What are some of the items you’ve bought in the past
that have proven outstanding purchases, from a return-on-investment
standpoint?
I have a few things that fit the criteria. Brown suede
shoes: I wear them more than anything else. They are softer than
calf, very versatile and require relatively little
maintenance. White buttondown collar shirts: Particularly my
Drake’s and Ascot Chang ones. I like the look with tailored
clothing but I wear them on their own frequently as well. A
navy cashmere blazer: It looks great and it is fantastically useful
in the winter, often being warm enough to save you carrying an
overcoat.
How does The Armoury’s philosophy dovetail with the
principles of sustainability?
In general, the attitude for buying tailored clothing is to buy
less, buy better and buy items that get better with age. A tailored
jacket, fully canvassed and well made, will last a long time. The
canvas helps the jacket conform to your body in a flattering way to
your body. If ever your body stops conforming to the jacket because
you gained or lost too much weight, you can always alter it to fit
as well. The same would apply for good tailored trousers. It’s so
easy to revive a tailored garment with just some careful
alterations.
With Drop93, which is the sale outlet / pre-owned clothing arm
of The Armoury, we deal with The Armoury’s customers’ pre-owned
garments. When a customer decides he no longer needs a garment, he
can come to us. These garments are often bespoke items, made with
care for their original owners, and the owner would like us to find
these items a new home. When we take these items in, they go
through a thorough cataloging process. We inspect every item,
measure each item carefully and provide a condition report and
clear photographs so that whoever is interested in buying them can
buy them with confidence.
For me, the crucial thing is to make people realise the value of
their clothing, something that I think is increasingly lost with
the easy availability of cheap clothes. People only 100 years ago
used to treat clothing as heirloom items. Good clothing required a
significant part of your income and was expected to be useful for a
long time, which I think is a beautiful approach. Witness the fine
camphor chests that the Chinese used to use to store their
off-season clothing. These were magnificent pieces of craftsmanship
and they were used to store clothing which was perceived to be even
more valuable still.
Having worked in this industry for nearly 10 years now and
knowing what sort of effort goes into making a garment, I want
people to see that good clothing is not a cheap commodity but is
human effort manifest and has real value.
What would you say is the most important lesson you’ve
ever learnt from a family member or a mentor?
People are inherently fallible. Almost laughably so. Our
intuition takes over far more often than we realise and our logic
is far lazier than we are ready to admit. As I came to understand
that about myself and everyone else, life became a little easier.
Knowing how imperfect you are makes admitting to your faults much
easier. Knowing how imperfect everyone else is makes it much easier
to forgive people around you. Added together, it sets better
expectations for your life and helps you build better
relationships.
I didn’t learn that from a family member or a mentor. I learnt
it from Daniel Kahneman’s book: “Thinking Fast, Slow”, one of the
most important books in the field of behavioural economics: a mix
of psychology, statistics and economics.
Reflecting your background, your business is very
international. How have you gone about building a brand that
appeals equally to customers in the UK, US and Asia, each of which
have their distinct cultural peculiarities?
The UK, US and Asia are indeed distinct places but The Armoury
and Drop93 are quite niche businesses. We appeal to customers that
all share a fundamental love for design, quality, detail and
classic style.
The Armoury is a little different from most stores in that
myself, Alan See, my co-founder, and the buyers of the stores are
also all salespeople at the shop. As a result, we are very close to
our customers. They are our friends and their tastes inform ours as
much as we inform theirs. When we are creating new products or
sourcing products from other places, we buy as if buying for
ourselves and also for our friends who we think will enjoy these
products.
What critieria do you use to choose the brands you work
with?
As I say, we make our selections based on our own tastes as well
as the tastes of our customers. We have a strong preference for
things that are small production, have large handmade components
and have a strong, authentic identity. We typically try to buy
products from the brands we are interested in, being a regular
retail customer of theirs first before eventually stocking them in
the store and working with them further. We also try and work with
brands that are open to further collaboration so we can develop new
and interesting exclusive products that combine both their
expertise and ours.
Finally, why have you decided to collaborate with The
Rake Values?
The Rake Values has both great reach and great variety. I think
they put together interesting selections with compelling
presentations. They understand that there are people out there
who love great clothes but can’t normally justify paying full
price. Thus, they are the perfect partner to help put The
Armoury and Drop93’s offerings in front of new, interesting and
interested customers.
