I used to be really upset about the fact that they were really expensive for quite tame shirts.
But the more I’ve thought about it, the more they make sense.
Not only do their shirts look great - especially when they go all in like with their recent paisley experiment.
Great swish logo.
Beautiful site.
Everything looks very smooth and very silky-stylish.
On the paisley shirt, even the pattern looked smooth.
They also make about ten shirts in every round of sales. Okay, maybe not ten but usually they are limited editions of about 75.
Now don’t get me wrong there’s nothing particularly fascinating about this - their shirts are, on the face of it, quite normal.
But their write-ups, their photos and their sales copy are beautiful.
It’s old skool somehow.
It reminds me of watching the first episode of Mad Men ages ago
(the only episode I ever watched)
And the bit that stays with me is the scene where the main guy is in some biz meeting with a client, asking him what he wants.
Obviously he wants his product (which is cigarettes) to stand out.
All the guy says is “How do you make your tobacco?”
And the guy says “It’s toasted, we…”
And Mad Men guy puts his hand up and stops him there.
When they get to the poster stage, the only thing on the poster (other than the photo of the cigarette) is “It’s Toasted!”
Literally those two words added a whole new depth to what was basically a normal cigarette.
Now I’m not saying Pellicano are selling normal shirts, probably far from it.
But the “It’s Toasted!” bit of their product is amazing.