I thought they weren't going to be selling in boutiques!?
- Thread starter fabae
- Start date
My VM has no HH at all, now. It sure looked as though that was the way it was going...
I guess this is good news!
I guess this is good news!
i'm glad they're showing up at boutiques. they really need retailers to help them through this rough patch. i hope von maur goes on board at some point too. they're huge.
i'd feel much better ordering from a retailer than hh directly. so, that's great news for us, too.
i'd feel much better ordering from a retailer than hh directly. so, that's great news for us, too.
No, I thought there was a statement in Toni's letter that said something to the extent that they were not going to do wholesale anymore, but instead just focus on selling in their own boutiques. Let me see if I can dig up that letter.
ETA: I can't find the thread or remember even what it could have been titled - totally drawing a blank. I swear I remember some statement on HH's part about the above. Anyone else?
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fabae i don't remember any email/letter, but I do know when I called up pretty much every store in the USA that has carried HH before to look for some nylon items, they told me that HH pulled all wholesale accts, that they were not going to sell HH items any more even if they wanted to. I wouldn't doubt that HH realized they needed the retail sales in order to survive financially AFTER they decided to go totally independent, and then they changed their minds.
It's in their better interest to do that to expand their brand name... it'd be taking a step backward to just keep it to their two stores and the website. Even if they made their mistake, I'm glad they're willing to change it for the better. I really hope it's a permanent thing rather than... maybe Aster Alice preordered items themselves and have no choice but to sell them now. The biblios are actually Fall items, and I know several stores still had Fall items in stock when I called them.
It's in their better interest to do that to expand their brand name... it'd be taking a step backward to just keep it to their two stores and the website. Even if they made their mistake, I'm glad they're willing to change it for the better. I really hope it's a permanent thing rather than... maybe Aster Alice preordered items themselves and have no choice but to sell them now. The biblios are actually Fall items, and I know several stores still had Fall items in stock when I called them.
i remember that too....that was the "letter to our customers concerning recent delays" or something like that....the one where toni talked about stopping nylon and using canvas and making ben man bags......
I believe you are right, fafnir.
I just reread two of the threads that were started in February.
Neither the copy of "Concerning our Recent Delays" nor the "Letter to our Customers" from Ben and Toni which were posted on here mention anything about HH's plans for selling to other accounts.
It was speculation, inference and conjecture which began to swell after this past season. Many of us were calling retail stores to look for items. Some Hotties spoke to retailers (off the top of my head, the owner of one in particular boutique in the South) and posted on here that the store was not going to be carrying A/W '09 items because of the delay and other situations that had arisen in the past regarding timing of sale and more.
In all due fairness, I hadn't posted on this SF that I too had spoken to the retailer when I was looking for a few HH items for gifts. She did not say that the store would not carry S/S '10. She explained that she was waiting to see , because her customer base did like what she had carried .
What also happened if I remember correctly is this. When many of us began looking online for past seasons' treasure or for gifts, we began to discuss what we discovered. This was that other retail venues..no matter how big or how small (online and brick and mortar) which sold HH, had not gone forward with HH after S/S '09.
We collectively realized that few if any were carrying A/W '09 items and in light of what we knew at that point based on our own personal and shared shopping exeriences.......that's when we began to buzz about what could be the possible cause.
Here on TPF, we publically pondered: Did the stores drop HH, did they cancel just this season, did HH decide to pare down and cut back and why?????
Interesting social phenomena..
. In fact, perhaps what just happened here could be useful for HH to examine for the future..better than twitter or even FB. An object lesson on how TPF works as a marketing tool:
This past season, growing frustration and discussion about everything (majority of negative as the season progressed and we shared what we knew for sure and what we were told)
In this case (and the cuff/GS/pre-ordering etc. chatter) neutral/negative and ..
In other cases (most recently Bibliomania and more) positive.
Ahh..the power of TPF and social networking. Be careful how you use it because it is a powerful weapon..for good or for evel.
If HH is selling to a few online boutiques, even as pre-orders, I am hoping this means that HH has a brighter future (note..inference and speculation!)...as ticked off as I was about the delays and everything else.
FWIW I still won't order any HH item as a pre-order though no matter what retail venue is offering this option and not from HH's website either, no matter how hefty a discount. OK..maybe not until I get a better feel for things..and my self-imposed ban is lifted.
xoxo
gingey
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I think I know what fabae is taking about- I remember reading Toni's post on the RM vs. HH thread. Here's the part of her post:
he specifics of why ben and i run hh as we do (to date):
-we have no investors or backers...there is not an MBA in sight at hh. we are a company hq'd in brooklyn of 18 people (including store staff) that ben and i need to make sure get paid on time for the work they do and the immense talent they have. to pay our staff and vendors is our goal and our obligation. ben and i have no need for a yacht or personal masseuse, but we certainly need to go to bed at night knowing our peeps are getting paid.
-to date, we have always ran our own showroom for wholesale sales. we have not been part of a group showroom...this is probably why the direct to customer side of our business has grown very quickly, but we did not take the traditional route of our peer brands and head into major dept stores after our first few seasons out within a group showroom format.
when you sell to major dept stores, there's great money/volume business there, but you need to be willing to take some hits and have lots of cash available for the production...i mean a LOT of cash. also, when the majority of your business is wholesale to retailers, they control how you price your goods. designers who rely on the wholesale side of the business cannot compete with their retailers. we rely on direct to customer sales as we feel this is best for hh...ben and i both felt in 2005 that the face of retail was changing and that it would be best to design and sell directly to our customer.
we started out with the intention to try to sell to our customers directly via our website, because the web is really the future of the business. i look at how i shop as a woman with voting $'s...i order nearly everything online. i'm really darn busy. my free time is spent with ben, at home, or out with friends catching up. i'm not generally out in boutiques shopping AND the majority of boutiques seem to only want to sell apparel to those sized 8 and under. what's up with that? savvy consumers, like me...like you, know to search everywhere online and find the perfect thing at the right price. shopping is global. women now are not afraid to buy higher-end fashion online IF the web retailer's reputation for quality and customer service are good. We all talk/blog/gossip to each other about these things...you know a good deal and a perfect item when you see it. Whoever offers the best deal wins your $ vote.
to date, hh has only sold to small specialty boutiques with the exception of the few items we sell to anthropologie/Nordstrom each season. for the record, anthropologie is an amazingly great company for small designers to work with. they are easy to work with, they "get" what you do and really support good ideas, and the large orders they place pay the bills. for a large retailer, they are more than fair. support them. we sell a very very small amount of good to Nordstrom each season. you can find us on their trend floor in select doors.
he specifics of why ben and i run hh as we do (to date):
-we have no investors or backers...there is not an MBA in sight at hh. we are a company hq'd in brooklyn of 18 people (including store staff) that ben and i need to make sure get paid on time for the work they do and the immense talent they have. to pay our staff and vendors is our goal and our obligation. ben and i have no need for a yacht or personal masseuse, but we certainly need to go to bed at night knowing our peeps are getting paid.
-to date, we have always ran our own showroom for wholesale sales. we have not been part of a group showroom...this is probably why the direct to customer side of our business has grown very quickly, but we did not take the traditional route of our peer brands and head into major dept stores after our first few seasons out within a group showroom format.
when you sell to major dept stores, there's great money/volume business there, but you need to be willing to take some hits and have lots of cash available for the production...i mean a LOT of cash. also, when the majority of your business is wholesale to retailers, they control how you price your goods. designers who rely on the wholesale side of the business cannot compete with their retailers. we rely on direct to customer sales as we feel this is best for hh...ben and i both felt in 2005 that the face of retail was changing and that it would be best to design and sell directly to our customer.
we started out with the intention to try to sell to our customers directly via our website, because the web is really the future of the business. i look at how i shop as a woman with voting $'s...i order nearly everything online. i'm really darn busy. my free time is spent with ben, at home, or out with friends catching up. i'm not generally out in boutiques shopping AND the majority of boutiques seem to only want to sell apparel to those sized 8 and under. what's up with that? savvy consumers, like me...like you, know to search everywhere online and find the perfect thing at the right price. shopping is global. women now are not afraid to buy higher-end fashion online IF the web retailer's reputation for quality and customer service are good. We all talk/blog/gossip to each other about these things...you know a good deal and a perfect item when you see it. Whoever offers the best deal wins your $ vote.
to date, hh has only sold to small specialty boutiques with the exception of the few items we sell to anthropologie/Nordstrom each season. for the record, anthropologie is an amazingly great company for small designers to work with. they are easy to work with, they "get" what you do and really support good ideas, and the large orders they place pay the bills. for a large retailer, they are more than fair. support them. we sell a very very small amount of good to Nordstrom each season. you can find us on their trend floor in select doors.