gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

So you drum up more people interested in one of Tom's suit. You don't compromise on the cutting and sewing, etc. Instead of a waiting list of months, you have a waiting list of years (a bit like getting membership at the MCC?) - do you increase the price? Or maybe allow someone to bequeath their position in the queue to their children? How about a secondary market in queue places?

No. We don't compromise on the sewing/making. If people want them fast and crap, they can go somewhere else.

We're also pretty happy with the price structure- around 20-25% less than Savile Row norms. We'ree more interested in, wait for it... the relationship with the customer. For that, of course, is where all value ultimately orginates.

What am I not grasping here? I haven't been following this thread overly closely, but I gather that Hugh believes he has discovered some sort of bullshit-free zone, a place where honest, authentic people such as the Sultan of Brunei can shop for quality menswear without having to deal with the indignities of Madison Avenue or designer labels.

Perhaps we should brush up on our econ 101, though, so we don't embarrass ourselves the next time we're chatting up Graydon Carter. All value certainly does not originate from "relationship with the customer." (Do I smell something? Could it be, wait for it...marketing bullshit?) If we want to get technical, value is simply a customer's willingness to pay a price for an item above the cost of production. Relationship *may* play a role in creating value, but it certainly isn't any sort of ultimate source. I've gotten tons of value out of my off-the-rack Armani suit, because it's worth more to me than I paid for it. Conversely, Tom's suits actually have negative value for me, because the value I place on the increased quality doesn't match up with the cost of the increased labor content (because I'm not the freaking Sultan of Brunei). No amount of bushwa about relationships is going to change that equation.

There also seems to be a great deal of confusion around this notion of "artificially" making a product seem special, as though there some meaningful distinction between natural specialness and artificial specialness. Tom's suits are special because they are relatively rare. Period. Full stop. If Tom decided he wanted to take a month-long summer holiday with this family, would he be "artificially" restricting supply? If aliens gave us a technology that allowed us to magically create high-quality bespoke suites at no cost, do we suppose that prices for Tom's suits would remain high, simply because they are so "naturally" special?

Sorry to be pedantic about this, but there's just way too much silliness going on here. Tom is lucky to have possession of a scarce resource (tailoring talent) that a few people are willing to pay dearly for access to, and it's entirely up to him to decide how much of that talent he wishes to mete out. The rest of us are lucky to have designer labels and Mens' Warehouses. So let's stop moaning about marketing bullshit, shall we?

P.S. Love the cartoons.

At what point do we get to tell you we don't care to hear about Saville Row any more?
Just asking.

Any time you want, Nelbo...

BTW my traffic has doubled since I started writing about Savile Row.

;-)

Are your T-shirts from Tom as well?

(You know, the ones you are selling at the top of the page...)

Ok guys - what he's really talking about is a small market where the producer has a top quality, custom made, personalized product. "it feels so good"

There is no question that a better fit, and better materials and the subtle knowledge required to do this make a better suit or a better anything thats being made.

Its a bullshit -free zone because the producer has more work than he can do, and he cares more about the quality of the finished product than he does about making more money.

In the race between "more income" and "I feel proud of my work" This guy is going for the second one. (ok, "the latter" )
Well good for him, I wish I could avail myself of his services. I love quality, nothing feels better, be it clothing, tools, furniture, houses, or what have you.

Your traffic has doubled because what you do is actually fucking great! Not trying to bust your chops, maybe a little, but just as other things become tired so might this. Maybe not.