Siete Clothing Co Photoshoot- Finding the right size when buying online!

Blog Post #4

So this week has been a huge week for Siete Clothing Co with both our photoshoot and look book being done and the official launch of our online shop we have been very busy with the Christmas rush.

Our photoshoot was located at Mays Lane art project in St Peters, Sydney and featured a great urban style backdrop to our brand. The photoshoot featured up and coming models and close friends of mine Jordan, Jeremy and Carlos who did a great job at showing off our styles and showcasing our products for our summer range. I also need to thank our fantastic photographer Ash Nicholson from 'Shot by Ash' who used her artistic flare and creative instinct to capture our range in the best possible way. If anyone would like to contact Ash for personal or business related photography please check out her Facebook page or website at www.shotbyash.com as she offers extremely competitive prices and is a pleasure to work with.

In our first week of business we have learnt a lot about the ups and downs of running an online business and I wanted to do a write up on how to make sure you get the best fit when buying from us.

The whole brand came about because I generally found it extremely difficult being a 5'6" guy with a relatively small frame to get clothes that actually fit me well without either extreme alterations or spending hundreds on European designed labels with the title 'slim fit'. With this vision in mind, the sizes are quite small in comparison to many other brands on the market.

So what do you do as a first time buyer to make sure you get it right?

Firstly think of how fitted you like your clothes. If you like a really fitted look and you are a slim bloke then opt for your normal size that you would wear from a store. If you are stocky, have bigger than average muscle or have a few extra KGs around the belly, slim fit clothes as you are probably aware will highlight these things for the better or worse. Don't be disheartened though as this can usually be fixed by going up a size or two depending on how big you are. Slim fit generally means that the sleeves are skinnier and the shirt or jacket tends to taper in at the bottom. With our chinos they are standard sizing so choose the size based on what you normally wear. If you do have huge legs from doing too many squats, once again go up a size, but our clothes do have a bit of stretch so you are as comfortable as possible without compromising on looks.

If you have a tape measure at home, get one of your best fitting shirts and lay it down on a flat surface, look at the shirt you want to buy and measure across the chest from seam to seam, across the shoulders (may work better wearing the shirt and getting someone to measure it for you) and down the sleeve.

If you don't have a tape measure we can definitely help you find the right size. Send us an email with your height and weight and if you can attach a photo of yourselves (keep your shirts on fellas!) and let us know what size you normally wear and we will send you back some options.

Don't worry too much if it doesn't fit if you make a mistake, just send it back to us in unworn and original condition and we will send you a replacement free of charge. Alternatively to that, if you are in the Sydney area we can arrange to either come to you or advise you a time and place you can try on the clothes you want to find the best fit.

Finally, if you buy some stuff from us take some photos with your gear on and let us know what size you bought and we will post it on our Facebook page to help others find the best fit for themselves.

I hope you guys enjoy our products and we are restocking all of our existing range plus some new items which should be here in time for Christmas and Boxing Day sales. I hope all of you enjoy your holidays and we will update our Facebook with any promotions and give aways shortly!

Signing out,

Jackson
Siete Clothing Co

Christmas is coming! Have you done your Christmas shopping yet?

Blog Post #3

Christmas is just around the corner again and if you are anything like me you are wondering where this year has gone and it has come time to start thinking about what we are going to get our loved ones. Every year this task seems to get harder and harder and with all of the new gadgets coming out there is so much choice out there. What is more frustrating is the moral dilemma between risking the chance of buying something that someone either already has and keeping the surprise or asking them what they want but this loses the essence of what Christmas is supposed to be about.

The best but least creative present always seems to be money. With the Boxing day sales only 1 day later and the peace of mind knowing that you always give someone something they want, giving a loved one money always seems to hit the spot. I know money is my gift of choice when anyone asks me what I want for Christmas as it always helpful to get a bit of cash around that time of the year and I tend to go a bit crazy at the sales to deck myself out with new clothes.

Just by looking at all of the people that flock to Boxing Day sales every year its pretty clear that its the common consensus that people take all of their Christmas cash and try and get themselves a bargain. With sales offering anywhere from 50-90% off it seems like the logical idea to wait until this crazy day to stock up.

With technology getting so good these days and more stores moving online with more competitive prices, is it likely that this will be the end to our Boxing Day adventures or do we still want the thrill of the chase battling it out with thousands of other like minded people?

My personal opinion is that from now on I think I will stay at home and make all of my purchases online. With new facilities like being able to send people gifts through Paypal and online gift certificates it makes it so much more convenient to get what you want from the comfort of your own home.

We will be making some digital vouchers for our site if you would like to give your loved ones something different this year for Christmas. If you are interested in finding out more about this please email us or contact us on Facebook .

A quick update for our site, we have made our first order and our photoshoot is scheduled for next weekend. We should be live for purchases as of next week so please standby!

Thanks for all of your support and we will be running a few more giveaways for our launch.

Signing out,

Jackson
Siete Clothing Co

What makes a good fitting shirt? Win vouchers by sharing our FB Page!

Blog post #2

As we are getting closer and closer to the launch of Siete Clothing Co I thought I would do a blog post about something I have thought about quite a bit when designing my label; what makes a good fitting shirt?

Over the years of  being a white collar professional, I have pretty much tried every brand under the sun from expensive to cheap, Austen Brothers, Oxford, YD, Roger David, Ralph Lauren, Politix and the list goes on. It seems that these days every brand has their own idea of what makes a good shirt but it is really hard to know what you are paying for. What fabric do they use? Is it slim fit? French cuff? Do I need to iron it or does it crease really badly? I know when I used to shop for shirts it used to be about what was in my price range, but now I tend to ask the above questions through years of trial and error.

To me a good fitting shirt needs to stay soft after many washes, must be slim fit but still comfortable and have a little bit of give in the fabric so it leaves a bit of room to move in those winter months. Also having 2 ply cotton tends to help with keeping the shirts low care as I hate ironing with a passion! What you will find by ticking all of these boxes is that your perfect shirt has just cost you $150+.

My shirts are split into two categories, our launching line of button up shirts are 100% cotton and are designed for comfort and are primarily aimed at giving you affordable options to look good when you go out. Our second line of shirts is aimed at giving you an affordable and great quality, premium business shirt which can be used for work or going out but with a stronger focus on subtle details to set you apart from the rest and give you something that you can enjoy wearing for any occasion.

The main difference between the two concepts is to give a basic and deluxe option depending on how much you want to spend and also the look you are going for. Both lines of shirts will give you a slim fit which ensures that your shirts always look as close to tailor made as possible, they are made from 100% cotton- the main difference with the premium range is that these shirts will offer a number of different styles of textiles depending on the shirt so most will be low care and easy iron material. Our main aim with the premium range is to deliver Italian style shirts at an affordable price.

On a final note we will be giving away a number of vouchers which can be used for any items on our site. In order to be in the draw to win please share our Facebook page and we will draw the winners on the grand opening of our store!

Please stand by for a confirmed launch date which we should be announcing soon.

Signing out,

Jackson

Siete Clothing Co

Welcome to all of our followers!

Siete Clothing Co

Hi and welcome to everyone who has stumbled across my website and thank you for taking the time to listen to what I have to say. As this is my first blog post ever I do plan on making them interesting to read in an effort to make your buying experience a more positive one. Over the coming months I plan to use my blog and Facebook page as a sounding board to voice ideas and create new items based on what my loyal followers want. This concept is the main reason behind the creation of the brand and what I hope to be the one thing that separates us from the endless other clothing suppliers out there.

Regardless of where you go these days there always tends to be someone trying to flog their idea or product and telling you why you need it but it seems that most companies lose touch with what is most important about creating a brand; this is the reason WHY we do something in the first place. What you will find is most companies are 100% sure about WHAT they sell which is obviously some kind of product or service they have created. Some also know HOW they sell something, which is generally done by listing the features and benefits that their product has to offer and having witty marketing, but the problem with this is us as everyday consumers will generally be swamped by the hundreds of other equivalent products out there and we always choose on one thing regardless whether or not we actually realise we are doing it; that is the WHY we want it and WHY we believe we need something.

Have a think about the last time you walked into a shop to buy, lets say a pair of jeans, have you ever heard a salesperson come up and say "Hey, so you are looking for a pair of jeans, whats most important to you about a good pair? What did you like so much about the last good pair you had?"... Generally the first question you are asked is, "Ok, so how much do you have to spend?". This isn't a bad question but it leaves an endless amount of options available to you and doesn't really help you find exactly what you are looking for. Most people probably have never thought about this when either buying or selling and we generally let our subliminal mind decide what our why is without actually thinking about it.

This is really what sets Siete Clothing Co apart from other brands out there. When I thought up the idea I was so frustrated with retail shops and online sellers on places like eBay because they kept trying to promote their goods and selling a particular style which was generally whatever is currently in fashion. When I really thought about why I was frustrated I realised that it wasn't the product they were selling that annoyed me or the price that they charged, but the fact that you can blatantly tell these companies are so focused on the WHAT which includes their product line and constant battle to follow the fashion trends and the HOW which includes their marketing strategy and constant battle to win over everyone to buy their clothes. Where is the WHY? Why do they want to have the most up to date fashion? Why do they want to be the most successful clothing brand that everyone wants to wear? I'm sure if I asked them they would tell me its to make as much profit as possible. This isn't a bad answer but its the wrong answer, making lots of money is the result, it shouldn't be WHY we do something and it especially shouldn't be WHY we start a company.

When I sat down to think of the reason why I wanted to start this clothing brand I first thought what would I want out of a brand if I had the opportunity to make all of the decisions and I also asked my friends and family about the reason why they bought a particular brand and what was most important to them. Based on what I found out it seemed that most people wanted something that was designed locally and manufactured using quality materials but could still be cheap in comparison to what is for sale today. They also wanted to be able to save the time and effort that was generally involved in going to the local shopping mall and trying on endless amounts of clothes which all fit differently but they weren't sure about their size when buying online and were worried about making costly mistakes if they bought something that didn't fit. So based on these concepts, Siete Clothing Co was born and I plan to try and do what I set out to do;

-Create original and timeless clothing that is good quality

-Not focus on making huge profits so I can keep my prices affordable

-Being the one brand our sizes are standard so you should be able to get the same fit every time

-If you do make a mistake when you buy the wrong size, return it to us in unworn condition and we will send you whatever size will fit better

-Lastly the most important, Listen to my customers and try and use your ideas to develop rhe clothing that you want

This is my reason why and I hope it makes sense to all of you who have taken the time to read it. If all goes to plan I hope to launch the label early next month so keep posted for more information on our photo shoot and our first giveaways to celebrate what I hope is the answer to what you were all looking for; the ability to look good without having to spend all of your money!

Signing out,

Jackson- Siete Clothing Co