Scene 1:
Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void sets up a blog for his bespoke tailor friend, which talks about the behind the scenes stuff as well as informing people how to become a customer of his services. Gaping Void readers are buying those suits, now that they understand how to get into the game. The market for bespoke suits (which I learned what they are from English Cut) has been grown into a new customer base by this blog.
Scene 2:
Last night I received two emails, sent two minutes apart. The first was from a loyal reader/listener who informed me how happy he was with Michelle Malone’s music and that he’s bought all the albums she had on iTunes and nine (?!) of her CDs from her website. The second was from Michelle herself, telling me that people have been buying her CDs all week and expressing her gratitude that I chased her down to interview her.
Markets are conversations, and being able to find the people to talk to is a large part of getting there.
Helping musicians sell stuff is the single best way to get the recording industry to be cool with podcasters, so that’s really great.
Thanks for that English Cut link, I just spent a long time reading the entire blog, starting with the very first article. I’m already a bit familiar with high quality clothing, having been raised by a dad who believed in spending serious money on good conservative clothing at the expense of nearly everything else.
A couple years ago, preparing for a job switch, I went into pursuit of a good full or semi custom suit made here in Atlanta. But I could not find a single independent tailor in Atlanta. It was the weirdest thing — all I could find was women’s tailors and alteration shops operating in dry cleaners, hardly a place where I’d spend 4 figures on a good suit. So I ended up going to Jos. A. Bank (a national chain) and getting a made-to-measure suit, where they take your measurements and a few weeks later your suit arrives. It’s fine and cost me less than a thousand, and frankly it’s for the best since I wear suits about once every five years, but still it would have been nice to go through the full custom experience. But even then it wouldn’t have been bespoke 🙂
For anyone interested in the basics of suits, read this book from cover to cover and note in particular the color and pattern sections. Not everyone should be wearing a dark charcoal pinstripe. And tan overcoats are better than black 🙂