Sulka in 2009 - Richemont's Paean to the Past?

- Perhaps this time around Richemont will do a little better with the old girl! We shall see. I promised not to repeat what has been revealed to me other than to say you are welcome to sign-up at Sulka dot Com. ___

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...ighlight=sulka

When I saw the thread title, I thought of you.

Did you ever get that coat back that the cleaning lady had mistakenly given away?

Originally Posted by Steven Aver

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http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...ighlight=sulka

I missed that thread entirely. About that time I was likely well insulated from Bulgaria's February cold with some of our own cherry grappa while ice fishing. We have a little lake on our farm near Haskovo. So, I tried ice fishing for the first time last February.

The way I stumbled upon this news about Sulka is that I took the long way from California to Bulgaria for this May trip. When I stopped in London to buy some shoes I was informed by a friend whose adult child works for the new Internet iteration of Sulka. Other than saying the new Internet business is supposed to be return to Sulka's better days (and revealing some of the source manufacturers), the young gent was mum. Ironically, he is too young to have witnessed those "better days"!

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Originally Posted by rnoldh

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When I saw the thread title, I thought of you.

Did you ever get that coat back that the cleaning lady had mistakenly given away?

I fell asleep at the desk yesterday before I could reply about this.

Thanks to the sharp eyes of unpainted huffheinz I recovered not only the Sulka Ulster coat you see in my avatar, but also a Sulka medium gray db cashmere overcoat as well. I didn't even realize the gray overcoat was missing! I thought it was hanging in a closet in Minsk. If it had not been for uh's offhand remark, I would have never discovered the whereabouts of the missing items.

What is crazy is that my favorite Sulka smoking jacket, a dozen or so Sulka ties (including one I got as a high school graduation gift in 1967 , and a still-in-its-original-gift-box Sulka lady's scarf that my father gave to my mother in the 1950s are in the store at this time. The consignor is determining a price for me to buy-back all of the items.

As frustrating as the situation is, the merchant and consignor are innocent. It also turns out that the cleaning lady is also innocent. Many boxes with the Sulka and other "keeper" items were taken away from a segregated non-donation area on the other side of the garage. A zealous pick-up driver from the church took the other boxes despite them not being in the donation group.

It's all a long and crazy story. But that story is for another time. The same arson fire at our home that precipitated all of this was the act of the son of the stateside attorney that was handling some of the affairs related to purchasing the farms in Bulgaria from where I am writing these words.

Anyway, when I return to La Jolla in mid-June I will probably have an opportunity to re-acquire the remainder of the Sulka items. At least we will have bumper crops of roses, cherries, and raspberries this year!!

p.s. PM sent to unpainted huffheinz a couple of weeks ago when I repurchased the overcoats.

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The website is pretty cheesy. One can only hope the actual store, when resurrected, will be a bit different.

Full Canvas, I was in Le Chauvinist last week and saw two of your Sulkas. Beautiful, beautiful ties but I didn't pick them up because I wasn't sure if you intended to come through and grab them.

They are on the floor to be sold - the very nice lady in the store was unfamiliar with them. Did you want a proxy or something to hold them until your back stateside?

Originally Posted by mafoofan

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The website is pretty cheesy. One can only hope the actual store, when resurrected, will be a bit different.

"Pretty cheesy" is polite understatement! It is more like Kraft Velveta individually wrapped sandwich slices cheesy. One can only hope that Richemont has installed better people than the ones that ran the ship aground ten years ago!

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Originally Posted by rjmaiorano

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Full Canvas, I was in Le Chauvinist last week and saw two of your Sulkas. Beautiful, beautiful ties but I didn't pick them up because I wasn't sure if you intended to come through and grab them.

They are on the floor to be sold - the very nice lady in the store was unfamiliar with them. Did you want a proxy or something to hold them until your back stateside?

Thanks for the heads-up as well as your gracious offer to proxy! I will call the store AND send a friend in to investigate. The history of nearly six previous months of miscommunication in the matter make me worry that "my" ties might actually be what you saw for sale.

Supposedly, all of my items are in the back room. The proprietor would not sell the items to me until he spoke with the consignor. The reason he gave was that no price had been set by the consignor.

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You seem to have the most exotic lifestyle: how many people even know where Bulgaria is? Can't you be more revealing (about why you live in Minsk, France, Bulgaria, AND California)? Also, why is Sulka so wonderful? Why is it different from any other luxury brand gone bad?

Originally Posted by brescd01

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You seem to have the most exotic lifestyle: how many people even know where Bulgaria is? Can't you be more revealing (about why you live in Minsk, France, Bulagaria, AND California)? Also, why is Sulka so wonderful? Why is it different from any other luxury brand gone bad?

On top of that, he went to UCSC, if I recall, which is about as exotic as it gets.

Originally Posted by Full Canvas

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Thanks for the heads-up as well as your gracious offer to proxy! I will call the store AND send a friend in to investigate. The history of nearly six previous months of miscommunication in the matter make me worry that "my" ties might actually be what you saw for sale.

Supposedly, all of my items are in the back room. The proprietor would not sell the items to me until he spoke with the consignor. The reason he gave was that no price had been set by the consignor.

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I didn't look through all of the ties. But of those I did go through, I saw two Sulkas in similar-ish darker paisley patterns. I can't imagine them being anyone but yours.

Originally Posted by Manton

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On top of that, he went to UCSC, if I recall, which is about as exotic as it gets.

Exotic and a hippy!

Originally Posted by brescd01

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You seem to have the most exotic lifestyle: how many people even know where Bulgaria is? Can't you be more revealing (about why you live in Minsk, France, Bulgaria, AND California)? Also, why is Sulka so wonderful? Why is it different from any other luxury brand gone bad?

More Revealed:

Many of my occasional posts are little snapshots of my world. My shoe closet still has some Allen-Edmonds items in it. The lug-soled Norwell penny-loafer is still my favorite shoe to navigate airport security. It is my good fortune to be an ordinary fellow that enjoys an extraordinary life. It is exotic only in the abstract. No BSD at work here!
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Mrs. FC was born in Minsk. A mutual friend introduced us long ago. Brief visits for a few weeks at a time kept family members happy and many times made me wish I were in California or Corsica. Ownership of a modest flat and a locally registered sedan placates the suspicious minds of in-laws. Speaking of suspicious minds and in-laws, Mrs. FC's father was in the diplomatic corps. His military rank of Major masked his true position as "supervisor of those charged with observing communications in foreign embassies in Minsk."
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Corsica is simply my favorite place on earth. Everybody has a favorite. Corsica is mine.
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I like La Jolla. It has been my home in America for nearly forty years.
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Sulka WAS something that could be counted upon not to disappoint throughout the years. It was a hushed club that allowed me through the doors to make modest purchases while I was a mere high school kid that wanted a few very nice things in his wardrobe. I was a customer of both the Post Street locations in San Francisco and made irregular forays into many of the other locations over the years. Sulka's slide was noticeable in the late-1970s or early-1980s (think of the 1980ish Giorgio Armani showcase, American Gigolo, with Richard Gere). By the early-1980s new money wanted designer-labeled clothes and lots of flash. That was somewhat antithetical to the original Sulka philosophy. No one knew how to morph the rudderless and musty old shirtmaker-haberdasher into a competitive enterprise. Sulka stumbled and fell because they did not comprehend the idea of competition. Very few people even noticed that fall.
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Today the name is likely not much different than "any other luxury brand gone bad". Unless Richemont shows that they learned from their previously strategic mistakes with the label, I am quite skeptical (yet cautiously optimistic) of whether or not they will hit the bulls-eye. By the way, Richemont was not the first buyer that didn't know what to do with Sulka. Syms department stores' ownership did not maintain the Sulka luster at all.

Sulka gained its original reputation and momentum by creating rather than competing. Witness their earlier in-house shirtmaking, unparalleled dressing gowns and smoking jackets (also made in-house), and their own silk weaving mills for ties, shirts, and many other silk items. Indeed, Sulka was the stuff of legends. In today's marketplace such creative originality may come at too high an initial cost for even Richemont to develop a new audience of loyal customers. If the new Sulka effectively meets the current marketplace as I understand it, the original Sulka is likely to remain a ghost. Outsourcing creativity is certainly expedient but not necessarily effective.
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Originally Posted by Manton

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On top of that, he went to UCSC, if I recall, which is about as exotic as it gets.

Although I am a native of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz was far too exotic for my wallet. I left Santa Cruz for the (then) California State College System right around the time you were born. That level of education was the only affordable one for a young man of modest means working his way through school. Student loans were not available to my type at the time!

I departed Santa Cruz to make room for an eloquent lad that is destined to open a dining establishment there at some future date. I hope one day to enjoy a fine repast in his (we all know it's coming to this!) Santa Cruz eatery on one of my infrequent visits to the real Surf City! Who knows? Maybe kwilkinson will be the lad's first chair chef by then.

By the way, your postcard to SF from Santa Cruz some time ago mentioned your father had a brief visceral association with the Stagnaro family. Perhaps your father was also acquainted with my uncle that operated the tiny deep-sea fishing boat ticket sale and tackle rental shop at the entrance to the wharf. In fact, you may also have met my uncle at some point in the past.

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