Our Essentials are a big part of the J.Hilburn collection that sometimes goes unnoticed because of the spotlight we put on our seasonal collections. This is the natural and healthy way that successful brands assort, whether they be in the custom or RTW (ready to wear) business. I often use the analogy of referring to essentials as the “pasta” and the collection being the “sauce.” Some brands call them basics, core or foundational pieces, but they all refer to the same approach to working with the client’s needs.
At J.Hilburn our Essentials are the foundation for every collection and appear as much as possible mixed into our Key Looks and campaign shoots. Essentials focus on more than just suiting and shirting, with expanded qualities and colors in pants. knits and even in outerwear. I put together the looks for each season, including the latest Fall 2022 Collection, with our essential pieces scattered throughout and integrated into business, business casual and casual looks.
In the casual side of our collection, we now have navy colorways set up as Essentials in almost every quality, and we connect these frequently to seasonal colors that we try to update with each new collection. Our 4-way stretch in casual pants is a good example of how we approach this within our year-round offering. We are selling navy in this quality at high levels all year round simply because guys wear these navy pants all year round. However, the seasonal colors won’t carry forward into spring, so we will replace them with more spring shades to sit alongside navy when we launch the new spring collection. Navy, in this case, is the “pasta” and the seasonal colors are the “sauce.”
4-Way Stretch
Dress shirts are another excellent example of how over the last few years, menswear has evolved from the dullness of blue and white shirts, previously a go-to across business dress entirely, to being only partially responsible for business attire today. We know that the casualization of menswear has affected business dress, particularly how it is now totally acceptable to be tie-less in meetings.
When I think of a modern board meeting, you could have a host of attendees all dressed differently, but all perfectly appropriate for the occasion. You could have someone in navy or grey suit with a blue or white dress shirt, and another attendee in a subtle plaid suit with a Canclini printed shirt or knit worn with an open neck—maybe even worn with a sneaker? There would most likely be a guy or two at the meeting in a sportcoat with a 5-pocket pant, feeling just as well-dressed in his business casual look. Not every guy is going to be comfortable in this last variation, and that’s fine because as a Stylist, being able to find each Client’s “space” and understanding how far you can go his look is exactly what we do in custom-made.
A guy would be perfectly dressed for the modern board meeting in any of the above looks.
I believe that menswear in “comfort zones” can get very monotonous. As a Stylist working with a Client’s wardrobe, whilst we never want to force him, we should always be guiding him towards feeling more confident and comfortable in custom-made clothing. A Stylist’s opportunity is always to bring the Client along the journey. Some Clients may be reticent to step out of their “navy blue zone” or push back about trying a knit under a sportcoat instead of a dress shirt. This is part of our business model too, in which we recognize that not everyone travels at the same speed. That truly is the beauty of custom.
Still, I often hear anecdotal stories from Stylists about how a particular Client who never thought of trying a knit or 5-pocket pant will suddenly feel confident and trusting enough of his Stylist to experiment outside his comfort zone. How great is that? For me, this feels like a measurement of success.
The difference today with our Essential product and seasonal collections is that neither are static and are constantly morphing across every category, as our Client seems to be moving away from uniforms he can pull from his wardrobe and is instead mixing it up more and more. This is all credit to how the Stylist has been able to take our new collections and propose them in an understandable and relevant way to every Client they meet.
