Pushing the Button Part 1

OK so the moment of truth. On Monday 9th Nov we pushed the button on production of Laura in black and white. Today we should be signing off Gareth and Amanda and Monday next week, Benjamin and Jules.

Check out the intricacies of managing the best yield from your fabric. This where Phillip at CGT is the master according to his mum. He says its like a giant jigsaw puzzle and I can see why

This is Laura being prepared to be cut.

Samples Samples Samples

So from last time we were on MAKE SAMPLES. We now have a sample of each of the four main items:

The Amanda: Ladies Sweat
The Laura: Ladies T
The Gareth: Mens Sweat
The Benjamin: Mens T

It is an amazing thing to see something that has been in your minds eye come out of the manufacturer, pressed and ready to wear.

Initial feedback was very good for the Amanda and Gareth, however the Laura and Benjamin needed significant tweaking. We changed the neckline of the Laura and the type of material used for the neck on the Benjamin. Here are some photos of the initial fittings:

This is Benjamin V1, being fitted
















This is Laura V1, being fitted.

This is Amanda V1 on a Mannequin at CGT

This is Amanda V1 on Amanda in the wonderful converted stables at FHC

This is Gareth V1 on me

This is Bejamin V2 on me. A much better fit, but still not quite right. We had to wait for V3 to get it right.

This is the first item with our tag on the inside. Getting there......

So here we are 2 weeks and 2 days to go before we start selling at Queenscliff. We now have all 4 sampled, patterned and are now in the process of being graded. We also have a 5th T Shirt, Jules sampled, patterned and about to be graded. We have also sneaked in an additional garment, a kids hoody, which should be sample ready today.

We are now ready to push the button and start manufacture

The Journey Ahead

Don’t say we don’t like to challenge ourselves (see wants on previous blog). So from a standing start and the signing off of the brand at the beginning of October, we have to have a “collection” in place for 27^th November as we have been accepted as a stall owner for the Queenscliff Music Festival that runs from 27^th November until the 29^th November 2009.

www.qmf.net.au

So lets go through the steps for each design:

1)            Design article

2)            Source fabric and accessories

3)            Dye fabric and enhance accessories

4)            Make Pattern

5)            Make Sample

6)            Fitting session for sample

7)            Adjust Pattern

8)            If no serious changes grade pattern for different sizes

9)            Manufacture

10)         Add logo (embroider)

11)         Attach label

12)         Box up

13)         Sell

It’s 23rd October today and we currently have 4 designs at pattern stage, 2 of the 5 colours dyed, 1 pattern (men’s T) at sample stage.

We have a bit of a way to go for this timetable.

However, by Queenscliff we will have the following:

Men’s T-Shirts: 4-5 colours, 5 Sizes

Women’s T-Shirts 4 colours, 6 Sizes

Mens Sweats 2 colours, 5 sizes

Womens Sweats 3 colours, 6 sizes

Hats

A super top secret ingredient material beach bag

Frisbees

Car Stickers (UV proofed no less)

This will be our Summer 2009 Collection. 

Brand Values AKA Why the hell are we doing this

Whilst getting the name and logo has been great fun, there is a deeper question here on why we are doing this and what do we want to get out of it.


There is a gap in the market for men and women aged late 20's to mid 50's who want comfortable, stylish, classic and hardwearing clothes. These clothes need to be as relevant coming off the beach as they would be being worn in a bar or restaurant. They need to be functional, made from fantastic material and very very well made so that they last. Fundamentally Mike, Amanda, Juliet and I want to make clothes that we want to buy, and as we believe we are reasonably normal, there will be a market.


This was our original brief to the design agencies and it still holds true:

Overview:

Larrakin is to be developed as a brand with the aim of designing, manufacturing and selling:

Stylish, Durable Clothes & Accessories for Adventurous People

Other potential slogans to encapsulate the brand are:

·                Clothes for life’s journey.

·                Mens, womens & kids clothing for everyday adventures.

In addition we want to develop a business with a conscience. At the end of the day it is important to us that whatever happens we can look everybody in the eye and believe we have treated people fairly and reasonably whilst understanding our social and environmental responsibilities.

Target Market:

Male & Female, Late 20s to 40s, ABC1’s, with a family, at least one adult working.

Premise

All goods sold must be good quality & built to last. Stylish Longevity is key. Whilst not a premium brand this has to be mid to upper quartile

Clothes can be worn on the beach, walking, hiking, travelling, at a bar, in a restaurant, on the way to/from the gym or cooling down after cycling etc.

Adjectives to describe the brand:

Active, Adventurous, Ageless, Aspirational, Assured, Bold, Broadminded, Busy, Can-do, Caring, Charming, Cheerful, Classic, Comfortable, Committed,  Confident, Cool, Determined, Distinctive, Durable, Educated, Effective, Efficient, Energetic, Enjoyable, Enterprising, Fresh, Healthy, Imaginative,  Independent, Inspired, Interesting, International, Lively, Longevity, Passionate, Physical, Savvy, Self – Assured, Spontaneous, Stylish, Worldly.

So what do we want to get out of it? We want to have fun, we want to grow as individuals, we want to create something that is exceptional, we want to make a difference, we want to make decisions, we want to challenge the status quo, we want to challenge ourselves.

We also want to make some money.

I was fortunate enough recently to speak to Julian Leaver about his time at Fat Face. I asked him if he could do it all over again, what would he do differently. He answered in two parts. Firstly he would have paid more attention to the ethics of sourcing when starting up. Secondly he would have incorporated the recycling of materials much earlier. Great advice and taken!

And so it begins....

"you're not a very good salesman, but you have a certain something that I don't. I think we could work together!" So blared out Mike at 1.30am after a long night of Guinness at Kyatt's in Brighton.


So, in this land of opportunity, what to do. That was the question that Mike and I were mulling over a bottle of wine at the Brown Cow in Brighton on a cold wintery night in July. What we did decide was that it had to be fun, and it had to share our values.


2 weeks later Mike had an idea. We had both been moaning about the lack of classic casual clothes in Australia for men. This is not to say that the clothes here are crap, they are generally very well made, but there was a gap where a number of successful brands operate in the UK. It was either Billabong, Country Road or Katmandu. Part of the procedure of going back to the UK for all the ex-pats is to fill an additional suitcase full of clothes that just are not available in Aus. So the Idea was to open a store and resell all these brands to an audience that was interested. Unfortunately this idea faltered at the first hurdle. None of the brands wanted to sell to us, in fact none of the brands even returned e-mails or phone calls.


Change of plan time. Having read the story of how one of the more successful UK brands started, we decided that perhaps we could do something similar. Design a couple of classic pieces of clothing that are modelled on friends favourite items, source the material, have them made up and then sell them direct to the public. Build a brand from scratch with similar ideals to what Mike, Amanda, Juliet and I hold dear.


Firstly name for brand. That actually was easy. Mike came up with Larrikin. A fabulous ausie word meaning:


"Larrikinism is the name given to the Australian folk tradition of irreverence, mockery of authority and disregard for rigid norms of propriety. Larrikinism can also be associated with self-deprecating humour"


which appealed to both of us. Unfortunately and quite obviously Larrikin.com etc were taken, so plan B: Larrykin. This didn't fly that well, as we didn't want to get mixed up with a TV personality. Finally Larrakin was born. Websites were free and trade marks were available. 


Next job, Logo. Commissioned a graphic designer to come up with some with a clear brief about what we wanted the brand to stand for. These are the first efforts:

There were some good ideas here, and we liked the handstand. So the next batch looked like this:

Which became:

And finally

Meanwhile we had asked the people we had contracted to start the clothing design work to do a logo and they came up with these:

We debated the handstand vs these vigorously, and initally thought Ned looked a winner. However female reaction was mixed and it was perceived to be very male. So we asked for the man to be developed and got these:

We were nearly there, and with a final push we got to the final logo set and to cap it all off our font is called Year2000Boogie!

We are very happy with these now. The icon works as well with the name as it does on its own. It is highly memorable and a bit cheeky. We love it.

Obviously we wanted to make sure that it stood out with all the other brands in the market place, so I put the following together and we think it holds its own in some very prestigious company. Now all we have to do is make some damn clothes!