May 7, 2005
english cut update:
Two bits of news on the English Cut front:
1. Thomas’ next visit to New York has been confirmed: Thursday to Sunday, the 9 – 12 of June. Details here.
2. Right now we have three bases of operation: Savile Row (London), New York and Paris.
We’re adding a fourth: San Francisco.
Here’s the deal. We need to sell between one and three suits to pay for the trip (depending how long Tom is out there). So we don’t like to spend money before we have a handful of people already fairly commited to trying us out. Right now we have two or three people interested. I’d like to get that number above six before Tom splashes out for a plane ticket and a hotel suite.
So if anyone has any West Coast friends with a sartorial fetish, please spread the word. Thanks.
All in all, a semi-monthly trip to New York or Paris is more profitable than servicing the Savile Row clients on a weekly basis. My goal as marketing ninja is to get Thomas to spend less time in London, and more time on a plane, visiting his other ports of call.
I know the Savile Row connection is essential for the brand and the credibility, but there’s only so much soap-grabbing I’m willing to do in order to maintain it. We’re in the suit business, not the real estate business.
What matters is making the best clothes in the world for people who can afford them. Whether the sales bit happens in a hotel suite in Paris or a Dickensian shop in London is frankly secondary to me.
[BONUS LINK:] “Why use English Cut”. If this were body copy it’d probably win an advertising award.
Hi — Can you describe the differences in credentials between Thomas and another master tailor from Anderson & Shepperd, Mr. Darren Beaman. Mr. Beaman is promoting himself heavily that he was a top tailor at A&S, so I want to decide which master tailor to use, Mr. Mahon or Mr. Beaman. Thanks.
The main difference is, Darren was never a cutter at A&S. He was an alterations tailor. In the back room. Nor was he ever a cutter at any of the other Savile Row firms, as far as I know.
If he does do his cutting now, I’d be interested to know who trained him. It certainly wasn’t Mr Halberry.
But I hear he was a good sewing tailor.
PS: “Master Tailor” is a fairly meaningless term, and Tom never uses it. And personally, I myself am wary of anybody who does.
The former mayor of SF, Willie Brown would be a good prospect. The current mayor, Gavin Newsom might be as well.
I wouldn’t mind one myself, but since I wear a suit about twice a year, it wouldn’t make much sense.