The return home to Hawai‘i has been a long time coming for local girl Shelley Cramer. After finding post-grad work in the buying office at Liberty House, her first foray into the corporate fashion world, Cramer headed back to school on the mainland to earn her MBA. From there she went on to spend the next 18 years building her career in management—and her taste for designer fashion—with a number of high-end retailers, finding her way from Montblanc to Louis Vuitton, Max Mara and Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco.
“Every step of my journey was a learning opportunity,” Cramer says. “Everything that I saw and loved in a leader, I put in my back pocket like a golden nugget. When I became a leader, I made sure to take those things and make them my own.”
By then, Cramer was eager to make the move home to the islands, and she finally got the chance upon signing on to lead Saks Fifth Avenue’s first outpost in Hawai‘i. “We’re a jewel box in Waikiki,” Cramer says of International Market Place, home to Saks Hawai‘i’s three glittering floors of luxury goods.
Saks attract a global traveler, Cramer says, so while locals aren’t necessarily wearing fur, ball gowns or head-to-toe designer in their daily lives, their closets tell a different story. “They’ll wear their shorts here, but their wardrobe is definitely fashion forward,” Cramer says.
Still, a big part of Cramer’s charge is tailoring the Hawai‘i store to the local market, including working with the buying office to stock an expanded range of sizes and a growing inventory of local products—designers like Tori Richard and Manaola, and goodies from Kahala Pantry and Maui Cookie Lady. Throughout the store are design elements inspired by Hawai‘i’s natural environment as well as work from local artists—the mural in the store’s private lounge is a commission by Hawai‘i-born street artist HULA.
“In this day and age, it’s all about dot-com,” Cramer says. “So for us, we’re focused on customer service and the experience in a brick and mortar versus shopping online.” Saks Hawai‘i has extended this customer-centric approach to those who do choose to shop online, offering a web portal where customers can shop their local sales associates’ top picks or chat with them online, a service that often drives shoppers back to the brick and mortar.
Cramer also credits Saks Hawai‘i’s local following to the company’s efforts in the community, from charitable giving to initiatives like Nurses’ Week, when a team from Saks Fifth Avenue goes to local hospitals and provides nurses with free makeovers. As for Cramer herself, she sits on several boards, including the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, the Hawaiian Humane Society, Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children, Teach for America Hawai‘i and Sacred Hearts Academy, where her two daughters go to school.
Sacred Hearts is also where she founded Girls Got Grit, a mentorship program designed to inspire high schoolers to pursue C-suite positions and other leadership roles in the community. “It’s all about passion and perseverance,” Cramer says. “Success takes grit. It can’t just be a job—it’s a career. If you feel and believe in it, anything is possible.”
So what’s next for this Maryknoll High School alum turned high-powered exec? “I love raising my children here and the people who have welcomed me and been nothing but gracious and authentic,” Cramer says. “I really appreciate the ‘ohana and the love, and I’ll keep giving back in any way I can to the community. My work here is not done.”
