Generation Chanel

Fashion People

In this episode of Fashion People, Lauren Sherman interviews Patti Pao, founder of Restorsea, longtime Chanel V.I.C., and unexpected TikTok sensation

Key takeaways

• Chanel's enduring success stems from deep client relationships and a commitment to exclusivity, not just product quality.

Main topics

• Chanel's legacy and client relationships
• The Dumas family's business philosophy

Notable quotes

"We despise the secondary market. You and your mom can buy what you want. We've known you for 40 years." – Dumas family on Chanel's client loyalty.

Conclusion

Patti Pao's story illustrates how deep personal connections, authenticity, and

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:04) Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Lauren Sherman, word of Puck's fashion and beauty memo line sheet. And today with me on the show is Patti Powell, Restoracy founder, Chanel VIC, and TikTok star. Patti is also a Harvard MBA with years of experience as a fashion and beauty executive. We're chatting about the transformation of the luxury industry, why Chanel works, and what it's like to be a 65-year-old social media influencer. And I promise you so much more. Before we get going, I wanted to remind you that if you like this podcast, you'll definitely love Puck, where I send an email called Line Cheat. If you're a fashion person, you get that reference. It's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries. Line Cheat is scoopy, analytical, and above all, fun. Along with me. Speaker 1 (0:58) A subscription to Puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment, media, sports, politics, finance, the art world, and much more. If you're interested, listeners of Fashion People get a discount. Just go to puck.news slash fashion people to join Puck or start a free trial. Speaker 1 (1:21) Happy Friday, everyone. Hope you're having a great week. I would love to make this longer and talk about the Met Gala and Anna Wintour and John Galliano and all that stuff. But honestly, I have just been doing too much work. I did go to a great dinner for Cezanne at their like amazing temporary space. Well, it was outside on Rue de Bac. They set up the table outside. There was probably, I don't know, 80 people. It was really beautiful. But they have their old store is now the menswear brand and the kids stuff. And then they have this like giant store in the old Conrad shop across from Le Bon Marche. And that's going to be there. And then their offices are nearby. Anyway, it was really interesting. I got to sit with Laura Brown who came to town for it. And Emily Zak from... Speaker 1 (2:13) late of Condé Nast International, who I had never met in person. It was great to meet her. And it was fun to be around a lot of people speaking French and not translating for you. Anyway, it was interesting. But if you want to read more thoughts on the Galliano, Met Gala, Anna Wintour, of it all, literally every single issue of Line Sheet this week has a big thing on it on... Monday and Tuesday, I wrote about it. On Wednesday, I wrote more about the theme and like what they should actually do. Should they change the timing? On Thursday, I wrote about whether or not Anna might like step back or whatever. And my thoughts were on that. And then on Friday. Speaker 1 (2:59) Dylan Byers, who's our media reporter, who wrote an amazing piece on Wednesday about it all, too. And then Mary Meneker, who covers art. We did a crosstalk, and that's going to be published on Friday night in the Friday email. So I'm sorry. I talked about it on Monday. I appreciated all the feedback, good and bad, or Tuesday, of what I said. you got to subscribe to LineG. I'm tired. And we did a lot of work on it. So you should check it out and let me know what you think. And I'm also going to try to publish as much of the feedback that we've gotten as I can on Friday if I have time. But yeah, this is a developing story. I don't know what's going to happen. I thought I knew what was going to happen on Monday. And nothing has kind of... Speaker 1 (3:49) come happen the way I thought it would. So this is not a game. I'm going to know how it, how it ends. Like, it's just not that kind of situation, but I appreciate, send me your thoughts. What do you want me to write about? What do you want us to talk about on the podcast? All of that stuff, because I will have a podcast on Monday where we can, we can chat about these things. Amanda Dobbins from The Ringer is going to be on. I'm going to hang out with her in Venice. So we'll have some stuff from Venice and Emmys and all that stuff. But like she has thoughts on this. So if you want us to discuss this more on Monday, send me info. I hope you have a great weekend. And that's it. Speaker 1 (4:36) Patty Powell, welcome to Fashion People. So good to see you. So good to see you. I know. I can't even believe it. I've known you since you were 26 years old. It's true. I'm 44, Patty. That's 18 years. I know. It was incredible. I was thinking to when we met and you interviewed me, you were a reporter at Forbes. You were killing it. And then one day you called me. Well, two things happened at Forbes that were very momentous. One day you were like, this guy at work, like just keeps bugging me. And I go, really? And I go, what's he like? And you're describing him. And I go, he sounds very nice. And you're like, I don't know. And I go, I don't know, Lauren, I think he could be a keeper. And sure enough, it was Dan and you ended up marrying him. The second thing that happened was I was working. Speaker 1 (5:34) in Kelly Catron's office on Graham Street and you called me crying and you're like, I just got fired. I'm like, come over. We had breakfast at Le Pan Quotidien and I'm like, this is the greatest thing that's ever going to happen to you. And I go, you're going to do big things and I'm very proud of you because you went on to be the editor of Fashionista. You were the editor of Business of Fashion. And now here you are with the line sheet, which is honestly. Speaker 1 (6:03) I'm not a fashion person, but it is like the Bible, right? I don't read Women's Wear Daily. I only read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Wine Sheet. Patty, thank you for giving my biography. I appreciate it. But also, you were a fashion person for a long time, which is part, and you are a fashion person, which is part of the reason I wanted to have you. Thank you. You are amazing. I now remember this when I got, I've, I would say laid off because I'm still sensitive about it all the 20 years from now. But yeah, I do remember I called you because I was like, these fuckers. I was so annoyed that I got it. I mean, everybody was getting laid off, but I got it and I was so pissed. And it did end up being the best thing that ever happened to me. And if you get fired, it's a good thing. It's always good. Speaker 1 (6:57) Patty, you just mentioned breakfast at Le Pan Quotidien. What did you have for breakfast this morning? That's the first thing I always ask people. Oh, I had a leftover. I have this weakness for the Starbucks iced lemon loaf cake. And so I had that for breakfast. It's pretty good. Yeah. It's delicious. A lot of sugar. My favorite Starbucks is the spinach feta wrap. That I used to get when I was at Forbes. I would get off the ACE and go to the Starbucks on 14th Street and get a spinach feta wrap. It was so good. I know. What did you have for breakfast? You know, I didn't have breakfast. I skipped it, intermittent fasting. But I did have an amazing rice bowl with tuna, like negitoro bowl at this really awesome place in Paris called Our House, which is like they do like a bento and they're owned by the same people who own these coffee shops, Dreamin' Man. And it is... Speaker 1 (8:03) It unfortunately gets very busy, but if you go at like noon, you can get, and they don't take reservations, and it's only like probably 12 seats. So if you go at noon and people don't eat that early here, which I do, I went yesterday by myself and had the like salmon, miso salmon bento, but today I went with a friend and we got the tuna and it was just, ugh, it's to die for. I love Japanese food. I'm not a person, I couldn't eat Japanese food every single day, but it is. Honestly, I was like, I need to stop coming here so much because I'm going to get sick of it. But it's such a nice meal. It's like 25 euros. It's just a lovely lunch by yourself or with a friend. And if you come to Paris, we'll go. Are you living there now? Yeah, we moved here. Wait, you got from her? Wait, where's Fritz going to school? Fritz goes to school in, he goes to like a bilingual school here. Speaker 1 (9:02) Yeah, because Dan and Fritz have Polish passports because his mom is Polish. Yeah, so we were able to make the move, which is really nice. I must introduce you to one of my best friends. Her name is Pauline Genestier. Her father is the lawyer for Hermes. And there's a point to this story. He took me. So Hermes, 25 years ago, decided they wanted to own their own leathers. They have their own tanning process. So they bought an alligator farm in Mississippi. And Mr. Genestier is like, do you want to come? I go, yes. So I got to see their alligator farm in Mississippi. And the funny story to it is, is that in 2001 or maybe, yeah, 2001, I went to the Fulberg St. Honoré to order a bag for my mom. Speaker 1 (9:58) And it was an alligator Kelly. And, you know, it was custom made, the whole thing. Those were the days. And when I went to go export it, U.S. Customs is like, let me get this straight. The alligator came from Mississippi. I go, oh, yeah. And he goes, and he's being repatriated to the U.S. I go, pretty much. Yeah. But I want to introduce you because you would really like him. Oh, my God. I love it. That sounds fabulous. Sounds great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. So can I. OK, I just have to interrupt you for one second. Yes. Does this mean if Fritz doesn't like Paris, can I have him? I told Lauren. Patty, you're definitely on the list. I told Lauren that I would exchange my entire Chanel collection for her son. He is the he is a superstar. Speaker 1 (10:54) He's very cute. You know what he said he wants to be when he grows up. I want to know. A Lego YouTuber. Oh, what did you say? This is like what a five-year-old now, instead of like wanting to be a baseball player or something, he wants to, well, he says he wants to be Spider-Man also and Peter Parker, but even though he's never seen any of these movies, he just knows about them via Lego. Wow. And so he's like, I would like to be, because we let him watch like building videos. And he's like, I would like to be a Lego YouTuber and I'm going to be rich. Speaker 1 (11:28) You know what? A man after my own heart. Yeah. Patty, you do need to meet him. Either here or L.A. or New York or something, and you guys could go on a little date. He will love you. I know, I know. I just think he is the most charming person. Okay, not to be personal, and you can cut this out, but you need to have a girl because his looks are wasted in a boy. No one cares what a man looks like. This kid is like, I'm done, Patty. It's fine. You could keep it, but I'm done. I'm 44. It's over. Okay. So why did you move to Paris? Oh, you're so funny. I have to interview you after this. Sorry. I think basically we really liked LA. I do think it's a bit isolating. I was traveling a lot for work because I wanted to. Like, I don't. Speaker 1 (12:23) I could do it all on the phone. People know me, but I think being able to meet people in person face to face is really nice, especially not during fashion week. Like I messaged an executive yesterday and I said, I w it was like a more of a personal message. And I said, but I'm looking forward to seeing you or I'm a meeting with a high level comms person the week of September 14th. Like these are things that I wouldn't be able to do if, if I was just coming in and out and it. That flight is hell from LA to Paris. Yeah, horrible. And we don't want to move back to New York. I'm done with New York. I think Dan would have been open to that. But we both wanted to be in a city. And we have this opportunity. It's not simple, but it's simpler than for most people. And Paris is amazing right now. It's so international. Speaker 1 (13:19) It's, you know, I hate to say this because it's offensive to people who grew up here. And I understand, but it's much more affordable than America. We have, it just is, it's an amazing life. So we just felt like it was worth it. And we'll see. I don't know. I think if we moved back, we'd move back to LA. I really loved living there. I love our friends there and our life there. But this just feels like, you know, we're both 44. We're... Speaker 1 (13:47) both working a lot and also an amazing experience for Fritz. So we'll see. I do think it's crazy. I do think it's crazy. And then I promise I'll let you interview me. I think it's so crazy in Paris that the apartments don't come with kitchens and you have to, you have to have your own kitchen. Well, yeah, you have to buy your own, your own refrigerator and stuff. You know, honestly, the most frustrating thing about it is that everything, a lot that we could, we could get because, When you're renting here, they don't really, I mean, we haven't been living here. We had been living here for like four months when we started looking for a longer term rental. It's very hard to find something. Like they had to do like old dossier showing who I was and all that stuff, even though like budget wise, it was. Speaker 1 (14:35) it was pretty easy and we'll be able to hopefully save a little bit of money living here. But, um, I don't know. I'll be spending it on, on clothes, unfortunately, but, um, but it, it, it was hard to get something that was unfurnished. So we like there's, we're, we're shipping some of our stuff here, but most of the stuff is like we is theirs. It's it's, and we, we found an amazing apartment. in an area that we love. So we feel lucky, but, um, I hope that we can buy a place here at some point just because, yeah, it's, it's odd. Like, Speaker 1 (15:13) It was just, we couldn't find an unfurnished place. We couldn't find, it was hard to find a three bedroom. So we would have an office in an area that we liked. And there's just so much competition for apartments here. It's crazy. But yeah, it's a weird, it's a funny, it's a funny thing. There's many funny things that we're learning. Oh, and all my friends, it was hilarious because the elevators are so tiny. Yes. So literally. Their furniture came in through the windows on a crane. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We are lucky we are in a... Speaker 1 (15:51) multi-floor place. So it's kind of like a townhouse, what we got. So we won't have that issue, but we do have many steps. So we'll see. We didn't, we're not, we need, I need to get a new couch. That's the next step. But yes, it's amazing. You have to