Tootsies’ Norman Lewis on Running a 55-year-old Fashion Retailer

Tootsies has been an institution in Houston for over 50 years. The upscale women’s boutique was founded by Mickey Rosmarin, and today, it operates a flagship in Houston as well as stores in Dallas and Atlanta. About 30 years ago, Norman Lewis joined the business to run the back end, while Rosmarin continued to be the merchant and the face of the company. But after Rosmarin died suddenly a decade ago, Lewis and his wife Donna eventually bought the company. He continues to use his financial acumen to ensure Tootsies remains profitable, but defers to his long-time merchant team to select the mix that appeals to the busy, successful women who turn to Tootsies to ensure they look good at the office, at dinner or just running errands. Here, Lewis offers a peek into what makes Tootsies tick, his succession plans and why he’s content to stick with three stores.

WWD: You own the business today, but who was the founder?

Norman Lewis: The founder was Mickey Rosmarin who had an interesting background. He graduated from high school, went to college for maybe one semester — I’m not sure if he even completed that semester — and decided that the education path wasn’t for him. He opened a small boutique on the second floor of an old townhouse when he was 19 years old. The business kind of grew from there over a period of years. He moved to another location and got a bigger space, and went to New York and met with vendors and so forth and so on until he had four Tootsies stores.

WWD: When did you meet him?

N.L.: I was introduced to him after he had been in business for about 20 years. He was the founder, the visionary, the great spirit of the company — and still is. But he passed away 10 years ago unexpectedly. Mickey was the “yes” to my “no,” and vice versa. He was very much the merchant and loved the merchandise. There really were no boundaries. It was just like, “This looks good. Let’s do it.” A lot of times that worked out well, and a lot of times that did not work out well. When I joined him, it was more on the financial side, dealing with what works and doesn’t work, and fine tuning the processes. We worked together for about 20 years until he passed away of a heart attack. So I had a long history with the company, but not as owner or visionary, but sitting in my lane, taking care of things and making sure the blocking and tackling was being done.

WWD: A lot of businesses don’t survive when a visionary is no longer there, and you admit you were more on the back end. How did Tootsie’s survive?

N.L.: A lot of times companies don’t survive that kind of transition. You have a founder that’s the 100 percent owner of a company and doesn’t have any kind of a succession plan in place. The company at that point was over 35 years old. But that doesn’t mean that just because you’ve made it 35 years, you’re going to make it through the next transition. When [Mickey died], I became the interim president of the company. I knew the players. I was a familiar face, even though I was sitting in a different seat. I worked with them for about two years to make sure that the company was stabilized and to hold on to existing employees, existing customers, existing vendor relationships, because all of those were somewhat in question. After about two years, my family bought the business from Mickey’s family. So we’re now a 55-year-old family-owned business, first Mickey’s family and for the last 10 years mine.

WWD: Who else in your family is involved?

N.L.: My wife and I own the company and we’ve been carrying it forward. And I’m very happy to say that many of the employees that were there 10 years ago are still with us and they’re doing a great job. That was the real comfort that I had when stepping into that role because the company had so many good people in place. I’d say about 25 percent of our employees have been here 20, 30, 40, or more years. That’s a real tribute to Mickey and what he built. We had the best year in our history last year and we’re doing particularly well in this questionable retail environment.

WWD: Did you have a retail background when you joined?

N.L.: Well, yes and no. My background was on the financial side, banking and chief financial officer-type roles, consulting with various businesses, most of which were not in retail. But I worked with Mickey for 20 years and really learned retail from him. I think one of the elements of our success is that I was not a retailer. I was able to look at things a little bit differently. Instead of saying, “How is this store going to make it?” It was, “How is this business going to make it,” even though it happens to be a retail store, because I had experience mostly related to the financial side of inventory, accounts receivable or profitability that have common elements in retail as well.

WWD: Who handles your merchandising?

N.L.: We have a very strong merchant team — one of our senior merchants has been with us for 38 years. Another has been with us for 20-something years, another 16 years. They were the merchants when Mickey was here — they were learning from him. He was the guiding force behind them. They’re doing a great job and I don’t get involved in that because that’s not my lane. They have the direct relationships with the vendors, go to market, connect and communicate with our stores and our stylists, which is the way we refer to our salespeople, and the customers. I just say that based on our planning, here’s the amount of dollars you have to spend and then we talk about how the sales were.

WWD: What are some of your bestselling brands?

N.L.: We have a luxury element to our business, but we’re more on the contemporary side. So TWP, Aknvas, Bottega Veneta, J.W. Anderson, Partlow, Saint Laurent, Thom Browne. We do carry Oscar de la Renta but our larger customer base is the active woman who is fashion conscious. She may not just be wearing something to a gala but also to work or to the carpool. Our connection with her is not occasion driven. We look for her to come in multiple times a month because there are a lot of things going on in her life. Yes, we have mother-of-the-bride dresses, but our assortment is more geared to what makes her comfortable on a daily basis.

WWD: And what are some of your most popular categories?

N.L.: Tootsies’ strength lies in delivering a comprehensive assortment that thoughtfully supports our clients’ lifestyles, activities and passions. Our core business continues to thrive, led by a strong dress category spanning all occasions and complemented by a dynamic contemporary assortment driven by tops, blouses and sweaters. Denim has emerged as an increasingly important part of our clients’ wardrobes. The category’s momentum is fueled by the introduction of innovative brands, modern fits, and elevated fabrics that reflect both versatility and sophistication, further solidifying its role in everyday style.

WWD: Has that changed over the years — has the mix gotten more casual?

N.L.: Obviously, through the whole COVID[-19] period, things were very different. But that part aside, in our markets of Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, the level of being casual or being more dressed up is more or less the same. We don’t carry any men’s. We don’t carry any children’s — we’re focused on what she wants.

WWD: Have you ever carried menswear?

N.L.: Mickey did 30 years ago, and when I first joined him, there was a men’s department that was on its way out. We tried it, and it’s a different lane, a different customer and we’ve never gone back into it again. Nothing against it. It’s just the success of the company historically is very focused on the woman.

WWD: Who is the Tootsies woman?

N.L.: The target woman that we would like to develop — like probably every other retailer — it’s the younger, up-and-coming, successful, affluent woman who might be in the workforce, or not, but appreciates value. In the past, when she was coming up, she didn’t have the money, or the taste level [to shop here.] We have customers that are 16 to 18 years old, looking for their first prom dress, but for the most part, our buyers are thinking of a customer who has reached a level of success in her life and wants to enjoy the products that we can make her feel good and successful.

WWD: How do you communicate with her?

N.L.: We’re very brick-and-mortar-centric. About 95 percent of our sales come from our stores. Only about 5 percent is online — and that’s by design. We do online for the customer that isn’t in our area, or doesn’t want to come to the store. But we’re not trying to concentrate on that. It’s an in-store experience. We’re communicating with her through our stylists, our salespeople who have deep relationships — in many cases, multigenerational relationships — with her and her family. And they’re communicating through texts or emails, not so much phone calls any longer, but in some way connecting with them.

WWD: So your focus is on the store experience.

N.L.: Yes, our main focus is that customer experience, which is what everybody says, but when she comes in, we want her to feel welcome. We don’t say, “What are you going to buy today?” We say, “Thank you for coming in. Enjoy your time here.” A lot of times, repeat customers are just coming by to have a cup of coffee or say hi to other friends that are at the store or the stylist they work with, or the managers. We’re looking for the long-term relationship. We’re communicating with them about what’s going on in their life and how we can help with their work, social life or family life.

WWD: Do you use social media?

N.L.: We do Instagram — it’s a big part of our communication and we do a lot of social media posts on the corporate side, in addition to our stylists doing it on their own.

WWD: You have stores in three different cities, none of which are that close. Why those locations?

N.L.: Well, part of the answer is, I’m not sure. It may have been that 45 years ago, a real estate developer came to Mickey and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a great opportunity for you in this city. Do you want to open a store?’  The Houston store opened in the ‘70s, Dallas in the ‘80s and Atlanta in the ‘90s, and when I joined the company, all three were already open. We did have a couple of other stores in smaller markets that we closed, but that was a long time ago.

WWD: Is the customer the same in each city?

N.L.: The Houston, Dallas and Atlanta woman is very similar from the perspective of their lifestyles. So Mickey felt he could successfully serve those three markets, because they were not dramatically different than if we had gone to the East Coast or West Coast. And all three are still successful after all these years.

WWD: Are they all about the same size?

N.L.: The Houston flagship, our original store, is much larger than the other two. It’s about 35,000 square feet, which is large for a specialty boutique. The Dallas and Atlanta stores are about 10,000 square feet, which is also fairly large, but we believe that footprint, as opposed to two or three or four 5,000-square-foot stores, gives us an ability to send a message to the women in that market that we’re carrying the breadth of merchandise that can help her make a lot of decisions.

WWD: Is the mix the same in each store?

N.L.: We carry about 300 different brands, and largely they’re the same in each of the stores. But we do carry some brands that are, just in our Atlanta store or just in Dallas or Houston.

WWD: You’ve had all three of these stores for quite some time. Has there ever been any thought of expanding beyond those three?

N.L.: Well, not in a long time. Back in the Mickey days, he was always: go, go, go. But then I would get involved and say, “Well, thank you for the opportunity, but we’re trying to concentrate on maximizing what we’re doing here and delivering a better experience.” I don’t want us to lose focus on what we’re doing and dilute that. I want to elevate that experience we’re already delivering in the markets that we’re in. And I know there’s upside potential in all three: they’re very vibrant, growing markets. Yes, I do get approached about opportunities around the country, but we generally never look at them very seriously.

WWD: I would think you could do well in cities such as Austin and Nashville.

N.L.: Those are great markets. If I were to open in Austin, am I going to add more customers? Absolutely. But I think I can add that many or more customers just by growing my Houston or Dallas stores. I don’t feel like I need to go to a whole new market.

WWD: In Dallas, the Mitchells just bought Stanley Korshak and it’s the headquarters of Neiman Marcus. How do you differentiate your store from those?

N.L.: Stanley Korshak has a lot of men’s, and we don’t, and they probably have a few more brands and are higher end than we are, but I would guess 75 percent of what they carry we carry as well. And they’re not that far geographically from where we are. But we’ve each been in that market for years and have coexisted all that time. Are there some customers that shop both places? Yes. But I think our customers are very happy with what we’re providing for them. And even if 75 percent of the products are the same, it’s the connection, the service level, the experience they have. I’m not saying they’re not getting that at Korshak, but I know they’re happy with us and don’t have a reason to go somewhere else.

WWD: And Neiman’s?

N.L.: Neiman’s is very close to us, we’re probably under a mile from their flagship store. And again, we’ve coexisted next to them for the 35 years that we’ve been there. The former Neiman’s was a huge juggernaut — that is their number-one producing store. But does our customer want to go to the department store or a specialty boutique where she feels a little more special, or safe, or connected? There are thousands of retail stores out there — hundreds in each market —  and everybody can be very successful in their part of that world.

WWD: You said last year was your best ever. Why do you think that was?

N.L.: It’s not like we suddenly spiked up last year. We’ve consistently had increases. Since we came out of COVID, since the spring of 2022, we’ve seen continual growth season after season. One of the things I always think about is: people, product and processes. We have to pay attention to all three of those elements. People is the people we have working for us, product is the merchants and what we’re buying, and processes is how we do our business and deliver a consistent approach. Is there room for improvement? Yes, but we’ve done a very good job of keeping those three things in sync.

WWD: Do you have a succession plan for the business?

N.L.: I’ve been working on our 10-year vision, and part of that could equate to a succession plan. How do we establish the longevity of the business and assure our customers, the communities we’re in, our employees and the vendors we deal with that Tootsies is going to be here 10 years from now, or 20 years from now. The reason I bought the business was because of the great employees we already had within the business. I knew from having worked with them that they were very good at what they did — and that’s still the case today. So I’m working on the idea of how we further their careers and get them to be part of the succession plan.

WWD: What else is part of your future plan?

N.L.: One of the things I think about a lot is when people say, “You just had a great year. Why would you do anything different?” But a comfort zone is a potential comfort trap, meaning that you can get complacent. You can decide everything’s OK. Why don’t we just keep on doing the same things over and over, buy from the same brands, sell the same customers. Why rock the boat? But we need to think about what the next thing is out there — the things we don’t even know today, what are the innovations that are going to happen? We all know that AI is going to be a significant game changer. We don’t know how, but it’s a real thing. So I’m looking at technology and how we can create more value and think outside of the box. How do we evolve our present company to be viable and create value for those in the future. That’s the part I’m working on.

WWD: Are you a proponent of technology?
N.L.: I’m looking at how automation can take some of the repetitive things out of the process. But since our connection is so people-oriented in the stores, I don’t see that happening. I don’t see someone coming in and pushing a button on a mirror to show her what we have. That not going to be something we would want because it’s missing the human connection, and that’s what our success has been. I don’t think AI is going to replace humans. I think it’s going to make the human connection even more valuable, maybe just in different ways. The back office could be automated, but not the front of the house. You can go to McDonald’s today and push the buttons on the kiosk to order — and that’s a great idea for them. But you’re not going to go into a high-end restaurant and do that.

WWD: You said that your wife is in the business. Are any other family members involved?

N.L.: No, just my wife. Let me tell you a little bit about her: she’s our secret weapon. She was an interior designer, so she knows what makes people excited about making choices and having a professional curate those choices, whether it’s paint colors or clothes. She also happens to be a shopper, loves clothes and is very fashionable and knows what we’re delivering at Tootsies is very similar to what she’s done in her whole business career. So she “works” in the business, and I use that term very loosely. She comes to the stores often. She has a very good connection with customers. She has a very good connection with our employees. She has a very good connection with vendors when they’re here for trunk shows and so forth. She is a very good networker, gregarious and an exciting element of the business. But as she tells our close friends: “I don’t have an office and I don’t get paid,” but she does it because she loves it and does a very good job. But outside of the two of us, there are not any other family members involved.