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FIRST PERSON FASHION

I’m Debi Greenberg, owner of, and buyer for, Louis Boston. Meaning, it’s me who travels from city to city, showroom to showroom, season by season, choosing what will ultimately make its way to you. Louis Boston started out as a Men’s store. Now, of course, we cater to both sexes equally.

I love what I do, and I’m always eager to talk about it. My customers know this first hand. Friends, too. And family. So when Maria, our Vice President, suggested that I share my “diatribes” with visitors to the website, and invite their feedback, I got cracking. Because she’s right: Any opportunity to expand this ongoing conversation—one that extends far beyond fashion or what to wear—will, ultimately, reward customers by giving them a voice. For real.

Let’s face it: In the increasingly corporate world of fashion, you, my peers, women and men both, can’t help but feel dictated to by most retailers whose agenda it is to make you wear what clothing they’re churning out. And the press is often also culpable, as they seek to satisfy these retailers upon whose advertising dollars they can’t help but rely. Wanting to know what you think or feel has become less and less a priority. Not to be disparaging, but it’s just not right that the customer gets lost in the shuffle of dollars and cents.

So OK, I’m throwing out a lifeline of sorts with this new online forum, to provide you the same no-nonsense insights I give vendors, journalists and other colleagues. Fashion (the word itself is limiting, but the field is not) is a unique industry in which all of us, save for die-hard nudists, individually play a part. My aim is to offer up the benefit of my experience and an insider perspective. I’ve heard people in my profession say “business isn’t personal.” Well, you know what: In this industry, it’s always personal. So long as there are real people like you, seeking to clothe, modernize and thus express themselves, fashion cuts to the quick of who we all are.