This feature first appeared in Inside Retailing Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

 
By Jon Bird*

Photos: Robert Stockdill

Savile Row is the home of fine tailoring for gentlemen in London.

So it must have caused quite a few stitches to be dropped when Dutch value retailer Suit Supply opened a store just around the corner in Vigo St.

Suit Supply is at the vanguard of value retailing and thumbs its nose at stuffy suit stores. The environment is smart, sophisticated, cool and contemporary. The fabrics and cut of the suits are first class. Yet the prices are extremely reasonable, starting from 199 pounds for an off-the-rack suit (about A$400), with truly bespoke suits for a few hundred dollars more. That’s the value equation customers are demanding today - quality + experience + price = value.

I first encountered the concept at the glamorous new Westfield London last week. Approaching the double height storefront, I was stopped in my tracks by a huge light box with an image of a suited African man carrying the headline "Ambition". The attitude is more Nike than Hugo Boss and is part of Suit Supply’s latest catalogue campaign, which showcases the ambitions of Africans to achieve their dreams. (Suit Supply is known for its catalogues and displays an album of past campaigns in-store. One image showed a haloed Jesus-like figure walking on water in a suit and bare-feet.)

The interior of the store cleverly combines ultra-modern design with traditional touches - the store of today with the craft of yesterday.

As you enter Suit Supply, the first thing you see is a tailor. This sets the tone from the first few metres of the environment and provides for great retail theatre. The suggestion of hand-crafted quality and the presence of old sewing machines contrasts nicely with the modernity of the store. A moving LED display on the front of the tailor’s counter informs the customer of the progress of his suit, eg "James Pride on time". (The city store communicates this information in an even more fun way, with an airline-style departure board.)

Further into the store are three major power walls - one of ties, one of colour-blocked shirts and the last a rack of suits. The interior space is clean and minimal, dominated by two sets of three mirrors, thoughtfully arranged so that when you try the suit on you can see yourself from all angles. The cash desks are cleverly integrated into gloss-red island benches and the sales assistants (who wear measuring tapes draped around their necks) activate a sale via a tablet PC.

In the upstairs formal wear section, space age circular change rooms descend from the heavens to envelop the customer.

I couldn’t resist buying a suit and, unlike salespeople in most Australian retail environments (particularly department stores), this guy really knew his stuff. When I had made my decision, some small alterations needed to carried out. No problem, they could be done in store within an hour. I went to dinner and my new-found friend at Suit Supply texted me when the job was done.

What makes this concept work? In the words of Mary Portas, it’s all about "Experience. Service. Specialism". Suit Supply provides an accessible, exciting, involving experience that is a world away from Savile Row. The service in store backs up the promise. And the offer is distinctive… truly special. And it’s all wrapped up with value. If you’re looking for a new retail benchmark, Suit Supply ticks all the boxes.•

* Jon Bird, CEO of specialist retail marketing agency, IdeaWorks, was on the Westfield World Retail Study Tour. This is an edited version of an article first published at InsideRetailing.com.au where Jon writes a weekly column, Birds Eye View.

 

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