An Interview With Robert Geller, Part 2 of 2: Cloak, Dip-Dye Sweaters, and Polaroids

[cocostella]

Hella' fun read.

 

[dotcomzzz]

Well done.

 

[SirGrotius]

Great stuff. Thanks

 

[wahwho11]

Geller's pretty cool. His answer about people only buying the jeans and sweatshirt made me cry inside.

 

[Distorbiant]

This really put things into perspective:

"But you guys. You're a smidgen of a percentage of the actual reality. You guys are the ones that are into it. We're like the nerds. The ones that want to see those cool pieces that you see on the runway. But the reality of the business is that 95% of people buy the dip-dye sweatshirts, and they buy the shirts, and the denim, and that's it. And it's… painful."

Are the majority of designer-clothing shoppers just consumers in the higher income bracket? I always figured a better appreciation for clothing design would come along with the habit of buying said clothing.

 

[basil rathbone]

Wow, great interview. You did a great job, dude. Like two guys just shooting the breeze. No really stock questions or answers. Just really solid, interesting stuff.

 

[LA Guy]



This really put things into perspective: "But you guys. You're a smidgen of a percentage of the actual reality. You guys are the ones that are into it. We're like the nerds. The ones that want to see those cool pieces that you see on the runway. But the reality of the business is that 95% of people buy the dip-dye sweatshirts, and they buy the shirts, and the denim, and that's it. And it's… painful." Are the majority of designer-clothing shoppers just consumers in the higher income bracket? I always figured a better appreciation for clothing design would come along with the habit of buying said clothing.

Yes. And they appreciate clothing enough to want to look nice, but they are not interested in clothing as a hobby, and seeing clothing as a hobby is what breeds the appreciation. For example, I have a pretty decent home theater system, but that's because I like to watch movies, and prefer to watch something that is not a direct light source. I can't tell you that much about building out a projector system except for what I read in reviews, once.

 

[LA Guy]



Wow, great interview. You did a great job, dude. Like two guys just shooting the breeze. No really stock questions or answers. Just really solid, interesting stuff. 

Thanks. Conceptual 4rest did a great job. I haven't gotten around to getting the audio edited and properly cleaned up, but I will. There is real warmth in the conversation.

 

[Master-Classter]

(Great interview! I didn't know much about Geller so it's been a very insightful read, thanks)


As someone who works in a higher end (but) department store, which would sort of carry the likes of Geller, I can concur with LA Guy above and say basically, yes, it's true. I see the lookbook, then I see what our buyers bought and I scratch my head. The fact is the retail buyers' assess are on the line to make money for the store, so they're better off getting stuff they feel confident will sell (at full price).

For consumers, it's got to be stuff that's from a reputable brand, ie doesn't make a customer feel bad about the line because they bought something 'edgy' and it didn't work out for them, so they have to trust the brand, and therefore and it's got to be clothes they can understand and relate to, etc but is still just that little bit unique for the price. So the buyers are sort of forced to pick items they know their shoppers will like. The majority of consumers I see are just people with enough money to probably not care, they know enough from experience wearing stuff to recognize that it's well made and interesting, but most of them, honestly, don't know or care beyond that. There are a the rare ones with interesting taste, so buyers do order some of that stuff, but not much. If you think about a different aspect of buying, so not the actual items, but the sizing for example, well you wouldn't be surprised when the buyers look at the distribution of historical sales and then buy (often) a bellcurved distribution of sizes (ie not much super small or big). It seems obvious that they're ordering more of the sizes in the middle rather than the ends, so why wouldn't they do the same style of purchasing when it comes to how unique or general the design is?

one other aspect I thought of, is that a singe designer may not know who else the store carries and what other items the buyers are getting from those lines. So two different lines might have a similar item and the buyers may look and say we'll just pick one of them. So there's a bigger context of the overall store's needs that a single supplier may not be aware of.

 

[kindofyoung]

Really good job 4est, like, really really good

 

[RXS09]

Absolutely amazing. Great read.

 

[snowmanxl]



Great stuff. Thanks for this. Geller sounds like a cool guy. I love the photography/designer analogy.

yeah, that was really nice to hear.
thanks for the interview!!!!!!!!