1 00:00:00,113 --> 00:00:02,040 (funk music) 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:05,000 - I'm Leon Gray, sales director at Victoria Beckham, 3 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:06,423 and this is how I got here. 4 00:00:11,410 --> 00:00:13,870 Growing up, I was one of three brothers. 5 00:00:13,870 --> 00:00:15,300 I should've been fighting for attention 6 00:00:15,300 --> 00:00:16,960 but I was quite a quiet child. 7 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,280 Even as a 14, 15 year-old boy, 8 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,040 I would love going through magazines 9 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,630 looking at everything from the adverts to the editorials. 10 00:00:27,630 --> 00:00:31,070 My first proper job was working at Gap. 11 00:00:31,070 --> 00:00:33,010 I enjoyed the merchandising portion of it. 12 00:00:33,010 --> 00:00:35,330 I was always probably getting a little out of my box 13 00:00:35,330 --> 00:00:37,700 and trying to work with the merchandising team 14 00:00:37,700 --> 00:00:40,110 on how they were presenting product on the shop floor 15 00:00:40,110 --> 00:00:41,710 and how they were building out the windows. 16 00:00:41,710 --> 00:00:43,670 When I was coming towards the end of my degree, 17 00:00:43,670 --> 00:00:45,410 I didn't have a job set up already 18 00:00:45,410 --> 00:00:48,330 so shortly before I graduated, 19 00:00:48,330 --> 00:00:51,760 I started writing letter after letter after letter 20 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,190 to all the publications that I wanted to be part of. 21 00:00:55,190 --> 00:00:59,970 Vogue was always my main goal 22 00:00:59,970 --> 00:01:00,803 and because of that, 23 00:01:00,803 --> 00:01:02,260 they probably got the lion's share of the letters 24 00:01:02,260 --> 00:01:04,240 and I must've written about 20 to them 25 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:06,580 and emailed them and called them. 26 00:01:06,580 --> 00:01:09,310 And it paid off and I ended up getting an internship 27 00:01:09,310 --> 00:01:10,480 straight out of college. 28 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:14,370 I wasn't fortunate enough 29 00:01:14,370 --> 00:01:15,950 to be able to walk into something 30 00:01:15,950 --> 00:01:18,110 and not have to worry about working at all. 31 00:01:18,110 --> 00:01:20,200 I had to find a way to support myself. 32 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:22,030 I ended up doing my internship at Vogue 33 00:01:22,030 --> 00:01:23,890 during the day, Monday to Friday, 34 00:01:23,890 --> 00:01:26,750 and then in the evenings during the week 35 00:01:26,750 --> 00:01:29,170 for four out of those five days, I'd work in a bar. 36 00:01:29,170 --> 00:01:32,810 It was tiring but it genuinely felt worth it 37 00:01:32,810 --> 00:01:35,920 because I was getting to go to Vogue in the daytime. 38 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:37,690 Whilst I was at Vogue, 39 00:01:37,690 --> 00:01:40,520 somebody else on the team approached me 40 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:42,960 and asked me if I wanted to go for an interview 41 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:45,110 at a fashion brand. 42 00:01:45,110 --> 00:01:47,980 I realized about halfway through the interview 43 00:01:47,980 --> 00:01:49,700 that brand was for Victoria Beckham. 44 00:01:49,700 --> 00:01:52,320 Ultimately after my first interview, 45 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:54,970 they decided to go with someone else. 46 00:01:54,970 --> 00:01:58,100 Whilst that was crushing at the time, 47 00:01:58,100 --> 00:02:00,740 it's never nice to not get a job 48 00:02:00,740 --> 00:02:02,450 that you go to interview for, 49 00:02:02,450 --> 00:02:07,450 I realized that it perhaps wasn't the right moment for me 50 00:02:07,870 --> 00:02:11,880 and then focused on getting my next term internship again. 51 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:13,820 A few months later, I got a phone call 52 00:02:13,820 --> 00:02:17,670 to say that it hadn't worked out with the first person 53 00:02:17,670 --> 00:02:20,490 and they'd like to see me for interview again. 54 00:02:20,490 --> 00:02:24,115 And lo and behold, I went back for my second interview 55 00:02:24,115 --> 00:02:25,483 and I got the job. 56 00:02:27,430 --> 00:02:32,430 Being part of a team of three or four, including Victoria, 57 00:02:32,750 --> 00:02:35,050 was an incredible experience. 58 00:02:35,050 --> 00:02:37,110 They offered me the chance to move into sales 59 00:02:37,110 --> 00:02:39,450 and I thought that would be a great progression for me. 60 00:02:39,450 --> 00:02:42,390 I was sales assistant for about a year. 61 00:02:42,390 --> 00:02:43,840 When I was sales manager 62 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:47,550 was when I got offered the opportunity to move to New York. 63 00:02:47,550 --> 00:02:49,680 About eight or nine months ago, 64 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:53,110 I got promoted into the role of sales director 65 00:02:53,110 --> 00:02:55,610 for the Americas and Australia. 66 00:02:55,610 --> 00:03:00,330 We go to Paris about four times a year and offer a show room 67 00:03:00,330 --> 00:03:03,950 where the stores can come to see the collection firsthand 68 00:03:03,950 --> 00:03:06,540 and I work with them to make sure 69 00:03:06,540 --> 00:03:09,380 that the assortment that they're pulling together 70 00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:11,910 is the strongest one possible for them. 71 00:03:11,910 --> 00:03:14,640 I met Victoria on my first day 72 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:19,640 and in that moment realized that about six months prior, 73 00:03:19,903 --> 00:03:24,117 I had been in Wembley Stadium at a Spice Girls concert 74 00:03:24,117 --> 00:03:29,050 and now she was standing in front of me as my boss. 75 00:03:29,050 --> 00:03:32,690 And those moments that I've taken with me 76 00:03:32,690 --> 00:03:33,580 all the way through 77 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:36,980 and I will never forget what that felt like. 78 00:03:36,980 --> 00:03:38,831 - [Interviewer] And lastly, who's your favorite Spice Girl? 79 00:03:38,831 --> 00:03:40,180 - (laughing) Stop. 80 00:03:40,180 --> 00:03:43,290 My favorite Spice Girl is, 81 00:03:43,290 --> 00:03:44,955 I can't answer that, it's too bias. 82 00:03:44,955 --> 00:03:46,716 (electronic music)