Having spent more than 50 years at the top of G-III Apparel Group, the CEO knows how to watch the market and how to change with the times.

More than 50 years ago, Morris Goldfarb took the reins of his family’s leather goods company and over the ensuing decades turned it into the G-III Apparel Group. He initially transformed it into a New York licensing powerhouse and now is honing the company into a brand builder, one that is ready to shape the next chapters of Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan.

Being chief executive officer and in charge is hard enough. Staying in charge — and over such a long stretch with so many seismic changes in the fashion industry — is something else entirely.

To pull it off, and build a $3 billion business, he has displayed stamina, tenacity, quick wittedness, nimbleness and a healthy dose of creativity.

That is why Goldfarb, who’s chairman and CEO of G-III, is the recipient of this year’s WWD Honor for Creative Leadership.

He sat down with WWD to talk leadership, the entrepreneurial drive and a wild ride on Seventh Avenue.

Even when Goldfarb was just a marketing major at Long Island University and interviewing with advertising firms, still unsure the family business would be the right fit, he knew where his trajectory would eventually take him.

As he proposed to his wife — presumably after some romantic overture — he told her: “No matter what I do, I’m going to be the best at what I do.

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