Fashion for All: Brandon Maxwell & Walmart’s Denise Incandela On Why Walmart Belongs At NYFW

Hello, everyone.

This is amitalk Retails and Mazinga.

I'm live here at the Walmart New York Fashion Week Pop up in the meatpacking district here in New York City.

And standing next to me, I have two of, maybe I'm starstruck, honestly, like two of my favorite guests on the planet.

Next to me you have Denise and Candela, the EVP of fashion at Walmart, who you've met before on our show.

But then we have the wonderful Brandon Maxwell.

Brandon, you are the creative director for Scoop and Free assembly, correct?

That's right.

Among many other things.

As well as his own incredible brand.

As well as his own incredible brand who you're celebrating 10 years this year, right?

10 years in business.

10 years in business.

41 years in life.

41 years in life, yes.

10 years in business.

But that's a really, really wonderful thing and congratulations to you.

That's a lot of hard work that goes into that.

It is.

Well, let's start by just giving our audience a quick overview.

Denise, for those who are meeting you for the first time, give us a bit of background on what you oversee in your role as EVP of fashion at Walmart.

Sure.

Thank you for having us.

We really love talking to you and we really love being on the show.

So thank you for thinking of us.

We're super excited to be here.

My, my job is to be EVP of fashion for all of Walmart, which includes our stores as well as our online business.

And I've been with the company for about seven years at this point, only about four years overseeing Omni and it's been an extraordina extraordinary privilege.

Well, and Denise, let me, let's talk a little bit about first of all, where we are right now and how this kind of fits into the overall strategy that you're, you're pushing forward here at Walmart when it comes to the fashion component of business.

Yeah, we've been on a transformation journey over the last four or five years and we've been working to overhaul our assortments to improve the quality of our private brands, bring in coveted national brands.

We've been overhauling our experience or shopping experience that includes both the stores as well as online.

And then of course, we've been working to broaden our customer reach and change perception.

So this pop up shop, which is our third pop up for Walmart in New York City, which is the number one fashion market and very important as a fashion retailer, frankly, serves all three purposes.

It showcases our extraordinary elevated brands and assortment.

It provides an Experience where the brands are the hero and then it changes perception.

And I think, I hope you agree that when you see what we're doing here, it is quite extraordinary.

And Brandon, who's been a critical part of our strategy, we, Brandon and I sat down.

How many years ago, Brandon, probably how.

Many years ago was like maybe five or six?

Yeah, I was going to say four or five, but it's probably five.

Maybe five.

Yeah.

And we had breakfast and we immediately, immediately connected and realized that we both very much wanted to democratize fashion and believe that beautiful clothes should not be expensive and everyone should have access.

And so we have done this partnership together and it's been phenomenal.

Well, let's talk about a couple of those brands, Brandon.

Free assembly and Scoop, you have your own line, but in this space, what Denise was just talking about, you really are helping Walmart to democratize fashion for all of us throughout the country to get a sense of what it feels like to be styled by someone who also styled Lady Gaga.

Like, how do you bring that expertise, that those special touches to the products that you're designing for Walmart and for America?

Well, first of all, thank you for having me.

It's my first time here and I'm thrilled to be here and to meet all of you and very excited about today.

This is a dream come true for me and all who work on the brands.

This is just so exciting to.

You know, I had my own Fashion Show 24 hours ago or 36 hours ago.

Amazing, amazing.

And now we're here opening this, our third pop up which we love and are so much fun for the creative team.

So I hope you check it out.

You know, working with these brands is really no different than working with my own brands.

You know, I'm a very design focused person and creatively led person and that process is no different at Walmart than it is at Brandon Maxwell.

You know, we sit in the room and we try to think about what's best for the customer and what's going to be fresh and what's going to be forward and what's going to make them feel their best.

And I've been so excited for the years that I've been here that that process really is no different.

What you are experiencing here in Scoop and Free assembly is the same process that is happening behind the scenes for your very sort of high fashion brands.

And that's what's so exciting about it for me is I think that fashion.

Should be for everybody, but just at extraordinary price points.

Extraordinary price point.

We're talking like $15 to $35 average unit retails for quality.

That is mind blowing.

I would say that we have the biggest price gaps to market in the whole fashion box in these brands, Meaning these brands are like a third, a fourth of what you would pay outside of Walmart for this kind of quality and aesthetic.

Well, I want to talk about some of those pieces.

And, Brandon, there's a very special limited edition piece that you have here.

I already.

Spoiler alert, everyone.

I asked Denise what her favorite piece was, and Brandon's about to describe it.

So, Brandon, why don't you tell us a little bit about the limited edition piece that you designed for this event for.

For this.

This fashion week.

And then I'd love to get your perspective, too, on making sure that you still include those special touches when it comes to the design that you do for your own collection.

But again, bringing it to the masses, bringing it to America.

Without further ado, the blazer, everyone.

Yes, the blazer.

Okay, so when I launched my brand 10 years ago, I was not selling in any stores, and so I had dreamed to sell it in the store, and I sold my first collection to Bergdorf Goodman, but a very small amount, right?

And so.

But I had on my list, as I said, too, I really dreamed of being at Walmart when I started.

And I thought, maybe one day I'll meet someone.

The way I met Denise is for like, a year before meeting Denise at every party, I was like, does anyone know her?

Does.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with her?

And so that was my talking point at every party.

And so, you know, 10 years in business is a pretty big deal for an American fashion brand.

I feel very excited about that.

And to also be working with the, you know, my dream company that I always wanted to be at.

And so to celebrate that milestone, I wanted to bring back my very first jacket that I ever created to a larger group of people.

It's limited edition here, and it's for $98.

And that is incredibly exciting.

You know, I. I've been so bl.

Blessed by the people who have welcomed me here and our customers who have been so thrilled about what we're doing.

And I wanted to give them, you know, a little piece of my brand as a thank you, you know, and so it's very exciting to see it back.

I haven't seen it in 10 years.

To be in the fittings in my office and to see the jacket from 10 years ago that I worked for months and months and months on by hand, like I was so excited about that jacket.

And I just kept.

I remember making that jacket in the tiny little office, just thinking, like, I wonder if my career will take off.

And so you can imagine that this is a pretty incredible moment for me to be here and to see it.

It's pretty amazing.

Yeah.

And Made in New York City.

Made in New York City.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's a really touching story, Brandon.

I'm so glad that you get to bring it to life again.

Denise, let's talk about how and where you see some of the items here being sold to the rest of the country.

How do we take what's happening in this space right now at the pop up, the data that you're collecting from that, the blazer, like, how do you think about these things being available to the rest of the country?

Yeah.

So we launched these brands about four years ago.

What we have here today is Free Assembly, Scoop, no Boundaries, and Avia.

These brands, Scoop and Free assembly, are elevated brands, or those are the ones that we've had lucky enough to have Brandon partner with us on.

And we are doubling the store exposure of these brands for free Assembly.

It's literally every single store will have free assembly.

And for Scoop, it'll be in half of our stores.

So by the end of the year, our customer will have access to these brands in a much more significant way.

And I will say that we've increased our inventory inventory by 100%.

I was just saying 100% this season without even doubling the store count.

And we still can't keep them in stock.

So the customer loves it.

And it's because of the value that you're seeing the quality and the aesthetic.

So the pop up is really meant to showcase the brands in a unique way.

In New York City, where we don't have a footprint from a brick and mortar point of view and create the buzz with influencers.

And in New York City, which is such an important market, but these brands are available in most of our stores at this point.

And what we learn from having the pop up is we get new customers, we get incredible social exposure, and we get a sense of what really resonates in these urban environments so that we can think about how do we back the inventory going forward.

So these pop ups are so important from a generating buzz in the industry, generating buzz with the influencers, or get the word out, because frankly, we've done so much work to improve the quality, but if people don't know about it, it falls flat.

And so we're working to help America understand What we've got to offer.

Well, one more question that I have for you.

I was just at the Walmart Sellers conference a couple of weeks ago in San Diego, and Latrice Watkins, your chief merchant, was up on stage talking about how she really sees Walmart's role right now as being the personal stylist for America.

And I would ask you to people who might, who might question, they might say, New York Fashion Week, what Walmart, what's Walmart doing at New York Fashion Week?

Brandon, how would you answer that?

Well, I mean, I think that I have always believed that and I know Denise believes in all the teams that we work with here at Walmart that fashion should be for everybody.

I grew up in a clothing store with my grandmother that she ran.

And, you know, I had the experience at a really young age of seeing how transformative a piece of clothing is and how the experience of getting dressed can make you feel, it can change how you, you know, we interact with people that day, how you see yourself.

It's incredibly powerful.

And I think that that feeling and that experience should be for everyone.

And, you know, why not Walmart be here?

Walmart is America's store and we should be for everybody.

And we are.

And it's incredibly rewarding.

I mean, even today, just getting ready in here and getting everything perfect, seeing people come by and photograph in the window and it's inciting Scoop two.

The original Scoop store was in the meatpacking district.

Right.

And so to see that excitement from people and to see these brands grow is just, it's incredible.

Yeah.

And New York Fashion Week means a lot to us.

Right.

New York Fashion Week is iconic.

We want to be part of it.

And so we have.

This is our third pop up in conjunction with New York Fashion Week.

We feel it's really important to stand for fashion at Walmart.

And you know, the way that we act as personal stylists is like everything you'll see as you walk through and as you look in our stores or online, you know, things go with each other.

Like everything goes together.

And so we want America to be beautiful and we want to help make America beautiful.

Well, I want to thank both of you as someone who lives in the middle of the country and is so inspired and feels so incredibly fortunate to be part of this event.

Thank you for bringing fashion, for investing in the rest of the country, not just keeping it to an elite few here.

Fashion is for everyone.

Walmart is America's store.

And we're so thankful that you both took the time with us today and for our audience to share your story with us.

And I'm excited.

Janiece, where's the next pop up going to be?

We'll probably be right back here in New York City.

No, I was secretly hoping for Minneapolis.

I'm not going to lie.

But.

But no, we'll see.

We'll see you all hopefully here next year for New York Fashion Week Round 4.

Round 4.

Probably be in February for the next New York Fashion Week.

Amazing.

Well, thank you for having us.

Yes.

Thank you both so much.

Again, thanks to all of you for joining us.

And until next time, be careful out there.