16 Conversation STARTERS Dapper & Suave offers a range of men’s accessories, with Founders Rob and Jason explaining how the company stays ahead in a competitive market When did you start up and why? We started Dapper & Suave in 2015, after our best friend commented on a social media post that we always looked “Dapper & Suave”. We have both always enjoyed fashion and accessorising and started to style our own looks mixing vintage and high street. The brand started as lifestyle blog initially, to give us a creative outlet alongside our day jobs. What prompted you to launch the business? Rob has a background in retail and planning, and Jason has a background in events, retail and customer service, skills we felt we could apply to our own business. What challenges have you overcome since the company’s launch? One big challenge was both of us losing our full-time jobs during the pandemic and having a cupboard full of fabric ready for customer orders. We pivoted our range to sell face masks and focus on giving great customer service online through that time. We also found it hard in the early days to find the right events to sell in person, and have created Curated by Dapper & Suave, an events business where we hand pick a variety of small businesses and services to exhibit at pop up shopping events. It has helped us create and learn from the community of makers and sellers and give others a platform to shine. Tell us about your product offering. We sell feather lapel accessories, pocket squares, single ended cravats ascots, self and ready tied bow ties and neck ties. We also sell a range of vintage bow ties and use final pieces of fabric to create pussy bow scarves and hair scrunchies. What are your most popular products? Our most popular products are most often our cravats and pocket squares, although one single design may be taken up for a wedding which usually features our neck ties. Have any styles taken you by surprise with their popularity? We have been very pleased with the sales of our cravats. We chose to create a single ended cravat rather than the traditional double ended design, and the product has sold well to all genders across the world. How do you keep your designs fresh and current? Do you follow trends? We have a great relationship with online independent designers using the Spoonflower platform, where we can get designs printed onto 18 different base fabrics (although we focus on cotton poplin for the handle and feel). We keep an eye on colour and print trends, but it isn’t the defining factor in our design choices. What sets you apart from your competitors? We’re proud to offer something different in our colour and pattern choices, and often call our designs “conversation starters”. The designs work well with classic navy, black and grey colour choices, but will also complement tweeds and pastels in the traditional wedding attire market. Our big differentiator is working to create custom designs using our designer network. We’ve helped wedding couples create accessories that reflect them, such as English Rose & Scottish Thistles, Dinosaur Origami Prints, Pirates and Sunflowers. We listen to the brief, create a mood board of four options ranging from fun to classic, all with the Dapper & Suave taste and handwriting and then make to order. What are some stand-out moments since the company launch? Over the last 9 years, stand out moments will always be making that first sale, and taking that first wholesale order, as well as some of the styled photo shoots we’ve been involved with or organised ourselves.
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