December 9, 2006
shirts, shirts, shirts
[Drafting patterns for bespoke shirts. Worth their weight in gold, seriously.]
I’ve not written a lot about English Cut, my $4000 suit enterprise I share with Savile Row tailor, Thomas Mahon for a while.
I guess there’s not really been a lot to write about, really. Tom’s been busy, and that’s about it. We’ve been at 100% capacity for months now.
The bespoke tailoring business doesn’t scale. It really doesn’t. Not unless you want to sacrifice quality big-time. And we don’t.
But this lack of scalability is what also gives true Savile Row its unique charm. In a world of me-too mass production, with luxury goods an increasingly diluted, globalised commodity, this is an amazing competitive advantage, especially for a tiny company like ours.
So as I’ve fond of saying, we have to scale the business in other ways.
The fact is, we’re making the best suits in the world. Or if we’re not, we’re darn close to it. So we have to take the same attitude with the other products. Either make the best, or don’t bother.
In 2007, we’ll be getting increasingly into the shirt business. We’re already making $300 hand-made shirts for our bespoke suit clients, but there are other shirt opportunities out there which we’re pursuing.
Think about it. We no longer live in a culture where wearing a suit and tie to the office is the norm. That being said, people still like wearing nice stuff. A proper English shirt goes great with a pair of jeans, good polished oxfords, with perhaps a blazer. It’s a classic look for a reason. And I think for a small, exclusive percentage of the population, it’s a conversation worth having.
I would like English Cut to be leading this conversation the future. In 5 years time, I’d like a lot of people to be saying, “Yeah, well, Thomas Pink is cool and all, but if you want the real deal, you have to go to English Cut.”
I think we can do it. I really do.
Hi Hugh,
This is pretty much the co-creation argument we are advocating at the Ladybank Company of Distillers with James Thomson, where I am helping out as a member and as the PR Man (yes I know!).
With English Cut I believe you can create a great online community of people who really appreciate fine tailoring. I know of another tailor in Doncaster, Yorkshire doing the same thing as English Cut and what he neatly illustrates is that people are prepared to ignore big brands for LOVE.
People want to engage with people who are going to make something for them out of an act of respect — and to use your words “enagage in a conversation”.
I’m not a suit man myself and I’ve always thought that if I had a bespoke suit made for me I would be spoiled forever — ie could never go back to off-the-peg.
However, having looked at the English Cut blog I know that if I ever did order a suit off Thomas I would look like the Dog’s Bollocks. At present when I wear a suit I look like Gollum in a Suit — not nice!
Hugh
,
This is probably going to sound like heresy but …
what if you scaled English Cut into “casual wear”? Once you have your customer’s measurements, how hard would it be to provide MORE OF THEIR WARDROBE? Think “Share of closet”.
I have spoken to some apparel people in the states and while I don’t wear them, there seems to be a HUGE market for VERY EXPENSIVE denim jeans. Most of the “cool” stuff is related to hip-hop artists, but if Savile Row did denim… that would be a BIG STORY!
[insert “proper” response here .… “You are Crazy”… “That’s not in line with Savile Row”…etc.]
Just an off-the-wall idea …
Dave
hmm — Thomas Pink is an Irishman and I started buying his shirts when he just had one London shop. He was a friend of a friend and so word quickly got around. Now they are owned by LVMH. I still buy their shirts. The other day I pulled out an old one that I hadn’t worn for years. I immediatey noticed that the cloth was better, the cut more generous (length) and I realised that their standards had dropped. It seams that the carrier bags, branding and image has got slicker while the product has slipped that mainstream way. I will buy English Cut shirts — if and when Thomas has the time.
James — interesting to see you mention quality of cloth. I have an English Cut shirt and more on order. The quality of the cloth is better than in any shirt I have bought — no question — no comparison. IMHO these are an absolute bargain when you compare them to off-the-peg shirts from Savile Row.
What else does a “gentleman” need?
Hugh — what next …
:bM
The original Thomas Pink shirts were made in Ireland, in a town with a long tradition of shirtmaking, coincidentally in a factory which a relation of mine owns a significant share of. The original shirts were great, weren’t they? Pink and others moved their business elsewhere, mainly because of cost factors and the factory moved to a Baltic state last year. From what I can see, Thomas Pink have cut the quality in order to be able to maintain the margins which will sustain their high-street locations and relatively high volumes. I think this is a pretty stupid thing to do if you ask me, but LVMH obviously know a lot about this stuff.
Anyway, there is no reason why something like the Thomas Pink shirts could not be made in a lower cost economy to the same quality or almost the same quality, for a slightly higher price. I think this is a good opportunity, if you approach it the right way.
We’ve kicked another shirts idea around before — http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/002098.html