Michael , the most interesting point coming out of the mill execs discussion is that LL fabrics are clearly beginning to make an impact on the market. We work hard to generate sufficient interest for 60m and yet distributors are beginning to notice even though this is a relatively small volume.
Hi MRL
Ah, no, I don’t think so. Though the books I collaborated on are getting a bit of attention... but that is about it.
And it is not surprising. Our club activities really represent solutions for a nano-niche. If you consider that the overall “custom clothing” business is itself a micro-niche in the greater clothing industry. And nearly all the custom clothing activity these days is either MTO or MTM. The classical bespoke or what we refer to as “benchmade tailoring” has been reduced through attrition to very small numbers indeed. And within that tiny segment of interest, there are aficionados who appreciate the importance of high quality cloth. But there are just so very few of us.
As a consequence many of the cloth books out there are geared towards supplying cloth for the largest segment of the market, MTM. Cloth quality levels can be more moderate. And costs must be moderate because someone spending a few hundred dollars to have a suit made by computer does not want to spend hundreds more for the cloth.
On the other hand, the few clients in the market who are spending many thousands of dollars to have a suit hand cut and sewn for them, usually want (or they should want) the highest quality cloth made. But a market is not driven by its infinitesimally small segment, it is driven by the largest one.
Its funny because most men who are able to toss out 5 or 6K to have a suit made probably understand that car manufacturers, for example, make products at all quality and price levels to satisfy specific market segments. But many of these same men haven’t figured out that fabric mills do the same. And that there is no such thing as a generic commodity called “tweed” or “flannel” that has a fixed and constant quality and price level.
Mills actually do make four door economy models, mid range station wagons, racy sports models and unattainable limousines. The quality and price levels of fabrics (just like cars) vary as a function of the quality and price of the raw materials used, the intricacy of the make (the weave), the added treatments that cloth can receive, the time required and the choice of finishing employed. So there is cloth sold for a few dollars a meter and some that is sold for a few thousand dollars a meter.
But even if all the traditional bespoke clients globally woke up to this fact and clamored for the best quality cloth, there would be little impact on the fabrics business because there are just too few of us.
So, for the foreseeable future, getting interesting, quality cloth will remain a catch as catch can enterprise. I say "interesting" because there are a lot of good books with standard business grade suitings in good quality cloth. But interesting patterns and weaves in suitings are pretty rare. And I have never been thrilled by the quality, patterns and colors available to us in tweeds, flannels and linens. They are just too "uninteresting" to suit me.
It would be wonderful to think we could have a real impact on the cloth business, but its not gonna happen.
Cheers
