Susie Crippen, the co-founder and creative director of the denim line J Brand, talks about her life in fashion.
My parents were very particular about how I dressed. I always had to dress up for special occasions, and "appropriate" clothing was always worn. During the 1970s in Connecticut, where I grew up, when you went to someone's house for dinner, or a cocktail party, everyone dressed up. My mother would not let me wear anything she thought was too risqué. When girls were wearing clogs, platform heels and tights, I wasn't allowed to wear them. I had to wear loafers and knee socks with my skirts. When we would go to formal dances at school, I wasn't allowed to wear revealing dresses. My dresses had to be more conservative and appropriate for a young girl going out as opposed to a young girl pretending to be an older woman. For my mother and father, it was very important that when I was a young girl, I was a young girl.
I've held on to that idea in terms of how I dress today too. I keep it simple and clean. I follow the rule that if you're going to show skin, what you should wear is something flowing and a little bit looser, but if you wear something tight, you should be covered up.
Clothing in our house was something we all loved. My dad had impeccable style and so did my mother. My dad was a businessman. He would wear suits every day and he wore the same kind of shoes for years. He always wore black or dark brown Brooks Brothers wingtip tassel loafers. In the military he would get up in the morning and shine his shoes and they always looked exquisite. My dad was one of those people who wore flat-front pants, tweed jackets, and a beautiful Brooks Brothers or J Press shirt.
My mother had beautiful dresses, not anything over the top, but very classic, feminine clothing. I remember this one particular outfit that my mother got for the new year one year. On New Year's Day, everyone's usually tired from the night before, but my parents had a big party and they would serve turkey. They would also have football games on and had fires on in all the fireplaces. Everyone who came, no matter how tired they were, they dressed up. My mother got these pleated white palazzo pants and she had this maroon velvet vest with gold brocade around the edges that went over it. She had a large costume jewellery pin that was ruby and had brass on the outside. She looked like a cross between Jackie O and Jennifer Connelly. Gorgeous!
My mother was beautiful. She did her hair and she had long fingernails. She was from the South, so she had a beautiful smile on and was very gracious and loving. I just remembered her walking around the house in those palazzo pants. They were so flowing and beautiful.
She had this classic sensibility, but at the same time, it was thoroughly modern. That's kind of the way both of my parents dressed. The clothes were classic in their roots but looked modern and contemporary in their presentation. So they never looked outdated.
When I was growing up, my mother would make clothes for herself and out of the remnants she would make my sister a mini dress or she would make me a skirt. When we were old enough to learn how to sew, we would go out, buy a pattern and pick out the fabric on Saturdays and Sundays. If there was a dance we wanted to go to, we would make our dresses.
There were two things that worked out from that. One, we would learn how to sew; and two, no one else had the dresses we were wearing at the dance. My sister became really good at it. She can make anything. I'm not so much on the construction end, but I know what I want and I can explain what I want.
So we would do that on weekends and it was a really fun thing to do during a cold Connecticut winter, with the fireplace in the background, sport on television, and everyone there.
For me, the greatest thing about making something or putting an outfit together well was the satisfaction of feeling good if I loved what I was wearing. It is my theory, and also the kind of theory that we built J Brand on: that if you love what you're wearing and you feel good about yourself, you're going to go out in the world and be a different person. If you're comfortable, you don't have to give a second thought to your clothing. You can just be yourself.
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Guide to intelligent investing
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Cofe
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 80-100
Amount raised: $13m
Investors: KISP ventures, Cedar Mundi, Towell Holding International, Takamul Capital, Dividend Gate Capital, Nizar AlNusif Sons Holding, Arab Investment Company and Al Imtiaz Investment Group
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded