CHLOE Magazine Summer 2014 Volume 5 Issue 1 | Page 107

CHLOE MAGAZINE “GOOD MORNING MR. RIBKOFF” And so began my conversation with one of Canada’s most prestigious designers. From his home in Montreal, Joseph Ribkoff discussed his company, which has been designing clothes for 57 years, and the many facets involved in putting together a commercial design line. words by Emily Fox After humble beginnings, Mr. Ribkoff began to design on a commercial scale, creating staple pieces that cater to a varied market of women aged 40-70. The cost of the pieces is indicative of the quality of the clothes, which are manufactured in Canada. Where perhaps 90% retailers manufacture or buy their goods abroad, mostly in China, Joseph Ribkoff (the company) takes pride in having its base in Canada. As a commercial designer, the fashion industry as most people know it (think Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs) is inconsequential. “Fashion week is not important to commercial fashion,” says Mr. Ribkoff, with smaller, intimate fashion shows the way of commercial designers, who often have no government grants existing to assist their companies in getting off the ground. According to Mr. Ribkoff, the commercial fashion industry is the way of the future, “but still, certain markets have gone the way of everything else in the fashion industry; New York is a shadow of what it was, and London used to be big, but many of the old commercial names do not exist anymore.” It is, essentially, a tough market, where big stores have destroyed boutiques, and it is also a market that is continuously in flux, with more countries vying for the same consumer. “It is very competitive,” Mr. Ribkoff says, “In order to grow, you have to expand.” In other words, fashion as a whole is very hard work, and designers must be ambitious in order to survive. Joseph Ribkoff the company has managed well over 57 years because it has been able to adapt, and adapt to big business. Commercial fashion is a business, and where companies such as Reitmans and Le Chateau have begun to struggle, other companies such as Walmart have succeeded. “They did their homework,” says Mr. Ribkoff. Target recently attempted to move into the Canadian market, but did little work in researching the fundamental market differences between US and Canadian fashion markets, and subsequently lost around $1 billion dollars in their first year (and are closing many, if not all, stores as a result). Commercial fashion is not based on the artistic impulses of a designer; even fashion designers who show their artistic ideas on runways around the world succeed because they fight to stay current and have a certain level of business sense when it comes to marketing. “New York is a shadow of what it was, and London used to be big...” A bad season of distasteful clothes can cause a big fashion designer to fail, due to the amount of consistent spotlight they are under, but if a commercial design company is to take large markets for granted, and assume they will succeed due to superficial similarities, they will fail just as easily. As Mr. Ribkoff mentions in our interview, “I have never felt that I’ve got it made.” And if Mr. Ribkoff has learned anything, it is to never take success for granted, especially in such a fickle and ever-changing market as the fashion industry.