Andrew Brings Custom Team To Ningbo.

At present, there are nearly 100 high-end clothing custom shops in Ningbo. Zhang Xiaofeng, Secretary General of the city clothing association, said that these shops have a common feature. Most of the employers are tailors and professional, but marketing is their short board. Especially since last year's thrifty trend prevailed, the industry is facing a shuffle.

However, the high-end custom market is still favored by many people. Last year's international costume festival, Saville, a senior sewing master in London's Ningbo street, arrived in Ningbo with a customized team serving the Royal noble. He ordered more than 20 orders in two days. In January 10th of this year, Andrew came to Ningbo to meet with the new appointments, and inspected the advanced custom market in Ningbo, and plans to open a shop in Ningbo.

The top British Saville Street tailor is coming. What is the future of Ningbo's high-end customization industry?

　 Custom clothes are built as art objects.

Opposite to Yi Avenue, Zhou Mengjiang's shop is not large, but the decoration is very exquisite. The sample clothes displayed in the window are exquisite and the style is unique. As a result, the thin stitches in the chest pocket of the light grey leisure suit are said to be hand stitched by stitches, and small and exquisite buttons of various shapes are gleaming in the showcase. Here, every detail shows the unique taste of the owner.

Zhou Mengjiang was calling a customer. The customer felt that the sleeves of his shirt were a little tight. So the two men communicated for 20 minutes on the details of the 23 button or 22.5 cm diameter of the two button holes in the French buckle.

Zhou Mengjiang said he had set up a clothing store in Ningbo for more than 10 years, and gradually shifted to positioning high-end groups. The shops on ho Yi Road are mainly orders. He has processing workshops in Fenghua and Ningbo. The business is mainly men's wear, the price of shirts is around 3000 yuan, and the suit is between 5000 yuan and 30 thousand yuan. Most of the customers are business owners, and there are also some white-collar workers and civil servants. To his satisfaction, a vice president of a well-known brand clothing company in Ningbo will make his own suit every year. "5 sets a year, working day by day, he will not wear his own suits."

In Zhou Mengjiang's view, the products on the production line are products, and they create artworks.

In the early 90s of last century, Zhou Mengjiang worked in a small garment factory in Guangdong. The boss is a Hongkong people who value the cheap labor cost in the mainland and put the workshop in Guangdong. The boss took the bill in Hongkong and took the measurements to Guangdong. Most of the customers were British. When Zhou Mengjiang spent three or four days doing his first shirt, he thought of when he would open a clothing store himself.

In a small two bedroom house, which is not far from Yi Yi Avenue, Ren Jiawei, who has been a tailor for most of his life, shares the same dream. Before he opened his shop, he was a senior planner of a large garment enterprise in our city, with an annual salary of around 200 thousand yuan. Because the pipeline was unable to put its design and ideas into practice, two years ago, despite his family's opposition, he resigned and opened a white-collar clothes shop to provide private customized services.

In 2010, Ren Jiawei opened his own shop and made his first suit. It took three days but he only received 400 yuan. "It's a whole set." His face was helpless.

The store was opened on the Li Yuan South Road clothing custom shop, did not have the exquisite decoration, looked a bit shabby. "No one listened to my explanation, what high-end fabrics, tailored, they only said that it is not affordable. Occasionally, young people came to the store to see the shabby stores. They did not believe that I could make good things.

Half a month's business volume was zero, and Ren Jiawei couldn't resist it. He used ordinary fabric and cost price to take the first single business.

The threshold is lower, business is also available, but the price is not going up, the profit is negligible, and his net income is far less than the previous salary. Money is a trivial matter. What's worse, he finds himself really becoming an ordinary tailor. His profession and philosophy simply can't be used.

At the beginning of last year, Ren Jiawei turned off the custom shop of Liyuan South Road and rented two rooms in Haishu. He wandered around the shopping malls and small shops, looking at styles, fabrics, workmanship and linings. He totally ignored the shopping mall's unusual gaze.

After the small living room put the punch machine, the space was very small. Different styles of women's wear and men's wear are the two fashionable styles in the room. Ren Jiawei took out a light colored coat. "This is my imitation. My fabric is better than the original one. The whole wool is at least two thousand or three thousand, and I can make it 1500 yuan. Two thousand or three thousand yuan. I can make a cashmere coat. " But it's no use. No matter how cheap it is, people who want to spend two thousand or three thousand yuan or more to buy a coat will not come home.

Ren Jiawei has been very entangled, he thought of the customer base, even if it is not high-end business people, at least ordinary white-collar workers.

Zhou Mengjiang is much better off than Ren Jiawei. He said he spent about 10 years developing high-end customers.

In 2002, when Zhou Mengjiang opened his first clothing shop in Xiaowen street, he made a suit of three hundred or four hundred yuan, which is definitely not high end. Over the past 10 years, with the accumulation of word of mouth, he gradually put "80% of his energy on 20% of high quality customers" and began to try high-end customization. These customers do not care much about the price, but pay more attention to the quality of the suit, have their own ideas, and will put forward more requirements for details.

In 2009, with the transformation of Ho Yi Road, Zhou Mengjiang turned off the store of Xiaowen street and rented the grocery store opposite the Yi Avenue. His high-end custom shop and luxury Street opened together, and after several years of hard work, his customers remained at around one or two hundred people.

　　 Ningbo The high-end custom market is facing a shuffle.

Since last year, thrifty winds prevailed, and Zhou Mengjiang's store has lost 30% customers.

Far more than Zhou Mengjiang, the owner of another high-end custom shop opened in five star hotels said their business was reduced by at least half.

Despite the cold feeling, Zhou Mengjiang felt that this was not necessarily a bad thing. If the high-end custom market goes to the way of gift giving and consumption, it will not be long-term in itself. In the next two years, the market will surely undergo a shuffle, and all those who can survive will be a group of loyal customers. They will pay more attention to quality, value credibility, maintain and cultivate more loyal customers.

No doubt, how to cultivate the customer group, high-end customization will be a "niche" consumption in a long time in the future, and can not compete with the garment factories produced by the assembly line. In recent years, the increase in the cost of raw materials and labor has made the high-end customization more and more thin.

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"Fabric and accessories prices are constantly rising, especially good imported fabrics, but the price of ready-made garments has not risen for several years. Especially in the past two years, the economy is not booming, the price is rising again, many people do not do it, after all, this is not a necessity. " Zhou Mengjiang said that in general, 30 thousand yuan can customize a suit and fabrics that are quite good.

Zhou Mengjiang said, "high-end" means material quality, custom made fabrics will use cashmere, silk and other natural high-grade materials, the price is often several times or even tens of times of ordinary fabrics.

"High-end custom clothes also take a lot of time to polish, so you can't make real high quality things in a short time." Zhou Mengjiang said, good fabric has good ductility, it will shrink after blanching, only after returning to normal temperature, can it be cut. If we use special material such as silk, at least 48 hours or more, we can make the yarn conform to the force of gravity and make the hem of women's clothes feel elegant and smart.

"Labor costs have also risen in recent years." For the high cost of tailoring garments, Ren Jiawei said that in his shop, the clothes he ordered were tailored to his own size, cut and cut out, and then he was taken out and asked for tailoring. A ready made garment and hitting the board are the most Guan Jian's steps. It takes Ren Jiawei at least 3 hours. "Efficiency is no match for the production line of the factory. They are all uniform sizes, and dozens of pieces are cut together on the machine."

However, many people are optimistic about the high-end custom market. Last April, Saville, general manager of Yinzhou Tianshi Clothing Co., Ltd., after visiting the London street of London, firmly determined the idea of developing high-end custom business. The British workshop gave him great inspiration. The first floor was facade for displaying clothes and orders. The two floor was the clothing room, the old sewing machine, the iron and the ruler. Because of the exquisite workmanship, the price of custom garments is almost between 30 thousand yuan and 60 thousand yuan, and the price of shirts is around 3000 yuan. "In Ningbo, shirts from 400 yuan to 800 yuan are almost impossible to win over the local well-known brands. We can only go to the high end." Jin Shili said.

Last year International Fashion Festival Andrew arrived in Ningbo with a customized team serving the Royal noble. Their on-the-spot production and display caused a great sensation, and in two days they received more than 20 orders. In January 10th of this year, Andrew and chief tailor master Andrius, senior tailor master Christopher and others came to Ningbo to meet with new appointments customers, and inspect Ningbo's advanced custom market, and plan to open a store in Ningbo.

　　 High-end customization Decide on what path to follow?

Zhang Xiaofeng, Secretary General of the city clothing association, said that the high-end custom industries of every city have certain development space. "Beijing, Shanghai, Hongkong brand custom shops are many, many people are 100 years old stores, real high-end customers, is to go to Saville street to customize a suit is not impossible." Zhang Xiaofeng believes that the development of advanced customization in Ningbo is still relatively slow.

In Andrew's view, Ningbo's high-end customization has its unique advantages. Ningbo is the hometown of Hong Bang tailors. There are many masters of tailoring, with profound cultural background. There are many fabric markets in Shaoxing and other places around Ningbo, which can easily solve the raw materials needed for customization.

After attending several clothing festival, Andrew visited the custom market of Ningbo many times. He believed that the slow development of high-end custom market in Ningbo is more cultural. The rise of an industry must first be cultivated, and so is advanced customization. First, let consumers recognize and accept this personalized service, which requires early investment. Many advanced custom shops in China are reluctant to invest in the early stage of market cultivation. After haste, they have to reduce their standards in order to make money as soon as possible.

Andrew said that the custom shops on Saville street, though competing, are more collaborative. They have an association that sets up a platform for communication and cooperation. There, some custom stores will not be able to meet the orders, they will be recommended to another suitable custom shop. They will never take the job that they are not competent to do, nor will they dig the wall.

On the afternoon of January 10th, Andrew also made a keynote speech in Ningbo, exchanging with the representatives of more than 150 garment enterprises in Ningbo. Andrew emphasized that they have come to Ningbo to exchange and cooperate, and do not want to bring the competition pattern here. With a stable customer base, they will set up shop in Ningbo, in order to have more opportunities to communicate and cooperate with the red gang tailors in Ningbo.

In addition to market cultivation, talent fault is an urgent problem for the customized industry. Jin Shili said, "it's harder to recruit a tailor who can make a whole dress than to hire 100 workers on the assembly line. Nowadays young people are seldom willing to learn this craft, and textile schools have no corresponding specialties.

Of course, this is not a problem peculiar to Ningbo. Even in the streets of Saville, Britain, most of them are old haired old tailors. "Nine out of ten tailors in Ningbo are over 40 years old." Zhou Mengjiang said, "people who have done this line will not let their children do it again."

Memories of 20 years ago were also engraved on the mind. When Zhou Mengjiang's boss sent orders from Hongkong to Guangzhou, it was often late at night. They worked all night to catch up. Most of the tailors have occupational diseases. They are not sitting long and getting old cold feet.

Now the conditions are good, but can resist loneliness, calm down to do a good job of clothes young people hard to find.

"We are also striving to improve the status of this talent gap." On this issue, Andrew said that with the influence of Saville street, the younger generation also began to enter this line. What they need to do is to cultivate young people's sense of professional pride and arouse their enthusiasm. A real master requires at least 5 years of experience.

"Training talents also requires a lot of manpower and financial resources. In the final analysis, high-end customization is not a luxury product with limited profits. It will be famous, but it can't make fast money, so is Saville street! "Andrew said.