Chipp 2 / Winston Tailors Blog

Nordstrom Fights Deflation

Paul — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:35:43 +0000

I subscribe to the Saturday/Sunday New York Times. I like the Magazine section and the Business section. (My wife finds the wedding announcements in the style section funnier than most sit coms.) This past weekends paper included a Nordstrom magazine. It was produced on heavy stock and very artistically produced. Each page featured an item or two. No prices listed on these pages. At the back there were pages that had little miniature reprints of the full page shots and below these pictures one found the descriptions and the prices. The entire magazine contained women’s clothing, shoes and accessories. Here are a few of the listings: A tote bag with letters of the alphabet, which looks like the tote that my 6 year old granddaughter carrys to school with her lunch and books, is a bargin at $1,795. A blouse made of silk/cotton/viscose/and polyester is a steal at $2,420. Hand bags and clutches- $2,295, $1,920, $2,795, $1,695, $1,995. Boots, shoes, platform pumps- $2,395, $1,395, $1,495, $1,500, $1,675, $1,314. There was a platform pump listed at $643- probably a price misprint. Nordstrom is doing it’s part to fight deflation. I would love the names and addresses of the women who are buying these products. I want to write to their husbands/boyfriends and tell them what we are doing at Winston Tailors. I am sure there are people who think our opening made-to-measure suit price-$1650- is way out of line. It will not be anyone ordering from the Nordstrom magazine.

Help the Economy

Paul — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:13:43 +0000

If you had a gathering of the chairmen of the economic departments of the 10 top universities in the country, you would probably find that there were 10 different opinions on what will cure the economy’s problems. Keynesians and the advocates of Laissez-Faire are at each others throats over the national debt and whether inflation or deflation would be worse. They all agree that keeping money moving is what the economy needs. The spector of saving- put your money under your matress and get ready for a depression or put your money in a bank if there is deflation and it will be worth more later- has them all quaking in their boots. I want everyone who reads this to come into Winstion Tailors and order a suit, jacket, trousers……. I pledge that I will immediately spend the money to keep the money in circulation.

Would You Like a Vicuna Coat?

Paul — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:11:21 +0000

In 1961 a gentleman walked into Chipp with a coat length of Vicuna cloth he had purchased in South America. He wanted us to make a custom overcoat. My father would not accept the order. After the customer left I asked my dad why he turned down the order. He said the profit we would make was not nearly enough to off set the down side risk. What if the cloth was scorched in the pressing , or damaged in the cutting ? The cost to replace the cloth was not worth the risk. When a customer brings in cloth to have a suit, jacket ….. made, the tailor’s mark-up is based on his/her labor. The cost of his/her labor is a constant whether the cloth is cotton or cashmere. ( Side bar: This is why I tell my customers that they should not have me make them poplin suits/trousers etc. or seersucker items. The price I have to charge becomes inappropriate for the product. The overwhelming amount of those products in stores have been made “off shore”. When you add the cost of quality labor to poplin or seersucker the price gets out of wack. You can’t turn a pig’s ear into a silk purse. The seersucker will still be seersucker in spite of the superior tailoring. Why do I have poplin cloth and seersucker cloth in our showroom? I have customers who say “thank you, but I can’t get what I want from anyone’s stock- colors, details.”I have customers who have very challenging sizes. I have even had a customer say he wanted to give me the business to be sure I stayed in business. ) If a customer asks me to make a coat from a cloth that will cost me $2,800 per yard, I will not do it. I would not feel comfortable selling a coat for $20.000+.

What is Kirgyz ?

Paul — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:03:33 +0000

Until yesterday I had never heard of kirgyz. I deliberately did not give any enlightenment concerning kirgyz. I wanted to see if anyone would contact me to see if kirgyz was a figment of my imagination. Two individuals did inquire- so I thought I should clarify it for those others who wondered but did’t want to admit they didn’t know. The kirgyz is a half goat half ram with a wonderful soft cashmere like coat. It has more sheen than cashmere- some think sheen is good and some think sheen is bad. The hair is gathered by combing with an iron comb. Another fibre, which I did not mention yesterday, is “lurex”. Lurex is the regitered tradename for a metallic yarn- a synthetic fibre that is coated with aluminium. Both kirgyz and lurex strike me as creattions of Dr. Seuss. ( Ted Geisel was a customer.) I wonder what surprises the next price list I receive will have?

We Live and Learn

Paul — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:29:17 +0000

Some time I come across something that has me shake my head and accept the fact that the world has passed me bye. Today was such a day. I received a new price list from one of our top cloth suppliers, who I shall not name. The 10 page price list had only a few offerings at less than $100 per yard - and those cloths were, with two exceptions, cotton. There were clothes priced at $2580, $2,250, $1340, $1,195, $980, $940, $795, $695, $595, and $495 per yard. These prices made the $250, $190, and $173 dollar cloths on the list seem “cheap”. When I started working in 1960 you could buy fine English worsteds for $30 per yard. Price was not the only surprise. Cloth composition was sprinkled with fibres that I thought must have been made up by an imaginative copy writer. The cloth priced at $2580 per yard is so priced because it has 20% guanaco. At first I thought guanaco must be spun guano. I was wrong. It ends up there is actually an animal in South America - a Guanaco - that is a lama like animal in the camel family. The Guanaco has a nasty disposition. It spits and kicks. It is very dificult to harvest Guanaco hair- hence its dear price. The $2,250 cloth has some qiviuk ( although there is no “u” after the “q”, this spelling is correct ). Research revealed that qiviuk is the under wool of the musk ox. Every spring the musk ox sheds the qiviuk. I quess the fact that it is much easier to collect the qiviuk, which is on the ground, than it is to comb out the guanaco explains the $330 per yard difference in the cloth. Some of the other high ticket clothes are cashmere, pashmina, super 200’s and combinations of all of the aforementioned plus mohair, silk, mink, kid mohair, and kirgyz. We live and learn,

Would You Wear “The Guards Regiment” tie?

Paul — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:50:18 +0000

A Yale graduate would not put a Harvard blazer badge on his/her jacket. But we,here in the USA, think nothing of wearing English regimental, English School, or Tartan ties,etc.School Ties, to which we have no claim. In the same way that here stateside we would not wear a USA school or USA club identity tie/or apparel to which we or our children had no membership, an Englishman would not dream of wearing a regimental or school item to which he was not a member or graduate. In the 60’s, when the “Ivy League Style” was at it’s height in both the states and in Japan, it was not unusual to have an individual visiting Japanese customer buy blazer crests for every Ivy league school. ( Today the “Ivy Style” is more popular in Tokyo than in NYC!) In our retail store and our mailer, back then, we offered many English Regiment and English School ties. We selected them based solely on liking the color. The more famous patterns,”The Guards Regiment” for example, would be listed by their proper names. For many of the more obscure “Public Schools” we would make up names and embellish them with stories about their origins and history. One of the ties offered we called “The Queens Own Confectioners”. My brother made up what we thought was an amusing story to complete the presentation. We received a letter from a gentleman in London. He asked us if we knew that the tie was infact the tie for the school he had attended in his youth. He related that during the 2nd World War at the weekly Friday Chapel Assembly the Headmaster would read the names of graduates who had died in battle that week. One sad Friday one of the names read by the headmaster was that of his son. My brother and I discussed whether we thought the letter was real or if someone was “pulling our legs.” We decided to play it straight. We sent a letter and assured him we meant no offense. To those who may be traveling to Great Britain we suggest you not wear a Guards Regimant tie if you or a family member has not served in the regiment. This entry was inspired by a thread on Ask Andy About Clothes.

The New Yorker Magazine- a sign of the times.

Fan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:02:09 +0000

In the 60s when Wm Shawn , who was a Chipp customer, was the legendary editor of the New Yorker, the magazine was at the height of it’s popularity. Chipp advertised regularly and everyone in our family was “compt” a subscription. Many of the magazines subscribers never read the articles- they subscribed to partake of the cartoons and the advertisements. The magazine was a study in who was important in the men’s clothing business- both manufacturers and retailers. The front inside page was a full page Brooks Brothers institutional ad. Among others, not full pages, spread through the hallowed pages were entries for Norman Hilton, Hart Marks, Southwick, J Press, Paul Stuart, Saks, Chipp, Bloomingdales, Lord and Taylor, Linett, Dunhill and a few others whose names have faded from my aging mind. The New Yorker was loaded with men’s wear advertisement week after week. Yesterday I was assigned the grandfather duty of babysitting my NYC granddaughter. What should I find on the coffeetable ? The most recent issue of the New Yorker. I have not seen a copy in years. I looked at it from cover to cover. Not one menswear ad. I didn’t read any of the articles. The cartoons are still good.

The Internet- a body blow to the classic men’s wear business.

Fan — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:25:05 +0000

The internet has given a significant number of individuals the ability to work from home, or from where ever they are- the beach, a ski lodge, etc. The number of people working from home grows daily. Many of the small specialty shops that appeared from coast to coast in response to the popularity of “Ivy League” clothing are now closed. In my lifetime, I know that the business will never return to what it was in the 60s. There are too many men who like working in poplin trousers and a knit shirt. For those who do care about fine clothing and find that their quest for quality in a mode that is no longer easily obtained, Winston Tailors finds its niche.

IT STARTED WITH DRESS DOWN FRIDAY

Paul — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:10:33 +0000

It started with dress down Fridays in the summer. Many of you are too young to remember that most working men- even lawyers, investment bankers,stock brokers, accountants - wore suits to the office every working day. Then one hot summer when many offices worked a slightly shorter day on Friday and when many of the “upper class” work force were taking longh summer weekends in Maine ,Nantucket, the Jersey shore, etc., it came to pass that a few firms decided to wear poplins and knit shirts to the office on Friday. It was a slippery slope. At first it was just the summer. Then it became “dress down Friday” all year. The next step was summer dress down Friday became dress down Friday and Monday. Many of my customers - they had the most stripes on their sleeves - complained about the state of dress in their respective firms. They told me if they didn’t agree to allow the dress down they would not be able to attract the new blood that was graduating from law and business schools who all asked at interviews about the “dress code”. To make matters worse they observed that there was less productivity on the Mondays and Fridays. Various think tanks analyzed the situation and concluded that Monday and Friday were treated differently by the troops because of the difference in dress. Their suggested answer- dress down every day in the summer and then the mental set will be the same all week. Many firms went that route. The Dress Down and the influence of the internet, which I will discuss in my next blog entry, have resulted many fine shops closing down.

I Knew Ralph Lauren When

Paul — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:19:32 +0000

I knew Ralph Lauren when he worked for Rivitz. We had a brief parallel period. At the same time Ralph started his tie company I started my tie company, Chipp2. We both found, independently of each other, an interesting embroidered Irish linen cloth that we purchased from a company named Hamilton Adams. We were both having our ties made by the same contracter named Greenburg. Ralph’s signature was he made his ties wider than was the standard width at the time. Because of the size of the embroidered figures I had Mr. Greenburg cut my linen ties wider than our other ties. So we both had the same product- Wheel and Anchors embroidered on linen cut wider by Greenburg. We sold our ties retail for $7.50. Ralph sold his ties to Bloomingdales for $7.50 and Bloomingdales sold them for $15.00. Bloomingdales was at their pinnacale of being the “in” store. I lived on 57th Street 2 blocks from Bloomingdales. One Thursday evening Ralph and I met and walked to Bloomingdales to visit the men’s department and see what was hapening. In the brief time we were there they sold more of his ties at $15 than we would sell in a month or two at $7.50- a lesson in the importance of traffic and of the part women play in menswear sales. Ralph Lauren and I started even. If the measure of success is one’s bank account, we are now light years apart.