Mark &ldquo;Jappy&rdquo; Gonzalez, founder of H&amp;F Retail Concepts, has been in the fashion industry for more than two decades. Known for his directional approach to business, he constantly proves that while it&rsquo;s important to be the first mover, it&rsquo;s more important to build things that endure the test of time.

Longevity is an unlikely reward if your business is heavily influenced by hype, but that&rsquo;s exactly what Mark &ldquo;Jappy&rdquo; Gonzalez has been able to manifest; he&rsquo;s been defying the odds since 1995 as a veteran retailer who makes luxury lucrative in a developing economy. From the early days, he just had that uncanny sense to sell something people would want, including fits from Belgian enigma Martin Margiela, during a time when the Philippine market was deeply indoctrinated by the mainstream draw of heritage houses such as Chanel and Dior.&nbsp;
 It&rsquo;s a brave move whose legacy continues through several multi-brand stores like Homme et Femme, Univers, and Hoodwink, and a number of monobrand stores like Comme des Gar&ccedil;ons, Balenciaga, Lanvin, and Off-White. As Univers turns 10, Gonzalez drives the point home on why The Business of Fashion lauded his achievements for its BoF 500 list, which names the people shaping the $2.4 trillion fashion industry. It includes the likes of designers Miuccia Prada and Ralph Lauren, and fellow retailers Carla Sozzani of 10 Corso Como and Adrian Joffe of Dover Street Market. Though they come from different backgrounds, they all share something in common: the ability to last in a competitive enterprise. Like them, Gonzalez not only sells what&rsquo;s novel and trending &mdash; he creates assets that keep on giving to the consumer, the industry, and the culture at large.

Univers

How&rsquo;s the year shaping up so far? So far, so good. Busy. As Univers is turning 10 this year, it&rsquo;s a turning point for us now as it was when it opened a decade ago. It&rsquo;s actually great to reflect on how as a brand and as a company, we&rsquo;ve grown.
 What&rsquo;s keeping you busy lately? Describe your typical weekday. It&rsquo;s currently Fashion Week, so my team and I are rather busy with intense deadlines.
 The pandemic caught the retail industry off-guard. How has it been for H&amp;F and your other stores and brands? Is expanding digitally on your agenda? We&rsquo;ve been present digitally since mid-2019. We&rsquo;ve had to make its presence more known since the pandemic, thus driving our PR and advertising efforts digitally. For H&amp;F in general, as with the rest of the known world, we&rsquo;ve definitely been caught off-guard. This also gave us the opportunity to strengthen our infrastructure to meet the demands of the future we have planned.
 In what way has social distancing affected your buying habits personally and professionally? In a germaphobe scale of one to 10, I&rsquo;d probably be around seven. Needless to say what that number went to! Professionally, it&rsquo;s given me more time to reflect on our future.

Off-White

Comme des Garçons

What&rsquo;s your read on the state of affairs in the business of fashion? For instance, do you still find live fashion shows necessary? It&rsquo;s been three to four Fashion Weeks since the pandemic. Primarily, when we are doing the work, it didn&rsquo;t seem as a necessity, but as the next Fashion Weeks rolled on, and the detachment from live shows became more evident, presentation became increasingly important in getting a clear message about a brand&rsquo;s message &mdash; in particular, our brands, which are directional in nature. So listening, as much as looking at how the collection is constructed from an idea can be lost in translation.
 Is your process more intentional or instinctive? Do you follow your head or your gut? Is one more important than the other? Both are very important. Balance is fundamental for us in this respect. One underlying factor though, if your instinct is not in the right frame, your intentions will definitely fall in the same place.
 You&rsquo;ve started your retail career in Cinderella. What are the crucial lessons you learned during that time that helped you in starting your own business? A lot. I believe structure, discipline, and developing work ethics are the fundamentals pillars for development. I&rsquo;m lucky to have had the chance to begin honing these at a young age.
 As someone whose ventures gravitate between food and fashion, what restaurants and shops do you crave and miss the most especially that travel isn&rsquo;t encouraged? The cities I go to primarily have been the same for the past 20 plus years. I&rsquo;ve developed a sense of home in these places. The instinct of &ldquo;I have to get some necessities before I head back&rdquo; (either to the hotel or apartment), means differently to every city &mdash; which grocer, butcher, vegetable, and fruit market to go to. A particular craving that can only be served in a particular restaurant &mdash; like crepes in Breizh Caf&eacute;, couscous merguez in Chez Omar in Paris, Indian food at Dishoom in London &mdash; really everyday places, not fancy restaurants (Although I have those too). It&rsquo;s in the everyday, familiar things and habits I&rsquo;ve developed over the years that I really miss deeply.

Homme et Femme

You&rsquo;ve traveled everywhere. How would you compare the retail landscape and consumer behavior in the Philippines from the other countries that you&rsquo;ve visited? Basically, our per capita income, as it is, puts us in a default position. Finance and trade information will normally base their assumptions on this. It&rsquo;s somewhat of a dichotomy when you have that reality and where the retail landscape is. The retail landscape is a reflection of our society and culture as well.
 Would you rather be early, on time, or late to the party? I&rsquo;m always prompt!
 How would you differentiate Homme et Femme, Univers, and Hoodwink? Are they all representative of your taste? Which among them is the most you? Homme et Femme is really about a life filled with taste, whereas Univers is about pushing boundaries. Hoodwink is about fun. I know I have every part in me.
 What are your favorite items (things you&rsquo;ve kept and unlikely to ever give away) from your own clothing archives? Haha! That would put me in a spot. But over the 20 years of collecting, I&rsquo;d say Helmut Lang would be on the top of that list.
 What&rsquo;s the most memorable retail experience you&rsquo;ve had? Has there been a particular store that blew you away? Charivari, NYC in the mid-1980s. I said to myself as I was exiting, &ldquo;What was that?&rdquo; As if a train had hit me.
 Hype is getting stronger &mdash; so it seems &mdash; with the likes of Virgil Abloh and Rihanna at the helm of fashion houses. Should we take hype seriously? Hype has always been here. It will remain so. It goes by a different name, according to generation. Haha! I&rsquo;ve been here long enough to witness this.
 Share something you always say to your team to bring them up to speed with your vision. Let&rsquo;s move ahead. Try and catch up. Even better yet, one day, beat me to it!

Mark "Jappy Gonzalez" Shows Us What It Means To Have Staying Power in Fashion

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