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What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

nytimes.com

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Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#131

Post by bootload »

noahc wrote: post #122
fooandbarify wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

patio11, pg, tptacek... who is the fourth? I'm on the lookout for more very high quality contributors; sticking to their feeds instead of the front page (I still check front and new, just not as often) has greatly increased the value of this site for me. (Thanks Patrick, Thomas, and Paul!)

Patio11, Tptacek, Danso, and SatvikBeri I don't read pg, because a lot of his comments come across as babysitting HN, which is necessary for him to do, but not something I want to spend my time on. I believe that what you put before your eyes, becomes what is in your brain, and you can only think about what you've seen before. What you think about is what gets written on your heart, and our actions are based on our h…

&/or follow the best comments http://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#132

Post by vidarh »

pfedor wrote: post #84
nl wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The suit is dead for any number of reason, dittos bespoke clothing. Why do you think the suit is dead? I wear a suit (not always, but often enough to have an opinion). I've never bought an expensive suit, but I nor do I buy cheap suits. I guess I generally spend around $500. I work with people who spend $2000 on suits though. These aren't bespoke, but are from nice fabrics and cut very well (eg, Hugo Boss etc). I'm n…

Why do you think the suit is dead? Don't know about other places, but at least in NoCal high status people don't wear suits. Since the only function of a suit is status signaling, it seems just a matter of time until everyone else catches up and suits will be replaced by bike jerseys or whatever.

NoCal is bizarro world for people living pretty much anywhere else. It is also tiny. High status people who are high enough status to get recognized regularly don't need status symbols to signal their status.

But that breaks apart in bigger environments, and out comes the suits.

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#133

Post by fusiongyro »

bradleyjg wrote: post #108
pfedor wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the suit is dead? Don't know about other places, but at least in NoCal high status people don't wear suits. Since the only function of a suit is status signaling, it seems just a matter of time until everyone else catches up and suits will be replaced by bike jerseys or whatever.

I know it may not seem that way sometimes, but NoCal is not the entire world - nor does the entire world take their cultural cues from NoCal. The suit is very much alive in NY, in London, the entire legal world, and in many other places. That's just during the day. For formal events / outings it is SF that is the extreme outlier. In the rest of the country if you are going to a fancy restaurant, a wedding, an awards…

"Extreme" outlier may be going a bit far. I live in the Southwest (NM). I found myself at a formal, Conservative Jewish funeral a couple weeks ago and half of us were wearing jeans. I was slightly overdressed just in slacks and a nice button-up. One out of the last four job candidates that's interviewed here came in anything fancier than that. I've been to four or five weddings out here, and never seen a shortage of bluejeans; seems like only the people in the wedding are expected to dress up out here. The only people I see consistently dressing in suits are lawyers, but they can waltz into court wearing cowboy hats and bolo ties with their suits without arousing a weird look.

We all have different experiences I guess, but the further West you go, the less formal the attire, and California isn't really as "extreme" as you may think.

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#134

Post by jcampbell1 »

This article is offensive to me. Frew is a talented craftsman and a recent immigrant who single-handedly makes more than the average household in the US, and is in the top 1% of the world in terms of income. He has his own business that is all his through hard work, and has aspirations of becoming a famous designer.

There is no need to insult Frew about his work clothes or his choosing not to make a suit for himself. Frew is rich, and should be applauded.

I don't pay attention to politics, but I used to roll my eyes when right-wingers would talk about "new york times liberal elitism", but in this case I agree with the rednecks.

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#135

Post by vidarh »

bradleyjg wrote: post #108
pfedor wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the suit is dead? Don't know about other places, but at least in NoCal high status people don't wear suits. Since the only function of a suit is status signaling, it seems just a matter of time until everyone else catches up and suits will be replaced by bike jerseys or whatever.

I know it may not seem that way sometimes, but NoCal is not the entire world - nor does the entire world take their cultural cues from NoCal. The suit is very much alive in NY, in London, the entire legal world, and in many other places. That's just during the day. For formal events / outings it is SF that is the extreme outlier. In the rest of the country if you are going to a fancy restaurant, a wedding, an awards…

Suits change according to fashion too. Most of us just don't notice and walk around happily oblivious to the hipsters/fashionistas judging us and sniggering between themselves.

When I bought my wedding suit, my fiancee dragged me to multiple shops and eventually had a lengthy discussion with a Saville Row tailor over whether to have one button or three buttons (two? I have no idea), as she believed one button suits would be coming back into fashion on the higher end, but most of the brands did not offer one button suits at the time. She was right. She had similar opinions about the cut...

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#136

Post by dredmorbius »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #128
aortega wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microwave oven radio waves are non-ionizing 2.4 Ghz and I suspect they cause several health issues to any living organism exposed to them, even for a short time.

They aren't, unless you're in the oven. And that's different.

For some people, there's a risk on the outside as well. Pacemakers.

Less so these days, but still.

My understanding is that there's a possibility of creating induced current in the pacemaker. Which is to say, the non-ionizing radiation has an effect at a distance, albeit in a manufactured artifact, not (in this case) organic tissue.

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#137

Post by noonespecial »

dredmorbius wrote: post #136
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't, unless you're in the oven. And that's different.

For some people, there's a risk on the outside as well. Pacemakers. Less so these days, but still. My understanding is that there's a possibility of creating induced current in the pacemaker. Which is to say, the non-ionizing radiation has an effect at a distance, albeit in a manufactured artifact, not (in this case) organic tissue.

It is not the 2.4Ghz radiation that causes the trouble with pacemakers. Its the plain old magnetic field generated by the inductive inrush from the giant coils that convert the power to feed to the magnetron tube in the microwave. Any large inductive load poses the same risk.

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#138

Post by gcb »

phaus wrote: post #99
noahc wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And maybe it just might work... He doesn't have to jump from $4k to $10k. There's a demand curve and by raising prices from $4k to $5k and up he'll figure out where he can sit. More importantly, he's already at $4k. The person that spends $4k on a suit isn't going to sneeze at $8k. The person who spends $120 for a suit, throws a fit at $240.

And just to show how significant a 20% price increase would be: If he raised the price just $1k, that's $2k a month, or $24k a year. That would increase his take home income by almost 50%, as he claims his current income is around $50k.

If he raises the price 2% I'd go to the guy two blocks down.

He's not the only one, you know?

Now, if they started a cooperative...

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#139

Post by jbigelow76 »

kamaal wrote: post #127
harryh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real question is why hasn't he done this already? It's a fairly obvious solution. I suspect that there is some other force at work here, though I'm at a loss to guess what it might be. It's too bad that the NYTimes didn't raise this question.

I am guessing the customer base is already small. And given most of his business would come recommendations and leads. 'He just increased his price'- Is not very nice if you want to get new customers.

    'He just increased his price'- Is not very nice if you want to get new customers.
Raising prices may actually increase sales. I think some of the problem is a lot of us are seeing this relationship between the tailor and his clients through the lens of software or service providers. For any right thinking business person there is no pride in going into hacker meetup and saying "I just had to upgrade from the 28 dollar a month plan to the 39 dollar a month plan at saas-of-the-month.com". Guys that buy 4000 dollar suits are operating in a different world. They pay 500 bucks for the custom fit, and the other 3500 bucks pays for being able to say they paid 4K for a suit AND you can't get one when it comes time to play "biggest dick on table" at the next board room meeting.

Re: What's a $4000 Suit Worth?

#140

Post by jbigelow76 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #40

Yet another submarine: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html The suit is dead for any number of reason, dittos bespoke clothing. $4000 is several times what I spend on clothes in a year. It's several times what I spend on clothes in several years. There's a far less expensive option that's highly satisficing. Suits, once an inexpensive, practical, standardized alternative to more ornate and expensive clothing, are now…

    bespoke tailoring doesn't scale.
I think you under minded your own point, in fact the practicality and levelheadedness of your entire post under minded your own point.
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