Vol.54 "The Beauty Society" / English Version

"The Beauty Society"

What is “The Beauty Society” and who is Mr. Taki? In 2000, I wrote a book

called, “Manager: Tomio Taki, the Man who Launched Donna Karan”.

I had chased Mr. Taki for more than 10 years through New York, Tokyo,

Nagoya, Paris, Milan and Korea to interview him and more than 100

people who know him. I can hardly count how many interviews I had

with Mr. Taki. In these interviews, I had a valuable, priceless experience.

I heard great stories, so many that I couldn’t possibly include them all

in the book.

Because I wanted to share these stories with other career women, who

I think of as being beautiful, inside and out, I started “The Beauty Society”,

an informal meeting group. To be a “Beauty” I think, is to be independent,

do good works, love fashion and to not be sarcastic. I would love to be

such a “beautiful” woman, so it was a pleasure for me to organize this group.

During the time I lived in Tokyo, when I was Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s

Bazaar Japan, the group met on a regular basis whenever Mr. Taki visited

Tokyo. When I returned to New York, I continued the group here.
As Mr. Taki enjoys being surrounded by beautiful, accomplished women,

I called it, “The Beauty Society with Mr. Tomio Taki”.

Mr. Tomio Taki, became the seventh president of Takihiyo Corporation, a family

owned kimono manufacturer, with a history of more than 200 years in Nagoya,

Japan. He went to the United States in 60’s and acquired Anne Klein New York,

a top sportswear manufacturing firm. After the death of Anne Klein in 1973, he

appointed Donna Karan, her assistant, as chief designer and the brand grew quickly.

In 1985, Mr. Taki started the Donna Karan brand, now grown into a top

international corporation. The photo below shows Mr. Taki chatting with Donna

Karan, standing under a picture of the late Anne Klein.

His fluent English and strong sense of humor, has helped him make many friends

around the world.

Besides fashion manufacturing, Mr. Taki helps people in various fields.

For example, he served as a Special Consultant for Samsung in Korea, invested

in materials manufacturing in Italy, founded an orchestra with a female conductor,

advises young designers and owns a famous golf course in Hawaii and France.

At “Beauty Society” meetings, we listen him talk about his projects, global

and Japanese economy, his networks and various other topics.

The theme of Mr. Taki’s speech this time was “User Friendly”.

He believes it is important for any business to ask, “Who is our customer

and what do they want?”, Mr. Taki said.

For example, as a Director of the Taki School (middle high school and

high school), he thought that in order to attract students, they had to have

the best teachers with the best skills. Now the Taki School is recognized

as a most popular, excellent school.

When he became president of Takihiyo, he decided to stop kimono

manufacturing and start a western style fashion business; because he

understood that the future would be in dresses and sportswear. So in the late

1960’s, he started the search for a New York brand licensee, which could

provide a fashionable American style to Japanese women. With the switch

from kimonos to dresses, the firm made 10 billion yen with this license brand

in two years.

In 1973, his firm built the first skyscrapers in Nagoya. Instead of just haggling

with the construction firm to reduce costs, he suggested developing new

technology for the project. His negotiating resulted in construction costs

reduced by half. Afterwards, using the new technology developed for the

project became a big advantage for the construction company and a

“win/win” situation for both.

Mr. Taki’s point of view is to always give customers good quality, at a

reasonable price, quickly.

This meeting of “The Beauty Society” was held at Chez Le Chef

(212-685-1888), run by Fredric who makes German-style, French home

cooking.

“The Beauties” attending were:

Clockwise from the front of left side, Yoshiko Sugimoto, New York

correspondent, Senken Newspaper; Maho Kawachi, reporter, Nikei

Economic Newspaper; Ebihara Yoshiko, director, Gallery 91; Me;

Junko Miura , Flower Artist & Ikebana Master, (She appeared here: );

Mr. Taki; Aiko Ushihara, studying English & yoga; Frederic;

Masako Kaufman, fashion coordinator; Ichikawa Akiko, fashion writer;

Akiko Yuge, director, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP);

Kei Hirano, creative coordinator; Kazumi Tanimura, lighting designer.
It was fun for me to see them all again after a long absence.

M. Frederic met Mr. Taki for the first time, but somehow they

look alike! Don’t you think?

You will hear more about Mr. Taki