Intro/Outro (00:02):

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time.

Mary Kate Love (00:14):

Hello, everybody. Happy Monday, May 4th. I’m Mary Kate Love. I’ll be co-hosting with my colleague Amanda today. Amanda, good morning. Good afternoon, rather. How are you?

Amanda Luton (00:26):

I’m great. How are you, Mary Kate?

Mary Kate Love (00:27):

Good. So Amanda and I have a special edition of The Buzz. Amanda, I think this is our third or fourth time doing

Amanda Luton (00:34):

The

Mary Kate Love (00:34):

Marketing edition of the Buzz. So Amanda and I both have a background in supply chain and marketing. And so we like to take this edition to look at a topic or a set of topics that have kind of marketing and supply chain overlapping with one another. So we were talking in the green room before this show about all the different topics that have marketing and supply chain overlapping, and it seems like it’s even growing more and more, I would say.

Amanda Luton (00:59):

Oh, definitely.

Mary Kate Love (00:59):

Definitely. So without further ado, our theme for today is actually the Met Gala. And so Amanda and I are both big fans of the Met Gala, right, Amanda?

Amanda Luton (01:09):

Yes. I cannot wait to see everything tonight.

Mary Kate Love (01:12):

We should get a live Slack going tonight about our favorite looks.

Amanda Luton (01:15):

Love that. Yes. I love that. We don’t

Mary Kate Love (01:17):

Include Scott though.

Amanda Luton (01:19):

No, just me, you, Catherine, maybe a couple other people.

Mary Kate Love (01:22):

Exactly. Exactly. And if you don’t know what the Met Gala is, that’s okay. We’re going to tell you what it is, number one. But number two, we’re going to tell the whole supply chain story of the Met Gala. So there’s going to be some really cool tidbits, key takeaways. A lot of the kind of pain points in the supply chain for the Met Gala are likely things you feel in your business. And just overall, thinking about an event at this scale and the supply chain behind the scenes that goes across the entire globe, as we’ll get into is just a really cool story to tell. Amanda, why don’t you tell, I don’t think all of our viewers will know what the Met Gala is. So why don’t you … Actually, at first we should go through a few announcements, right? And then we’ll go into the details of what the Met Gala is.

Amanda Luton (02:07):

Yes. I’m so excited too, Mary Kate, because yeah, so my background is in fashion merchandising and marketing. So I’ve known about the Met Gala for a long time. I am super excited about kind of diving into the supply chain aspects of it. So yeah, like Mary Kate said, let’s go through a couple of announcements first. For the month of May, the buzz is powered by our friends at Optologic. We had a great webinar last week with Vic and Gavin from Optologic on AI first supply chain design and it’s on demand now. So if you missed it last week, no problem. We’ve got a link that we’ll drop in the comments and you can check that out. And then the reason that Mary Kate and I are hosting the buzz today is the rest of our team is in Orlando at Partner Supply Chain Symposium this week.

(02:49):

So we have kind of a light production week this week, but no problem because we are jam packed full of great software. On Monday we have the buzz. Scott will be back for the buzz. Shamus from Return Pro will be the guest on that show. And then Tuesday we’ll have the US Bank Q1 2026 rate payment index analysis. So we’re super excited about that. Wednesday, we have a great new webinar with EasyPost, how almost right shipping decisions turn into six figure losses. So Scott and Tevin Taylor will be hosting that one. And then next Friday, we will have Regine Villan and Billy Ray Taylor on with Scott for a new webinar in the Bridge series. There’s no finish line in leadership’s tips to optimize your strategy and execution. And Billy Ray and Regine both have wonderful, amazing careers. They’ll be sharing lots of leadership tips and information for that webinar.

(03:43):

So we’re super excited about that.

Mary Kate Love (03:44):

And I can’t see Billy Ray Taylor without mentioning National Supply Chain Day last week. Well,

Amanda Luton (03:50):

If you

Mary Kate Love (03:50):

Missed it, check it out. Billy Ray Taylor was our keynote speaker. We announced two awards. We had a ton of attendees. It was a great day to take a step back and celebrate the people of supply chain. So thanks again to Billy Ray Taylor.

Amanda Luton (04:05):

Certainly was.

Mary Kate Love (04:06):

In addition to all of our upcoming program, and also make sure, like Amanda said, if you are at Gartner, go ahead and find Scott and Catherine and our team members. But we also had a new edition of, with that said, so that’s our weekly newsletter. We touched on a bunch of news stories, a few of our recent episodes and some upcoming events. So that’s a great place to get all the information, clickable links, watch something you miss, see what’s coming up. That’s a great place. Make sure you sign up and you can find that on LinkedIn. So we will get back to the Met Gala, and it is always, Amanda, correct me if I’m wrong, it’s always the first Monday in May, right?

Amanda Luton (04:41):

I think that’s right, yeah.

Mary Kate Love (04:41):

First Monday in May is the Met Gala. It’s a little bit of a who’s who, if you will, with invites being given away to, I would say, mostly A- list celebrities, a few list celebrities in there too, right? Up and coming celebrities in there too. It’s about 400 guests every year. So it’s a big event, but it’s also, I think what makes it so enticing is that it’s not thousands of people, so you have to really be chosen to come to this event. It does have millions of people watching globally. Some people may not watch live, they may watch later, or I think all of us certainly look up … I shouldn’t say all of us. A lot of us look up the looks later on Instagram or TikTok or what have you. And it kind of brings us to this theme that we’ve seen at supply chain now that every great brand moment, so these big brand moments that we have in Superbowl ads, everything is really brought to you by a connected supply chain.

(05:36):

And you’re going to see that here today. We kind of have these three themes that will keep coming up. The first is artistry. So you’re going to see this is not fast fashion that’s happening at the Met Gala. This is a much longer thought out supply chain that sources from multiple places. And it relies very heavily on craftsmanship, which is an art that is hard to come by. I’m sure we all experience that in our personal lives. If you need something hemmed, I feel like you’re on a waiting list now that it’s not something that’s easy to come by. And the second theme is precision. So there’s a lot of insurance involved with moving these pieces, sourcing ethically. People pay attention right to the supply chain now. And these, we’re talking about multimillion dollar assets, the dresses and suits that people are wearing on this day of the event.

(06:25):

So you can imagine there’s a really quick turnaround with very precise measurements that need to be taken into account. And then also the third thing that you’re going to see, and this is kind of on the marketing side, is the velocity. So we’ve got a slide later that’s going to talk a little bit about how much quicker the supply chain reaction is in the fashion world now and how you’ll see a Met Gala look this Monday is going to be really responded to immediately and in stores in the next few weeks, which is really crazy to think about. There’s been major changes and obviously the fast fashion has a lot of cons associated with it that we’ll talk about too. But those are the themes you’ll see weaved in today as we talk about the Met Gala. And Amanda, if you have anything to add to that, but also kind of give us a little bit about what the Met Gala is, that would be great.

Amanda Luton (07:17):

Yeah. You really covered everything. If you don’t know what the Met Gala is or what in the world we’re even talking about here, it’s an event hosted by Anna Wintower. She’s the former editor. Actually, I think this is … Is this her first Met Gala as not being the editor? I think it

Mary Kate Love (07:31):

Is because it was the big transition this year, right?

Amanda Luton (07:35):

Yep. So she was the former editor of Vogue Magazine. And if you didn’t know the inspiration behind Miranda Priestly in the Devil Wears Prada, they just put out the Devil Wears product too. I think this weekend it just went out. But she has hosted Met Gala since 1995. It’s a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute and brands pay over $50,000 per ticket, probably much more than that if they’re buying tables or they’re having multiple celebrities there. But it’s not just an event. It really is a global brand stage. So if New York, Paris, and Milan Fashion Weeks are the playoffs, the Met Gala is like the Super Bowl of fashion. It’s everybody’s looking, they’re looking at new trends. They’re looking to see how the brands and the celebrities are interpreting the theme and the dress code of the night. But it’s absolutely equivalent to the Super Bowl as far as advertising and the Oscars when it comes to celebrity placement.

(08:33):

Because like Mary Kate said, the hottest celebrities, yes, will be there, but also like the young up and comers, the people that are just like on the precipice-

Mary Kate Love (08:42):

TikTok famous, but not

Amanda Luton (08:43):

Mainstream famous.

Mary Kate Love (08:45):

Yeah.

Amanda Luton (08:45):

They can be influential in lots of different ways. So lots of really influential people there.

Mary Kate Love (08:50):

Yeah. And it’s always interesting to see who gets invited and who doesn’t get invited back. I think that is a little bit of the lore of it, right? And wanting to be at the table. And some people take 10 years off and then they come back and it’s exciting. So it is very much a marketing ploy. There’s viral moments. Those viral moments do not happen on accident, right? There’s a lot of money behind this. And a lot of times political messaging or other messaging that is associated with the event for good or bad, but that’s just always how it’s been. And the theme this year is actually one that is at least easy for me to wrap my head around. There’s been a few themes in the last few years where even being into fashion, I’m like, I don’t really know what that means. But this one, the overall theme is costume art.

(09:38):

So this is inspired obviously by the costumes in the Met right now, and it’s the intersection of fashion art and the body over 5,000 years. So there’s a lot to see in the actual exhibition area there, but then the dress code, so they have a theme and then a dress code. The dress code is fashion, is art. So this really, I feel like could go a lot of different ways. In the green room, we were talking about probably likely a lot of paintings on fabrics. I’m going to guess we’re going to see different types of murals or I’m sure the beating intricacy will be even greater this year, but I think that theme, Amanda, is really a fun one.

Amanda Luton (10:16):

I think it’s a great one because I know some of the ones in the past have been very difficult to interpret, but this one, I mean, I think there’s really no argument that fashion is art. Exactly. It’s an art form already. Yeah. But if you want to take it very literally and think painting and think sculpture and I think we’ll see a lot of things like that incorporated in the designs tonight, but I think it’s always really interesting to see how the brands and the celebrities do interpret the theme and then you know how some people are just lazy and just show up in a tux or show up in a pretty dry point.

Mary Kate Love (10:54):

Don’t

Amanda Luton (10:55):

Do the theme. Don’t even go. I don’t want to see that.

Mary Kate Love (10:57):

The rest of your 364 days of a year don’t have to be a

Amanda Luton (11:01):

Theme,

Mary Kate Love (11:01):

But today the theme exists, right?

Amanda Luton (11:04):

Yes. Theme is for a reason, let’s respect it. So I want to see art. I want to see real art. 100%

Mary Kate Love (11:09):

Agree. So you know if people aren’t following the theme tonight, Amanda and I will be reprotecting each other. No.

(11:16):

And by the way, I want to say, we’re looking at your comments live here. So Jeremy, I love your comments. You say you have style. I love that. And you have an interest in startup and fashion too. So that’s awesome. That is definitely an area that we’re seeing more startups kind of get their hands in. The fashion world obviously has been typically harder to enter and now it’s with fast fashion and other technologies available. There is definitely new ways to enter as people’s shopping styles continue to change too. So we love the live comments, keep them coming. Okay. So let’s dive right into the hidden supply chain, what people don’t see going

Amanda Luton (11:52):

On

Mary Kate Love (11:52):

Behind the Met Gala. And like we said, there’s probably going to be pain points that you experience and you’re in business too in your own supply chain. So Amanda, what do people not see in

Amanda Luton (12:04):

The supply chain? I think this is true for the Met Gala. It’s true for hook tour fashion industry.

Mary Kate Love (12:10):

I’m happy you had to say that word.

Amanda Luton (12:14):

That’s one I do know. I cannot speak French except for a couple of things and sure that might be about it. But the custom garments that we’ll see tonight have been designed months, if not a year and a half. Yeah. And can literally take thousands of hours and maybe not hundreds of people, but lots and lots of people to create. Yes. They’re very, very labor intensive and it’s impactful because there is really a shrinking pool of artisans that can really continually create these designs. It’s very, very- Very

Mary Kate Love (12:50):

Complicated. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (12:52):

Very complicated. Yes. And it takes years and years to become a level of, I don’t even think seamstress, that’s not even a good enough word. They’re masters of their craft and it takes years for them to be at the level that it takes to create- That’s required

Mary Kate Love (13:07):

For this. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (13:08):

Hundreds of thousands of beads can be sewn by hand into some of these gowns, literally takes weeks and weeks to create. So if you think back when women used to gather together and quilt together, it’s like, this is the modern version of it. This is a modern

Mary Kate Love (13:23):

Version, yeah, with a lot

Amanda Luton (13:24):

More money

Mary Kate Love (13:24):

Behind it.

Amanda Luton (13:25):

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. A lot more money behind it. But the fashion, it’s an industry in which manual precision and craftsmanship is so highly regarded instead of these designs being optimized for fast fashion, for mass production, these are unique, one of a kind, I think literal pieces of art, which is so great this year. But the creativity and the artistry of the pieces are the primary goal. These pieces will be worn by celebrities tonight as one of a kind pieces of art. Yeah, they’re

Mary Kate Love (13:56):

Not.

Amanda Luton (13:57):

And I’m so excited about the theme too, because like I said, my background is in fashion merchandising. When I was in school, our major was pretty heavy design focused. So I was in design classes and- Yes.

Mary Kate Love (14:11):

How fun.

Amanda Luton (14:13):

Illustration and I’m kind of an art history nerd anyway. This is a good

Mary Kate Love (14:17):

Intersection of your background and interests. Yes.

Amanda Luton (14:21):

Yeah. And supply chain too.

Mary Kate Love (14:24):

I know. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (14:27):

But a lot of the materials too, this is I think one of the really interesting things is some of the fabrics, some of the beadings and the closures and the different parts of the garments are literally sourced globally. Yes. You hear like French silk and Italian textiles sourced all over the world, Italy, Middle East, Asia, all of the pieces that go into these garments, they’re literal global garments created by people all over the world. The

Mary Kate Love (14:52):

Best of the bus. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (14:54):

Yeah. It’s a very complicated supplier network that goes into the design and the execution of the garments.

Mary Kate Love (15:01):

Yeah. And I think when I was thinking about this, seeing procurement as part of the art, I’m sure if you’re in procurement, you don’t feel like you’re part of the art in the day-to-day, but you really truly are sourcing the best materials to create your end product, right? Whatever that is in your organization and thinking about it with the Met Gala, this example supplier network, obviously it’s much larger than this, but just to give you a sense, these are all the different places that people are sourcing materials from to create that gown or that suit, whatever they’re creating. And I think a lot of times with this, something this high end, a lot of it is about the relationships you have and who you are connected to in these different places. And that goes the same with our day-to-day business, right? When you’re sourcing and who you can trust and the suppliers of your suppliers and making sure your supplier knows them.

(15:51):

So it is this interconnected supplier network that makes the Met Gala truly happen. And you just think of the levels and layers of complication that go into that because like you said, the beading, think about when is the beating made? Who makes that? When do they start? Do they have the right colors? Do they have the right shapes? All of that stuff is just incredibly intricate and detailed

(16:14):

Going into this

Amanda Luton (16:15):

Day. These designers, they’re not heading up to the local hobby lobby to pick up a bolt of fabric. Exactly.

Mary Kate Love (16:19):

We’re ordering it on Amazon, right? This is very,

Amanda Luton (16:22):

Very

Mary Kate Love (16:22):

Different.

Amanda Luton (16:23):

Especially manufactured, especially designed if it’s printed, if it’s woven, all of the thought that goes into it. It’s not just like me, I used to make kids clothes. It’s not just me going up to Hobby Lobby, getting some cute fabrics and some ribbons and stuff and making up- And then the

Mary Kate Love (16:38):

Scraps that she just used to make kids clothes right here. So it’s like the woman can do it all. That’s amazing. But you’re totally right. This is so complicated in a different way. It’s just really cool to see it come together. And I think our next slide might have, yes, so the supply chain roadmap of what this all looks like. So again, the design and sourcing. So think about not only are you putting these sketches together and it’s like working with your prospect, right? But imagine your prospect is someone like Kim Kardashian who’s going to have a few opinions on what she’s going to look like. And then you go into sourcing, which I saw some comments in our live talk about ethical sourcing. That’s huge. And that’s never going to go away, right? And when you have a stage like the Met Gala, people are going to ask where you sourced from.

(17:24):

Was it ethical, right? What’s the story behind your materials? Sustainability aspects. Those are questions that brands now need to answer. We feel that in business, the Met Gala brands also feel that day today. And then couture production, right? As Amanda said, can take thousands of hours, finding the right people to do it, making those tweaks to fulfill the customer needs. Like we said, these customers are pretty demanding people. So I can’t imagine that back and forth process being super smooth. And then we

Amanda Luton (17:55):

Have

Mary Kate Love (17:55):

The global logistics side. So this is, we’re going to talk a little bit actually about Kim Kardashian’s dress in a couple slides too, but think about the insurance and the asset protection on some of these dresses and how do you make sure … Yes. And we were reading even about some temperature controlled transportation, similar to some food logistics, right? And making sure everything is so precise, pristine. I mean, absolutely there’s got to be a lot of attempts of theft on this day or near this day, before or after this day. So you can imagine the insurance and security that goes behind every step away. And then we have the day of ops. And if you’ve ever been a girl that’s been a bridesmaid in a wedding or a bride on your wedding day, you know a little bit about this and how everybody needs to get hair and makeup and be on a schedule times that by a thousand, right?

(18:49):

And you got to be ready for the red carpet. I know some people show up late and it’s always kind of, that’s reserved for the people that are like A- list to show up late, but there’s a whole process to this. As we all know, New York isn’t … You don’t have a ton of space, so you got to make sure people are in and out at the right time. It’s secure, photographers are lined up and all that. So you can think about it’s like a major, major event that is largely about the red carpet, which is open. You can see it, right? It’s right outside of the Met. I

Amanda Luton (19:20):

Think another thing, I mean, I guess this kind of goes into global logistics, but if you’ve ever seen some of these gowns and some of these truly like costumes that folks are wearing, you can’t just squeeze into the backseat of a car.

Intro/Outro (19:33):

You can’t

Amanda Luton (19:33):

Fit. Yeah. I mean, literally, maybe some of them are standing in the back of a U-Haul, some stuff, but just getting to the gala itself with these maybe hundreds of yards of fabric and some of these designs, just thinking about the transportation to and from and securing, making sure everything-

Mary Kate Love (19:54):

That’d be stressful.

Amanda Luton (19:57):

It’s really amazing to think about everything that goes into it. Yes.

Mary Kate Love (19:59):

It’s very complex. And actually, if we pull up the next slide, this is actually an interesting one because this is actually Marilyn Monroe’s original address that is on Kim Kardashian, kind of a controversial move. I think that some people loved and some hated, but that’s actually the whole point of the Met Gala. And this was a little different because this wasn’t a dress that was made, but in order to secure this dress, it was on display at a museum, I believe, and she had to be able to get it, to fit into it. And then she had to take it off right after she was on the red carpet because they wouldn’t let her wear it inside. So then they had a replica made of this dress so she could wear it for the rest of the evening. There was no body makeup allowed that she was not allowed to wear that.

(20:42):

Nothing was allowed to touch the dress. So you can imagine, she’s not even allowed to trip in this dress, right? So this is weighing out this risk management that a lot of us deal with in our day-to-day supply chain of taking on these risk asset protection, how are you going to manage what people need to be there on the day? When she was done walking up the stairs, they created a little box around her so she could change into the replica and then she had security take the dress away, right? So making all this happen for this viral moment, this happened in 2022 and we still remember it. We’re still talking about it today. So to say, I think she was … I didn’t love the dress, or I didn’t love this whole move, but safe

Amanda Luton (21:23):

To

Mary Kate Love (21:23):

Say she was successful in her approach.

Amanda Luton (21:26):

Well, that’s exactly what I was just thinking. I would be terrified. I would never be able to do this.

Mary Kate Love (21:32):

Oh my

Amanda Luton (21:32):

Gosh. So afraid something, the strap’s going to break or something’s going to happen. I don’t know that the- Someone’s going to

Mary Kate Love (21:38):

Step on the

Amanda Luton (21:38):

Back

Mary Kate Love (21:39):

Of it. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (21:40):

So I would really struggle with doing something like that. But like you said, it’s four years later and people are still talking about it and that’s kind of the whole point.

Mary Kate Love (21:49):

That’s the whole point. Yeah. And it’s really … If you think about this, this is a just in time zero failure supply chain, right? That’s really what you’re delivering on this day. There

Amanda Luton (21:59):

Is no second chance.

Mary Kate Love (22:00):

No second chance. And the sourcing of this was very unique negotiating with the museum that it was at in order to get it for what, two hours is really crazy. But to that end, we’re going to talk a little bit about the overlap in marketing with the Met Gala. So Amanda, if you can talk us a little bit about what you’re observing in marketing as it pertains to the Met Gala.

Amanda Luton (22:25):

Yeah. It’s no longer just a red carpet. It’s no longer just getting your picture snapped before you go into the awards, before you go into the gala. It’s truly, it’s leading up. It’s weeks leading up in TikTok breakdowns and news stories about who’s going, who’s invited, who’s not invited, the whole lead up to everything. But then the day of, it’s TikTok breakdowns, who’s wearing what, what’s the inspiration, lots of thought behind it. Get ready with me content. Behind the scenes drops and brand … They design outfits for going viral, right? Not just for beauty, not just for artistry, not just the moment, but to carry the brand and the chit chat about the brand and about the people wearing the brand, kind of continuing that going on after the event. What they want to see are memes. They want to see shares. They want to see conversation and engagement, just like any brand wants to see when they’re doing something or they have an event.

Mary Kate Love (23:25):

They make as much money on a commercial

Amanda Luton (23:27):

Video. Exactly. They want this to go … They want to take this as far as they can. One look can generate millions of dollars in earned media overnight. It can create fashion darlings overnight. Zendaya will see a couple pictures of her in a bit. Let’s see who else. Rihanna, Beyonce, Blake Lively. They’re all famous in their respective artistic genres, but they’ve become fashion icons now too.

Mary Kate Love (23:50):

Absolutely.

Amanda Luton (23:51):

So it’s big for the brands, it’s big for the people wearing the brand. Yes. Other Met Gala favorites, Coleman Domingo, Timothy Chalmay, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kendall Jenner, L. Fanning. This is influencer marketing at the highest level. Kylie Jenner, all these big names that are already big influencer marketers, the brands want these folks in their designs. And let’s see, there’s this dress. Yeah. And as you’re

Mary Kate Love (24:17):

Talking, Amanda, I’m thinking about, think about these relationships between the designer and the influencer or whatever we want a famous person and how that develops over time. And that’s securing a prospect, really. It’s

Amanda Luton (24:31):

Not

Mary Kate Love (24:31):

Just can’t imagine how many … If someone like Zendaya, how many people want to work with Zendaya and Dressenday. This is a relationship over time that needs to continue to be developed. And depending on the discourse afterwards, I’m sure that determines if they’ll work with them again or if they’ll switch it up.

Amanda Luton (24:49):

Yeah, absolutely. You hear about stylists, celebrities having stylists for years, but now celebrities have brand deals with the designers. I think Zendaya has been working with Louis Vuitton for a while. Margot Robbie works with Chanel or used to work with … So there’s a lot of these brand relationships-

Mary Kate Love (25:07):

That you

Amanda Luton (25:08):

Associate

Mary Kate Love (25:08):

With that person.

Amanda Luton (25:10):

100%. Yep. Very much- It’s part of

Mary Kate Love (25:12):

Their brand. And

Amanda Luton (25:13):

That’s just what I was going to say. It’s definitely part of their personal brand and it’s who the brand wants to inspire, wants to use that look, wants to use that same perception for all of their marketing and their messaging going forward. But this actually is one of my very favorite Met Gala looks. This was in 2019. Zendaya wore … I don’t remember the theme, what this was, what the theme was. Yeah. I don’t remember

Mary Kate Love (25:41):

Either.

Amanda Luton (25:42):

But this was a very wearable tech viral moment. But she was dressed … The dress looks like a Cinderella dress. It was LED lit. It was Tommy Hilfiger Design. Oh,

Mary Kate Love (25:52):

It was that year that it was camp.

Amanda Luton (25:55):

That was a confusing one for me. It

Mary Kate Love (25:57):

Was. But the one good thing about that one was people did crazy things

Amanda Luton (26:01):

Like this. Yes.

Mary Kate Love (26:01):

Yeah.

Amanda Luton (26:02):

They went all out. So this was LED lit, had complex hardware assembly all underneath. It had integrated circuitry and custom power packs, remote triggered light sequences. And the cool thing is this guy on the right side of the picture there, that is her stylist. And he’s the one that kind of put the fairy godmother wand or whatever down, I guess hit a remote or something. And then her whole dress lit up and it turned into … I think it was gray to start with and it lit up into the blue Cinderella dress right when she was on the big staircase, like going into the gala. It was like a pretty unbelievable moment. I was just going to say

Mary Kate Love (26:42):

It was such a moment that I hadn’t realized it was this many years ago because I really remember it. I

Amanda Luton (26:46):

Didn’t either. Yeah. But real time transformation logistics right there on the stairs. It was just a pretty, I don’t know, an amazing moment.

Mary Kate Love (26:54):

Yeah. And I’m sure a kind of scary one to try and pull off, right? I mean, how many times have you simply just signed in for a meeting and then your internet goes out? It’s like, what if that happens that day?

Amanda Luton (27:06):

That battery pack was what, in charge of

Mary Kate Love (27:09):

Something? Yeah, right. Yeah, you have to have everything so precise. And I’m sure they have backup plans as well, as many of us do in supply chain.

Amanda Luton (27:16):

Yeah, I would hope so. But yeah, every moment like that is planned out months in advance. So there’s so much planning that goes into this. It’s not just spur the moment decisions. It’s really, really thought out and planned for months.

Mary Kate Love (27:28):

Yeah. And that kind of is the next theme is the planning that goes into it and then the planning that comes after it, right? So this is about kind of this ripple effect we see in the supply chain. So now these viral social media signals are inputs for manufacturing schedules, believe it or not, right? Because you have places like … We used to always talk about Zara being the fast fashion in 21 days, right? They can turn it around. I think the sheen one got cut off by, I think that’s six days actually. It’s crazy. I want to say it’s six or seven days, maybe it’s eight, somewhere between six and eight days, the turnaround time, which there’s a whole nother conversation we can do a whole nother show about, we all know unfortunately what fast fashion is doing when it comes to waste, right?

(28:15):

That’s a whole nother thing. But just talking about what seriously happens after the Met Gala is that manufacturers will be affected about designers moving quickly, producing these products, really predicting demand spikes of what are people going to want to buy based on what went viral on the Met Gala, right? So that’s crazy to think about how one event could have this manufacturing and supply chain effect downstream. But Amanda, I’m sure you get hit with ads where you’re like, “I think I saw a dress that looked just like that on the carpet.”

Amanda Luton (28:50):

All the time. All

Mary Kate Love (28:51):

The time. A little bit scary how fast it is now, right? Yes.

Amanda Luton (28:54):

I remember after

Mary Kate Love (28:55):

Kim Kardashian’s look with the whole, she had that like black and single. Yeah, that started to be produced in different formats, right? But I kept trying to think of where I would wear it to, but I couldn’t find a spot. But nonetheless, it was manufactured and it was made, right? Your sourcing and demand spikes all have to adjust based on that if you’re in the fashion industry.

Amanda Luton (29:19):

Exactly. I just saw a comment that I’ve got to add in here. You’ll get a kick out of this, Mary Kate. Mark says, hi, Mark. It’s good to see you too. I was going to wear my rattlesnake hunt jacket, but wasn’t invited.

Mary Kate Love (29:31):

Mark, you should be invited. We’ll reach out to Anna Wintour.

Amanda Luton (29:36):

I would love to see a rattlesnake jacket. That might be interesting.

Mary Kate Love (29:39):

I actually think so

Amanda Luton (29:40):

Too.

Mary Kate Love (29:41):

See, it’s like you never know what’s going to be. It feels like rattlesnake is very, it’s art, right? It’s a form of art in a way.

Amanda Luton (29:48):

Absolutely. I love

Mary Kate Love (29:49):

It. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think bringing this all back to, as we were talking about and preparing for this conversation is we had a few key takeaways. We’ve hit on some of this, but one And being logistics is unsung hero of the day. That is so common. Actually, we talked about that on National Supply Chain Day last week, is thinking about these kind of last mile or the detailed logistics, like this white glove transport, things needing to be temperature controlled. All of this, this whole event doesn’t happen if the logistics are not there. Absolutely.

Amanda Luton (30:22):

Yeah.

Mary Kate Love (30:22):

And then this data being the new fabric that weaves us all together, right? The input, these viral moments being the input for manufacturing, people being prepared to respond to these viral moments, I think is huge. Again, that timeline for response is shortening and shortening. For better or for worse, it just is. But now you see something you like, you start to go and look for it right away because you can’t.

Amanda Luton (30:44):

Right away.

Mary Kate Love (30:45):

You don’t have to go to a store. You can just do it from your couch. And then also, we talked a lot about this, the high value assets that are being created on that day and then the runway to reality speed. So seeing this dress on the runway is this big marketing moment and you as someone watching it, think that a form of it is attainable to you. And they’re trying to sell to you that yes, you can wear something like this. However, we know you’re probably not likely going to be wearing a gown that took thousands of hours to create, but you can be inspired by it and get something that is a little bit more realistic, but it is about you seeing something beautiful and then you wanting it is really what it comes down to.

Amanda Luton (31:29):

I think it can be the fashion. I think it can be the accessories. It can be the theme itself. Maybe we see more art representation in seasons coming up. It can be in the hairstyles and shoe shape. That’s so true. You name it. It’s just from head to toe, literally the inspiration that can come from.

Mary Kate Love (31:50):

Yeah. And you don’t have to be in fashion or feel confident about fashion in order to actually be affected by this. We were talking about this too before that in the Devil Wears Prada. They sort of talk about we’re all affected by the decisions that are made in fashion. The color you’re wearing is that season’s color for whatever reason. Whether you like it or not or you care about it or not, we’re all kind of affected by these decisions and these marketing moments, if you will, affect what we buy, even if that’s just a pair of socks, right? Or your rattlesnake jacket, whatever it is, right? It just is affected by it no matter what way you look at it, which is pretty cool to think about.

Amanda Luton (32:33):

Yeah. I think it’s very interesting. And I think it’s amazing to see how something that feels so far away and something that can feel so far removed can really be impactful in your day to day.

Mary Kate Love (32:43):

It’s true. And I think that that is supply chain in general. It is something that impacts your day-to-day as well in your personal, and obviously if you’re listening to this, likely your professional life as well. And there are just so many moving pieces at any given moment. And what I loved about this story today was just looking at just singularly one day and all of the pieces that go into making that one day happen within the supply chain is such a great story about supply chain and really the people working in supply chain about how you have to think big picture and little picture basically every day.

Amanda Luton (33:21):

Absolutely. Totally agree.

Mary Kate Love (33:24):

Well, yeah, that was kind of the Met Gala overview, but we couldn’t end this without talking about, we have to share our favorite looks from over the years. So Amanda, do you want to start us off with … And for the people that aren’t into fashion, we won’t talk about it too long, but you just need to see what some of these looks are. Love

Amanda Luton (33:41):

This. So before I even read the Rudder Show to see that Mary Kate had mentioned Zendaya, I thought that was such- That was

Mary Kate Love (33:48):

So iconic. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (33:50):

Iconic moment. I think it’s so cool. I also, I’m not a huge fan of Blake Lively, but I think at the Met Gala, she has some amazing selections. I don’t know if it’s a lot of what she wants that goes into it or if it’s the designers that come to her. This one was like American fashion or something like that was the theme. And it was meant to look like the Statue of Liberty.

Mary Kate Love (34:14):

I remember

Amanda Luton (34:14):

That. Bronze and then the kind of patina from the statue. But when you saw her on the stairs, it really was amazing. Yeah. This is Coleman Domingo. And one of my pet peeves we touched on it a second ago, is if you’re going to the Met Gala, do something cool. Don’t show up in a basic tux or an evening gown or whatever.

Mary Kate Love (34:33):

Yeah. Cool.

Amanda Luton (34:34):

Yeah. Get a little funky. Get into the … Take

Mary Kate Love (34:37):

A risk.

Amanda Luton (34:38):

Yes. Do something fun with the theme. And so he always … I mean, this was a great look, but he has some other amazing looks and I always am looking to see what he’s wearing because I think he really-

Mary Kate Love (34:48):

I agree. Especially for the men’s fashion side of thing, that can be a little bit harder to come up with something.

Amanda Luton (34:54):

And I get that. Yeah.

Mary Kate Love (34:55):

And he always does. And it’s just in a way it’s subtle, but it’s really cool and it’s something we’ve never seen before. I made my favorite looks really easy. If you can notice that’s the same person three times because I love Beyonce, but on the left, 2015 was my favorite look. And I remember that this was … I think it was Javon. How do you say it? Javonte?

Amanda Luton (35:18):

Yep.

Mary Kate Love (35:19):

She had five minutes to do her hair and they did her hair and that ponytail in the car ride over.

Amanda Luton (35:25):

Oh my gosh.

Mary Kate Love (35:27):

And she showed up, I remember last person to show up and you’re like, “Is she coming? Is she not? ” And as you can see over the years, she just always is a beautiful gown always, but it’s just look at how different she looks every time, right? And again, responding to the theme each time too. So it’s always fun.

Amanda Luton (35:45):

I love that too. I don’t like when people show up in the same look over and over and over again. 100%.

Mary Kate Love (35:50):

Yeah. You

Amanda Luton (35:51):

Have to

Mary Kate Love (35:51):

Try something different.

Amanda Luton (35:52):

Variety. Yeah.

Mary Kate Love (35:54):

A lot of variety. So the message is she can really do it all.

Amanda Luton (35:58):

Do

Mary Kate Love (35:58):

It all. Absolutely.

(36:00):

But yeah, I think predictions for this year and moving forward is, I think for me, I think we’re going to even continue to see this Met Gala be this bigger and bigger marketing moment with TikTok, with so many people into fashion and fashion being so accessible now. If you want to try a trend, you can go online and you can buy it and try it pretty immediately. Again, pros and cons to that. But I think we’re going to see manufacturers having even quicker response times. It’s so quick now, but I think that’s going to get even quicker. Yes.

Amanda Luton (36:32):

I think you’re absolutely right. I think not that they’re being forced to, but I think that’s what the consumer expects. Yeah, it’s

Mary Kate Love (36:37):

Expectation. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (36:39):

I remember the Super Bowl when Kendrick Lamar performed, I was Googling what jeans he was wearing during-

Mary Kate Love (36:46):

Oh my God, his jeans. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (36:48):

The next day they were sold out. Whatever the reason was, I can’t remember, but they were totally sold out. Not exactly the same since obviously people can’t Google a Chanel hook tour gallery gown and get it tomorrow. But they’ll be looking at the brands. Exactly. If there’s new designers coming up, they want to know about them right away. They want to know where they can find their next line or whatever. The one thing that I think, Mary Kate, that you had mentioned too, or maybe we didn’t mention this already, how AI is getting incorporated into fashion as well. And I think it’s controversial in fashion, just like it’s kind of everywhere. But I think especially in fashion, since it is very people driven, very artistically driven, is AI taking the artist out of the art or-

Mary Kate Love (37:35):

Supporting the artist.

Amanda Luton (37:36):

Yeah. Yeah. Or is it supporting? Is it helping artists do more? Kind of like AI created music and AI generated TV shows and movies and stuff. Will artists and like fashion designers, will they be replaced by AI or will they be able to use it as a tool? Will they be able to take an illustration, put it into AI and AI creates the pattern pieces, makes that more simple? There’s no telling, but I don’t know what’s already in use, but I’m sure that stuff is already-

Mary Kate Love (38:04):

And as you’re talking, I’m like, will there be a day where lay people like us could design? Well, you’ve already designed and made your own clothes. We’ve already done that, but someone like me that doesn’t know how to do that. Is there a future where I see something and I say, “I want a dress that has intricate beating and blah, blah, blah, and a design is created.”

Amanda Luton (38:22):

Well, just a couple weeks ago, you introduced me to a new website where you can create your own apps just through prompts using AI generated and they create an app. Just like I am no app builder and create. So true. I created an app just a couple weeks ago with AI prompts. We’ll design-

Mary Kate Love (38:43):

Yo did that and you did it so quickly. It fashion related too.

Amanda Luton (38:45):

Fashion related too. I need to share it with you.

Mary Kate Love (38:47):

Yeah.

Amanda Luton (38:47):

But will designers be able to do that? I want a black gown. I want this type of a sleeve. I want it to- Inspired

Mary Kate Love (38:53):

By this. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (38:55):

Absolutely. Will they be able to put it into some sort of prompts and then it creates a pattern for you that you can then sew yourself or have somebody sew for you? You start thinking about it and just like any industry, it might replace some people’s jobs, but in a way it might really support some other make others jobs a lot easier. So there’s no tell them.

Mary Kate Love (39:15):

Yeah. I think that’s a great prediction for AI and I’m curious to see how it will be used or not used in the next few years, just like any other industry that is both excited and wary of it at the same time, right?

Amanda Luton (39:28):

Yeah, exactly.

Mary Kate Love (39:29):

The tool we’re all excited about. But like I said on this show, I think last week, sometimes I challenge myself to not use AI because for a while I was trying to figure out every way to use it and then it’s like, sometimes you don’t need it, believe it or not. So that is interesting. And on top of that related, I think we’ll continue to see these kind of technology integrations like the Zendaya address of-

Amanda Luton (39:53):

Definitely. … different

Mary Kate Love (39:54):

Uses of technology. I know there’s been talks about like a virtual Met Gala, what does that look like? Obviously the metaverse glasses and things like that, that I think we’ll see weaved into probably this year if we see probably more of that and next year and beyond, we’ll see different technologies being weaved into fashion. I don’t know how that will ever come into our lives as normal people, but yeah, it might, right? A lot of people wear smart watches, some people wear the glasses already. So yeah, I think we’ll see those faster manufacturing, AI usage, and these kind of like extensions of technology being used in the future. And I think probably more money even being than already is being thrown into it because of the ripple effect and the accessibility of fashion. I think brands will continue to throw more money. And I already see kind of like more commonplace brands posting their favorite Met Gala looks that kind of are like what their brand is.

(40:59):

Yeah, might post like a very clean chic look and say, “Oh, we’re going to look at our linen set that look.” Something like that, you already see that happening. So I feel like that will continue to happen more and more.

Amanda Luton (41:12):

Yeah, I totally agree. I don’t see this doing anything but getting bigger and bigger and the impact on social platforms and through influencer marketing and all of the other tools and channels that brands use and complimentary brands like you’re talking about how they can use and how they can impact, even if they’re not at the Met Gala, how they can take a page out of their playbook and use it to relate to other customers or to relate to their customers that are watching the Met Gala and following along. It’s a real study in logistics, supply chain, marketing all rolled into one.

Mary Kate Love (41:44):

Truly. It really is. And I’m excited for tonight. If you

Amanda Luton (41:48):

Listen

Mary Kate Love (41:48):

To this show and you made it here, maybe we’ve inspired you to check it out tonight. It’s fun to watch. You could even put it on in the background and thanks for joining our show. Thank you so much, Amanda. I hope you had as much fun as I did today.

Amanda Luton (42:03):

I did.

Mary Kate Love (42:04):

Really

Amanda Luton (42:04):

Fun

Mary Kate Love (42:04):

Topic.

Amanda Luton (42:05):

Talk about clothes.

Mary Kate Love (42:07):

Clothes and supply chain. It’s like the perfect mix, right?

Amanda Luton (42:11):

Yes. I love

Mary Kate Love (42:12):

It. And it’s nice to kind of think about a story like this as it relates to supply chain. And we’re always looking to tell the stories of supply chain. So if you have a

Amanda Luton (42:22):

Great

Mary Kate Love (42:22):

Story about your supply chain, please reach out to us. We’re always looking to highlight … That’s what we do at supply chain now is really highlight the stories of the supply chain, how people are innovating, what people have learned to use or not use, right? That’s what we want to do here. So if you haven’t already, follow us on social, subscribe to our YouTube channel and newsletter and listen in every Monday on the buzz to hear the latest in the news and trends in supply chain now. And with that, we will say goodbye and thank you so much. Have a great Monday, everybody.

Intro/Outro (42:56):

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