Larrakin Clothing

"Has it been worth the wait?.... you better believe it!" or the importance of Excellence

2010-10-12T00:58:00.000-07:00

So why so long I hear so many of you shouting at me. Well we have been busy.

We came to the conclusion that the time had come to regroup, work out what was important, sort our lives out a bit, have a bit of a think and come up with some new stuff. And the wait has been worth it.

We have developed 2 new lines:

The Mike, this is named after one of the founders of Larrakin. (not sure if there will ever be a Rupert to be honest) and is something we have been wanting to make since day 1. It is a 100% cotton raglan T-Shirt. It comes in 4 colour combos:

We had to get the design right and it took an inordinate amount of time to do this. The reason for this is that we will not accept the following: "its OK, it'll do, It's just about right, etc etc". Part of the process over the last 6 months has been to take a stance on mediocrity in all areas of our lives, and celebrate excellence. Now the people that know me well, say that I am more effusive than most, and perhaps I am, but Mike and I want the reaction to our clothes to be a Wow that is:

Excellent quality

Excellent value

and

Excellent service.

So this is our promise to you. If we ever fall below the excellence level that you should expect, let us know and we will sort it out.

The next new item is the Lottie. This is a frisky number, and again took some time to get right. It is a female hoody made from our famous fleecy cotton material. We really love this one and so do all the ladies we have shown it to.

What's really exciting is that we have managed to reduce the prices and as such the Mike will be on sale at $49 and the Lottie at $69. As always postage within Australia is free, and outside is at cost.

Please as always let me know any feedback

Melbourne Weekly Bayside 28th April 2010 Profile

2010-04-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Click on the article to open in new page.

Thanks to Henrietta Cook and Steve Lightfoot of the Melbourne Weekly Bayside for telling our story.

A Happy, Brave and Stunning Customer

2010-04-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

It takes real guts to allow your photo to be used as marketing collateral for a business. So for this I want to thank Julia enormously. Here Julia is wearing a Pink and Grey Jules and doesn't she look stunning!

Now, Mike and I have known for some months that there is a Larrakin effect, however I am leaving the last word (for now) on this to Julia:

"Ps Got a Phoar from my husband in this and he'd not seen it before - result "

World Cup 2010 is nearly upon us and have we got something special for you!

2010-03-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

Firstly, lets have a look at the musical efforts of the teams we are interested in:

Australia: " We are going to socceroo it to you!"

And to celebrate this, here is Mike's reaction to that great song sporting one of our new line of Raglan T's called the "Mike":

Not to say that England have not had their fair share of interesting musical endevours:

So the best I've heard either this:

or this with the John Barnes Rap: "catch me if you can, 'cos I'm an England man" Quality!

We will have a Mike in Red and white for all those England fans out there. Also in Blue and white. More images to follow.

If you have a colour combo you want, let us know and we will see what we can do. As always e-mail me at Rupert

Enjoy!

Online is the way, especially with Free Delivery in Australia

2010-03-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

Jules found this in mX on her way home this week. While we are not high fashion, it is interesting to see the slow speed of people moving towards e-tailing.

Certainly food for thought:

Interestingly, there is no mention of free delivery which is one of the main barriers for online businesses. Why would you shop online, if it costs you 10% more than going to the shopping mall. Thats why we decided on Free Delivery within Australia.

The Retail Rubik's Cube puzzle

2010-03-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

I was going to use the hellraiser cube as an example, but think that Rubik's may resonate more.

Anyone who has ever had to merchandise a store or retail space will understand where I am coming from here. When no-one is coming into your retail space, you start questioning the set up. Is the sign in the right place, should that item move there, should I be sitting at the desk or standing up. It is almost as if you think that by tweaking with different parts of the space that you will unlock some sort of magical event that will mean your space gets super busy and you sell loads of stuff. As you can tell, ones mind wanders a bit on a hot sticky evening stuck in a stall.

Anyway something that I found recently:

Customer Feedback Part 1

2010-03-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

This is from a very happy customer in the UK:

"Good News....I have the T shirt.....AND.....I LOVE IT!!!
Thank you

Perfect fit
exceptional quality
gorgeous colour combo
lovely bit of detail on the front and back with the logo
PERFECT
: ) keeping it on today

You've made my Friday I love it will try to post a pic over the weekend!
(just wish I'd ordered two ha ha ah a)

PS

....did I mention that....

this t shirt is the perfect length - often they are waaay too long "

This was feedback on the Jules Pink and Grey and if you are interested in getting it go here Jules T Shirt

St Kilda Beach Night Market Part 2

2010-03-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Firstly, its over and here are the stats:

10 Markets planned.

2 Cancelled for bad weather (weather turned out to be beautiful)
2 Added in March to cover this (one of which was cancelled for weather)
3 Rained out but not cancelled, ie we still set up and then were rained on.
1 Missed as on holiday
2 Sold nothing but a Frisbee
2 Sold something more than a Frisbee

Apparently it was the worst year in memory for weather. Now Victoria is in drought and has been for a very long time, so I am as happy as the next person for rain, but I am a bit amazed that it either rained or was forecast to rain on 5 of the 10 market days. Some would argue that there is perhaps a message in that statistic, ie don't do St Kilda Beach Night Market on a Thursday.

We also met some very interesting people:

Rohan from Rock Tease, who detests all forms of music apart from heavy rock, and would get into a bout of depression when the 4th hour of dub reggae started pumping from the nearby sound system. He is about to head over to New York to live the American Rock Dream with his partner,

Cactus Man, from Glasgow, Scotland via Israel, who had a product that didn't mind the rain.... yes you guessed it, the humble Cactus. He also introduced me to two things I had never seen before: A Cactus Fridge Magnet and a Cactus Necklace. On the latter not sure how that works, aren't cacti prickly! Unbelievable successful.

We had a couple of witches next door to us, who had setting up and packing up down to fine art form. They would turn up at 4.30 and be ready to go by 4.35. Spooky! We took over an hour to set up and to pack up. But the prize for time to set up has to go to a local Melbourne couple who every week built this pretty much from scratch:

They call themselves Champ and make wonderful bags and wooden carvings, but this extraordinary stall takes close to 2 hours to put up from scratch with electric screwdrivers, mobile vices. Definitely living their work.

Would we do it again? At the moment the jury is out, but gut feel is probably not. The people there were great, Michele and Maree, the organisers, were superb and had to deal with an incredibly difficult season, but we didn't sell enough and weren't speaking to enough of our target market to justify the time and cost.

A great experience all the same.

Hooks or Hugh anyone?

2010-02-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

Status:

Clothes Made: Check
Transactional Website up and running: Check
Retail outlet up and running: Check allbeit at markets and festivals.
Additional range designed: Check
Target market buying: Check

All sounds pretty rosy doesn't it. However we are not speaking to enough of our target market. Progress is solid, but now needs to be supercharged. So we are going on a marketing offensive, with a 4 prong attack:

1) PR - need hooks to get the journalists interested. Our stuff is great, is made in Melbourne but that is not enough. We need more hooks.

2) Social Networking - We already have a Facebook Fan page. We need to get all our friends on, and all their friends so that we can exponentially grow the people we are speaking to. We also need to make sure that the content posted is relevant and fun. We will use offers and specials to drive action. There is little point having a fan page, if you can't give something back to the fans.

3) Guerrilla Marketing - The fun we could have here! Images of celebrities with Larrakin Hats on.....

C'mon Hugh, you know it makes sense!

4) Direct Marketing - We are putting together a postcard that we will be dropping into houses in our target market area.

Over the coming months, I will be keeping you updated with progress and how our 4 prongs are working. Any great ideas, please feel free to share, contact me as always.

A river runs through it

2010-02-11T16:25:00.001-08:00

St Kilda Beach Night Market February 2010. First date in February, the 4th, was cancelled because there was a real threat of storms and rain - none came and it was a warm balmy evening but no market. Second date, the 11th, yesterday, went ahead.

I arrived at 3.00 o'clock to set up and was ready to rock and roll by 4.00pm. Mike would be joining me at around 5.30pm and we would sell sell sell.

Everyone at the market was a bit worried about the forecast which had suggested torrential rain and major thunderstorms, and reports started coming in of flooding in Richmond, downpours on the major motorways. It seemed like we had got off lightly. Then at around 4.10 the sky went very very dark:

Then the heavens quite literally opened and I took some film of what happened over the next 30 minutes of a serious storm:

and

and finally:

It rained non stop for an hour and then brightened slightly, but the end result was that our stall looked like this:

Mike arrived at 5.30 and after a beer, some cheese crisps and with the rain starting up again we called it a day at 6.30pm.

Observations

The Robian Stall is 100% waterproof
The committee got it wrong
4 out of 8 markets at St Kilda have had rain or been cancelled
Plastic boxes are a very very good idea
Even cactus fridge magnets don't sell when its wet, although they probably enjoy the drenching
Larrakin umbrellas have now gone up the priority list. We will call them the St Kilda
Next business venture will be cupcakes

What's in a name part 3

2010-02-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

from what a couple of friends in Scotland saw last week, obviously
quite a lot....

There was also a boat at Geelong called Larriken. Please keep your eyes peeled for Larrakin on a boat and e-mail me with any interesting shots

rupert@larrakin.com.au

New Designs

2010-01-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

Last week Mike and I went to see Lynn and Liz at FHC to discuss additions to our existing line up. Patterns for these will be completed by the close tomorrow and then we can go and get samples made up.

One of the knowledge areas that we are short on is material. Cotton is relatively simple, it has a weight, will shrink by x%, can be dyed (sometimes), and can be made into virtually anything. However other materials are proving more tricky to source for example Micro Fleece material. Mike is on the case, and I trust that he will find a supplier so that we can add a micro fleece to our collection in time for the Australian winter.

Working names for new product lines are:

Eddie
Jess
Lottie
Laughlan

I will be posting photos of the samples as and when they are made and will be looking for feedback from you all.

Audi Victoria Week 2010 Geelong

2010-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

4 beautiful days over the Australia Day weekend. An amazing amount of interest and some good sales to boot.

Markets are always going to be a challenging arena for premium clothes, when a lot of the other stalls are selling product at a 1/10th of the price to ours. However, every sale is another person that has been converted to the Larrakin way.

We will continue with markets as a way of getting our brand out there, and to get customer and potential customer feedback.

Thankyou to all that showed up to see us in Geelong. It is much appreciated. We took some photos of the event over the 4 days:

One of the wooden figures on the foreshore dressed up in a Gareth.

Larrakin sandwiched between skin cream and sunglasses

What a beautiful day!

What's in a name part 2

2010-01-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have 2 daughters, Amy (6 years) and Jess (3 years). The girls hoody, is named after Amy. To date Jess has not had a line named after her. To date this has not been a problem

Last Tuesday I was looking after Jess for the day, and I took her up to see where all the clothes had been manufactured at CGT in Brunswick. Vicky and Nicky at CGT were delightful and it seemed that all was well and the trip had been successful and enjoyable for Jess.

10 minutes into our trip back to Melbourne, Jess begins to ask why there isn't a Jess in the range. I explained that the next female line would be called Jess. This wasn't good enough. "I wanted to be first!" was the refrain from the back seat. I explained that this wasn't possible as we were already selling the Amy top. The result was tears and exhortations about wanting to be the first.

Note to self: never underestimate the power of a name to a 3 year old and never ever put one child ahead of another in the high stakes of naming a new product!

Conclusion: the next female article of clothing (a skirt) will be the Jess.

What's in a name part 1

2010-01-25T16:29:00.000-08:00

If you have read the blog, you will know that we decided to name the clothes after people we knew who had inspired the design.

So I received this e-mail from a very good Australian friend called Eddie:

"For a Aussie brand the product names may be (which is understandable as they are most likely people from the project ) a bit .......urban and ........English............if you know what I mean."

Very very good point.

To recap, names to date:

Benjamin

Laura

Jules

Gareth

Amanda

Finn

Amy

Jilly

So the next male product will be called Eddie, and thereafter we will look to make sure that they are not too English

Thanks Eddie for the frank and incisive observation. You are our Australian conscience.

If any of you have suggestions for names for male and female lines, please e-mail me:

rupert@larrakin.com.au

Facebook Group

2010-01-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

We now have a Facebook Group. Just search for Larrakin Clothing and feel free to join to get regular updates.

Audi Victoria Week 2010 - Geelong

2010-01-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

We have been lucky enough to secure ourselves a last minute berth at the Audi Victoria Week 2010 in Geelong starting tomorrow 23rd Jan until Tuesday 26th Jan.

We are in position 10 and the map shows where we are at.

We look forward to seeing you there.

St Kilda Festival

2010-01-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got confirmation that we will be allocated a site at the St Kilda Festival on the 6th and 14th of February.

I will update blog when we know where and when.

St Kilda Beach Night Market Part 1

2010-01-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

As discussed in previous posts, we have decided initially to used markets/ festivals and online as the main channels to market. Opening a store will happen, but we want to start small and grow organically.

The St Kilda Beach Night Market is a melbourne classic. Started around 6 years ago, it is the very trendy St Kilda area. Here is what they have to say about themselves:

The St Kilda Beach Night Market is a locally produced and independently run event that brings together a community of artists, crafters, designers and buyers to create a unique series of summer night markets. For ten Thursdays in summer, the Night Market bursts onto the seaside village of St Kilda to transform O’Donnell Gardens into a luminous and effervescent town square.

With close to one hundred stall-holders, the St Kilda Beach Night Market creates a unique environment for showcasing, selling and of course buying gorgeous things.

Why all the fuss?

The St Kilda Beach Night Market is a beautiful, vibrant and unique outdoor markets, attracting thousands of Melbournians and tourists alike who enjoy its magical summer twilight atmosphere.

Located in between St Kilda’s famous Acland Street and Luna Park, then tucked beneath the palms of O’Donnell Gardens, this distinctive market transforms the rolling lawns into an exotic vibrant village. Shop, eat, dance, relax, and play. etc etc

http://www.stkildabeachnightmarket.com.au/

So we applied and were accepted and were given instructions on what we needed to do for the first market date of 10th December.

At Queenscliff we had noticed a market stall made by a company called Robian which we liked the look of. It seemed very compact, sturdy and we could hang the clothes off waterfall holders. So I contacted them and arranged delivery of a unit in time for the 10th December.

I was away on the 10th, so Mike, Amanda and Claire a friend of ours went down to set up shop in one of the hippest areas in Melbourne. By all accounts the instructions for the tent were appalling and it took a considerable amount of time to get it erected. I was in the UK, when I got this on my email:

Amanda and Claire dressed to sell. On the left was a witches coven and on the right a rasta shop. At this point we were debating whether we would struggle to attract our demographic.

But yes, you guessed it the weather gods were still annoyed with us and it rained non stop from 5pm-8pm when they all made the wise call the pull the pin and go home.

The following week, it was my turn to set up. This had to be a solo effort and again it was pissing down with rain. I got the stall up, and there must have been 50 people that actually bothered to turn up. Had some lovely conversations with the organiser Michelle who was depressed with the start of the festival. I called it a night at 8.30pm and packed up with Juliet who had come down to give moral support. This week no-one to our right, but the witches coven was still next door

Over the Christmas period we decided that we needed a clearer sign calling out the fact that everything has been made in Australia. I got a nice man from Signarama to do that for me.

The next market was on the 7th Jan, which we were unable to make, but we started again on the 14th Jan. This time it was hot at the start, and Amanda and I were in the chair this week. We timed the set up at 1 hour 15minutes. At 4.30 we sold our first T-shirt to a Russian family who wanted something Australian made to send to his dad back home. The sign seemed to be working. Other family members came down and we started to get really busy as the photos attest (both customers in the stall bought stuff). Forgot the mirror so had to use the camera on the mobile to show people what they looked like:

Amanda left with the kids at 9.00pm and it was left to Mike and I to see out the last hour and then pack up. There was one stall near us that was grabbing a lot of attention, a kind of oriental healing where the healer whistles and snorts while he is doing the treatment. Not an issue normally, but these guys were going for it and it was getting very tempting to ask the music makers in our end of the market to crank up their music. This week we had a slightly grumpy man to our right selling cheap clothing and beads and the witches coven to our left.

Yesterday the market was on again. Once more Amanda and I set up, although only took us 1 hour this time. First sale to a French lady who loved the Laura t-shirts. Not as busy as the previous week, but solid traffic. Juliet and the girls and Mike, Finn and Lottie all came down. It is starting to become a bit of a family outing now. To our left the coven, and to the right a guy selling cactus fridge magnets.

Slightly changed set up this week, with T's to the left and right and the sweats at the back. Lots of interest and positive feedback.

Came up with a good marketing plan, put a T-shirt on one of the kids which says, "If you don't buy something, I won't get fed" and have them as per photo below!

We will be at the St Kilda Beach Night Market on the following dates:

28th January, 4th February, 11th February, 18, February and 25th February.

Come down, bring your friends for a great evening out and of course your wallet to buy some Larrakin clothes.

The Website Shoot or where the hell is George Clooney when you need him?

2010-01-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

In parallel to getting all the clothes manufactured we needed to get a website up and running. A friend of a friend put me in touch with a local company and after initial conversations, I met up with the web designer, Irma Zimmerman to discuss the look and feel of the website and what I wanted to deliver to the end user.

Building the site was apparently relatively trivial as we were not looking for any flashy effects initially, but the problem part was the photography for the site.

So we have a dilemma

We need the site up on the day we start trading at Queenscliff on the 28th November, but the clothes are not going to be finished until the Friday 27th. We would have no time to photograph and then get them on the website if we shot them on the Friday. Irma agreed to guarantee Saturday am launch if we got her the photos on Wednesday afternoon, so the stage was set for a photo shoot on Wednesday morning.

Photo shoot! I've never done one before so we enlisted the help of a friend Kerin, who has a strong marketing background in clothing and her daughter Georgie, who would take all the photos. Kerin then magically persuaded a friend to be the female model, Claire, and due to my first choice of George Clooney not being available, I was left as the male model.

Tuesday was spend getting all the samples together for the shoot in the right sizes so we could get lifestyle shots as well as product shots.

It is agreed that we will use the rotunda in Sandringham and the beach as the location. 9.15am having dropped my daughters off to school, and sporting a 25 day old beard for Movember, I arrive with all the clothes in Sandringham. The weather gods are not keen to bless us with sun, however there is a really moody light coming off the bay. Georgie likes it, the Claire the model likes it, Kerin likes it so I like it.

First up is Claire, and it is clear immediately why she is in such high demand. Fantastic photos and our clothes look magnificent.

Then there is me. Well I will leave you with the fact, that at some stage soon, we will be reshooting the male products with a different model

Finally the group shots were hysterical, with friends and family all involved. While quite basic, it gives off the brand attitude.

Kerin and Georgie working with Claire. Check out the moody light.

Mike coming dressed as the producer

Getting ready for the group shots.

We were done by 11.00am, Georgie went home to edit and photoshop the images, and told me they would be ready by 3.00pm. I collect them at 3.00pm and then drive them to Irma for the exchange. We go through the photos and decide on what styles for the website.

In the background Mike has been organising the screenprinting of the kids hoodies, so on Thursday he collects these, takes them home. Amanda then photographs the lifestyle shot and zooms down to the beach to take product shots. Irma has these by email close of play on Thursday.

Saturday morning 4.00am the website goes live. www.larrakin.com.au

This is the home page:

It is a transactional website, so we can take your money online, and it is free delivery to anywhere in Australia. The rest of the world I will charge just what it costs us.

Please let me know if you want anything or have any comments on the site

rupert@larrakin.com.au

From sketch to sample in 3 easy steps

2010-01-21T18:10:00.000-08:00

1) Get Mike to sketch it on a piece of paper

2) Take it to an understanding pattern maker that is prepared to use herself as the model

3) Take pattern to manufacturer for sample:

That's it, and this is Jules in our collection

The Launch

2010-01-21T17:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday 28th November is a bit of a special day. It is the day when something we had only started talking about 4 months before, became a reality. We opened our store to the general public

Queenscliff music festival is legendary in Victoria as the blurb below says:

Minister for Tourism and Major Events Tim Holding came as a special guest of the festival and in his address made particular mention of the award winning nature of this festival which being in the Victorian Tourism Hall of Fame for the most significant Festival and Event in the state, also holds a national title for the same award and was this year nominated in the prestigious Helpmann Awards for Best contemporary Music Festival. Tim was impressed by the way the Festival integrates the township, and generates widespread and lasting benefits to the town and the region.

We arrived at our spot at 7.30am with the view that we had to be up and ready to trade by 9.00am when the festival kicked off. So after a round of coffees to wake us up after the 1hour 30 minute drive from Melbourne we got started. The first thing to mention is that it was a beautiful morning, clear blue skies, but there was evidence of a significant rainfall and storm the previous night. Some of the food stalls had blown over, but the forecast had been for fine weather on Saturday, and rain showers on Sunday, so we were happy.

Thanks to our earlier preparation and 4 focused individuals working in sync and harmony, we were able to get the tent up by the 9.00am deadline. Here is what it looked like:

This is the front, A frames to the left, tables to right

Looking from side towards the entrance of the festival

Inside, the A frames looking great

Mike and Amanda next to changing area and wearing their Larrakin tops.

Pretty quiet until 11.30ish, people brushing themselves down after a long night the previous evening no doubt. And then we started getting people walking in, feeling the clothes and then at around Midday, we sold our first item to a member of the general public. It was an Amanda sweatshirt!

What became very obvious from the get go, is that there are significantly more women that browse than men. It also became evident that Mike and I were more than likely scaring these customers away, when we were in the tent. So pretty quickly we decided that Juliet and Amanda would be front of house and we would be back of house support.

Things were bubbling along well, customers coming in, the wind getting up and cooling the street down, and really positive feedback.

Then the wind really started to rage, the sky changed colour and at 2.00pm when the street was packed with people, it started to rain. I return to the Queenscliff web site review at this point:

With healthy ticket sales and great undercover venues, the euphoric crowds embraced the drought breaking rain on Saturday

Yes, you read that right.... "drought breaking rain" On our launch.

It was pretty grim

And at this point we wished we had made up some Larrakin umbrellas.

The rain did not stop until Sunday, by which time a lot of the festival goers had left.

We learned a great deal from the two days:

1) Women prefer buying clothes from women.
2) We needed a different way to hang our clothes. A table is not good enough and in high winds gets blown away.
3) We need to communicate that all our products are made in Australia
4) Customers loved our products, the quality, the classic cuts.
5) Rain kills footfall at markets
6) We do sell to our target demographic, but there were not enough of them around before the rain fell.
7) The name and logo was universally liked, subtle but strong.

In conclusion we were amazed, happy and knackered that we had managed to deliver against our goal of having a range of quality, classic, clothes all made in Australia and that although the weather had been against us, we sold to people that had never heard of us.

In life, you sometimes have to put yourselves out there to see what you are made of. We did and on this occasion were not found wanting.

My mother always told me never to leave things to the last minute.......

2010-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

Friday 27th November. T minus 23hours to Queenscliff and launch of Larrakin Clothing.

Website

Not live

Transport:

Hired a van first thing for the weekend

Tent:

Collected tent in Van

Jilly Bags

Collected first thing from Dandenong. Sharp pair of scissors required to tidy up all the edges on 20 bags. Note to manufacturer- should have been done onsite.

Thankyou's

Flowers for Lynn and Liz at FHC, Vicky and Nicky at CGT and beer and Ouzo for the men at CGT. Delivered to Lynn and Liz at 1.00ish, and CGT at 3.00ish

Clothes

Collected 495 pressed, labelled and boxed garments from CGT at 3.00ish. Hot day, lots of smiles and banter.

Website

Not live

EFTPOS machine

Working and charged

Customer Bags

Printed and dry

Petty Cash

$156 in coins

A frames, signage, tables, seats, invoice books, car stickers, frisbees, business cards, spare labels, bunting, mobile changing room, plastic boxes for clothes, hangers, mirror

Check

Website

Still not live

Folding all clothes and putting them in plastic boxes

11.00pm done

Packing up van in preparation for morning

12.30am done

Website

4.00am Live

Leave for Queensliff

5.30am

Preparations for Queenscliff

2010-01-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

In the run up to the launch at Queenscliff we had to work out how we would display the clothes and other products. We had secured a site 6mx3m and found a tent from a local company that would work.

10 days before the festival we set the tent up in Mike and Amanda's back garden to see how it could look and make sure that setting up on the day would not be a nightmare.

This is how it would look from the front, with the 3m facing the walkway. Mike had made up some A frames to put clothes on:

Pretty impressive and we had two of them. We also had 3 trestle tables, some fantastic bunting for the outside and hanger to display all the styles. We needed some bags to put the clothes in once sold, so I got a box of recycled brown paper bags and then got a couple of rubber stamps made up and spent quite a long time printing each bag front and back with our logo and website:

Some of these now have small paw prints on as one of the cats decided it would be fun to walk across the entire floor.

At the very least, as alternative vocations, Mike can get into furniture manufacturing and I can start an arts and crafts class.

Pushing the Button Part 2

2010-01-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

We had to be ready to sell stock on 28^th November which was the first day of the Queenscliff Music Festival so the 2 weeks running up to this date are a bit a whirlwind.

Many many trips up to Brunswick and down to Dandenong (See the Jilly Bag).

Amanda. Originally we had planned on three colours, Larrakin Blue, Light Blue and Black. When the material was rolled out on the cutting table at CGT, the two blues were superb, but the black was a disaster. The dye had not fixed properly to the material, so we had to pull the black and go with the two blues.

Gareth. Originally we had planned on two colours, Larrakin Blue and Grey, but the grey had the same problem as the black, it was patchy and not fit to made up.

Both the black and the grey was sent promptly back to the dyer to see what could be done, and CGT cracked on with making the sweatshirts.

Benjamin and Jules were also being made at this point, and fortunately there were no issues with any of these

The Jilly Bag. This is our super top secret ingredient material beach bag. This came about when I was thinking about how could we reuse discarded material to make a bag to put our clothes in at point of sale. I thought about a lot of different products, rice bags/ sacks etc and ended up focusing on sails. Melbourne has a very strong sailing community and a good friend (Jilly) offered to try and find some to see if we could convert them into bags. At this point it became evident that it was unrealistic to make these into give aways, but there could potentially be a market as beach bags. Then began a voyage of discovery to try and find someone able to manufacture such a thick material. Firstly, I managed to secure, from some very generous boat owners some old sails that were to be thrown out. I then contacted a company in Reservoir who specialised in manufacturing Jeans and went up to see them with a sail. Initial discussions were very positive and the owner promised to have a sample made up of the pattern that our designers had put together. Come monday, I called and was told that "no can do" "too difficult" " would cost $100 to manufacture 1 bag". Unfortunate to say the least and I saw my dream of a sail bag disappearing. So after reclaiming the sails, I phoned up a second hand sewing machine distributer and asked about the price of a heavy duty machine that could cope with sail material. I was given a price and was about the hang up when I asked if Steve knew of anyone that had machines and skill capable of doing what I wanted. He gave me a name of a man in Dandenong. I called, set up a meeting and low and behold found a factory that specialised in making articles from tough material like canvass and vinyl. Tan liked the challenge, I gave him the pattern and agreed a time to collect sample. 2 hours later the phone goes. "The pattern doesn't work! We can't do it". My response was to ask whether he had another pattern he could use to mock up a sample and to see how it looked. He said yes and we agreed a time to collect. 2 days later I returned to Dandenong to collect the bag. It was great, but too small. I didn't have the time to go back to the pattern maker, so taking a couple of empty wine boxes, some sticky tape and a long ruler, I set out to make a pattern that would work. I returned to Dandenong that afternoon armed with my DIY pattern and was reassured by Tan that this would work, and he committed to have 20 bags made within 3 days. I collected them on Friday 27th November, the day before our first market.

And finally, just to challenge ourselves even further, we decided at the last minute to make up some kids hoody's in pink for the girls and red for the boys with a screenprinted design on the back. Fortunately the material dyed well and Amy (girls hoody) and Finn (boys hoody) were born.

Throughout all this we had to manage the flow of manufactured product from CGT to the embroidery company Golden Cup and then back to CGT to be pressed, labelled and boxed ready for sale. The operation at Golden Cup is phenomenal and their machines are state of the art. Our requirement for the embroidery was pretty complex. On Benjamin, Jules, Gareth and Amanda, we wanted contrasting logos on the front and contrasting names on the back. So each garment had to be embroidered twice. Under immense time pressure, Golden Cup were able to deliver and able to have the garments back to CGT in time for us to collect the pressed, labelled and boxed garments.

So we are now at Thursday November 26th........

Pushing the Button Part 1

2009-11-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T16:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-23T01:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T01:08:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-10-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

"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!