MBS Events
Yasmin Yusuf, Creative Director, Marks & Spencer
In conversation with Iain R Webb, Fashion Director, ELLE Magazine
Thu March 27, 2003
| Sketch, London
“No, no. I am very proud of what I do and the company that I work for,” says Yasmin Yusuf when I ask her how she feels about becoming part of the establishment, “but I am not a corporate bunny”.
Of course, in reality, that is what she has become, because ever since she took that job as creative director of Marks & Spencer high street chain, the eyes of the fashion and retail industry along with the fat cats in the city (counting the days till their next Christmas bonus) have been watching her every move. However, as with everything she does, Yusuf is managing to do it very much her way.
There is something delightfully mysterious about Yusuf. Mysterious enough to get some of the biggest hitters that themselves define fashion, retail, music and arts along to the Haunch of Venison art gallery to see her put on the spot at another MBS “in conversation” evening hosted by Moira Benigson. So what is it about Yusuf that has made her of such interest to so many. There is one question that hangs in the air. How has she managed to turn around the fortunes of Marks & Spencer?
“Well, when I started I got a letter from Stephen Quinn (publisher of Vogue/Conde Nast) that said, ‘It it important to the British economy that you get this right’. So with that pressure on my back I arrived at the turnstiles..”
What was the first thing she did when she walked through the door?
“I left Warehouse on the Friday and started on the Wednesday. My first impression was that it was like visiting a really bad private hospital. I couldn’t understand how you could run a business because there are two hundred and twenty people in womenswear alone and it is on two floors and people don’t know each other. So I go into this room and there are just the worst selection of synthetic blouses you can imagine and even more people and they did a presentation of autumn/winter stock. Everyone was suited up, very confident and talked a lot and had reams of paper and figures, and they did their numbers and I went, ‘Who buys this stuff? Who actually out there makes the decision to buy this?’ That was my first morning. It is better now”.
Having known Yasmin since the 1980s when she worked in the ultra-cool fashion store Jones on the Kings Road I have always been fascinated by her straightforward approach to dressing women. When I interviewed her during her years at Warehouse she told me her secret: she watches women. ‘With Warehouse it was more niche so when I came to M&S it was a major mind set change. So instead of going to New York to check out the stores you go to Chicago because it’s more mainstream. Instead of going to maybe Ibiza or the West End you go to the Chelsea flower show to see all the mothers and grandmothers. The main thing we had to do was to establish the classic customer. I never saw myself doing classic but I enjoyed it because it worked, and now that customer has upgraded. Everyone is younger for longer".
Did she miss her own wild child nights from the 1980s? “Yes!” she laughs, “but I have a new number two arriving to work at my side and part of her criteria is to get me back out there”.
What is the biggest difference between then and now?
“You sometimes think you had more fun then, even though it was a business. I think it just got much more serious. There are a lot more players and the numbers are bigger so you have to be far more focused, more serious. I kind of like that, I couldn’t cope with just doing fashion all the time. You took a lot more risks then, but you can’t take as many risks now”.
I wondered if she had a career plan?
“No. Ages and ages ago I wanted to be a curator of a museum but ….” Having worked at Jones and then Harvey Nichols, Yusuf entered the corporate environment of Warehouse. It was there that her boss Derek Lovelock decided it might be a good idea for her to have a coach to help her manage the way she worked. He sent her to Peter Hogarth.
“After three hours he said, ‘I have never met anybody in my whole life, a thirty-five year old woman, doing the career that you are doing who is such a sad case!’ From then on we started building a career plan and we have had a fantastic working relationship ever since. He has really helped me all the way through. So, when you say do I have a career plan, I haven’t, but the people around me I think have. I kind of do what I am doing and don’t see anything outside:
Having accepted a job that one journalist described as ‘the poisoned chalice’, what did Yusuf see as her biggest challenge?
“The publicity and the fact that you couldn’t do it privately or you couldn’t turn around this massive machine at your own pace, in your time. Every single thing was public and I think that is still the hardest thing”.
Does she enjoy being the boss?
“I don’t necessarily see myself as the boss, I don’t actually have a big team reporting to me, I mean there are three thousand people in the building. I couldn’t do what I do if I didn’t delegate. I would like to think that you work with people to make it happen. A good example is Lynne Franks (massive fashion PR in the 1980s). When she was at her peak you saw an incredibly visionary, bright marketing person that actually surrounded herself with up and coming people and it just got stronger and stronger because there was this pool of energy and ideas. So say, for instance, the woman that I work with on the launch of the new Limited collection. I have a vision of what I want and she takes it even further, then the production person takes it further, because that is their skill. You make sure the mood is okay. It’s your job to do that”.
Yusuf’s success is that she lives the life. She is inspired by the new and ever-changing scenery be it the Art Deco exhibition at the V&A, La Boheme on Broadway, a piece of music or “just somebody walking along the street looking really stylish”. Tonight she is wearing a black V-neck Essentials top with black satin-back crepe pants by Anthony Symonds for Autograph. She carries a black top-stitched handbag from her new baby, the Limited Collection.
“You just have to be about day-to-day. You just have to get on with what you are doing, you are hands on and you have got to be. Some people tend to distance themselves from the market they are actually in. I am kind of in the heart of it all the time.”
Yasmin Yusuf hasn’t really changed much at all since I first met her. She may protest at being called a ‘corporate bunny’ but she has a right to, because she is so, so much more…
He sent her to Peter Hogarth, with whom she has had a fantastic working relationship ever since.
“I kind of do what I am doing and don’t see anything outside” . When Moira first approached her to go to M&S she did not take any notice. " … If it wasn’t for her and many hours of late night conversations I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing and I thank her for that and also Derek who game me my first break and took a risk. I am surrounded by people who support me and believe in me and I have been given a lot of opportunities"
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