SPEAKER_05 0:11

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Menswear Style Podcast, episode 33. I'm your host, Pete Brooker. This week we are joined by Luca Felloni of the eponymously titled Luca Faloni, a timeless Italian menswear brand, direct-to-consumer, and we're going to be talking about what the vital components are for setting up a direct-to-consumer menswear brand. So stay tuned. You know, Luca Falloni does free worldwide shipping. I mean, how is that even possible?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

So in the early days, it's normal to lose a lot of money in the early years and then you you break even later on. But again, I I I I believe it's all about having a great product and giving a great service and making sure people come back.

SPEAKER_05 0:53

We'll also be talking to Beck Lodes, editor at large for Men's Wear Style. She's going to be running through all the big news stories of the week. That Versace Michael cause takeover. Who saw that coming, right? The Chesterberry Refurb, How to Lose Weight with Food Poisoning, and the release of Jamie Oliver's new trainers. Here's a clip.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

He wanted to create an 18th anniversary wedding anniversary present for his wife, and apparently they're both uh very much a fan of sort of sneakers and retro shoes. Um, and so he thought the ideal gift would be to create a bespoke pair of shoes for her. And uh the brand who are called seven feet apart are actually sort of local to him and no, I've never heard of them.

SPEAKER_05 1:37

All that's come, but first make sure you're checking out the website www.menswearstyle.co.uk to stay on top of all the latest fashion news trends and competitions. You can download the menswear style app from the app store to stay notified, and you can follow us on the social at menswear style. If you'd like to get in touch, then you can leave us a message at infomenswearstyle.co.uk. Okay. Let's get to it. Here is that interview with Luca Falloni. Well, it's my great pleasure to introduce Luca Falloni to the podcast. How are you doing today, Luca?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Thank you for having me, first of all. I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_05 2:16

Excellent. Whereabouts in the world are you?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

At the moment I'm in Notting Hill, London.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Uh-huh. So your offices are there, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah, the office is there. We despite our company makes everything in Italy, we decided to have um offices in London because we want to better serve the international markets from here.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Interesting. Uh have you done all the touristy parts of Nottinghill? You know, been to the bookshop, been to where Hugh Grant lived?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yes, actually, I have to say that was one of my favorite movies back in the days. And uh I live in Kensington, which is um uh a short walk, 20 minutes to the office, and every morning I walk down Portobello. So I I have to admit I feel a little bit like Hugh Grant every morning.

SPEAKER_05 2:58

No, if you feel like you're in a movie set walking around with a cup of coffee, hoping to bump into Julia Roberts.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

One day. Do you know just a sidebar, a real geeky fact? I was in Notting Hill the other day, and you go to that door, that flat where Hugh Grant lived in the movie, and they've actually sold that real door off on eBay, um, or like a some kind of prop memorabilia. So that's not actually the real door. The real door has been sold at an auction. And the house used to belong to the writer of the film, Richard Curtis, and the director.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 3:36

Yeah, so behind that door, I mean the the actual film's a movie set. Uh inside the flat is in a movie set, but the actual behind that door is a a massive, massive apartment that stretches all the way back, and it's actually quite quite luxurious inside, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I don't know. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

I digress. Luca, another enough about Notting Hill, please. Uh tell us a little bit about yourself, and if you can, just give us a quick highlights reel of yourself and the brand.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Uh I'm from Turin, which is uh northwest of Italy, first capital of Italy. And uh I grew up there until I was 18 or so. I'm I moved to University Milan, and at that stage I started kind of uh moving around the world. I first went to America to continue my studies and then um uh to the UK, London to for my masters, where I kind of remained until today. And that's for um my personal life. And and uh about four or five years ago I launched the the brand Luca Faloni. Um I I came across um the direct-to-consumer um brands in the in when I was in the States, and I thought it would have been uh very good to do the same thing, but with Italian manufacturing and craftsmanship.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

And what were your early thoughts and impressions when it came to fashion? So you grew up in Italy, I take it. So fashion's all around you there.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Yeah, so in Italy you have uh basically wherever you grew up, you you know where to buy uh clothes based on you have that neighborhood knowledge, you know which one is the best guy to make your tailor mesh shirts, you know where to get the trousers, etc. But then when when I when I kind of I moved abroad, um I spent, you know, I lived in London 12 years, and at some point I noticed that I was always buying my clothes on the trips back to Italy. Um it was difficult abroad to find exactly what I wanted, where I wanted at the at a price point that I was comfortable with. Um so yeah, eventually I thought, why don't I do uh a label that makes the same great products that are more easily available in Italy and makes them available worldwide at a fair price point.

SPEAKER_05 5:46

Interesting. And so what age are you now, if you don't mind me asking?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Uh I just turned 34.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Okay, 34. And how long has the brand Luca Filoni been going? About five years. Basically, I'm I'm trying to put this in my head. If I'm someone with a product and I want to start a company, uh a fashion company, but I don't have the capital to invest in bricks and mortar, you know, it's a startup, but I want to launch an e-commerce business. What were the initial steps you took and what advice would you be able to give to me?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, first of all, I think online is the best way to start a company. Um not only fashion, any other products, because it allows you to start with just one item. And uh, instead of if you open a store, you need to have a proper collection fully developed because of, of course, once people uh come in to be able to sell them something. Uh while online you can start with one item, improve it based on feedback, and then add a little bit as you grow. And uh, of course, um there are less costs in having a website nowadays, it's very easy um to ship worldwide using you know DHL or these kind of companies, and you can have small run of production at the beginning. So online works really well, and you don't need that much capital at the beginning.

SPEAKER_05 6:59

Is that what you did? Did you start with one hero product?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Well, basically, yes, I uh I started actually from leather goods at the beginning and and lean uh shortly after. Uh I had the theory at the beginning that it would be easier to uh sell uh accessories online because uh the sizing there was not the problem of sizing, but then it turned out that everyone was also thinking the same thing, and uh so that it was much more competitive. And why while when I moved to linen, uh, which is a much more difficult to sell linen shirts online because the sizing is complicated, however, no one was doing that, and um and so linen took off. And from then we grew the linen collection and we expanded into uh now we are focused on the upper part of the body, we focus on fine materials, so we have for the summer mainly the linen collection, and for the winter we focus on cashmere, um which is the biggest part of our collection, and we have brush cotton and PK cotton. Um yeah, so we expanded from from the from an initial product we added little by little.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

I see. Is uh is the UK your biggest market, Luca?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

No, no, so basically now uh since from from day one we basically had the policy that we would uh ship worldwide for free and we would also um uh do exchanges and returns for free. Uh so the the the the while we were based in the UK, the consumer could be from wherever, and we now now our customers live in metropolitan cities around the world. So we we we do have a lot of customers in New York, Munich, uh you know, Stockholm. We have now that it winter is coming in Europe, we have people buying linen shirts from Sydney. So uh it's a very international business, and we are able to sell different seasons at the same time because we are global.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

Obviously, we've had one of the hottest summers on record over here in the UK. People want to gravitate to a lighter material, linen's the most breathable out there. If the UK was going to be your biggest market, then this is gonna be the right time to actually push that in the UK, right? For linen to actually have a renaissance of sorts.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Oh, we I mean, we we we of course um UK is a very important market for uh for us. We st I know it really well. I lived here uh 12 years, so we had been pushing the um the brand here since day one, and uh we sold a lot of linen this summer in the UK, and we also did our first retail store in King's Road close to Sloan Square, and that did really well um during the linen season. I don't call it summer and winter, I call it the the linen season and the cashmere season.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

Okay, yeah, yeah. Give it a theme. How did the pop-up store go, by the way? And could you just tell us a little bit about the benefits and the time that it takes to set up a project like that? Setting up a pop-up store in the in London.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Well, so I believe, and that is also something common from other brands that are direct to consumer in different industries in the States. For instance, uh, Warby Parker's also started opening stores, and uh Casper, they do mattresses, they they started opening stores. Um, it works really well when you are an online brand. You use the early years to improve the product, get to know your customers, um and optimize your website. And then once once that business is kind of that channel is is optimized, you can start moving offline. And that I we decided to do it first with a pop-up, then with another pop-up, and now we are going um into permanent stores. Um the advantages of having a store compared to online is that first of all, not everyone likes to buy online, and so some customers you only get them if you have a retail presence, but also your existing customers are able to better see the full collection and try sizes, and then people can you can acquire people offline and they buy online later, and vice versa. So the two channels work well together. Of course, you can only start stores in a second time, in a second moment of your business life when you are um when you have a product that you're confident with.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

And and what are the running costs basically? If I was looking to set up a pop-up store, I've got my product, I've got my brand, I want to be in London for a week. Could you just give me a quick ballpark figure?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Look, um the nowadays there are and nowadays is a good moment for people they want to do pop-up stores because uh there is retail uh in the high street is is going through a little bit of a crisis and there are many empty units, and there are websites like appear here where you can find uh available pop-up, or you can go through agents and you you book places that are in between tenances. Anyway, if you are smart, uh you can find uh pop-ups for uh lower rent than what the actual place would be. Um and so yes, the rent in London is very expensive, like in all the major cities, but again, you then save on shipping cost and exchange cost and packaging and uh and therefore and marketing in a way because of course online you need to bring traffic to the website using digital advertising, while offline people walk in front of the store if it's a good location. And um, and therefore, I I think overall the economics of running a stores, a store in the short term are still good, and you can get a lot of feedback for your main products. So if you have a startup, you you can definitely run that as an experiment, improve your products, and then if it worked, you can then open permanent stores later on.

SPEAKER_05 12:30

And people can get to see you, right? So they get a feel of I presume you went down and and did a couple of hours, but people get a feel of who you are, who the brand is, and they get a bit more of a personality, a bit more of an attachment to the brand.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah, so I I I spent time in in the in the store, um, especially on Saturdays, and the uh the main reason was well, there were two reasons. One, I wanted to um um uh uh meet the clients and uh you know introduce the brand, etc. But I also wanted to learn from them and I wanted to understand uh how they use the store, how they um try the products, sizing, fit, uh what we can do better in store, what we can do better online, etc. I I always had a lot of questions for the customers that came in when I was there.

SPEAKER_05 13:18

What are the positives of being a direct-to-consumer brand and what would you say are the downfalls?

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Well, there are many positives. So, first of all, if you're a direct-to-consumer, you don't have intermediaries. So at the same price point of a normal brand that goes through the wholesale channel, you can offer a better value for money. So the consumer makes a better deal. Uh, second thing is that you manage their relationship with the customer, and therefore, uh customer service is good, you can explain the brand really well, and there is no confusion. While if if instead a wholesale brand sells their products through a department store, you never know who is gonna sell your product and how they're gonna explain to the customer. And and also, um, yeah, as a direct-to-consumer brand, you can offer again with online, you can offer very good service, fast delivery worldwide, you're available everywhere pretty much in the world. Um, the downsides, of course, is that um if you don't have a strong retail presence yet, people have to buy online, and of course, sometimes they don't get the size right, so they have to exchange it. Not many people are um happy to uh invest the time in exchanging products or returning products, and uh then of course as a brand, um you it takes more time to grow as a back in the days you could grow really fast with the wholesale model, but now you have to invest, you know, it has to be more ground. You can grow really fast too, but you have to invest more money in marketing and stores, etc., while before you could use the channels of other people essentially.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

I think Luca, I'm not gonna speak for everyone, but from from my own experience in setting up an e-commerce store, which I did a couple of years ago, the biggest problem that we had as a company was uh getting it from stage B to stage C. So, for example, we had stage A to B, which was getting the brands on board, setting up the e-commerce site, but then having the capital and everything else to push it, so it got you know, it got eyeballs onto the page, we got traffic to the page, and then once you got the traffic there, how do you get them to purchase, etc.? But we put so much work into it that it just kind of it did its job, it plateaued, it made money, but it just never took off. And we believe that if you had the money and the backing, then that's how you take things on to the next level. I'm I'm trying to put a question to the end of my point, but I'm hoping that maybe you've got some got some thoughts on that on that statement.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

So you you were selling products of other people, of other brands?

SPEAKER_05 15:46

Yeah, other markets.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Yeah, so one downside of that is that of course you you're not the only one selling those brands, therefore uh there are also other players that you compete with in in other channels, and consumers are gonna shop around, etc. So um, while what we do is we develop uh our own products and um they are not available anywhere else. So we of course have to make sure those products are great and customers uh are happy with it and they come back and they tell their friends. Uh now in the menswear business, I agree with you, it's expensive to uh um you know marketing online is expensive, but once you acquire customers, men are really loyal. And um if they're happy with the brand, consumers are happy tend to tell on average seven people. So uh we are happy with the growing, yes, we did that to raise, we we we have we had to raise capital, and we will do more so in the future, and uh especially uh now that we want to open stores. Um so in the early days it's normal to lose a lot of money in um in the early years and then you you break even later on. Uh but again, I I I I believe it's all about having a great product and giving a great service and making sure people come back.

SPEAKER_05 16:58

Yeah. No, I agree. I I just feel like it's a lot of a lot of people need to get wind of this before taking on projects like you and I have. I mean, you especially with your own brand and your own name behind the brand, but a lot of people that get into this industry, they've got this idea of making a fortune with their own designs. Um, or maybe even setting up an e-commerce store, but they don't realise that yes, it might make money in a couple of years, it might make money for them full-time, but it's never going to get them into the stratosphere that they imagine. You know, it's it's that lack of capital and that lack of willingness to put all the money back into the business, to invest back into the marketing and basically not make money. I mean, a bit like Amazon did, right? Amazon and continue to do, Amazon still pile all their money back into their business, massive investments to expand and grow, and that's where they are now.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, I I believe in the in the in the same model in a way. I believe you should well at the beginning you're gonna lose money full stop, but even when you can break even or you can make a um a profit, you should and you should keep reinvesting until your uh um revenue goes very, very high, and then you can think about profitability uh a few years down the line. Uh I I do believe that uh not only session, but all industries and entrepreneurship in general is very difficult. So uh it shouldn't be given that people start their own business and they think they're gonna make money as a matter of fact.

SPEAKER_05 18:22

Look, I guess this might be a question for the end, but I want to I want to get it up in front here. What's the end goal for you and your business? I mean, we've just seen the likes of Michael Kors buying up Versace for two billion dollars. Um is there is there any is there any end game for you? Can you can you look down the road and see where you'd like to be?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Well, from a financial point of view, we have investors, and of course, investors uh want to have a return on their capital, and um uh there are different ways to achieve that in the future. Uh I don't want to sell the comp if if we get an acquisition offer, I will not I will never sell the company as a whole. I will want to uh you know list list it on the market in the stock market, but I want to always be the major shareholder of the company, and uh I want to have it as a family business for the decades to come.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

Yeah, okay. Your name is on the brand. I assume you're the creative director as well, you do all the designs. How do you divide up your time between looking after the company, designing the the garments? Um, you know, I I'm I'm guessing it's a full-time, full-time gig.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

It's a team of we are uh now we are about 10 people. I've I have about 10 people working for me. So luckily some area uh I have people helping me and um and of course I I you know we work together as a team and I I don't do everything myself anymore, like in the very early days. I focus most of my time on uh I don't focus on the uh this is also you mentioned Amazon before, and and this is a quote that comes from Jeff Bezos. I don't focus on the core the current quarter. Uh I focus on the on the long-term vision. I I I focus on new products, stuff that we will uh add to the collection uh later in the years, and and I'm always prototyping. I spend most of my time in Italy, you know, finding new suppliers, new new materials, um really thinking what is the next product we should launch. And we we we spend a lot of time testing those products now. Like we have a lot of a lot of products under development, so that is um big part of what I do. And then uh on the brand side, now we have a team that follows the brand, and um I I spend a lot of time on thinking about the new campaigns, but let's say that about 40% of my time is spent on running the the business on from a CEO point of view.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

I see, okay. And from a website point of view, how do you generate traffic to the e-commerce site? Do you experiment at all and do you how much do you use social media as part of a marketing tool to leverage traffic to your site?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

We we we uh most of our marketing budget uh goes towards uh digital advertising, which is mainly Instagram and Facebook, and the summary targeting across other platforms. We we we are a bit contrarian compared to what other online brand things in terms of offline advertising. So I believe there is value in offline advertising. We still buy we started buying pages in magazines uh to expose the brand to relevant audiences. And uh of course, I believe uh retail is a good strategy to acquire traffic that then converse online later. Um and organic, word of mouth brings a lot of traffic. So we we do see that a lot of the traffic that comes from to the website is people that look up the name Luca Faloni on Google and end up there. So that comes from repeat customers and and uh word of mouth.

SPEAKER_05 21:52

The the Instagram looks fantastic, by the way. Um some brilliant images on there. Do you vet all the pictures yourself before they go live? Is there is Is there a vetting process?

SPEAKER_01 22:01

There is a vetting pro luckily I have uh someone really good that uh works uh on on on the account and uh but I I do require to vet the pictures uh in blocks of uh 14. So like I I I want to um yeah two weeks in advance I need to approve it. Uh and the text.

SPEAKER_05 22:21

Because it's not just uh hero images, there's some kind of like there's grid pictures sometimes that kind of lead and bleed into each other, right? So you you have to be on the money and look look far down the road.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Yeah, uh we try.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

I I used to work for a tailor and I would have to send images to him. And actually, no, I'd send images to uh the girl underneath him who would show it to him, and it would be a process of about three or four people looking at an image or a story before it then got fed back, and then they would say, Look, you need to go back downstairs and straighten up the tire. You need to go back downstairs and make sure that the uh the lighting is much better on that picture. I mean, it people don't realize. I mean, Instagram used I think was designed to be this disposable platform. You get your phone out, take a picture, and you move on with your life. I I don't think at any point anyone ever imagined that you'd have to have this entire uh system in place to get one picture online, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Oh, absolutely. I mean, like if you are uh a normal uh Instagram user, not the brand, of course you can be a bit more amatorial about it. But for brands, now Instagram has become a major uh channel to at least show what are the brand values and what are the brand aesthetics, and therefore uh all brands are and should be investing um lots of money to create content for for the feed, and and it will be much more also on on the story. Uh now uh people are spending more and more time looking at stories rather than uh the normal feed, so brands will have to will have to create much more engaging content in term in the form of videos, which is of course very expensive. We are um moving towards that direction. Of course, we don't have the budgets that uh Nike has or big brands, but we will have to be.

SPEAKER_05 24:05

Please don't do any videos like Nike. Nike have horrible videos. Uh is your don't ask if your dream is crazy, ask if it's crazy enough.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

I know, but what my my point is more like they have a new video every day or something, and um that is um expensive and time consuming for uh for a smaller company, but it's at the same time it will become necessary because uh people stories are more engaging than the feed.

SPEAKER_05 24:31

Yeah, I I get it. And they well, I I can't see any stories on your on your Insta, Luca. Someone's not someone's not doing their job. Get get on to your IT boys.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

We have we have a few per week, not every day. But uh we we will get we will get to to a stage where we have it every day.

SPEAKER_05 24:47

Quality, not quantity. Uh Luca, it's been great talking to you. Uh tell us a little bit about uh the next the next release, please. I believe it's happening in a couple of weeks, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 24:57

So yeah, I'll t I'll give you both of them.

SPEAKER_05 25:00

Please.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

We have one coming um uh in a week. It's gonna be the turtleneck, or some people call it the roll neck, which is the natural extension of the cashmere collection because we we've been very strong in the early years with the basics, then we added uh more like interesting designs like the polo sweather, the hoodie, more rebellious. We added a cable knit, and this year we add the um the turtleneck, which is very in a way um very used in the movies, lots very used in the past, and something very romantic from a design point of view. That's one of them, and and the second one it's the we are entering the world of uh uh chunky knitwear. So, so far we've done knitwear that was thought was fought for the the city. So medium weight, uh it keeps you warm in the winter, but if you go skiing or if you go in a resort uh in a mountain, it might not be uh keeping you warm enough. So now we are uh expanding to chunkier knitwear, still in Kashmir, uh but you know, different use. So that's one of them. And uh of course we are expanding on the silk collection that we we just launched in June some silk products. We we will take that to um next chapter.

SPEAKER_05 26:27

Fantastic. Uh and when can people find the chunky knitware available online?

SPEAKER_01 26:32

So the tart the tartleneck would be next week and the chunky knit would be uh later in the month when it gets a bit colder later in October.

SPEAKER_05 26:40

So it's all happening in October. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:43

LucaFaloni.com is the place to go that people can check out. And that's great free worldwide shipping. I mean, that's just makes it readily available for anyone everywhere, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 26:51

So expensive, but but yeah, for the cost expensive for us, but for the customer is uh it's great.

SPEAKER_05 26:58

Customers first, and everywhere else on the social media is Luca Faloni. Luca, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. It's been a joy. Take care of yourself, look forward to seeing the new release.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Thank you much.

SPEAKER_05 27:11

Luca Faloni there. Thank you, Luca. Make sure you're checking him out at LucaFaloni.com. Those chunky cashmere sweats will be available at the end of October, like he said. Now, before we head over to Beckloads, I just want to give a shout out to my other menswear podcast that I do, which is called From Taylors with Love, because this week we interviewed Janie Tamim, the costume designer for Skyfall and Spectre, and she spoke about what it was like to work with Daniel Craig. What kind of input does Daniel have then? So he I guess he knows what he wants. A lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:42

A lot. No, he he knows what he doesn't want. I mean, I wish people knew what they wanted. He knows what he doesn't want. And then but he has a lot of tests.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

And you can find that on iTunes. Just punch in from Taylors with Love and we'll come up. Okay, now with no further ado, we're gonna speak to Beckloads, editor at large for Men's Wear Style. Okay, welcome to the podcast. Welcome back to Beckloads, editor at large of Men's Wear Style. Hello, Bex.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Hello, P. Good morning.

SPEAKER_05 28:13

Good morning, good to speak to you. How you feeling?

SPEAKER_02 28:16

I'm good, how are you?

SPEAKER_05 28:17

I'm real good, yes. Uh I understand you're recovering from a little bit of food poisoning.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

That uh food poisoning probably referring to an event that uh I attended, which is actually it was it was a good event. Um it was for um I don't know, is it Hablot or Hublow? I don't know how to say it. Um, their new uh flagship store um on New Bond Street. Uh that was last week. Um so very snazzy new store. Um it's not huge, but um very smart. Some interesting actually security uh aspects of the shop where you if you go to touch a watch, um it disappears like under the sort of the table. It's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_05 28:57

Oh really?

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Yeah, it's quite cool.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

So what is it? Is the watch behind Perspecs Glass or is it just out in the open?

SPEAKER_03 29:03

It's like on a table, it's like on a panel. Um, and as soon as you sort of your hand goes anywhere near it, it suddenly flips under the table and disappears. Um, so yeah, a lot of people were taking boomerangs of that. Um drinking.

SPEAKER_05 29:18

So uh oh that looks really cool. I mean, I mean basically it's Hub Lot are just saying, you can look, but don't touch. We don't trust anyone in this town.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 29:30

But we're gonna do it in a real cool way, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:34

Sweet. You were telling me about who's in attendance, Chelsea players. Chelsea footballers.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Yeah, some Chelsea footballers, they were there, which caused a massive stir. Um so they were gifting um a shirt um with the number 92 on the back, which apparently is it's their 92nd uh boutique opening, I believe. Um so to the CEO. So that was a lot of paparazzi there, and then some other familiar faces, uh Dean Rasher Smith, um Oliver Proudlock, he was there. Oh, he was there.

SPEAKER_05 30:07

Was he wearing Joshua Kane?

SPEAKER_03 30:09

Uh he wasn't, I don't think. No, not that evening.

SPEAKER_05 30:14

I'm sure he has other staples in his wardrobe, but I do like it when he rocks his Joshua Kane outfit.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Yeah, he looks good, doesn't he? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:21

So did you recognise any of the Chelsea players, or did people have to point them out to you and say who they were?

SPEAKER_03 30:26

A couple of them I did. The other two I definitely sent a photo to my boyfriend. So who is that? Um but um I think it was the hairstyle, definitely, that uh yeah, pulled off one of them. But um, yeah, obviously very, very well known. So um I'm not a massive football fan, so unfortunately I couldn't sort of crowd round and try and get a photo.

SPEAKER_05 30:48

There's another store opening or a a relaunch of a store, I should say, down in Savile Row. Chesterberry have done a complete refurbishment of their store, which is 19 Savile Row. Uh I was I happened to be there last night doing uh Instagram takeover on behalf of Menswear Style for Chesterberry, as well as a virtual tour.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Very cool.

SPEAKER_05 31:12

If you're listening to this abroad, you're interested in tailoring, you're interested in Savile Roe, you want to know what these shops look like, take a look at the blog that we'll be posting on menswearstyle.co.uk. We've done a complete virtual tour. You can now walk into the building off the street, you know, mooch around, have a look behind the desk, go into the lost property, you know, check out the disabled toilets. Not really, none of that, but you will just get a great feel and flavour for what this store looks like. And it looks it actually looks really modern, modern with a contemporary and classic twist.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

It does, very well described.

SPEAKER_05 31:46

Thank you. Well they apparently they rolled up the carpets because beforehand it was decked out in this kind of dark blue carpet all the way from front to back. They had a lot of cupboard and wardrobe space on either side. So it's like one long corridor, and because of the shelving units that were coming so far into the into the room, had a very narrow feel to it, so they've done away with that. They made some very open shelves, glass shelves, and you know, some nice steel concertinas. Um peppered around with some very classic paintings, nineteen thirties paintings to echo the year that the brand was founded. And uh yeah, it just looks great. And underneath this carpet apparently was all of this nice wooden flooring that was already there, and so they just gave that a little bit of a a rub down. And that's partitioned with the original carpet right at the back. Uh if you're not into interiors, this will be incredibly boring for everyone, but I'm just trying to try to paint the images as best as I can. So the new AEW 18 collection is out with Chesterberry. It's um very nice staple pieces, new coats, and some really nice cordroid jackets. I've got a thing for cordroy. I I just didn't have the nerve to ask what the press discount was. Well, it it was on the tip of my tongue, but then as I was talking to the PR people, another press guy asked the same question, said, Oh, so what's the press discount? I was like, Oh mate, that just sounds tacky.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

But I was like, and the answer is just have hover around and listen to the answer.

SPEAKER_05 33:14

Exactly. So that was that was fun. I got to meet Richard Badoo.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_05 33:19

The smoking man.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

So brand ambassador for Chester Barry. Richard is uh Richard's relatively new in terms of modelling. So, like his story is that he was an attorney or a a lawyer, I believe. And at the age of 27, he was drinking and smoking outside a pub. Someone walked by and go, Jesus Christ, you are hot shit, and said, You need to work a model for us.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

You have a face.

SPEAKER_05 33:46

You have an absolutely gorgeous bone structure. And a week afterwards, he was doing some modelling for all of these top fashion houses like Paul Smith and uh I I forget the names, but he was like shipped off to Milan and just instantly overnight, you know, became the new face for a lot of a lot of brands, including New England, uh who was on the show a couple of weeks ago, and Chester Berry, Edward Sexton's also. So it was good to meet him, but as I was saying, I think because he's quite fresh and new to the business, I noticed something I I have a tip for Richard for parties like these. So when he's leaving, so he was like at the back of the room pretty much all of the night, talking to everyone, pressing the flesh, doing the air kisses, being really nice. But when he wanted to say goodbye and when he wanted to leave, he then had to cruise through the whole party and do the goodbyes. Right? So I mean, like he said, Oh, gotta get home, I've got to get off, gotta get the train, gotta get home, feed the dog. So I had to do it right just before you go, let's get the picture done. I so I was the first one he said goodbye to, and he's right at the back of the room. And he was in a hurry. The next person's like, Oh, Richard, just a picture, and see you later. And so he was there fucking ages. I mean, I think I even got out and uh you know went to the went to the front, did some stuff, shot some pictures outside, and like half an hour later I see him leaving. I was like, Richard, I thought you were leaving. He goes, Oh no! The secret is the secret is to always hanging around the front, the front door. Yeah. Never never start your goodbyes from the back of the room.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Yeah, good idea.

SPEAKER_05 35:18

So that was fun. Uh what else? Uh, there's been a big story in the news, hasn't we? I think we should touch upon it because everyone's talking about it.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Yeah, it's kind of exploded all over the news, definitely. And we are talking about the uh move from of Versace to Michael Cors.

SPEAKER_05 35:36

I mean, who saw this coming, right? I mean, Michael Cause, they aren't luxury, are they? Not as luxury as Versace say.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Yeah, they're definitely sort of a mid mid-level, I'd say.

SPEAKER_05 35:48

But we can tell where they're aiming their sights at because they they bought Jimmy Choo for a billion. Now they've snapped up Versace. They're like this monolithic planet just going around gobbling up other planets, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03 36:02

I know, it's slightly concerning. I have to say, I had I actually had messages from people saying, Oh my god, I can't believe this is happening. Like, this is the end of Versace. Like, what are they doing? And it is, I was pretty surprised. I it wasn't a move I expected at all. Like, I mean, I think there must be troubles below the surface, and it obviously was an attractive move for them. Um, I think they've promised, well, they're actually now under the uh umbrella of Capri Holdings Limited, which is what it's going to be called, but um, they promised that they will um massively expand their accessories and footwear, which they were kind of lacking on, and everyone's saying that that's the move now, like that's what a big super brand needs. Um, and they have also promised a hundred new stores um in the US, Europe, and Asia. So that must be quite an attractive to a brand that wants to expand. But with all their heritage, I'm really surprised. Like it's quite uh slightly concerning.

SPEAKER_05 37:02

Well, it just shows that there's a price for everything, isn't there? I mean so this move was uh I think close to two billion dollars, I believe, for the buyout, and of which I know the Versace family, they they've got 80% of the business, and the rest is owned by the um I think it's Blackstone, the which are like the world's largest private equity firm. So I mean, if you come in with a two billion dollar price tag, you know, someone's gonna have a meeting, you know. Whenever you start the email with we'd like to buy out your company, you'll you'll get the out of office reply. But if you if you tag it with we've got two billion pounds in the you know, okay, okay, okay. Well just come in, we'll have a coffee. We'll have a coffee. So I mean, I think the main gripe and the reason why this was uh perhaps sniffed at by by a lot of the Versace fans in general because they thought it might cheapen the brand. You will start seeing a lot of Versace products in say like Walmart or you know, just it'll saturate and dilute the product from its luxury end to probably where the Michael Cors places right now, which is lower end luxury.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

I mean, you see the Michael Kor, I mean, I'm not a massive fan of the brand, I'm really not. Um, just because I feel like there's not a huge amount of creativity that sounds quite bad, but I think you know, you and no offense to people who carry the Michael Kors handbags, but you do see them everywhere, and it's they're the same, and you see that it's just a repeated, you know, different colour, or um and I think people are you know, true Versace fans are worried that that is what it'll turn into. You'll see people on the tube all the time with a Versace handbag, um, which is not what they're originally about. Um, but it'll be interesting to see, and I think people are worried about sort of where Donna Teller stands as well, like whether she'll stay at the helm or whether she'll step down or um yeah, see what happens in the future.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Yeah, well, I don't think she will. I mean You don't think she will? I I watched that Versace programme. That was did it did uh we spoke about this on the podcast. Yeah, yeah, and that guy who played the killer, Jesus saves Christ. Wow. I I'm still talking about that. But getting the vibe from that show, Donna Teller is just so hands-on with the business, but I believe she's not the CEO, so this was what was supposed to be quite a promising aspect for Michael Cors, was that and and the investors themselves was that Donna Teller is the head of the creative director's side, and you know the CEO runs something different, and they quite like that division because it doesn't mean that there's any confusion when it comes to the big decision makers and the fashion heads. So you know, they don't have any of that kind of arty liberal craziness going on with those huge, massive million billion pound decisions, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

Um so I I can't see any reason why she would step down. I mean, this is something this is her legacy, her brother's legacy.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Yeah, I hope she stays there.

SPEAKER_05 39:58

Yeah, I think she will like to keep it in the bloodline. Well, back on British soil. Yes, we got uh Jamie Oliver's uh launched. Don't you just love the way we seamlessly switch gears?

SPEAKER_03 40:11

You know completely different.

SPEAKER_05 40:13

Can't hear them grinding whatsoever. Uh Jamie Oliver, tell what's what's Jamie Oliver doing?

SPEAKER_03 40:18

So, Jamie Oliver, the renowned chef that we all know about, the naked chef, the original naked chef, um, he's actually um collaborated with a shoe brand. Um he wanted to create a an 18th anniversary wedding anniversary present for his wife, and apparently they are both uh very much a fan of sort of sneakers and retro shoes. Um, and so he thought the ideal gift would be to create a bespoke pair of shoes for her. And uh the brand who are called Seven Feet Apart are actually sort of local to him, and he's no, I've never heard of them. Um yeah, they're bait well, they design in St Albans. Um they are British designed, they're actually produced in Portugal, but um yeah, he's it's like a capsule collection. There are four designs. Um, I think they're limited editions. I think there's a hundred pairs in each style. Um and they are very retro looking, they look kind of the high top um looks very sort of basketball sort of shoe-like. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:25

I like them actually, I've got to say. I don't know if I'd be splashing out 170 quid for a pair, or 189 for the the high ankle boot. Are they unisex? Are they unisex?

SPEAKER_03 41:39

Yes, they are, yeah, they are unisex.

SPEAKER_05 41:41

Yeah. That'll be a fucking nightmare to keep clean. Have you ever tried uh like cleaning the the white midsole of a sneaker like that?

SPEAKER_03 41:49

Yeah, you need a lot of vanish.

SPEAKER_05 41:52

Oh jeez, it's quite mind you, actually I can see that it's got like a bumper on the toe end, so that would be a little bit easier to clean because there's like grip. You'll get protection.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

Protection.

SPEAKER_05 42:01

Exactly, yeah. I've been wearing base London trainers all week over in New York. It's weird, they don't have that protection on the bumper, so if you get a scuff on the vinyl part of the midsole, you I I've been trying to actually get it out, and you know, I don't want to besmirch base London, but it's absolutely impossible to get these these marks out. So maybe I'd be I'm doing you're a disservice seven feet apart. Maybe these will be okay to keep clean.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Yeah, might be alright design-wise.

SPEAKER_05 42:31

The key is Sith. A toothbrush, hot water, and sif. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

Jason Marks, they're very good as well, actually. It's expensive that stuff, but Jason Marks is very good for cleaning shoes.

SPEAKER_05 42:41

Oh really? What are they? Is it like a detergent or something?

SPEAKER_03 42:44

It's like a liquid, yeah, it's quite expensive. It comes in quite a small bottle, and you can get a brush set with it. Um, and it I don't know what is in it, but it it's kind of a miracle sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 42:55

Good, good show. I like these tips. Beck's teaching me new things every day. Beck's been wonderful catching up. I think that'll do for today.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_05 43:06

Yeah, and where can people find you?

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Um, I'm Beck Loads on Instagram.

SPEAKER_05 43:12

Okay, alright, and you're you're fully over the food poisoning.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Yes, I'm over that. It's all fine.

SPEAKER_05 43:18

Did you lose any weight? Because that's the best thing about food poisoning.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

I yeah, it's true, actually. I did a bit. I was like, this is great, but then I was back on chocolate and things like that. The Hubler gave us some nice chocolate, so I'm back on those.

SPEAKER_05 43:30

Alright, okay. Well, they're good for something. Beck Lodes there. Thank you, Beck Lodes. Thank you, Luca Faloni, for jumping on. Lucafaloni.com is the place to find him and all of his wonderful collections. Thank you for listening. It takes time out of your day, right? But thank you. I hope you enjoyed this one. That's it for me. Remember, it's only fashion people, and you're never fully dressed without a smile.