Comments on: $300 shirts

By: Ed Byrne

Ed Byrne — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:33:30 +0000

Hugh,
The bespoke, quality shirt market hasn’t been tapped anywhere that I can see!
Of course being a web marketing person I see the great opportunity to meet people once for measurements and intro — and then through a really great web interface let people pick their shirts — from material and design — through to ‘current fashion in London is:…; currently recommended for East Coast USA is:..’

By: frosty

frosty — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:51:54 +0000

Self-correction: I know fancy suits aren’t about what you *need* but in California I’d be hard-pressed to find an occasion to even wear one if I had it.

By: frosty

frosty — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:50:19 +0000

Googling around, I found Ascot Chang shirts online in the $150–400 range, not bespoke but you can put in your measurements. (And a really crappy website.)
And I found some fancy east-coast USA custom-shirt guys whose prices start at $650, minimum order 3 shirts, who also have a super-crappy website but once you find the relevant info make an OK pitch.
I agree with the West Coast USA sentiment — I’m in SF and there’s just no way I’d ever need a fancy suit here. But I would at least consider a fancy shirt, if you can make it seem as nice to have as the fancy suits sound.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 05:27:55 +0000

Word association… shirts…ties, cuff-links, image, look, sophistication, shoes, formal, classic, innovate. Nothing too cheap, not mass produced, sophisticated, individual. Perhaps you are looking for a stable of associate artisans in these fields. Or designers and a good factory.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 04:39:36 +0000

So what happens when the Jan sales come along — when they do, can I pick up a TM shirt for c

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:01:01 +0000

Ed,
Yeah, Pink’s are good… they’re more the

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:57:47 +0000

Ed, that’s a corker of an idea =)

By: Ed Byrne

Ed Byrne — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:12:13 +0000

Go for it Hugh — while I currently wouldn’t spend 3k on a suit — I like quality shirts and Thomas Pink seem to be one the best (in Ireland) at the moment.
Presumably you’ll need to get measured for the first one, but I’d love to see a great web site after that stored my details and let me pick material / style on-line.

By: frosty

frosty — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:33:27 +0000

Hmmm…
If you can sell a lot of $300 EC shirts, most of them presumably to current/future EC suit owners, wouldn’t the next logical step be to have a shirtmaker do his/her own blog/brand?
EnglishShirt.com or whatever. If handmade shirts scale so much better than handmade suits, what about a blog-marketed shirt people will want as much as they want EC suits? Except not so expensive (ergo, more folks can buy one) and not so limited (lots of people don’t have any use for a suit, no matter how great it is).
…just thinking out loud…

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:16:08 +0000

Frosty, for cotton, handmade business shirts, $300 is pretty standard for Jermyn Street. Anything more and you’re either paying for the designer label, or some exotic fabric.
Though yeah, it’s aimed at the same kind of customer that currently buys our suits.
They buy an English Cut suit, next thing you know thay want a shirt to match. So it’s all demand-driven. We’re not trying to create a new market, just better serve our existing one.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:07:25 +0000

Dennis, we can have shirts hand-made at wholesale prices, then sell them to our existing customers at retail prices. Profit!

By: frosty

frosty — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:02:16 +0000

What’s the next step down in fancy shirts?
If you’re selling for $300, does that mean basically you have the same customers you’d have for the fancy suits?
Sorry, I usually buy pretty cheap shirts (under $50), so I’m just curious where $300 fits in to the overall fancy-shirt scene.
For example, I have a friend who mostly wears t-shirts and jeans, but spends $300 on the jeans because his favorite brand costs that much.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:16:36 +0000

I thought you were saying there was some wholesaling deal available? Now you’re saying handmade. Confused. When I said margin, I meant reduced by virtue of having a wholesaling arrangement. Not being tiresome, trying to understand the model. As a semi-recovered accountant! I’m sure the ROi is wonderful

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 08:06:01 +0000

We’re talking about the latter, Nia. Uber-high-end stuff.

By: Nia

Nia — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:09:55 +0000

Are we talking very good shirts who happen to have an English Cut label on them, or are we talking The Best Shirts Money Can Buy, the exact quality and fit equivalent of EnglishCut suits?