Back in early 80’s in the streets of Milan used to be an old fashioned tailor named Salvatore Seminario, who at that time was more tilted towards variety on normal daily clothing trying sometimes different designed custom dress shirts. I remember going out with him and having sips of espresso sitting in the local café’s and chatting about new styles and designs in clothing & fashion. He used to say that one day these people would be talking about these designer shirts as they talk about Edison today. I used to enjoy the facials expressions he used to make when expressing his views on designs. It never crossed my mind that I would ever be following these tips in future. I had moved to America in 1985 to pursue my studies in the financial field I graduated in 1990 and started pursuing my dream. I was hired by Dreyfus and was on my way in becoming an investment banker. Unfortunately my luck, the stock market crashed and I was laid off after 6 months. All I had at that time was my degree but due to the financial crises in Wall street it was not worth much and I started doing odd jobs for five years I survived from job to job, and finally in 1995 landed a job where I could use my financial skills and know how in a multinational company. During this time I kept in touch with Salvatore and visited him during my visits to Milan. Salvatore showed me how he was still pursuing his dream of designing different types of shirts and suits but kept his designing to his tailor shop and was not much into marketing it. To me it seemed like he used to do it as a hobby. Due to budget cuts and financial constraints in the company I was laid off from my job again. This was the second time I was laid off due to the economic grudge so I decided pursue something different and started research on the internet. I decided to talk to my old friend Salvatore and decided to Market his idea in America. At that time in 2003 the fashion was at an upswing and different styles and designs were flaring up in every corner. So without wasting any time I rushed to him took his different designs and patterns and had him make the samples of different design custom dress shirts and casual shirts and decided to show them around in my business community since I still had contacts and friends in Wall Street and got a really good response.
In Sep 2003 I with my American counter-part whom I have been in connection with, since my investment banking days put my idea for further brainstorming. That is when we came up with this brain child of ours and gave it the name of “NATTY Shirts” (which means elegantly stitched shirts) and started marketing our product in the USA. In start our major cliental were a few well known investment bankers and top industrialists. Our positive feedback from these big wigs on a yearly basis pushed us to pursue this avenue. We started to get good response from our specific market which involves only high end cliental such as (Lawyers, Investment Bankers, Doctors, and Corporate Managers). In 2009 we went public and set up a website to capture our online market. This new online avenue was very new to us we were not very familiar with the online marketing campaigns and it took to us 2 years to establish ourselves on the web. Our company was still running on local orders from our established cliental from over the years. Lack of knowledge of the internet world and how to market in it, was very frustrating. We over the last two years wasted a lot of money on marketing campaigns and advertising on the internet, advice given to us from our relatives and friends. Finally we decided to pursue our dream in a more professional level and hired some internet professional to guide us and make our site more users friendly and accessible to the public in the right way. After three years of struggle and thousands of dollars lost between the three partners we now established ourselves as a company that specializes in custom made shirts and are now in the market as a company known for its quality and provide our clients with the fastest delivery service in the industry. Due to the work and effort put into our specific made to measure dress shirt, it requires time and effort and meticulous stitching. Some of the points that keep us very competitive with the rest of the big giants in the industry such as (Shirts my way, Proper cloth, Bank label, George tie) are listed below:
• Single needle stitching: Stitching of the sort is the sign of elegance and sophistication we give you 18 to 20 stitches per inch; there are a handful of companies in the world that give you such quality.
• Another key point we provide to our cliental is removable collar bone, we put these strips of collar stays to keep the collars looking crisp and in shape. This removable feature is so after laundry or dry cleaning you can insert them back in the collar to give it that crisp look.
• Our collar are fused at a German engineered collar fusing plant so there is no puckering or air left in the collar or cuff to give that smooth sleek and clean look.
• We use the highest quality 100% Egyptian cotton which is double refined to give that smooth and soft texture of our fabric and we our up to par with all the latest colors and fashions and designs in Custom Dress shirts.
• Buttons which give the look of the shirt we provide you with the dyed buttons according to the fabric shades. The traditional way was with only two buttons (Black&White).This particular feature is provided to you with no extra cost.
• Monogram initials on custom dress shirts are a great way of personalizing your dress shirt, not only does it give you a second take when you look at the person’s dress shirt but expresses individuality. Most common and elegant placement is on the individuals left cuff. We at Natty allow you to place up to six characters on the pocket.
Market now days are moving at the speed of light, everything is getting done electronically and online shopping has increased enormously. Online shopping site Amazon .com has increased its sales over last year by 33% this shows people are gearing towards online shopping showing our future survival is on the internet. One of the biggest reasoning behind online extravaganza is the increase traffic and lack of parking the hassle we have to go through to shop. People rather shop online and have the product delivered to them at their door step with the same return policy why not avail the opportunity and avoid the aggravation of sitting in traffic and parking charges.
Natty means elegantly stitched that is what we stand for and stand behind. The quality we present to our cliental is bar none of the best in the world and that is what our clients pay for that elegant sophisticated look of a dress shirt that brings out your natural prominent features.
Author: Romeo J