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(continued from above)
So TriggerDiscipline, I am warmed and very glad that you liked the handwriting, but I need to make sure everyone out there reading SZ understands that it is far more than just about adding a personal touch to the product to make it look like it came from some "artisan designer."
No, as you may have noticed with the feel and experience of trying on some of our work, it is far from that.
It is a symbol of a personal commitment to making the visible evidence of our extreme belief in the power of our own minds and hands to challenge and defeat the Corporation at making the best clothes in the world.
It is also a testament to a mission to reteach that world how to make clothes again in the 21st century. For instance, we are fed up with the totally corrupt fashion-design-school-industrial complex that is also now bought-lock-stock-and-barrel by the Corporation, and is more intent on squashing education, skill building, critical thinking and creativity than cultivating it- taking student's money (or their parent's) and turning out corporate cogs for a machine that does not intend to employ even one in 50 of them on average upon graduation, just to feed itself ever more on higher tuition fees and corporate sponsorship.
And it is a reconfirmation (that adds significant time and risk to the production and delivery of each piece), that contrary to much of the industry's lame business-school thinking, we do not believe in "scaling up." We believe in scaling down. And don't worry, all you MBA-fashion-wannabes-out-there, business can still be done. In fact, we may have some numbers that would make some of the bean-counters running things at Kering and LVMH take notice.
But we don't need them or their banks. We don't need their "prize-money" or their creepy Vogue-or-whatever fashion awards, and even less (if you are unlucky enough to win one of those trojan horse awards) their in your face "consulting" or "advice" for a full year or whatever. No thanks. Been there. Done that. Nor do we need their lackey retailers who feel the need to lie now to their customers in an attempt to show that they too are now in on the "artisan thing". And God forbid, we certainly don't need some stupid Twitter celebrity on their payroll, to be "seen" and photographed wearing our pieces, in the hopes of going viral.
Viral indeed.
No, our power lies in our passion to create and build the most incredible clothing products that customers today have ever experienced. It will take longer, but in the end, we will prevail. And we will do so one individual piece at a time. Each and every single piece we make and sell within our tiny group of courageous and visionary dealers is playing a crucial role in the development of this great story of making clothes for human beings again.
And each one of those pieces has my total personal involvement in its development and its creation- from beginning to end.
You may even find some of my blood on them sometimes.
And so, yeah, I sign it.
And I number it.
It is my Art and it is my work. It is not a brand thing or a label thing. It merits the proof that a real human being is behind it. And that human being wants the eventual owner of the piece and anyone else who views it to know it as well. It is one human being passing a piece of his soul, a life's work, and passion, along with that of those who work beside him, to another human being in the form of a garment designed and built to surpass any previous preconceptions of a what a piece of clothing can possibly be.
And even among our supporters, this story still needs to get out more.
For example, a recent article on our work in Singapore here mentions that:
"Exclusivity is the key to the appeal of Geoffrey B Small. The Made-in-Italy line is reported to be restricted to only ten or so retailers in the world, and the limited editions have a quantity of 500 pieces per style, per season. Each garment has an artisanal quality to it (right down to the hand-written hang tags!) that inevitably draws out your curiosity about them."
Whoa… 500 pieces per style per season? A little off the mark, I daresay. We make 500 pieces per season, not per style, but of the entire collection. Our entire production is 500 pieces. That is only about 1,000 total pieces per year for men and women combined for the entire world. An average of only 4 pieces per style per season. The tightest production and distribution in the business for any designer working at our level, and far, far less than the article, as positive as it was for everything else, implies. Yet in this day of e-commerce being so supposedly necessary to do anything, "mass luxury," and the spiraling over-consumption of plastic bullsh_t that befits a civilization so dumbed-out and unconnected with the realities of what is happening all around them on this planet: it is not surprising that it might be difficult to grasp what our production numbers really represent and signify… and that is nothing less than a total revolution, a direct and absolute challenge to go forth and slay the dragon with nothing but a product.
A product that defies all tentacles.
From the signing of the pieces, to the type of retailer you will find our work in, to the extreme hand making and creation technologies we use day and night to build the most labor and time-intensive designer clothes collection on the market today, to our more than 20 years of design leadership in environmental and ethical sustainability, everything we do is based upon bringing the value of the intelligent human being back into the clothing experience in very a big and bold way. The personal touch is real, and it's dead serious. Every person who works with me here in the new expanded Via Spalato workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia does indeed touch- each and every piece- as it follows its unique and magical path of creation, with their full attention, heart, and passion. That's why it looks and feels so personal, because it is, to each and every person here.
The emotion you feel when you experience the product is our emotion that we put into it as we created it. In the end, I sign and number it on behalf of each and every one of us who are working together to build the dream of making the greatest clothes the world has yet to see and experience.
Each piece forms a unique and historic part of this totally unique story in clothes-making.
So thank you again TriggerDiscipline for your kind message and the inspiration to take some time and post these thoughts as they came to my mind.
And thank you Faust, for keeping SZ alive and still the only room in the media world today where thoughts like these can be expressed to the few who may still care.
Best wishes to all and thanks for reading.
Geoffrey
for everyone
For reference, you can see the article in Singapore here…
Coming up next: our latest Paris collection presentation…
So TriggerDiscipline, I am warmed and very glad that you liked the handwriting, but I need to make sure everyone out there reading SZ understands that it is far more than just about adding a personal touch to the product to make it look like it came from some "artisan designer."
No, as you may have noticed with the feel and experience of trying on some of our work, it is far from that.
It is a symbol of a personal commitment to making the visible evidence of our extreme belief in the power of our own minds and hands to challenge and defeat the Corporation at making the best clothes in the world.
It is also a testament to a mission to reteach that world how to make clothes again in the 21st century. For instance, we are fed up with the totally corrupt fashion-design-school-industrial complex that is also now bought-lock-stock-and-barrel by the Corporation, and is more intent on squashing education, skill building, critical thinking and creativity than cultivating it- taking student's money (or their parent's) and turning out corporate cogs for a machine that does not intend to employ even one in 50 of them on average upon graduation, just to feed itself ever more on higher tuition fees and corporate sponsorship.
And it is a reconfirmation (that adds significant time and risk to the production and delivery of each piece), that contrary to much of the industry's lame business-school thinking, we do not believe in "scaling up." We believe in scaling down. And don't worry, all you MBA-fashion-wannabes-out-there, business can still be done. In fact, we may have some numbers that would make some of the bean-counters running things at Kering and LVMH take notice.
But we don't need them or their banks. We don't need their "prize-money" or their creepy Vogue-or-whatever fashion awards, and even less (if you are unlucky enough to win one of those trojan horse awards) their in your face "consulting" or "advice" for a full year or whatever. No thanks. Been there. Done that. Nor do we need their lackey retailers who feel the need to lie now to their customers in an attempt to show that they too are now in on the "artisan thing". And God forbid, we certainly don't need some stupid Twitter celebrity on their payroll, to be "seen" and photographed wearing our pieces, in the hopes of going viral.
Viral indeed.
No, our power lies in our passion to create and build the most incredible clothing products that customers today have ever experienced. It will take longer, but in the end, we will prevail. And we will do so one individual piece at a time. Each and every single piece we make and sell within our tiny group of courageous and visionary dealers is playing a crucial role in the development of this great story of making clothes for human beings again.
And each one of those pieces has my total personal involvement in its development and its creation- from beginning to end.
You may even find some of my blood on them sometimes.
And so, yeah, I sign it.
And I number it.
It is my Art and it is my work. It is not a brand thing or a label thing. It merits the proof that a real human being is behind it. And that human being wants the eventual owner of the piece and anyone else who views it to know it as well. It is one human being passing a piece of his soul, a life's work, and passion, along with that of those who work beside him, to another human being in the form of a garment designed and built to surpass any previous preconceptions of a what a piece of clothing can possibly be.
And even among our supporters, this story still needs to get out more.
For example, a recent article on our work in Singapore here mentions that:
"Exclusivity is the key to the appeal of Geoffrey B Small. The Made-in-Italy line is reported to be restricted to only ten or so retailers in the world, and the limited editions have a quantity of 500 pieces per style, per season. Each garment has an artisanal quality to it (right down to the hand-written hang tags!) that inevitably draws out your curiosity about them."
Whoa… 500 pieces per style per season? A little off the mark, I daresay. We make 500 pieces per season, not per style, but of the entire collection. Our entire production is 500 pieces. That is only about 1,000 total pieces per year for men and women combined for the entire world. An average of only 4 pieces per style per season. The tightest production and distribution in the business for any designer working at our level, and far, far less than the article, as positive as it was for everything else, implies. Yet in this day of e-commerce being so supposedly necessary to do anything, "mass luxury," and the spiraling over-consumption of plastic bullsh_t that befits a civilization so dumbed-out and unconnected with the realities of what is happening all around them on this planet: it is not surprising that it might be difficult to grasp what our production numbers really represent and signify… and that is nothing less than a total revolution, a direct and absolute challenge to go forth and slay the dragon with nothing but a product.
A product that defies all tentacles.
From the signing of the pieces, to the type of retailer you will find our work in, to the extreme hand making and creation technologies we use day and night to build the most labor and time-intensive designer clothes collection on the market today, to our more than 20 years of design leadership in environmental and ethical sustainability, everything we do is based upon bringing the value of the intelligent human being back into the clothing experience in very a big and bold way. The personal touch is real, and it's dead serious. Every person who works with me here in the new expanded Via Spalato workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia does indeed touch- each and every piece- as it follows its unique and magical path of creation, with their full attention, heart, and passion. That's why it looks and feels so personal, because it is, to each and every person here.
The emotion you feel when you experience the product is our emotion that we put into it as we created it. In the end, I sign and number it on behalf of each and every one of us who are working together to build the dream of making the greatest clothes the world has yet to see and experience.
Each piece forms a unique and historic part of this totally unique story in clothes-making.
So thank you again TriggerDiscipline for your kind message and the inspiration to take some time and post these thoughts as they came to my mind.
And thank you Faust, for keeping SZ alive and still the only room in the media world today where thoughts like these can be expressed to the few who may still care.
Best wishes to all and thanks for reading.
Geoffrey
for everyone
For reference, you can see the article in Singapore here…
Coming up next: our latest Paris collection presentation…
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