This week, some of the TwM range finally landed on the doorstep.
And I’ll be honest, there’s a big difference between designing something on a screen, uploading it to a website, and actually pulling it over your head.
Up until that point, everything is theoretical.
You can stare at mock-ups until your eyes bleed. You can tweak fonts, move things three pixels to the left, argue with yourself about sizing, colours and whether something needs another 2% distressing.
But eventually someone has to actually wear the bastard.
So I did.
And this week I found myself standing in public wearing one of my own designs:
LIFTING WEIGHTS
BECAUSE
DEVELOPING A PERSONALITY
TAKES TOO LONG
Subtle? No.
Very TwM? Absolutely.
The important bit, though, was that it didn’t feel like I was wearing a test product.
It felt like something I’d actually buy.
That sounds ridiculously obvious, but when you’re building a clothing brand from scratch it’s probably one of the most important tests there is.
Would I wear this if somebody else had made it?
If the answer is no, it shouldn’t be on the shop.
The internet lies a little bit
Not deliberately.
But everything looks different online.
Colours change between screens. Mock-ups make garments sit perfectly. Models apparently never sweat, have awkward shoulders or stand like they’ve forgotten what to do with their hands.
Then the parcel arrives.
That’s where you find out whether the design actually works.
Is the print sharp?
Is it big enough?
Does it sit where you expected?
Does the garment feel decent?
And perhaps most importantly:
Do you feel like a tit wearing it?
Thankfully, no.
Well, no more than usual.
I am apparently now my own advertising department
There is also something slightly ridiculous about wandering around wearing clothing from a business you own.
But there’s also something quite satisfying about it.
Because I’m not interested in building a brand full of stuff I wouldn’t personally stand behind.
TwM was never supposed to be hundreds of generic slogans thrown onto cheap garments because an algorithm says they might sell.
The whole point is personality.
Things that make someone look twice.
Things that make somebody laugh.
Things that occasionally make somebody mildly offended.
Ideally all three.
So when the actual products arrive and I’m happy to wear them out in public, that matters.
It’s probably the simplest form of quality control there is.
The next stage
There are still things I want to improve.
There always will be.
Some designs will get tweaked. Some will disappear. Some will probably sell far better than the ones I personally love.
That’s part of building the thing.
But seeing TwM go from an idea, to artwork, to a website, to an actual garment hanging in the wardrobe feels like a fairly significant little milestone.
And now comes the slightly harder bit.
Getting other people to wear them.
Because apparently buying my own products repeatedly isn't a sustainable business model.
Who knew?
The Wandering Manc
Clothes for people with questionable humour and better things to do than develop a personality.