Interview with J.Crew's Bridal Designer Tom Mora

Today, I'm featuring an interview with Tom Mora, J.Crew's head of wedding design. Last May I had the chance to attend the opening party for J.Crew's brick and mortar store bridal store in New York. While J.Crew had been selling dresses online for a while, this dedicated store signaled a shift in how mainstream companies are approaching the wedding market. In a little over a year since then, other large companies have launched more seriously into the bridal space, but J.Crew has managed to stay ahead of them. Here is Tom's take on all things wedding-related:

How did you get into design? 
My parents were very young and very stylish when I was growing up. My dad shopped at Barney’s when it was on 17th street and took me there for my first sports jackets so I guess it was bound to happen that I would do something in fashion. I was always interested in design and in high school I took every art class I could and there were many. I always seemed to come back to fashion design.

How is designing for brides and bridesmaids different than designing an everyday line for women? 
A woman’s wedding is one of the most special days of her life, so we try to make the experience of the dress very special. We really think about the details and the finishings, what fabric the bride is going to have against her skin, what the dress looks like when it is open, what she looks like from behind as she is walking down the aisle. For bridesmaids it’s similar but I think we just want women to feel sophisticated, confident and comfortable. So many bridesmaids dread wearing the dresses picked for them. With J.Crew dresses, they are excited.

Your bridal store on Madison is beautiful and very thoughtfully planned out. How do you feel the environment of the store affects a bride when finding her dress? Do you feel that an online shopping experience can offer something similar? 
The store evokes a calmness and feeling of warmth that the bride hopes to experience on her wedding day. We are trying more and more to make the online shopping experience as special as the store experience. It will obviously be a different sort of experience but hopefully still satisfying.

Are you seeing that brides shop differently than your typical female J.Crew customers? If so, in what ways? 
In many ways it is very similar. Brides visit the wedding boutique with a very specific dress in mind. Many main line J.Crew shoppers come into our stores with their J.Crew catalogue dogmarked with exactly what they want to buy. Women are attracted to the beautiful, classic designs and unique variety of colors that have become signature of J.Crew as a whole.

With so much competition in the bridal fashion sector, how do you stay true to your creative vision and stay inspired? 
It is important to stay true to your vision and that’s what we try to do at J.Crew. I admire many bridal companies but we really approach designing wedding dresses differently. Obviously they are wedding dresses but they are really just beautiful dresses.

Where do you see bridal trends going in the near future? 
With the bridal market being as full as it is, I think there will be more and more companies going after niche businesses. Our niche? Beautiful, timeless, elegant, easy, comfortable and chic.

The grass is always greener . . .

 . . . where you water it.

Some people have a strong brand name. Some people have a great business model and a strong balance sheet. The Venn diagram of companies who have all of these is shrinking.

There's a good chance that any jealousy you may feel toward another company in the wedding industry is misplaced. Keep your head down and work hard on your projects and take any social media bragging with a grain of salt.

Seeking Advice on New Ideas

There are many well-meaning people in the world who will tell you your idea doesn't have legs. That it can't be monetized. That it is such a change to the marketplace that no one will use it.

Perhaps they're right. Or perhaps their vision just isn't broad enough to see the possibilities that you do.

Seek advice for your new ideas, but if it's an idea that you believe in, don't let the fear of being misunderstood stand in your way of pursuing it.

On Drama

Real problems will find you; you don't need to invite fake ones to dinner. -- Jason Fried

Rockstars vs Rock Solid Professionals

My friend and colleague, Sean Low, has a saying, "Some people want the rockstar vendors, most people just want vendors who are solid as a rock."

What does it mean to be solid as a rock? Here's my interpretation of Sean's insight:

You know who you are, and more importantly, you know who and what you are not.
I am an idea girl and I am gifted at strategy. I love helping other people figure out how to do what they do well, in a better way. Currently, this means helping people better communicate their story in order to improve their business.

In contrast, I have wanted to sing on Broadway since I was very young. It has been a lifelong dream. It is never going to happen, for the singular fact that I cannot carry a tune. My love for singing and my ability do not and have never matched up. Believe me when I say there is not enough vodka in Russia to get me to sing karaoke. It is that bad.

Just because something makes you happy (singing), does not mean you should make a career out of it. The sweet spot comes in finding what makes you happy AND what you do well.

You can sleep at night knowing you offer a high-quality product and service.
If you are charging for a service, you should be able to back it up with the knowledge and skill to match. Learning your industry's buzzwords so you can sound knowledgeable on your subject may fool the star-struck for a while, but it won't fool anyone else.

Last night I was working on a project and emailed two graphic designers I work with, Trisha Hay and Kelly Ashworth, to ask them to identify a font for me. They both responded right away with the exact font name. What I had spent an hour and a half trying to figure out prior to asking for their help, they could tell within seconds from just a glance, and on a small-screened iPad, no less. I told them they were amazing and Trisha replied, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, "I paid for all those type classes in college, I better be." Trisha and Kelly's abilities don't just come from being gifted in design (though they are) but from putting in the hours of the tedious work that makes them good at their craft.

If you want to be rock solid, Twitter less and pick up your camera and shoot non-assignments, take an interior design class, learn your region's fire marshal laws for venue capacity and tenting, memorize the Crane's Blue Book of Stationery Etiquette (I had to do this when I ran an invitation shop - annoying at the time, but still invaluable today), study the rules of typography, etc.

You may do 50 weddings per year, but your clients are aiming to have just one wedding over the next 50 years. It is a huge emotional investment on their part, and it needs to be one on yours as well. Respect your clients by truly knowing your craft.

Your identity is made up of more than your career.
If you claim to eat, sleep and breathe weddings, first, change your marketing, and second, get a life. Yes, you should love what you do. You should also love other things as well. Family, friends, sports, knitting groups, book clubs, gardening, cooking . . . having varied interests outside your career allows you to unplug and recharge, which makes you better focused when you return to your work. For a stronger foundation, choose to be a lifeaholic rather than a workaholic.

I am sure I have more opinions on this topic, but that's it for now. What are your thoughts? What do you think makes someone rock solid?



Originally published August 2010. 

Waiting For the Rinse Cycle to Complete

Social media doesn't turn a person into a hero or a fraud; it amplifies who they already are.

The truth about who people are - good or bad, flexible or legalistic, expert or charlatan, smart or not the brightest crayon in the box, and everything in between - will all come out in the wash in due time.

The part that requires patience is waiting for the rinse cycle to complete.



Originally published May 2010.

The Not-So-Anonymous Internet

Rule of thumb: if you post something online, assume anyone can find and read it. Your boss, your clients, your mother, your mother-in-law, your siblings, your boyfriend from five boyfriends ago. 

Emails and Twitter DM's get forwarded. Facebook updates and private forum posts get copied and pasted and then forwarded. Your blog gets read by strangers in remote parts of the world.

The fact of the matter is that six degrees of separation is real. Somebody somewhere will always be randomly connected to one of your connections. It's easy to get comfortable when using the web or social media and slip into a mode of assuming that the only people reading your blog posts or updates are the ones you see commenting or following you. This couldn't be further from the truth.  

You may be venting about a situation to what you think is a limited group of people, but in the end it could cause irreparable damage to a relationship. Some things are better shared over cocktails or coffee, not online. It is possible to be both transparent and maintain appropriate boundaries. Guard your relationships; they are what matter in the end, both in business and in life.



Originally published July 2009.