Survey for upcoming business

[nihil]

Hello everyone

First of all, sorry for sounding overly commercial with my topic. This is not actual advertisement, but a survey of sorts for my own upcoming small-scale home business. When it gets off the ground, I promise to purchase advertisement space here on FL.

I have been into vintage clothes for a long time now. It started out as a side interest from my WW2 reenactment hobby, and eventually eclipsing it.
As part of my ww2 interest, I started a small company some 6 years ago. It is selling reproductions of uniforms, insignia and equipment from the ww2 era. This have given me invaluable experience with having designs developed, advertisement, the basic logistics behind running such a company and much, much more.

I am now in the process of starting up another company, this time completely independent. My other company is a joint venture with a very good friend. The basic idea is the same: Having reproductions of old clothes made. But now it's going to be civilian clothes from the 20s to the 50s.
Ever since beginning to wear vintage clothes, I have been annoyed with the lack of affordable clothes in 'modern sizes'. Original vintage clothing are getting increasingly rare to come by.


Now, a long story short: I believe that there is an interest in reproductions of 'affordable' vintage clothing. My question to all of you is then: Would you eventually purchase it, or do you solely use 'original' vintage clothes?
And a secondary question: What item or items would you prefer to see as the first available? (I have already decided on this, but would very much like to hear your unbiased opinion)

Thank you for your time

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I wear "repro" trousers all the time. Are your tailors able to make tailored jackets and suits? Expect the vintage scene to be rather picky and the modern folk to "not understand" the details. Even high waisted trousers are a mystery to them. They try them on and feel uncomfortable and helpless.

This shouldn't discourage you. Just keep in mind that both groups have very different needs.

Ps: I would like to see a single breasted donegal tweed suit with beltback.

 

[nihil]

Thank you for your reply

I have not yet decided on which manufacturer to use. The ones I am talking to right now are able to do so. Full suits, or suit jackets is not what I am starting out with, as they are quite advanced, and I really want to get everything just right.
Luckily, I myself am very picky, and I hope this provides me with the required scepticism, to ensure that the final product lives up to a good standard.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

A massive part of getting a piece of vintage reproduction clothing to look right is to use the old techniques, particularly drafting. A vintage shirt, for example, looks nothing like a modern shirt. Where many current manufacturers of "vintage reproduction" shirts (for example) fall down is by simply tacking a vintage type collar onto a modern shirt body (threads ad infinitum in this section of FLounge).

Depending on who you're going to be working with, good luck getting Bengladeshi, Chinese etc. clothing factories to do what you need. Don't fall into the trap set by these factories when they say "don't worry, we can do the old techniques". They cannot. Look around at mycustomtailor etc. threads and see the abominations produced by such factories in "vintage reproduction" styles. You want desperately to avoid the impression that "it's just a modern pair of trousers with 4 inches added to the top", which is what I see typically.

The second major issue with "reproductions" is fabric. It is an eternal chore trying to find the correct stuff, though certainly not impossible. Correct shirt fabrics are tough to source.

Good luck! I'm on a similar track myself.

 

[Methuselah]

I'm not a re-enactor or a vintage collector, I just like well constructed products that fit correctly made from natural materials.
I don't earn a lot, so I can't afford tailor made, therefore I like repro / vintage inspired companies.

You would probably get my custom by starting off with cheaper options for these:
1. Trousers that fit at the natural waist, comfortable wide legs, have brace buttons, with a range of materials for different seasons and the option for turn-ups.
2. Shirts in a range of fabrics with spear-point collars and holes for cufflinks.

 

[Foxer55]

nihil,

Interestimg endeavor. Good look if you launch it.

My question is will you do only custom tailoring or will you do production work? If you do production on any level, let me suggest something as it was a source of converstion between myself and a salesman at Lord & Taylor today. It seems the buyers in many department stores do not understand the notion of standard distribution. Standard distribtuion, or the Bell Curve, can be used to define the physical size of all the population. There are Sigma 1, 2 & 3 and all people fall into these categories (and others as well) in a distributed way. If a store or manufacturer provides a thousand suits in every size, there will be many suits in the low and high sizes left over and suits in the middle range sizes that are not in enough supply because the supply does not match how the population is sized. I don't think the salesman even understood this. In any event its somjething to keep in mind.

What I would be interested in seeing would be neck ties in vintage patterns but that were long enough to satisfy the tie styles of today. Material is the key here. Even hand painted ties would be an option.

Shirts, of course, and two issues in shirts would be collar points and - above all - collars that are high enough. This is a big issue with me because I have a long neck and the collars on a lot of shirts just don't meet the requirements.

Next would be the material in suits. I wear only conventional suits with pleated pants, cuffs, and a 2-button jacket with a single vent. The problem is finding suits with interesting material that is NOT blue or black pinstripe. I see people in very high level government offices wearing pinsrtipe suits and it looks incredibly out of place. Aside from that I would love to see some interesting wool suits with a full pile to the material, good looking patterns, and elbows that don't go shiny in a couple of wearings.

 

[stevew443]

I like the idea you have, and I would purchase vintage style clothing. I am not a stickler for details, so if the "flavor" is correct even though the details may be wrong, I would still be happy. The problem I have in purchasing vintage clothing is, I am rather tall and cannot find sizes that would fit, so repro clothing would be a welcome addition to my wardrobe, and should the price be competitive with modern clothing, I might wear only repro clothing.

 

[Metatron]

I would buy repro clothing.

Things I would like to see:

• Like others have said, trousers that fit at the waist
• spearpoint shirts, both casual and dressy
• 'sportswear' jackets and trousers, which aren't generic or excessively conservative
  ,but feature the unique 'quirks' of the era, that can be seen in abundance in many posts on this site.
• natural fabrics, or blends that are mostly natural, 80/20 for example.
• interesting and subtle patterns: Herringbone, flecks, houndstooth etc.
• Hardwearing quality

 

[nihil]

Thank you all, very, very much for your replies
Your observations and concerns, reflect my own. Which in turn make me feel more confident about this endeavour.

Here are some specific replies:
Baron Kurtz> It is indeed difficult replicating old clothes. As you say yourself, many assume that it's the same as modern clothes, with some slight alterations. That is very rarely the case. Luckily, I have been working for several years now, with the retailing of ww2 uniforms, including German ones. This have provided me with lots of experience, with 'strange' clothes, that are very, very different from their modern counterparts. One of the most promising manufacturers that I am currently negotiation with, is the one I have used for years, for my reproduction uniforms, and they understand how non modern clothes are supposed to be.

Foxer55> I won't do custom tailoring. After have been offering this for years with my reproduction uniforms business, I have abandoned the idea, except for the option of ordering minor alterations to the standard sizes. It's a nightmare, when working with external manufacturers, to offer this.
Thank you very much for the suggestion regarding ho many sizes to stock

stevew443> Exactly my own problem. I can't find any 1930s clothes that fit me. my goal is both to make it available to as many as possible, and to have some reasonable prices. Without promising anything at this early stage, I hope to be able to keep the price of for example wool trousers to around 70-90€.

 

[Two Types]

I would recommend producing 1930s style white/cream cricket flannels. Everyone wants them and they are increasingly difficult to find. They are the basis of so many classic summer outfits.