March 6, 2005
ok, this is starting to get silly…
From USA Today, the largest American newspaper:
Do not underestimate the pleasures of a really well-made suit. Thomas Mahon is a bespoke tailor (that is, a fellow who makes suits to order) on London’s Savile Row, and if anyone can convince you to at least consider investing in one gloriously perfect piece of clothing in your life, this is the guy. Even the non-clotheshorses of Hot Sites were fascinated by his description of the Savile Row culture, by his analysis of what makes a bespoke suit worth the frankly flabbergasting price tag, and by his tips of what to look for in a suit if you really must buy off-the-rack. Educational and entertaining as well.
Awwww… what a nice little mention. I feel all warm and fuzzy now.
It’s looking like this “blogging tailor” virus is far more deadly than we predicted. Sure, it’s fabuously exciting for me and Tom, but Jeeze Louise, Tom’s already staggered by the amount of work suddenly in front of him. And we’ve only just scratced the surface.
Actually, I disagree with USA Today. $4,000 is pretty darn cheap, considering what you’re getting.
A suit takes about 100 hours to make, so figure it out to $40 an hour; including the cost of the cloth, sundries, not to mention the cost of travelling around, train tickets, rent etc etc.
$40 an hour for the best craftsmanship of its kind in the world. I know third-rate web developers who charge 3 times that much.
Now that the blog has resulted in an increase in business, how does Tom plan to meet the increased demand?
Increased prices, I’d expect
…and if/how are the designer labels going to meet the decreased demand.
Increased demand? Hire more sewing tailors.
Simply put, the bigger the cutting pile, the longer the waiting list.
Ordering a suit is like commissioning a painting.
Waiting lists — now it gets interesting. Time is money — not only do I have to pay a high price, I have to wait and thus (factoring in opportunity cost) the price is rising.
So what happens? New entrants seek to entice your waiting list away by offering quicker delivery but the supply of equivalent suits is strictly limited, so new entrants are inevitably inferior.
In other businesses, this would lead to franchising etc which of course is impossible without denuding the raison d’etre of quality. So while the blog has rapidly expanded revenue potential, it has equally seemed to reach/be approaching saturation point already. Tom will have increased income for forseeable future until the wiating list becomes a deterrant but is the bigger lesson here that blogs can only help long-term if the buisness is truly scaleable or is it that businesses will devolve from mass production to smaller scale enterprises which have direct conversations with their clientele?
Heh. John, reaching saturation point ASAP was the whole point of the exercise
And look– You’re already complaing and you haven’t even left your first deposit on a suit.
Hardly the type of client a Savile Row tailor is going to pay much attention to
Here’s an example. One client at Tom’s old company came in a few weeks ago, and ordered 4 suits– dark grey, light grey, and two navy blue pinstripes.
So, four suits. $15-16K. Not bad huh?
Heh. He actually ordered 28 suits. One set of each for all his seven houses. Easier for him just to duplicate the suits than spend all that time packing and schelpping suitcases around.
And so the company will full-on for a while.
It’s not just tailors have to compete for their customers. Customers have to compete for the tailor’s attention as well. And the money is only one criteria of many. Just ask any prosperous suburbaniste trying to land a first-class plumber, carpenter, or plasterer.
If you don’t want to pay more, then wait more. That’s how it works. Most people would rather wait an extra few weeks than pay $8-9K for a suit. Especially when you’re buying 28 of them.
We’ve already started turning away business, just because we could already tell the guy was a pain in the ass.
Anyway, you’re not paying an opportunity cost. The terms of the transaction– how much, how fast etc– aren’t decided till the customer places an order. And leaves a deposit.
Waiting lists are not always a problem and I’d imagine particularly not for bespoke suits. Very few people purchasing a bespoke suit won’t have any other suits — I’d guess they have a fair few of varying age and quality. You don’t need a bespoke suit NOW. Well, very rarely. That means that, for something like this, you can wait. Waiting makes it special. Membership of the MCC is valued all the more *because* of the waiting list.
Tom is being marketed as the top end luxury sports car — there is always demand for that kind of quality. The blog will only serve to remind customers that
a) they may have to wait,
and b) it will be worth the wait — i.e. don’t bother compromising by heading off to someone else.
Let’s face it, if one of Tom’s potential customers go elsewhere, they will always have that hankering to know whether he might have been even better and may have a look at EnglishCut next time they’re looking for a suit.
The danger is surely the temptation to grow the business beyond the boundaries at which quality remains high. If there aren’t the quality cutters out there, it doesn’t sound like Tom would recruit.
Yes Tim, you got it.
A tailor froined of mine (not Tom) is currently cutting a large order of the owner of a very large, famous company that you will have heard of.
The guy has a real suit fetish. So every year he returns to the Row and plonks down and order for $20-odd-thousand. And this tailor has a couple of clients like that.
Having these men’s custom– OK, it’ll never make money like Ralph Lauren– but it offers a sense of security and job satisfaction most large companies would be hard pressed to offer even 5% of their people.
Waiting lists are common in the world of custom made guitars. There was once a maker of classical guitars, Ignacio Fleta, who only made 12 instruments a year. There was a waiting list lasting seven years.
An awareness of this world may provide useful info for Tom.
Henry,
Tom knows all about this world, because his world is the same.
that idea of the guy having identical suits in each of his seven houses was brilliant Hugh. Is there a Nobel prize for blogging? I’ll have the trophy made — with “The thought of making money sends Hughie completely gaga” emblazoned across the back.
AFAIK greed is not a creative catalyst
The “I” was a hypothetical customer — I sadly am not in the financial league to be that hypothetical customer, but the point I think still stands.
Yes, the customers may be willing to wait but that doesn’t deny the economic reality that ultimately a suit in x weeks time is in real terms delivered at a lower price than one delivered in a longer timeframe. as you are deriving benefit from it sooner.
With your understood goal of maximum output reached, you have to ration your customers either by price, waiting time or, as you indicate, by personal preference.
That’s fine for English Cut — indeed essential because the product is “remarkable” by virtue of a form of labour intensity. But my rhetorical question is whether you’re identifying limiting parameters for the Hughtrain methodology?
Greed! Yay!
I haven’t limited any parameters yet, as far as I know.
Hey Hughie — I apologize for my barbed comment, and am glad you took it in good humor. I should explain — after reading your article about shoulder pads I did exactly as you predicted, rushed to my wardrobe, and when I found what a schmuck I had been for so many years (no wadding!!!) a red mist just descended in front of my eyes. I had to take it out on someone and you were there. I knew you would understand — finding shoulder pads in your suits is an awful thing to happen to anyone.
Are you planning on getting back to the smarter conversations anytime soon? I thing Kevin Roberts has the lovemarks thing pretty well covered.
No, Peter, I’m just planning on having dumber conversations from now on. Starting with you.
that’s hilarious Hugh! I was beginning to think you had lost it.
$4000.00 is *not* expensive for a hand-crafted suit. People who think nothing of spending 10x that amount for a vehicle should not be surprised at the price, but in the world of fast-food and faster cars, patience and appreciation of fine quality workmanship means little. Most people are all flash and no cash. Not that I could afford a $4000.00 suit mind — nor do I need one — but I’m really sick of people whining about shit like this. You want to play, expect to pay.