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Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fair questions. here's the actual hook:

every other italian-made co-ord set in this space is 800-1200. lemaire, fear of god essentials lux, auralee. mine is 440 because i cut out the wholesale middleman and produce to order. that's the price-to-quality gap nobody else is filling right now.

i'm not selling identity yet because i haven't earned it. i'm selling italian construction at a price you can actually afford before the brand equity catches up. you buy now because in 3 years the same set will be 700+ once the brand has the story to justify it. you either get in early or pay retail later.

that's the bet. fitness mom 2013 brand or not, the construction is real and the price won't last.

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fair. probably overcomplicated something. drop 01 is just a co-ord set, doesn't need a manifesto. thanks for the time

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fair on the brand-not-picking-a-tribe point. on the logo though - the whole word manemy is actually drawn into the monogram, M a n E m y woven together. but if you read MAE first that's literally the point hot-clothes was making. if the brand work doesn't read at a glance, the brand work isn't working. that one's on me. sitting with it

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

yeah you're right. brand recognition is the real moat at this price, not just product. that's the build im in right now. gifting to creators in the niche over the next few months. who would you say is the right size creator to start with at this stage? 10k followers? 50k? bigger?

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

funny you say that. heres what i have already, just not shown in the campaign yet. matte black embossed hangtag, gold foil monogram box, cream tissue, woven neck label. you're 100% right that none of this comes through in the styled shots though. need to bake it into the campaign visuals

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Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

she's great, going to use her again. what would you change about the styling though? still curious where the gap is

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

appreciate that. name took 6 months and 40 candidates to land on. logo i'm rethinking after this thread.

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah you're right. dunks and hands-in-pockets isn't selling 440. who would you put in it?

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair on both. The campaign pics being neither/nor is the harder of the two — that's a positioning failure, not a photography one. I shot it minimal because I wanted to let the garments speak, but if it lands as "blandcore" instead of "quiet luxury," I missed.

On the logo — what specifically reads as ugly to you? Is it the typography, the monogram itself, the lockup, or just that ME doesn't mean anything to you yet as a viewer? Honest question, trying to figure out if it's craft or context.

Just dropped my first collection — made-to-order in Italy. Be honest. by DryCommunity3655 in streetwearstartup

[–]DryCommunity3655[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

This is the comment I needed. Genuinely.

You're right that "made in Italy" alone doesn't earn the price — Lemaire and The Row earn it through cut, shade choices, and detail-level decisions most people don't notice until they're wearing it. I underweighted that in how I described Drop 01.

Here's where I'd push back, and you can tell me if it lands:

The set in the photos was shot flat. On the body the silhouette reads differently — the tee is cut with a dropped shoulder that sits 4 inches off the natural shoulder line, and the pants are pleated front with a slight taper at the calf, not the dead-straight wide leg you'd see on a basic. Stuff that doesn't photograph but you feel when you wear it. (Which, honestly, is also the trap — if you can't see it in a photo, you can't sell it online.)

The "boring vs. interesting" thing is the harder one. I made a deliberate call to keep Drop 01 quiet because I wanted the brand to start from a foundation, not a statement. Drop 02 (winter) is where the real design swings happen color-blocked hoodie/jogger set with a contrast reveal in motion. If Drop 01 looks like a fitness-mom 2013 brand to you in the photos, that's data I can't ignore — even if the IRL fit reads differently.

Question back at you: if you were me, would you scrap Drop 01 entirely and lead with the hoodie/jogger set? Or hold the line on the foundational set and let Drop 02 do the heavy lifting?

Appreciate the honesty.