In My View by Eric Musgrave: Notes from a Dubai conference
Last month Tommy Hilfiger was the opening speaker and main attraction at The Retail Summit conference in Dubai.
Just before he went on stage, I showed him a cutting from Fashion Weekly magazine in 1987 reporting on his first UK shop in South Molton Street, London. There cannot have been many people in the large audience apart from Tommy and me who knew he had made his short-lived British debut 35 years ago.
“Oh wow,” was his surprised and delighted response.
Hilfiger has had an interesting career path since then. The 72-year-old American had some simple advice for budding fashion entrepreneurs about his formula for success: “Build the community and don’t give up.”
He knows whereof he speaks. Thomas Jacob Hilfiger’s first fashion venture was a fashion chain called People’s Place he started in upstate New York in 1968. He built it up to 10 stores before it went bust in 1977. I would have loved to hear more from him about how he bounced back from that setback.
But bounce back he did. Even though he long ago gave up control of his name, he has stayed on during at least four changes of ownership and a public flotation in the US. Today the neat and articulate Hilfiger is described as “principal designer” for the Tommy Hilfiger company, which since 2010 has been owned by the American group PVH Corp. The brand enjoys worldwide sales of almost $10bn (£8bn).
If Hilfiger has had a change of circumstances since 1977, it is nothing compared to what Dubai itself has experienced.
In 1975 its population was around 183,000. Now it is about 3.5 million.
Since 2018 (apart from a COVID-imposed break) The Retail Summit has staged an international gathering to highlight the ongoing retailing opportunities in Dubai, the rest of the United Arab Emirates and the wider GCC (or Gulf Cooperation Council) nations, which comprise Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
The region has long been of interest to British retailers and brands and operators in the Gulf are equally interested in what UK leaders have to say for themselves. Beth Butterwick, CEO of Jigsaw, Jody Plows, CEO of Nobody’s Child, Tom Athron, CEO of Fortnum & Mason, Kristina Blahnik, CEO of her uncle’s business Manolo Blahnik, Jo Malone, founder of Jo Loves and Michael Ward, CEO of Harrods were among the UK-based speakers at the two-day event.
Having had plenty of experience of organising similar industry events in my time, I was very pleased to attend merely as a press delegate, leaving someone else to sort out all the headaches (such as not being able to serve lunch until the ruler of Dubai had left The Atlantis hotel after he made an official visit).
I enjoyed the summit and I was intrigued by the emphasis in some panel discussions about increasing online sales in the region. As I wandered around the vast Dubai Mall (1,200 units!), Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Festival Mall – apparently there are 40 malls in total in the city – I wondered what effect greater online sales would have on their attractiveness.
My social media posts about the malls prompted a few pals to ask how many of the tenants made decent money in them. Occupancy costs are high, I was told, and while the centres are busy, how many visitors were spending much apart from in coffee shops is a good question.
One amusing diversion in the malls is spotting the names still trading there that are no longer on the British high street. Debenhams, Wallis, Dorothy Perkins, La Senza, Virgin Megastore and Mothercare caught my eye, with Paperchase soon to follow them.
The other thought in my mind as I wandered about the vast retail spaces was about sustainability, which was another topic regularly mentioned favourably at The Retail Summit. I still cannot see how the fashion business can talk about sustainability with any credibility while it continues to feed the colossal network of distribution worldwide, as manifested so extravagantly in Dubai.
Perhaps readers of this column can enlighten me.
