Huntsman changes name to: 'Manhunts'?

''Ooooh! - Suits you, sir!''

Who's next?  I suppose it's just a matter of time before Anderson & Sheppard is bought out by private equity and starts opening stores worldwide, selling Mauritian polo shirts and Chinese suits...

i think the issue which will concern people is what direction the new management will take the firm in, l'roubi is going to start doing womenswear there which is fine in my book (others on the row already do) and focus more on the MTM and RTW which is also fine in my book as i use that side of things at hu7ntsman too and they could do a lot more in that area (currently their suiting RTW is the most conservative plain grey and blue suits .. not exactly living dangerously).

it also highlights that the now former management probably werent doing as well as people may have thought. it could be that they sold because they were made an offer they couldnt refuse by pierre lagrange but i suspect that it was more that they couldnt turn it into the success they had hoped. whenever i went in ovrthe last couple of years it has been pretty dead.

the business has real problems which it will struggle with, we are in the middle of a global recession (depression?) and they are still making it a point of pride to be by far the most expensive tailor on the row charging nearly ~5k for a suit. call me crazy but doesnt economics say that supply & demand should give you a fair market price and not some arbitary number made up to give a certain mystique (50% more tacked on compared to most of the rest of the row for the sheer hell of it)? huntsman could probably charge that in the glory days because they had great cutters working there ie collin hammick who designed their famous 1 button but i dont think they can justify it now. i am sure the cutters there these days are capable but they have come from other houses on the row at the end of the day who were much cheaper so why has the price to use one of these cutters go up just because of the sign which is above the door?

huntsman has a distintive sillouette you may say .. i would agree and i personally like it v much. but unluckily for huntsman current fashions run completely counter to this sillouette .. their jackets are very long (1/2 to 1 inch longer i think) than the rest of saville row  .. fashion is for shorter jackets, their lapel is very wide .. fashion is for thin lapels, they make a waisted jacket .. fashion is for relaxed cut, they have a strong shoulder .. fashion is for a natural shoulder. basically in every area they are the diametric opposite to what the average guy is looking for (when fashion goes 180 they will be laughing their socks off if they are still around that is). most of the wealthy who can afford the prices are going to be affected by current vogues and trends .. so its difficult to be successful when your whole image is running counter to the market direction. a linked point to this is that their sillouette does not suit most men and especially not the sort of portly man you find patronising saville row .. it only works for tall and slim men .. if you are short and have a beer belly its going to look terrible as not only is it waisted but it opens up the abdomen area to full view because of the low placed 1 button .. there is very little coverage at all and nowhere to hide! therefore the cut probably puts off a lot of men who like the cut in principle as they rightly know it wont work well for them.

now i think huntsman have changed the sillouette in recent times to make it less narrow .. give it more breadth .. probably as they are aware that more of their portly english gentleman .. along with their well fed american and arab customers would never fit into the old slim cut without it looking like a dogs dinner. if anyone knows in more detail what they have done to change the old cut i would be interested to know as it has definately morphed from what it used to be ..

fruity

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-11 04:45:14)