Fake News in the world of custom suits
Obviously there are some amazing players in the world of NYC custom tailored suits. But we’ve also noticed recently that there are several other companies out there operating under false pretenses. It’s kind of interesting, and it’s not something we think many prospective custom clients would know about. So we thought we’d blog about it.
What I’m talking about is the fake imagery that’s being used to promote brands and their products.
Some custom suit companies just take the images from fabric mill catalogs and stick them on their website. Like the images below with the cross through it, it’s from a Zegna catalog, but we found it on a custom suit company’s website. (We’re not going to name any names, of course!!). The point being, the company in question neither took the picture, nor does the pic show any articles of clothing they’ve actually made themselves. Someone else took the picture, someone else made the suit.
It’s kind of like if an architect had a website and put up pictures of buildings they hadn’t actually designed themselves, isn’t it?
Isn’t it also kind of hoodwinking the clients a little bit to do that? If they see images like these on your website, I’m sure they think they’re seeing true representations of your products. But they’re not. It’s pretty misleading.
It’s not an isolated incident either, this use of fake images to promote NYC custom suit companies. It’s pretty common, actually. To be honest, I couldn’t really believe it when I was doing ‘keyword research’ recently and having a look at some of our competitors in the process, only to notice all these pictures I’d seen in recent Loro Piana or Zegna fabric catalogs.
Why do NYC custom suit companies use fake pictures to promote their brands? This is a question I’ve thought about a lot recently. I don’t really know for sure, but my best guess is that it has a lot to do with saving money on photo shoots and fashion samples.
But if they’re not even doing their own photo shoots of making their own fashion samples as a custom fashion brand, you have to ask how else they might be cutting corners.
The other reason I can come up with as to why companies use fake pictures, is that the brand/s in question don’t have, and / or can’t figure out, a brand identity of their own. They’ve opted for a stock identity instead. I think that’s a bit off key and disheartening. Maybe I’m sentimental and a bit romantic.. But I think being a designer and running a custom fashion brand should be all about having an aesthetic opinion, and bringing that opinion to the table to create a brand identity. It should be about having both aesthetic and manufacturing expertise that you can bring to clients in order to help them make the best decisions to create the perfect custom garment.
Unlike some of the other custom tailored suit companies in NYC, we at WATSON ELLIS don’t use stock images (taken from fabric mill catalogs) to promote our brand. We don’t need to because we have style and taste of our own; and because we are led by an experienced designer who knows fashion, design, and visual aesthetics. Trust us to build your luxurious, stylish custom suit with your personality in mind.
