Visit Victoria Richards at her Clockwork studio in London and you'll be confronted by a typical artists setting, paint and paper, dye and print, fabric ends, patterns and sketches strewn across antique bits of furniture. Somehow order erupts out of a seemingly chaotic scene and some of the most colourful silk ties you could imagine spring to life.
Victoria admits to her lack of commerciality, fair enough, she does what she knows best. We're taking care of creating a market for her style, which is not hard, given the vibrant urgency reflected in her designs. The colours first catch your attention and then the intricacy of a semi abstract labyrinth of weave and variegated textures. Imagine a Mediterranean picture card scene and you're on the right track.
For us it's another opportunity to work directly with a highly talented designer and aid her rise to prominence. In fact we deal directly with all the brand names represented on our web site, including Vivienne Westwood, Timothy Everest, Ian Flaherty, Simon Carter, Michelsons and Shane McCoubrey. There are no agents, distributors or wholesalers to grapple with and no middle management hoops and hurdles to jump through and over to get to the decision makers. The knock on effects is positive on all fronts especially for our customers, who are never more than two degrees away from the person that designs the accessory they buy.
Staying in tune with customers and designers alike makes it easy to gauge demand and maintain our theory "the value is in the product not the name"
While we're tuned in, there is a shifting trend gaining momentum and many big brand names like "Next" are taking heed and climbing on board. Quality is back in fashion; customers are demanding a return to "value" and prepared to pay the price. "Next" are developing a luxury range of men's fashion accessories to cater for growing demand. For independents like us this is the rain that broke a long draught. The market is crowded with bargain basements that stifle everything. Most concerning is the amount of counterfeit clothing amongst this lot, customers think they are getting a big brand name product for a bargain but in fact it's a fake. Don't flush your honest money down the dunny.
For us the shifting trend is in our favour, we've always sought differentiation through brand and style selection and never veered from quality and value. In fact 80% of our silk ties and cufflinks are made in England to exacting specifications, including Victoria's
And now a closing historic anecdote In Europe an ascot is a wide cravat of pale grey patterned silk only worn with very formal morning wear, to weddings, or England's Royal Ascot races, where it gets its name. In the U.S., ascot means cravat. The ascot was commonly worn for business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Source: http://www.reprint-content.com/Article/Victoria-Richards--Silk-Ties--Order-out-of-Chaos/159453
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