Will Bachman 00:01
I am probably the last person on earth who should be giving fashion advice. But I’m not gonna let that stop me. Hey, welcome to Unleashed the show that explores how to thrive as an independent professional. Unleashed is a production of Umbrex, the world’s first global community, connecting top tier independent professionals with one another, and I’m your host Will Bachman. I bought my first custom made shirt. 12 years ago, when I was on a four month project in Chile. It seems that all the men in the McKinsey office in Santiago bought their shirts from the same Custom Shop, which was Bowden, that’s not the UK clothing brand of the same name, but bowden.cl. One day a teammate arranged for a salesperson from Bowden to come to our team room, and everyone else was buying some shirts, so I figured I’d go along and get a couple as well. I had always assumed that custom made shirts and suits were a complete extravagance, something that only people with a butler would buy. But that introduction changed my perspective. While the shirts were a bit more expensive than the shirts that I normally bought at Filene’s basement. The shirts seem to last forever. I recently spoke with my friend Kazuki kazoo, Sally fosca, a technical fashion designer, and she explained to me the economics. If you buy a shirt at a department store that retails for $80, that shirt has been through two markups, each about 120% from the actual manufacturer to the wholesaler and from the wholesaler to the retail store. So the manufacturer sold it to the wholesaler for about $16. And the wholesaler sold it to the department store for about $36. But the manufacturer needed to make a profit. So the actual direct cost to manufacture that shirt, the labor and the cloth was $10 or less. Now, if you spend $100, to buy a custom made shirt directly from the manufacturer, that manufacturer has a number of advantages. There’s no rent for retail store, there’s no insurance, there’s no need to pay for inventory that doesn’t sell because by definition, every shirt that gets made has already been sold, there’s no need to worry about discounting. So if the custom made tailor that you buy your shirt from gets $100 from you, the tailors cost of labor and cloth could be up to $40 and the tailor still gonna make 120% markup. Now I’ve found over the years that custom made shirts are much better than a top brand shirt at a department store. I have shirts that I have laundered over 100 times and they still look like new. A department shirt store shirt, in my experience starts to have the color coming apart after 10 or 20 times through the cleaners. And also the fabric starts to look worn. So the economics that Kazuki walked me through explain why the manufacturer of that custom made shirt can just simply afford to pay more for the cloth, and more for labor to get that shirt stitched up properly. So the obvious advantage of custom made clothes is that they fit better. And the non obvious advantage is that for the same dollar, you get much better quality item. This also applies supplies mainly to men’s business clothing. At least in the US, it’s because you explained to me, at least in the US custom made clothing for women is much less common. Because there is a greater societal expectation that women will wear a wider variety of outfits well, men can get by with wearing the same suit, you know, once a week or maybe even more than once a week. Now, if you travel to Asia, you may already have a tailor that you visit. If you’re in the US, I can recommend latesh Komal Romani, who goes by the name of Harry Harry was recommended to me six years ago by the head of the CEO and board practice, and one of the top five executive recruiting firms. And I figured he knows from suits. So since a lot over the last six years, I’ve bought all my shirts and suits from Harry every year, how he makes a swing through the United States to take measurements and orders. He gets a hotel room for a couple days in a city and you make an appointment to get measured and from all his fabric books. You pick your fabric and you place your order. And then in a couple months, you get your clothes in the mail. in the show notes, I’ve included a link to download Harry’s itinerary for this fall. And if you want to make an appointment, you can email Harry at Galleria. That’s g a l l e r i a galeria at lox info, that’s l o XINFO dots. do.th and I’ve included that email in the show notes. You can also call Harry at 662-639-1401. If your schedule doesn’t allow you to meet Harry this year could send him an email and ask to be added to his mailing list for next year. And if you’re in Europe, ask him to be added to his email list for his Europe itinerary. So I’ll just walk through his itinerary for this fall. He’ll be in New York City, September 11, and 12th be in Philadelphia, September 13 and 14th in Washington, DC, September 15th, and 16th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, September 17 and 18th in Boston, September 19, and 20th in Atlanta, Georgia, September 21 and 22nd. Chicago, September 23 and 24th Scottsdale Arizona, September 25 and 26th Houston, September 27, and Dallas September 28 and 29th los angeles September 30, through October 3. So, if you those dates work for you for your city reach out to Harry. If not you can give him a note for next year. I found that custom made clothing for men is a far better deal than shopping in the store and it’s also certainly much more convenient. So hope you find it helpful and reach out to Harry for to get suited up. Thanks