Fashion industry vet not ready to hang it up

Leila Navidi

Harvey Hellman, a sales executive for the Joseph A. Bank clothing store in The District, began working for Ralph Lauren before the fashion designer became a household name. Hellman became Polo’s chief financial officer and helped the company get out from under financial problems.

By Brian Eckhouse (contact)

Thursday, April 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Harvey Hellman, the dapper gentleman selling suits at Jos. A. Bank in Henderson, didn’t plan a life in retail. Yes, his father worked in the textile industry, but the younger Hellman studied accounting. That would be his career.

But sure enough, his career started nudging toward textiles anyway. The native Brooklynite became an accountant for an apparel company, and then for a jeans maker.

In 1973 he joined an emerging but cash-poor Bronx native fascinated by an “English tweedy look”: Ralph Lauren. The designer was selling neckties at Bloomingdales, but his future looked bleak with legal and financial problems.

“I walked into a fire — a major fire,” recalls Hellman, who would become Polo’s chief financial officer.

When Lauren started buying out his major investor only to fall behind, Hellman had to persuade the investor to accept delinquent payments because that would make more sense than seizing the Polo logo. (The investor agreed.)

He talked with creditors about letting Lauren take longer to repay debts. (The creditors accepted.) He suggested licensing Lauren’s women’s line to generate more revenue. (Lauren did.)

“It was tough for two years,” Hellman recalls. “Everything was a deal — we were dealing with everybody.”

Then Polo soared. (By the time Hellman left, revenue reached $300 million, from $5 million when he arrived.) Lauren outfitted stars, sold Polo’s line in exclusive space in high-end department stores (a branding concept Hellman helped shape) and opened a signature building in New York. Hellman moved the accounting office from a cramped loft to an ever-expanding space in New Jersey, where he says he oversaw operations and merchandise.

When Lauren wanted an expensive apartment, Hellman reasoned it’d be good for Polo’s image even though money had to be moved around to buy it. “You’ll find a way,” Hellman recalls Lauren saying. It was a frequent refrain. Hellman thought Lauren agreed to give him a piece of the company in return. It never happened.

He stayed on because of a fat paycheck. He led an upscale lifestyle. He drove a Mercedes with Polo plates and went to swanky restaurants.

Hellman left in 1986 for other ventures, many in apparel. He helped launch a faux-fur importing company that didn’t find its footing, became CFO of another jeans company and then took a break from apparel when he joined a company that produced infomercials.

He retired in 2001 to South Florida, did some consulting, found it boring and — for the first time in his long apparel career — became a retail salesman, selling men’s suits. He and his wife, blown west by hurricanes, relocated to Henderson in 2007, and he joined Jos. A. Bank, a men’s clothier, last summer.

Hellman, 69, doesn’t have to work, but he likes earning extra cash for dinners out. And it’s less stressful than keeping creditors off Lauren’s back.

“Those people never talked to Ralph,” Hellman says. “I had to do it all myself. Without me, Polo may never have made its name.”