Perhaps I should explain why we discount so often and play games with prices and offers so often. My brother once got so angry when he saw a scarf he paid for in full freight and then saw one of them discounted online. I understand it may frustrate our customers at times but then you are always welcome to pick one up on the sale codes.
We don’t discount black tie because it is the service we offer every day that brings customers from around the world. This week we had three orders for cummerbund sets for the United States and the only items that were purchased from the website outside of these orders was black bow ties and white pocket squares.
We rarely sell the rest of what we offer without Studio visits unless of course I leave one or two of something on the website for the sale codes.
So when you mop up the sale items, congratulations, you have performed two functions for us, you have visited the website to build our traffic and you have helped clear off bibs and bobs or else to clear off the remaining one off pieces that needed to be gone so I can work on my next batch.
Most of the businesses I deal with won’t tell you when they are suffering, they put on a brave face and tell me how they’ve pivoted towards a new line that’s selling out fast, they tell me it’s mostly stable.
I would like to be more earnest with you, this year has been a tough one, hence why we have even more sales going on. Wedding work is steady but not as it was. Where once a groom might arrive at our Studio requesting bow ties for the entire wedding party including the fathers of the bride and groom, these days are gone for us. The customers we see are buying, yes, but perhaps just the groom and best man, no need for the extras that they might ordinarily enjoy, from silk twill pocket squares to silk socks.
I am not in control of people’s confidence to spend money, I am acutely aware of the financial concerns of so many of our customers, and I am aware that some of our customers who own nearly a thousand bow ties no longer need another one unless absolutely necessary. And, as one might imagine, for us to go and find new customers is like mining for bit coin, so scaling the business unless I find something for $2 that I can sell for $12 can be sourced from China, but then, would that work for the business you guys love and enjoy.
And about that I want to say something about the quality of the materials we use. Especially when we have the organzino warp limited edition silks in play. There is no more expensive loom one can deploy. The warp and weft are, from memory, I believe the grade is called A6. And it’s used both on warp and weft. As are some of the satins we use. There are only two companies that utilise this warp in the world, one is us, one is ….. and you know I can’t tell you who it is …. Such is our business, my Italian weavers don’t talk out of school, their job is to protect the interests of the brands that use their services.
And it is to your benefit that a pip squeak like myself can have access to these suppliers. One of the reasons is that I / we (if you include my illustrators) produce some of the most unique designs you will ever see in their archives. Whilst these bigger customers are constrained by global demand, we are focused more as an auteur role, no governing need to return money to shareholders, no need to focus on neck ties primarily, the art of the bow tie remains our highest pursuit, scarves coming closely behind them though I must admit that these days I am more interested in our scarves because the canvas is so much bigger to work with. On your bow ties I am given such a small piece of real estate (12 x 7cm) from which I can impress you. Worse still, as I have mentioned, in the end, what sells in volume is our black bow ties, our Model T Ford so to speak.
And all of that brings me to a conclusive remark, I love you all, I will continue to discount product, I hope you understand more where I am coming from, I hope you stay loyal to us. We are close to presenting you our silk silk scarf and pocket squares design. Overnight one of Italy’s most famed silk printers, who formed a portion of a book on the subject, sent by WhatsApp photos of the new samples being printed and write that “they are all so beautiful”. Hey listen, I don’t care if I don’t make it, to have someone of her standing tell you that your work is good, to have these specialist weavers and printers on Whatsapp chats, to take them to lunch when in Como, this is the reward. I can go belly up and have to take another job where someone sitting above asks me to justify my key performance indicators for the quarter, or I can soldier on, suck it up, and accept my fate.
And on that note, finally, to try to bring this to a close, to confess some truth about what I do, I must admit, without having had family money behind me, owing to my father’s own hard work over 50 years, truth, I would have gone belly up ten times by now.
So what I do, put simply, is create and serve you. Serve as many of you as I can. Keep as many of you as happy as I can. That’s it. I am only here as long as you keep supporting me and enjoying what I put my hand to.
So, thank you.
