forward Conversations series feature world-renowned stylist Law Roach; designer Willy Chavarria interviewed by The New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman; and Givaudan fragrance exec Matthieu Befve.
