GREATEST: Madison Blank
The head of menswear at Saks Fifth Avenue is welcoming the merge between luxury, streetwear and sneakers.
As luxury brands increasingly place their bets on streetwear, sneakers are quickly moving from the street into the department store. Madison Blank, head of menswear at Saks Fifth Avenue, is helping to facilitate the sometimes exciting and sometimes controversial marriage between these two worlds. From her sneaker-filled apartment, Blank talks to us about her spin on tackling this mission as fashion and retail undergo tremendous change.
I wanted to start by talking about the emotional space of fashion.
[Fashion has] become so fast and commercial. It’s more about getting it out there, selling it and then onto the next thing. It’s just business, like the manufacturing industry—there’s no thought or passion. It’s not how it used to be with the ateliers and the houses and the importance of the embroidery, the colors, textures and feel. Now, labels just want to get famous and move on.
Exactly. I used to see beautiful dresses that would make me cry, but it’s not like that anymore.
It’s so sad, too, because designers are constantly interchanging, even when you think they’re going to be somewhere forever. I think about Hedi Slimane replacing Phoebe Philo at Céline, Riccardo Tisci taking over Burberry and Anthony Vaccarello at [Yves] Saint Laurent. You can’t hone in and be passionate about a brand anymore. The second I got used to Raf [Simons] at Dior, he moved to Calvin Klein. There’s no weight in brands anymore because you never know if it’s going to be relevant or not in the next season.
I guess that’s a good segue into your relationship with fashion.
My relationship to fashion started when I was younger. My mom has been working at Saks [Fifth Avenue] in women’s for almost 27 years. Her division has always included higher end brands like Chanel and Balenciaga. She goes to Europe for fashion week to buy for the company as well as for her special clients. I grew up watching her style, her fashion sense, her passion for clothes. Her clients watched her for every new trend and fad: what she was wearing and how she was wearing it. I always knew I wanted to be in fashion, but I decided to take a different route. I really loved men’s clothing—streetwear and sneakers in particular.
I was also always a tomboy. I’ve been a huge sneaker collector since the age of 10, especially Allen Iverson sneakers. I loved the men’s industry and knew that’s what I would eventually do. Men’s has taken off—everyone’s talking about men’s—but I loved men’s back in 2012 when no one was talking about it. My relationship to the men’s industry is a little more authentic than other people’s. They’re just bandwagon-ing now because men’s is where it’s at, but I’ve been there since the beginning.
What is it that attracts you to menswear and the sneaker world?
It’s the easiness and comfort of their clothing. I’m not a girly girl; I don’t like getting dressed up or wearing makeup. Men’s clothing—particularly sneakers— gives me the confidence to really be who I am. I always wanted to make that personal love relevant.
Is that style pretty opposite from your mom’s style?
When she first started, yes, but she’s become completely obsessed with streetwear and sneakers. Now you have Chanel, Céline, Gucci, Prada— everyone’s making a sneaker. I don’t think streetwear is going anywhere, and sneakers even more so. They’re even blending into women’s fashion, and that means my mom, too.
So you had this interest in streetwear and this legacy from your mother. How did you end up at Saks?
I graduated school, worked at KITH for a year and a half, then at GQ for almost three years and then I was at Barneys for a little over a year. While I was at Barneys, Saks approached me about a men’s fashion director role. My mom actually didn’t want me to do it. She wanted me to do something that was completely my own and that fit my vibe. But I decided to do the interview anyway, and when they offered me the job, I didn’t see how I could turn it down. It’s funny because my mom had said for years that I would never end up at Saks. It all came full circle. We’re both there now, doing our own thing.
How did you do with the transition from editorial?
I was ready to leave editorial because there was just no growth for me there. The magazine itself was going downhill. The styling wasn’t creative or authentic anymore; it was all about fitting in an Armani or Canali suit because they were paying $35,000 for a page. Unfortunately, GQ can appeal to a demographic of men that doesn’t have an advanced eye. They’re not looking for the newest and edgiest suiting or sneakers. That just took the fun away for me, and I decided editorial wasn’t the route for me anymore.
Do you find that edginess and creativity at Saks now?
Our guy at Saks isn’t a risk taker; he’s definitely more traditional and sticks with what he knows. But that’s why it’s such an exciting time for us because we have so much room to grow. We’re focusing on curating more exclusive product and launching new brands.
How has the menswear director role changed in the last 10 to 20 years?
We’re in a much different space right now. Men’s is the new women’s. Men’s sells better for us at Saks than women’s at this point, so our messaging is changing and so is the way our client buys. It’s a really exciting time. It wasn’t that long ago that men’s was practically a moot point—it wasn’t the selling factor. That’s all changed.
I also want to talk about the metamorphosis of streetwear and the way it’s been incorporated into luxury brands. I. How would you describe this tension between streetwear and luxury?
When I was working at KITH, I used to think that streetwear was this more affordable version of casualwear. But fast-forward to 2018 and streetwear has become luxury, and I think it’s about fucking time that streetwear gets the notoriety and respect it deserves. It’s only going to get bigger and stronger. I personally don’t see it going anywhere for a very long time.
It’s not just about affordability or luxury, but also about whether it’s still a subculture. Do you feel protective about that subculture?
I felt that way when I started wearing Off-White. I was wearing it in 2014, when no one knew what it was. Fast-forward to now, and Virgil is literally everywhere. I still covet my original pieces though. I don’t even think it’s about affordability at this point because people would probably spend their last month’s rent on a pair of [Balenciaga] Triple S’s. They’ll do anything to get that “most hyped up” piece of luxury streetwear.
But it’s not just about a single brand either. Street style isn’t only about style, it’s also about lifestyle. As soon as something becomes too big, it stops associating itself with a certain group of people.
Exactly, I feel like it just loses its coolness factor. That’s how I feel about Gucci. I think it’s beautiful, but I personally wouldn’t wear it because everyone wears it.
Yet, your client at Saks is the mass.
That’s exactly right. When I first started, my boss said her biggest critique of me was that I always said “I” instead of “We” to align myself with Saks or with our customer. I’m still struggling with that. I personally want to bring these brands I’m passionate about to our company, but are they right for our customer? I never asked that question because I’m always thinking about what I want to stand for. I forget that, at the end of the day, our customer is that mass demographic. They’re not so avant-garde.
The role of the department store has changed so much, too. It used to have a natural authority, but it’s not that way anymore. Something like KITH has more authority now.
Boutique stores like Hirshleifers and SSENSE hold all the weight in my book. When I told people I was leaving Barneys for Saks, people said it wasn’t my aesthetic. That made me want to go there more just to prove we could make Saks cool—make it into what people think it’s not.
What do you think is the role of the department store now and in the future?
The department store will always be relevant; I just think it’s just changing. Everyone wants an experience, and come fall, for instance, we’ll have L’Avenue’s sister restaurant coming into Saks on the ninth floor. Our renovations for the two men’s floors will be finished in 2021. Beyond that, there are a lot of things at department stores that you can’t get elsewhere. We’re the only store in the world— other than Louis Vuitton’s own stores— that carries Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear. We carry Chanel, we carry Balenciaga, we carry Dior. There are lots of places that don’t carry those brands.
What brands are you into now?
I love Stone Island, which we just launched last season. It’s been around forever, but it’s new for us. I also love Louis Vuitton and the changes happening there. There’s Fear of God—I probably own every single piece of clothing that Jerry Lorenzo has ever made. Nike is my life—I don’t wear adidas. I don’t wear any other sneaker brands other than my Chanel sneakers; Nike is number one for me.
Can we talk about some of the pairs that you have an emotional connection with—the pair that makes you cry?
There’s one pair of Nike SBs called the ‘MF Dooms.’ That’s probably my twelfth pair of Nike SBs. I had a severe SB obsession when I was younger, when SBs were still relevant. I had no money to pay for them. I was working a summer job, and I begged my parents to help me. They were like, “No, you have too many pairs of sneakers.” So I ended up babysitting as many kids as I could in one week, just to make enough money to pay for these ‘MF Dooms.’ The other pair are the ‘Coves,’ the first pair of ASICS I’ve ever owned. It was the first pair that Ronnie [Fieg] gifted me when I was working at KITH. He’s been a role model that I’ve looked up to probably since I was in college or even before.
Photography by Isabella Bejarano and Interview by Mary Wang