Retail therapy: Scott Mitchell’s passion for fashion – and philanthropy

(Editor’s note:  With this story we reintroduce a former occasional feature of the Westfair Business Journal, “Profits & Passions,” in which we explore business leaders’ hobbies and causes and how those dovetail with their professions.

Meet Scott Mitchell, a scion of the Mitchell family, who own eight department stores nationwide. Like all of the family, Mitchell’s passion for fashion combines with his love of philanthropy – in his case, as a key player in the Breast Cancer Alliance’s annual Luncheon and Fashion Show: )

“Life is a stage,” Scott Mitchell said, echoing Jacque in William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” “even if it’s a law office.”

For the last 24 years, Mitchell’s stage has been the women’s and jewelry departments of Richards, the luxury women’s and men’s clothing and accessories store in Greenwich. He and Richards are part of a four-generation family business that began in 1958 when Ed Mitchell opened an eponymous men’s clothing store with wife Norma in their hometown of Westport. Today, the eight Mitchell Stores, employing more than 400 people, include not only Richards and Mitchells Westport but Mitchells Huntington; Wilkes San Francisco and Wilkes Palo Alto in California; Marios Seattle; and Oregon’s Marios Portland and Marios 3.10 in Tigard.

Six weeks ago, Mitchell moved to Seattle to run the five West Coast stores. But he was soon back on the East Coast for his other stage – the runway of the Greenwich-based Breast Cancer Alliance’s Luncheon and Fashion Show, whose 28^th iteration was held Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison.

For 18 of those 28 years, Richards has been BCA’s fashion partner, with Mitchell serving as the smooth auctioneer for dream experiences that this year included a Paris adventure with Swiss fashion house Akris, the runway presenter, and tickets to a Taylor Swift “Eras Tour” concert in Toronto. Strolling the runway, a pink cast on his broken left arm as the result of a fall while running outdoors – “ I said, ‘What color should I get?’ I was going to get blue, but my wife said, ‘You’ve got to get pink’” – Mitchell exuded a no-pressure charm as he teased tens of thousands of dollars out of a crowd of 850 for grants for breast cancer research, education and outreach as well as mammograms for the underserved. (Since its founding in 1996 by Mary Waterman, a year before she succumbed to terminal breast cancer, BCA has raised nearly $36 million. This year’s event raised more than $1 million, said Yonni Wattenmaker, BCA’s executive director.)

“What better import from the West Coast to the East than our favorite auctioneer, Scott Mitchell?” Wattenmaker added. “He’s kind, funny and generous – just like the rest of the Mitchell family. BCA is so lucky to have them as our partners year after year for this extraordinary event.”

For Mitchell, being an integral part of the BCA luncheon is a no-brainer.

“I’m sure you saw the room,” he said of the moment when Wattenmaker asked all of those affected in some way by breast cancer to raise their pink, boxing glove-shaped auction paddles, and a forest of paddles went up. One in eight women – one in slightly more than 800 men – will be diagnosed with the disease, with the number of breast cancer cases in women under 50 increasing by more than 2% each year for the past five years. As the grandson of Norma Mitchell, who had breast cancer, and as a husband and father of two daughters in college – a son attends law school – Mitchell understands the fight against the disease. He hails BCA as “awesome to work with” and Wattenmaker as extraordinary as well.

While Mitchell is on the runway, often lending a gallant hand to the breast cancer survivors who strut their stuff in the always moving “Models of Inspiration” fashion show, cousin Andrew Mitchell works the back of the house with Wattenmaker.

“You don’t want me doing the back end,” Mitchell said with a laugh. But then, not everyone is a front man. Raised in Westport and educated at Dartmouth College, Mitchell soon saw that he was good at the very performative profession of selling, particularly women’s clothing. (He’s also a certified gemologist.)

Mitchell worked for Abercrombie & Fitch, Eddie Bauer and Ann Taylor in New York City before joining Richards on March 9, 1998 – three years after the family acquired Richards of Greenwich, then a men’s retailer. The new Richards moved across Greenwich Avenue from its former locale into its present 27,000-square-foot space in 2000.

Mitchell called Richards “a playground for big kids” and said the store has just finished its best year. But the luxury market is not bulletproof. There have been lean years, including the Great Recession of 2009 and the Covid year of 2020. Still, the family persists.

“We’re resilient, hardworking, lucky and blessed,” he said.

And, he might’ve added, determined to share those blessings. Each BCA Luncheon and Fashion Show attendee gets a Richards gift card worth at least $100 – also a smart marketing strategy as the runway fashions presented are available right after the show at Richards.

A day after the BCA event — Thursday, Oct. 24 — the family was honored for its contributions at Greenwich Historical Society’s “History in the Making” gala, while Pink Aid’s “Pink After Dark” fundraiser, drawing awareness to breast cancer among the underserved, took place at Mitchells Westport. The family was slated to be well-represented on both occasions.

So will we see Scott back in Greenwich for next year’s Breast Cancer Alliance Luncheon and Fashion Show?

“TBD,” he said.

But we wouldn’t bet against it.