Why Lesser has some hegemony on Savile row ?

apropos · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by Manton

Again, for the most part SR does not upcharge for Lesser yet they pay more for it than for comparable worsteds. So they are eating that differential. That is inconsistent with pushing Lesser to increase margins.
How do you know this?

Did you hear this from Lesser, or from a tailor, who as MFF points out, has a vested interest in making you think that he is making a loss on a product he is selling to you?

AndrewRogers · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by Manton

No, their website is terrible. They are such a backward company that there is really no hope they will ever have a decent online presense. The only hope is that someone will do what AndrewRogers did for Harrison, but don't count on it because Lesser is pretty strict about selling only to tailors.

I tried but they said no. I tried again and they said no again. They just wouldn't budge.

apropos · Mar 19, 2010

Sigh.

aj_del · Mar 19, 2010

Actually I e-mailed them asking if they had a distributor in India and they replied no. But since they dont a distribution network here they agreed to supply cloth to me directly. They made it clear that they dont it in markets where they have a presence.

I didnt pursue it after that since I had no access to their books and so could not order. Their website is quite basic so even if I request for a particular book I didnt know which one to ask for.

Also seeing my tailor's reluctance with CTM, it was not worth pursuing.

I wish these smaller British firms have some presence in India.

holymadness · Mar 19, 2010

To what extent was English sartorial culture transferred to India during the Raj? Is it something that reigned and then died off after 1947, or was it never implanted at all? Or did it take root and is it still thriving today?

apropos · Mar 19, 2010

holymadness · Mar 19, 2010

Gandhi thought it a shame the pith helmet couldn't be adopted as national dress because of its imperialist connotations as it was such an ingenious invention. I wonder if something like that happened with tailored clothing.

Either way, I can imagine a lot of tropical wool, linen and cotton were involved, whatever the answer.

Manton · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by passingtime

Lessers are fairly unique in never discounting remainders. Their view is that they have the space to store the cloth so they don't need to dump it and if someone wants it they will pay the price. It means they have quite a lot of old cloth.

This is not quite true. They sometimes do discount old stock. I don't know what % of the time they do, and maybe it is much less than 50%, but it's not unheard of.

Manton · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by apropos

How do you know this?

Did you hear this from Lesser, or from a tailor, who as MFF points out, has a vested interest in making you think that he is making a loss on a product he is selling to you?

I know because when I have ordered Lesser, they have not said "That will be 100 GBP extra."

I never said any tailor actually loses money selling Lesser; I said that they lose a little of their profit margin (and usually not very much). And nobody actually say "This costs more but we won't charge you more, so aren't you lucky." I just happen to know the wholesale prices of a lot of cloth, thus I know that in many categories, for the same basic type of goods, Lesser costs more than a competitor. It's not 2x more, typically more like 10-25% or even 50% or so more.

apropos · Mar 19, 2010

Thank you for your clarification.

Originally Posted by Manton

I said that they lose a little of their profit margin (and usually not very much).
I did mean that, apologies for the brain glitch.

Gent · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by Manton

I know because when I have ordered Lesser, they have not said "That will be 100 GBP extra."

I never said any tailor actually loses money selling Lesser; I said that they lose a little of their profit margin (and usually not very much). And nobody actually say "This costs more but we won't charge you more, so aren't you lucky." I just happen to know the wholesale prices of a lot of cloth, thus I know that in many categories, for the same basic type of goods, Lesser costs more than a competitor. It's not 2x more, typically more like 10-25% or even 50% or so more.

I may have missed something, but why would tailors do this? It seems to make no sense. If it's the best cloth and comes with a premium, why would they eat that premium?

Manton · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by Gent

I may have missed something, but why would tailors do this? It seems to make no sense. If it's the best cloth and comes with a premium, why would they eat that premium?

First of all, they don't all do it. But Poole and A&S do. Second, they won't do it for every cloth. If you order Golden Bale or from one of the two Lesser's Super books, you will be upcharged. Those cost substantially more.

I guess they don't think that a 5 or 10 GBP differential is worth an upcharge. Plus--getting back to the premise of this thread--they love Lesser and like to work with it. So why discourage customers from ordering it?

passingtime · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by Manton

This is not quite true. They sometimes do discount old stock. I don't know what % of the time they do, and maybe it is much less than 50%, but it's not unheard of.
They will very occasionally discount a length as a favour to a tailor personally (as opposed to a firm like A&S) but that is across the range rather than any particular line. I checked this with a friend who used to be one of their UK salesmen until recently.

I don't know what the position with Jodek, their US distributor, is as they apply a sizeable mark-up of their own so they have scope to discount without involving Lessers.

TheTukker · Mar 19, 2010

Originally Posted by Manton

No, their website is terrible. They are such a backward company that there is really no hope they will ever have a decent online presense. The only hope is that someone will do what AndrewRogers did for Harrison, but don't count on it because Lesser is pretty strict about selling only to tailors.

Thanks Manton; that's what I was worried about. If they would only realize how AndrewRogers could help their business model...

I. Gentantithesis · Mar 20, 2010

hedgemoney ?

Why Lesser has some hegemony on Savile row ?

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