IFM Alumni USA - Thomas Poli

1/ How has evolved your day to day life since this unprecedented situation started ? How do you adjust your way of working ? 

It took me a good two weeks to really settle into new habits and loose old ones. Mostly by looking at my previous schedule and naturally adapting to the new one. I used to focus my productivity and obligations in the morning, now it's the afternoon. Now in the morning I take more time for myself before lunch, getting news from everyone and working on side projects. Of course work and personal time have merged more than I would prefer as I use more text messages, emails and zoom calls on my phone. 

During the first month, a lot of time was dedicated to following the spread of the virus and to understanding the situation. Being in the USA, we acknowledge and appreciate even more the French State protections that we often took for granted. Witnessing how the situation deteriorated here & how many companies dealt with the situation with little care for employees' health or resources was astonishing. It is allowed in New York to fire someone with just a phone call to immediately save on salary and increase company cash flow. In the USA health insurance is often provided through the job. The loss of jobs has left millions of Americans with no health coverage during this pandemic. Fortunately some conscious companies such as Airbnb really stood out offering more than 14 weeks of salary to employees let go, a full year of health coverage, keeping their MacBook as well as few months of psychological support. 

At my current company I work with several IFM alumni, Stan Mankowski, Camille Oger, Paola Allocco, Manon Leroux et Gabrielle Moussafir and we consider ourselves family. Since day  1 of confinement we formed a communication group to take care of each other, staying in touch with anyone affected by COVID-19.  We also immediately set up our Friday evening zoom drinks time to relax and enjoy French wines!  Living abroad, all this is a great help for us to support each other and to stay connected.

For many years the tech startup industry, mostly headquartered on the west coast of the US, has been offering a "work from home" way of working, with other perks such as unlimited holidays & ability to work from different time zones.  Other more traditional industries have looked at this with skeptical eyes but they are now forced to adopt this as the new normal and are embracing its efficiency. We now have experienced that in fashion too we don't need to be present in the office Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. I believe the flexibility of remote work will open the way to a faster transition from economic hardship.

2/  Before COVID19, would you say you were living your American Dream ?

In many ways yes. Some stories about the USA and New York are true, there is a certain vibe & there are differences in the work approach. As much as working in New York City helped me understand that my experiences in France were extremely valuable, the fast room for growth here is fascinating. Things happen faster. Both my husband Henri Zirpolo (Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale alumni) and myself have had quick and progressive career & responsibilities’ growth since we moved here. In this sense I was definitely living that American dream. 

My work required constant travel to Europe and this provided me a great balance and allowed me to see my friends and family often. Now of course, we are all switching to FaceTime as everyone is unable to travel. 

3/ Would say that IFM helped you to develop your talent and to choose the right path to achieve your goals ? And what would be your best advice to young students and alumni in those difficult times ?

I am here and doing what I am doing today thanks to IFM. On top of my amazing experience at school and the strength of the lessons, most of my closest friends today are from my IFM circle. Since I graduated Laurence Jacquet has been my sounding board for any new opportunity in my path. She has constantly brought me excellent advice when I was hesitant to make a decision. I stop by the school and participate in juries every time I can make it work with my travel schedule. It is always such a pleasure to see the whole team. I have chosen an IFM student for internship almost every year since I graduated, and Laurence and Karine Piotraut are my first call anytime we need a new talent. 

This time of crisis is difficult but also fascinating as nothing similar has happened in modern history. As our NY Governor, Andrew Cuomo says " You don't want to build back what was, you want to build back better than before". This drive to do better is expected from all of us, especially from young students. We now have an opportunity to pause, observe, learn and act. Keep your mind and your eyes open, opportunities won't probably be the same as before, but opportunities will exist. 

4/ Could you tell us a few words of your experience of the IFM mentoring program ?

Accelerating the program and continuing to offer it during this crisis period was a brilliant idea. Perhaps more than any other class, 2020 students are going to have tough times ahead. Patricia Lefebvre Milon assigned me a student based on what he was looking for with this program and my areas of expertise. We now have a weekly zoom with Vincent and I really appreciate our discussions. I want to believe that it will help him avoid repeating some of my mistakes and to find shortcuts to success. Once students have graduated they can look to have this type of mentorship with someone at work - which is great and can be really valuable when it happens - but I like it even more outside of the workplace and within the IFM family. It allows for the sharing of straight forward and honest views and opinions.

5/ How do you see things will be evolving in retail and fashion in the next few months in your category ?

We need more time and more data to be able to understand the evolution of the virus and the economic & social repercussions. As more countries are "reopening" the next couple of weeks will be crucial to estimate how many waves of the virus we will face – if any. 

Several businesses in the USA have already filed for bankruptcy: J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, & John Varvatos to name a few. The retail and fashion landscape will be different after the crisis. 

The crisis is not over yet and it is financially complicated for any size of company. Of course for the small independent labels, but even for the ones protected by investors or who belong to a group. For everyone the first priority will be to survive, protect the cashflow, and make sure they’ll still be part of the industry landscape by 2021.

I hear some brands are making up really well with only their e-com channel, almost reaching LY April’s results without any physical store sales. Focus on e-com is an obvious and necessary change that will remain in place for the coming years.

A lot of brands are currently rethinking their upcoming collections. First, by reducing their offering as a lot of wholesale customers have cancelled or drastically changed orders, but also because worldwide factories have closed for several months and the time lost can’t be caught up.

Then I hear a lot of brands going toward a simpler wardrobe, more essential looks and safer choices for the customers. I understand and agree for most part. Though, once the crisis is past and the collections are out I believe customers will still want to express some joy and freedom through their outfits to forget about the previous gloom.  

I also believe the calendar will slow down. Fewer collections & drops, fewer discount periods and a return to true seasonality with a "buy now wear now" customer mentality. Today's manufacturing cycle is not sustainable, everyone has known it. The industry has been talking about it for years and something needed to happen to force a change.

The fashion industry is a bad student in terms of carbon footprint and sustainability. I believe no one was ignorant to the need for change, no one was directly against moving towards more sustainability but the progress was slow. This crisis will fast forward the changes needed to reach sustainability. We are all entering this world with passion & now is the time to think and do good.