KEN DOWNING
Photography and Interview by Dustin Mansyur | Creative Direction by Louis Liu | Styling by Marc Sifuentes | Grooming by Lydia Brock
As one of the most influential personas working in fashion today, with thirty years of experience, Ken Downing is surprisingly down-to-earth. As Senior Vice President and Fashion Director for Neiman Marcus, one might assume the fashion industry heavyweight to be cool and aloof. However, upon arriving to the Soho studio for his portrait, Mr. Downing is anything but. He brings with him an energy of responsive openness and light-hearted excitement. Equal parts fashion psychic, global brand ambassador, and raconteur, Downing’s agile ability to juggle the many weighty responsibilities is balanced by humorous and effervescent charm. “It takes a bit of crazy to stay sane in the ever-changing world of fashion,” he jokes.
The power of intuition has been a guiding force in his life and career, and his playful approach to those he encounters has only reinforced this gift. “The opportunity to spend time with my customers keeps me grounded to the reality of the end user, it’s the greatest education. Every time I’m in a store meeting customers, I’m all ears. They keep the dream of fashion real!”
As a member of the CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund, Downing scours the globe in search of uncovering fashion’s most promising emerging talent. “I see with my heart and my soul! I rely on gut instinct! My heart, and my gut are hard-wired to my eyes, beauty always drives me, it’s as simple as that,” he gushes. His candor is surprisingly refreshing.
Perhaps because despite the hefty accolades of titles (which are enough to be any aspiring fashionista’s wet dream), Ken is still quite in touch with where he started. Attributing much of his success to the formative support and encouragement his mother gave him as a child, Ken is pleasantly honest about his upbringing, “I was a child with an enormous imagination, I lived vicariously through the pages of my mother’s Vogue magazines…when most parents would have feared a child who openly voiced an interest in fashion, my mother encouraged me, even though it was far from the conventional route for a little boy, she allowed me to embrace my desires. I never looked back!” It’s the kind of back-story that’s relatable to many who work in an all-too-real industry built on the allure of fantasy.
Beginning his career at the global luxury retailer in 1990, Downing joined Neiman Marcus’ visual department in Beverly Hills. Just two years later, he was promoted as Visual Manager in the same store, thereafter furthering his career to Director of Visual Planning and Presentation in all stores. Excelling naturally in the art of communication and a gifted curator of media, Downing subsequently advanced to Vice President of Public Relations in 1997 before being appointed to his current role in 2006. Here Iris Covet Book gets a glimpse into the glamorous, jet-set world of one of the fashion industry’s most efficacious guiding lights.
Where did you grow up and did your interest in fashion begin in youth?
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, in Seattle, with a fashion-obsessed mother and grandmother. Both of my parents had great style, and felt personal presentation and image were important, not only in how they dressed, but also how they decorated our home and how they entertained. Style touched every aspect of my life from an early age. It became wildly apparent early on that teddy bears and toy trucks held little interest to me, I was far more fascinated with the way people dressed and how they decorated their homes. That’s not necessarily normal for a child of five or six years old, but it’s what my eye was drawn to.
How did you get started working in the fashion industry and was this a career path you imagined for yourself?
I was a child with an enormous imagination, I lived vicariously through the pages of my mother’s Vogue magazines, her pattern books, and home and garden publications. My mother and grandmother made most of their own clothes, taking the bodice from one pattern, adapting it to the bottom of another, switching sleeves, sewing clothes out of non traditional fabrics, like swimwear Lycra. Growing up around fabrics, notions and the constant whir of the sewing machine pretty much set me on the path that ultimately became my career. My mother, unknowingly was determining my destiny, she denies it, but it’s pretty obvious when I look at the influences that surrounded me. She was busy building the Neiman Marcus Fashion Director from afar.
Can you describe your current role and responsibilities at Neiman Marcus?
As the Senior Vice President/Fashion Director for Neiman Marcus, I set the tone each season for the fashion direction of our men’s and women’s businesses. As the global fashion ambassador for the brand, I interface with local, national and international media and press communicating the trends, style and runway relevance of each season.
My fashion communication goes far beyond style and business media, it includes the importance of fashion communication within the Neiman Marcus Group organization to our Merchant teams, Advertising and Marketing teams, Public Relations and Visual Merchandising department to ensure a consistent fashion message across the entire brand. My fashion communication is often shared with designers and showrooms around the country and around the world, giving insight to collections and brands of what we, as a fashion leading retailer are most interested in for the coming seasons. When I’m not at market, sitting front row, or working with my teams in showrooms, I’m traveling to Neiman Marcus stores, curating trend fashion shows and meeting customers face to face at personal appearances, a part of my role I love, and find the most rewarding. Writing has also become an important part of my role as the Fashion Director, contributing to the Neiman Marcus Blog, designer interviews, marketing communication, fashion forecasting and more!
Of course, uncovering new and emerging talent is another facet of my role that I enjoy tremendously, through my work with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, or keeping my radar finely tuned to new talent, discovering the next design greats is not only rewarding for me, but ultimately rewarding for our customers and their closets!
What have you learned the most within your current role as Senior Vice President and Fashion Director?
The most important thing I’ve learned and that I continue to allow to drive me to this day is NEVER forget the customer! It’s why we do what we do. Also what my mother told me years ago, “Pretty, NOT peculiar; no woman wants to look weird.” These are words I live by.
Have you ever had a great mentor and what did they impress upon you?
Mentors are amongst us, and we often don’t realize their influence until years later. Obviously my mother has been a great influence to me from the very beginning.
My Art History, History of Costume professor from college, Francis Harder, who I keep in contact with to this day, believed in me from the very beginning and encouraged me to never give up. She knew intuitively I had the “it” that it takes to succeed.
Diane Von Furstenberg, whom my mother brought me to meet as a young boy in Seattle. Diane asked me when I met her “What can I do for you?” I replied “I want to work in fashion” her words have stayed with me for decades, “You will darling, you will!” and I do!
And certainly Anna Wintour, one of the smartest, most driven women in our industry. Anna’s commitment to the success of our industry and its talent is unparalleled. She inspires me every day.
What trends are you into this season that the Neiman Marcus woman is going to respond to?
It’s an exciting season! I’m crazy-obsessed with the many Ziggy Stardust, glam rock references that filled fall’s runways. Performance-stage style with the abundance of bold gold and the gleam of the many metallics look particularly fresh, and give instant glitter rock relevance to everything a woman will wear for the season. A gold shoe or gold boogie, immediately updates everything.
Velvet, velvet and more VELVET! Shoes, handbags, ready-to-wear for her; and velvet for him, giving a Mick Jagger swagger to his wardrobe. Velvet is as essential as denim in my opinion for the coming season.
Embellished, decorated and adorned; everything continues the importance of the opulent glam rock recklessness that makes the season shine. Handbags, shoes, and ready-to-wear have never seen so much adornment and decoration since the late 70’s and early 80’s. Maximalism for fall proves that more is more, less is a bore.
As a member of the CFDA and Fashion Director of Neiman Marcus, you are constantly attentive to what’s on the horizon in fashion and its emerging talents, what upcoming designers’ work are you following and inspired by presently?
New and emerging talent are the future of fashion, and the fresh voices that keep us eager for what’s next, I’m big fans of the team at Monse, Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, Texan Brandon Maxwell who cut his teeth creating Lady Gaga’s style and Brock, the husband and wife team Laura Vassar and Kris Brock.
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The advice I give all women is this: dress in a style that is flattering to your personality, your figure and your position in life. Love the skin you’re in!
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What designers’ shows are you looking forward to this season?
I am always excited about a new season and the new message that designers put forth, approaching each season with fresh eyes keeps me hungry and curious for the new, the next and the noteworthy. I’m a huge fan of Joseph Altuzarra and look forward to see what he presents in NY, I am also a big fan of Jack and Laz, at Proenza Schouler. Erdem is a must see for me in London! Alessandro Michele has been nothing short of brilliant at Gucci, a favorite season after season. Demna Gvasalia has in a short period of time created a sensation at Balenciaga. With a new collection to be premiered by Valentino alum Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior, and the newly appointed Anthony Vacarello at the helm of Saint Laurent, there is much to anticipate in the coming season!
What style advice would give to any woman who’s looking to revamp their look?
The advice I give all women is this: dress in a style that is flattering to your personality, your figure and your position in life. Love the skin you’re in! Wear clothes that give you confidence, not clothes that make you feel uncomfortable. Fashion is 99% confidence, 1% the clothes!
You are a huge supporter of the arts, what philanthropic projects do you have in the works that will benefit the arts?
I’m crazy excited about a massive project that I’m currently undertaking in my newly adopted city of Detroit. I am in the process of renovating a 100-year-old historic mansion in the Arden Park neighborhood of Detroit, that when completed with be an “Artist in Residence” to house up to 4 talents, with painting and sculpture studios in the Carriage garage. The house will eventually be my full time residence, with the intent of being an epicenter for art, fashion, and other cultural events.
While the project is as much preservation, as renovation, the home will be filled with site specific installations and many works of the artist that will be in residence on the property.
As a collector, I have always had an enormous fondness for young, emerging artists, and am excited to create an environment that encourages creativity, while contributing to the rebirth of a great American city that has captured my heart.
What artistic movements do you draw inspiration from?
Art, artists and artistic movements have always inspired me, my mother instilled in me at an early age that empty walls should make me nervous, and they do!
I am not particularly loyal to any specific time period or genre of art or artistic movement. Much like fashion, my heart, my soul and my never-lying eyes, lead me to my passions. I can’t imagine limiting my creative spirit!
Who or what are you collecting at the moment?
I am a collector of art, furniture, real-estate. Collecting is my greatest addiction, when I’m not sitting with great curiosity front row at the runways of the world, my curious spirit takes me on adventures to galleries, museums, art fairs, and undiscovered neighborhoods around America. They say, “Curiosity killed the cat,” but I certainly have no intentions of dying from that!
With the demands of the fashion industry’s schedule, you live a global jet set life. What essentials are a non-compromising while traveling?
If it was only that easy! I’m a very seasoned and efficient traveler. As much as I love maximalism, when it comes to travel, I’m the ultimate minimalist! My needs are simple, a Starbucks grande latte is truly my only requirement in the morning, unless I’m in Milan, where I do super cappuccinos from Bianco Latte! My motto when I travel is “Live like a local.” It allows me to see the world through a local’s lens. I find that ultimately the most rewarding.
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I have always had the ability to make solid decisions on the spot, and don’t over think things.
Overthinking signals a lack of confidence.
I am thoroughly confident in my decisions and point of view.
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In order to balance your many different roles, do you have any daily rituals
that you practice that you find give you focus or clarity?
I find that putting out the fire closest to my foot, while addressing each situation that is put in front of me with immediacy is the only way I can keep ahead and stay focused.
I have always had the ability to make solid decisions on the spot, and don’t overthink things. Overthinking signals a lack of confidence. I am thoroughly confident in my decisions and point of view. Gut instinct has always served me well, and a Starbucks Grande Latte!
The fashion industry is experiencing massive changes while in process of adapting and embracing technology. What do you foresee for the future of the
fashion industry?
The digital era we live in today has changed our industry in ways many haven’t begun to embrace. The immediacy and speed that the customer is receiving information, living fashion in real time is a game changer, that will ultimately change the industry.
Fashion fatigue is real, customers tire of trends and styles long before they ever reach traditional brick and mortar or online e-commerce sites. The exciting news is that the customer is super engaged with fashion and trends, technology has opened the conversation of fashion beyond the traditional boundaries in ways many could have never comprehended.
The challenge is aligning customer excitement within a time frame that goods are available to purchase. The old model of fashion shows being 6 months in advance of fashion being delivered is antique and outmoded. The conventional fashion show is no longer a retailer, press experience; it’s has become a mega-marketing extravaganza geared to the public and social media.
The paying public does not have the attention span to hold interest in anything for sixty seconds, let alone six months. I foresee that traditional fashion show taking place in real time as goods are being delivered to retail, with buying appointments taking an “old school” approach, happening in the quiet of showrooms for retailers and top press, without the aid of social media leaking the looks.
Time will tell, but to save the integrity of the retail model and the integrity of great design, it will become not only necessary, but paramount to our industry to regain control of the imagery that is released into the stratosphere so we can excite the customer in real time, instead of lulling them into boredom by the time fashion is delivered.
In light of this immediacy demanded by consumer culture, how do you think e-commerce has evolved over the last decade or so?
Neiman Marcus was at the forefront of e-commerce as the first luxury retailer to go online over fifteen years ago. Today, e-commerce is so much more than just selling goods on a website. It is creating compelling content that entertains, as well as engages the customer. Creating an online experience that parallels in-store shopping is more important than ever as the customer shops both channels and expects superlative service no matter their channel of shopping.
What bearing does technology have on creativity in fashion at the moment?
Technology and social media has become the visual feast that ignites, excites and energizes our senses, technology is not going away, there is no putting the Genie back in the bottle, it will only become more and more prolific over time. It’s time that technology become the asset that it can be to our industry instead of the liability it has become currently.
What are your sentiments about social media?
Social media is a powerful channel of communication giving many and any, a voice about their passions and opinions, many positive, some, not so much.
As with any media, traditional or otherwise, you choose the voices and opinions you let into your life.
I feel great responsibility when I personally post and engage in social media, it is a mammoth platform for positive images and words. It also allows me the ability to keep the dream of fashion not only alive, but relevant for the world we live in today, welcoming many that may not have access to the world that I live in every day.
What admonition would you give to young persons who are considering a career path in the fashion industry?
The fashion industry has never been more embracing of young and emerging talent! What was once a velvet rope industry, has become far more inclusive, than exclusive. Work hard, experience anything and everything you can, and stay curious, you’ll achieve your dreams.
What’s a piece of style advice you always follow?
Good hair gets you everywhere!
What’s next for you?
Next is not in my vocabulary. Evolution is more my mode, the continuation of melding my love of art and of fashion. You may possibly see more of me on TV…I’ll leave it at that.
