Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The silver Chevrolet parked downstairs in a light gray apartment on Fifth Avenue and East 68th Street. The woman in a black Gucci windbreaker got off the car and carefully confirmed the address and walked into the apartment building.

There was already a girl in her early twenties dressed in the lobby on the ground floor waiting for her. However, the security guard still carefully confirmed the woman's identity before letting them walk towards the elevator.

Taking the elevator to the 12th floor, he introduced himself to a girl named Megan, familiarly leading the woman into an apartment.

This is a luxurious duplex apartment with a minimalist style, mainly black and white tones. Although the style is simple, the details of the apartment, such as furniture, wall decorations, stairs, etc., exudes a delicate artistic atmosphere.

Standing at the door and looking at the luxurious duplex apartment in front of her that she had never dared to hope for, the woman was stunned for a moment. Until she felt the faint pride and contempt in the eyes of the girl beside her, she quickly calmed down and noticed that the apartment was cleaning.

Moreover, like Megan, the people in charge of cleaning are young girls in their twenties with figures and appearances above 80.

Megan stepped forward and whispered to another girl, turned her head and said to her, "Ms. Fisch is in the wine cellar, Miss Arendt, please come with me."

wine cellar?

Do you still have to go downstairs?

Thinking of this, Megan made a call and went straight to the corridor next to the living room. She hurriedly followed.

But the living room just now was larger than the apartment she rented in Greenwich. Going forward along the corridor, I couldn't help but find that the duplex apartment was just a single floor of about 4,000 square feet.

The wine cellar is in a room at the end of the corridor, and it turns out to be underground.

However, the closed retro brick wall design in the wine cellar, which is very different from other spaces in the apartment, gives people a basement feeling.

Megan entered the wine cellar, completely put away his arrogant just now, and said politely: "Ms. Fisch, Miss Arendts has arrived."

Sofia Fessi was putting a box of wine on the wine rack. When he saw the two of them appear, he continued to put a bottle of white wine, and then came over and hugged the woman, saying, "Good noon, Anji, you are so beautiful in this windbreaker."

The woman's name is Angela Arendtz, 28 years old, and is the president of Gucci's American branch that Sophia has just confirmed. The two have had contacts several times before, and have agreed to officially sign the contract this afternoon.

Angela Arenz responded to Sophia's hug and said, "Thank you, Sophie."

"Maybe there will be a little more waiting," Sophia let go of Angela, and sent Megan, who was still standing at the door, came to the box of wine just now, carefully picked up a bottle and slapped it towards the wine rack, and gently stroked the bottle, "The 1971 white wine produced by the Zhufu Ding Garden of Hager Winery was the only time in decades when the comprehensive climate conditions reached 98 minutes in Germany. The best-quality Zhufu Ding Garden is only 3 hectares. I took this box of wine at Sotheby's last night. Angie, how much do you think it costs?"

Angela Arenz looked confused, thought for a while, and said boldly: "100,000 US dollars?"

Sofia smiled, without giving the answer to the riddle, and arranged the remaining two bottles of wine and took Angela out of the cellar.

The girls had roughly finished cleaning the apartment. Sofia checked it himself and confirmed it was correct. She sent away the seven girls, who then took Angela Arendt to leave the apartment.

It was already noon.

The two chose a restaurant nearby and ordered the meal. Sophia took the initiative to explain: "Simon and Jenny are not in the United States, so I asked me to help them clean the house. I am actually Simon's housekeeper."

Angela Arenz hesitated for a while, but still couldn't help but wonder: "Those girls?"

Sofia said: "Simon is a perfectionist. He said it is hard to imagine a fat middle-aged Meckey maid who helps him clean his room. Those girls are students from Columbia University or New York University. They only need to work three hours a week to get $500."

Angela Arenz quickly calculated that for seven girls, each person, it would cost $3,500 for a cleaning. If it were based on the frequency once a week, the apartment just spent more than $180,000 a year on cleaning.

Oh my God.

The annual salary for my previous job is only $120,000.

Just forget about this job.

Sophia smiled at the corner of her mouth, waited patiently for a moment before asking, "How is it?"

Angela looked up at Sophia and said, "Our boss..."

Just after starting, Angela still didn't dare to express her inner thoughts.

But Sofia made it up for her in a relaxed tone: "Asshole, or a villain?"

Angela smiled: "I didn't say that."

In the past two years, the minimum hourly wage in a metropolis like New York has been less than $5. These college students can only earn up to one or two hundred dollars a week if they want to use normal part-time job subsidies.

However, a guy offers a group of young girls an easy job that can get $500 for three hours a week, and more importantly, she also lets these girls repeatedly get into the luxurious scenes at the top of the world's pyramid.

It is hard to imagine what will happen when these girls walk out of the ivory tower and start facing the real society, and some psychological gap accumulates.

Sofia said: "They are all very good girls, with outstanding appearance and excellent grades. Although they are just a part-time job, they have received background checks before confirming that they and their family members have no stains, and they have to receive very strict housekeeping training before joining the job. Simon actually has no other intentions to hire them. He will not lack women, but just like everything beautiful. But for these girls, it may be difficult to keep their true hearts after being immersed in a world that does not belong to them."

Angela remembered her brief absenteeism when she first entered the apartment and the arrogance of the girl named Megan, and couldn't help asking: "Sophie, what kind of person is he?"

"This, you will know when you see him," Sophia couldn't find a suitable adjective for a moment, saying, "However, the reason why you were able to get this job is because of Simon. Among the candidates, your qualifications are the least."

Angela became curious again: "Have Westeros read my resume?"

Sofia nodded: "Yes."

"So, how did he judge me?"

Sophia smiled again and said, "He said, this woman is very beautiful, you can let her try it."

Angela and Sofia looked at each other for a moment, and found that Sofia seemed not to be joking. She raised her hand in disbelief and gestured: "Then, did I get this job?"

"Yes, as a subordinate, I'm very good at observing words and expressions."

When in Melbourne, Sophia showed Simon the information of candidates for positions such as Gucci Creative Director and Gucci American Branch who were preparing for the interview. At that time, Simon still controlled his working hours under Janet's strict "regulation", but he just hurriedly looked through it and did not comment on the most important candidates for creative directors, but carefully read Angela Arendt's information.

Then there is the above indecent evaluation.

Of course, Sofia would not hand over this job to Angela Alendz just because of her "sense of words and expressions".

The most fundamental reason is that in several previous interviews, Sofia found that Angela's business philosophy was urgently needed by Gucci. The numerous information summarized by all parties also confirmed her excellent work ability, which prompted Sofia to eventually hire the other party.

Of course, Simon's inadvertent treatment of Angela's unique eyes is also an important plus.

When Angela heard Sophia say this, she was still a little slow and said, "Sophie, you must be joking with me, right?"

Sofia didn't want to leave a rash and blind obedient impression on her subordinates. She smiled and nodded at the right time, saying, "I like your entry point for improving the customer experience of Gucci stores. A long time ago, as a bystander, I often heard that Gucci stores are rude and arrogant to customers, and this arrogance is even the result of management's intentional indulgence. Gucci's decline over the years is not unrelated to the self-righteous arrogance of the Gucci family. Gucci is a luxury brand, and it is appropriate to uphold its pride, but this pride should be the pride inside, not the rude and arrogant on the surface. Anji, after you join the company, the first thing you have to do is to change this."

Angela nodded in agreement.

From the day she submitted her resume, although she felt that the possibility of getting the job was very low, she still made a lot of preparations. The Gucci windbreaker she was wearing was the result of repeatedly visiting Gucci stores in New York these days.

Compared with other luxury brands, the service attitude of Gucci stores is really hard to compliment.

For customers, the clerk not only does not provide thoughtful service, but also acts like buying but not buying. Sometimes he will comment on customers without any concealment, and even give customers some indecent nicknames.

Angela also heard an old story in the circle.

In the 1970s, a New York magazine criticized Gucci's neglect of customers under the title "New York's Ruthiest Famous Store". At that time, Gucci's American head Aldo Gucci not only did not care about the article affecting Gucci's reputation, but instead sent someone to send a bouquet of flowers to the writer's writers to thank the other party for "advertising" Gucci.

"Sophie, there is one thing I need to discuss with you first," Angela said after Sophia finished speaking. "After joining the company, the first thing I have to do is to fire all the clerks in Gucci store in New York. Over the years, I have accumulated some resources to find someone to fill their vacancies as soon as possible. As for stores in other areas, I will visit them in turn before making a decision."

Once the employment contract is signed, the employment and dismissal of employees are actually within Angela's authority.

However, Sofia also knows why she brought up this matter.

Many of the clerks at Gucci store in New York are among the upper class of Italians who live and study in the United States. These people generally only regard the job of Gucci store as a temporary part-time job.

Gucci's foundation is in Italy, and its future operations will not be able to leave this country. Rampantly dismissing these people will inevitably offend some Italian locals, which will more or less cause some trouble to Gucci.

However, Sophia also understands that she must do so if she wants Gucci to rejuvenate.

Because it is not just New York, but also the clerks in Gucci stores in many regions around the world are occupied by various ‘relationship households’, and these people are the root cause of affecting the service quality of Gucci stores.

Nodding seriously, Sofia said again: "This time I came to the United States, I have personally conducted some evaluations and audits of two specialty stores in Los Angeles and New York. I will give you relevant documents in the afternoon, hoping to provide some help in your next work."

After lunch, the two girls rushed to Gucci's US headquarters in Midtown.

After an afternoon of busy work, Angela Alendz officially signed a contract to become the president of Gucci's American branch, responsible for the operation of Gucci's 52 direct-operated stores in North America and many authorized counters for brand.

After the contract was signed, Sofia immediately contacted some fashion media in New York and publicly announced the news of Angela Alendz's entry.

To increase the brand’s exposure as much as possible is an experience that Sophia learned from Dior and LVMH before taking over Gucci.

Although Angela Arendz has had a great resume in the fashion industry in the previous years, the media obviously prefers controversial gimmicks, such as Angela Arendz’s age of only 28 and her brief qualifications for only 6 years in the fashion industry.

Is such a young woman really capable of managing North American business that is crucial to an old luxury company?

Since the decision has been made, Sophia naturally supports Angela in the media. However, the pressure of media doubts still needs to be borne by the other party.

Opportunities and stress are always symbiotic.

Speaking of which, many executives of Westeros are very young, like Amy Pascal, who happened to be 28 years old when she just worked for Simon two years ago. However, Amy was the first to start a business with Simon. With Simon's "tall" existence, the media will always naturally ignore Amy's age.

While signing Angela Arenz, Sofia also completed her interview with two candidate creative directors.

Both are both design rookies in the American fashion industry in recent years, one is named Tom Ford and the other is Mark Jacob.

When Sofia showed Simon the information of several candidates, Simon remembered that Tom Ford happened to be Gucci's creative director in the 1990s and did not resign from Gucci until 2004.

In addition to Tom Ford, Mark Jacob and John Galliano of the UK are also very dazzling top designers in the fashion industry for many years to come.

In Simon's concept, luxury brands never need to seek public recognition, but should be forced indoctrination of a fashion style.

This concept is similar to Apple phones many years later. Apple designed curved antennas, and everyone wanted to imitate curved antennas. Apple launched a notch screen, and a large number of manufacturers followed the trend of notch screens.

As for the design being ugly?

This is Apple!

The same is true for luxury brands.

What kind of design style should top luxury brands promote? Second- and third-tier fashion brands will rush to follow the trend.

Therefore, Simon did not deliberately seek to let Gucci follow its original development trajectory. As long as the appropriate operating model is confirmed, several outstanding designers, no matter which one they hire, will be enough to revive Gucci.

As for the different styles between designers, they will only become Gucci's style in the end.

Sofia actually favors John Galliano, a talented designer who graduated from the Central St. Martins College in the UK, is only 29 years old this year, but her resume since her debut has been quite brilliant.

However, during Sofia's days in the United States, the head of Gucci Europe did not negotiate a contract with John Galliano. The other party asked for a price too high, so Sofia had to give up.

Finally, between Tom Ford and Mark Jacob, although Mark Jacob is more talented in design, Sophia finally chose Tom Ford.

Tom Ford and Mark Jacob both graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York. Both have extensive design experience and have been recognized by the industry.

Sophia chose Ford mainly because of language considerations.

Although Tom Ford and Mark Jacob are both Americans, Tom Ford has experience working in Europe and can skillfully communicate with people in French and Italian, which is Mark Jacob's shortcomings.
Chapter completed!