December 21, 2005
shirts and los angeles
Yesterday I told Thomas to stop making so many suits. He’ll burn out at the rate he’s going. We’re cutting back. We’ve already got too many customers.
Shirts is the next chapter.
Last night I had a dream about Los Angeles. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant dream. All to do with being stuck in traffic with a bunch of advertising execs, missing our United Airlines flight out of the city.
I lived in LA briefly in the late 1990s. Didn’t care for it. It all went horribly wrong.
So I woke up thinking maybe there was this connection between the shirt thing and LA. Maybe LA is where we should market the shirts. Lots of studio execs wear jeans to work. Our shirts will look good with jeans.
Maybe with shirts, my old big-media days and my new Savile Row days are suddenly colliding. Maybe that explains last night’s dream.
[UPDATE:] Antoin has been following this shirt thread (no pun intended) and offers some really excellent ideas himself. We’ve had some similar thoughts ourselves, but it’s nice to see we’re not the only ones thinking along the same lines.
I’d urge anyone interested to go and give it a read. Very groovy.
But what went horribly wrong and how?
dotcom/dotbomb. Heh.
As you tagged “shirt thread” with a disclaimer, I’ll take it that “cutting back” was fully intended.
Again take the Ascot Chang store in Beverly Hills as an example. Very small…usually just one or two salespeople…all shirt production done in china. 6 week wait usually. Well worth it! Especially when we have all ditched suits in LA. Hell their are more dress shirts than anything else in the nightclubs and bars here. Straight from a meeting to a upscale nightclub…no problem.
When I lived in Europe I got my shirts made by a tailor in Germany. I got measured for the first one, then ordered subsequent shirts online. That was about three years ago, and the tailor is still at it.
thinking seriously here, the shirts are more accessible financially, will let folks associate with your global microbrand, and makes a connection with buyers who might some day grow up to buy a full suit. enter new tier, expand user base, upsell. standard stuff.
one catch. if you think you have too much work now. with shirts you will be working your tusch off.
but, i say, go for it if you can work out production and logistics issues.
cheers!
I’d actually be *very* happy to never have to visit a ‘brick’ shop to get well fitting shirts. I *hate* RL (real life) shopping but love SL (second life) shopping, ie. windowXP shopping.
I think you just need to come up with a special measuring tape made of velcro with coloured millimeter markings all the way along it which you can then post to prospective customers along with clear instructions for self-measuring. Last time I got fitted for a best-man’s suit the process didn’t seem all too difficult. AFAIR it was a matter of measuring the waist, the biceps, the chest and the shoulders? Give me the means of doing that myself with a velcro measuring tape, then filling in an online form with my measurments and finally choosing from a range of cool styles and I’ll be a happy camper.
Put your URL on the measuring tapes and let your customers keep them for a happy long term relationship.
Sportcoats. Sportcoats. Sportcoats.
Or if you prefer,
Blazers. Blazers. Blazers.
Work well with jeans. Lower ticket than suits. Bundle with shirts.