YMC is a uk brand, got some cool pieces check them out

Loads. Worked there for a year, only perk of the job is you get access to sneakers (if you're lucky, allocations were usually garbage depending on release) and sometimes people are nice to you.

One of the worst music policies in all stores ever, you can only play boom bap rap or skimpy experimental dance mysic and if it's not 'good vibes' enough your s*** gets turned off.

20% discount, no uniform allowance and no commission scheme (for a store with extremely weird targets this sucked) - instead your 'incentives' are free incense if you have the highest sale of the week!

I left them a scathing review on Glassdoor and they pulled an internal investigation to find out who did it and they threatened to sack my boy instead of me cuz they really didn't know who it was - I never told but they figured it was me and still kind of hate me for it.

Any store is better.

YMC is You Must Create. London brand.

One of the collabs can be viewed here:

youmustcreate.com/stan-ray-for-ymc-summer-18

They did a crazy overdye purple hickory which looked wild so I sold them lol

I apologise. My info was wrong. They only do 32 legs. Not sure why, but you can always roll/cuff/hem them if you needed to.

Bro you gotta give me a crash course in fashion retail politics, s*** looks like a mess, but I want to forge a career in it

The glass door reviews

Dubble Ware is fire but pricepoint is absolutely horrendous for the product:

dubbleware.com/collections/denim-all/products/dubbleware-lyon-workwear-pant-brown-selvedge

What do you wanna know? I've had my fair share of experiences but I'm unfortunately still in it

Just run me through your experiences from the start, how has your mentality changed from actually working in the industry compared to watching from the outside? Where do you work now btw and how’s that different? How does buying work as well for that place?

Okay cool. Excluding work experience in school, believe it or not I worked at WHSmith to acquire experience in customer service and applied everywhere.

My experiences from then to now have been:

Urban Outfitters (seasonal temp) > Topman (Stock Coordinator) > Jigsaw (Sales Advisor) > Agnes B (Sales Assistant) > The Conran Shop (Sales) > Goodhood (Sales) > Harvey Nichols (Brand Consultant)

Depending on your age (like if you're literally 18) start at Urban Outfitters and go from there - you have time, the store is terrible but it's a known name that bridges the gap between high street and premium.

Agnes B was my favourite job and I miss it dearly because being on part-time back in 2016 I was making £8.20 an hour and earning £300 on top of my pay in bonuses Every. F***ing. Month. It was insane. I should have saved the damn money. Full time was trash though apparently.

Stores like Goodhood and Size are complete dogshit organisations and you should stay far away, work at End and then go to a small store with loyal staff and get paid well or go to a department store/Browns and work up the ranks.

My mentality on the retail thing is people idolise you from the outside because you're 'oh so cool!!!' working in a big store but it's the same bullshit on the inside as it would be if you worked for Sainsbury's. Discounts rule the world.

Goddamn

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences, we need a lot more of this. How does goodhood and browns differ, like your role, atmosphere, how they curate the clothes they decide to bring in? How has your style evolved from those experiences too, I can see you’re deep in workwear, are there any brands or other gems you can share with us?

Sure. I mean I can’t speak on Browns as I never worked there but I did interview for a role at the same time I got hired by Harvey Nichols.

Goodhood and Browns are similar in the sense they’re both small stores but the brands and stock differs massively.

Browns is more designer oriented, whereas Goodhood is more hip, niche and Japanese brands.

Both sales roles are most likely the same generic concepts of serve customers, help out with delivery, man the tills. Thing with Goodhood is they waited around 6 months to till train me due to the fact both floors have like one till each. Another thing to keep in mind is at Goodhood (and probably the same for most small stores) is you do the cleaning. Bigger stores have cleaners to do that for you.

My style has always been inspired outside of my jobs but I will admit Goodhood and HN put me onto some really cool brands like Casablanca and Jacquemus (neither are workwear, but make really nice shirts).

Workwear wise, Stan Ray, D***ies and Carhartt WIP are the big three tbh. There’s an online store called Blacksmith based in Peckham that buys random brands and wholesale Champion (Eco fleece, not Reverse Weave), and Dubble Ware is back but that’s the most I can recommend.

Oh I forgot to mention buying.

Curation is always handled my visual display teams, and buying is handled by buyers. You will have no say ever in what comes into the store unless you’re a buyer.

In my current role at HN I’m a brand consultant so I go over buying choices and tell them what performs and what doesn’t. It’s more influencer than buyer. But in those smaller stores like Browns and Goodhood where you’re don’t look after a brand in general, you won’t have a choice in what comes in.

Oh yeah.

The Great Divide (thegreat-divide.com) is a London based online store that sells all workwear and western type gear.

Quote them n tag me in them I’ll add whatever to the OP that goes for everyone too if y’all want anything added or removed to the OP just lmk!

Dude just dropped a whole lecture

It’s great to hear about your experience again bro, we all appreciate it! By the way I meant the differences between Goodhood and Harvey Nichols, instead of Browns ( I was thinking about them because I got rejected from them also )

Also blacksmith is hard been following them for a min, they opened up a new line called service works which is cool too. I grew up in Peckham too which makes it hit harder

I had a look at the great divide website and I might pick up some stuff from there. Keep blessing the thread with your experiences, it was nice to hear from an insiders’s perspective. Oh yeah, what other non workwear brands should be look out for (new and old)?

allusaclothing.com/view-all-brands/camber.html

Camber USA has really nice good quality basics. I have some of their 8oz tees. This boutique I used to work at, used these blanks.

LC King who make Pointer stuff are dope too:

lcking.com

Oh. My bad. Um yeah basically to be 100% honest with you there isn't a lot of difference.

Given HN's location and its competition/brands it sells they expect you to be a bit more formal depending on the customer (especially high spenders) and if you work on a clientele basis you end up talking to people for hours and giving them water and s***, all while providing normal customer service. You just adapt to it really.

That being said our commission targets are usually unrealistic as can be so we barely get high spenders. I work in Men's denim and there's loads of casual customers so it's a lot more laid back - quite similar to how things are at GH.

Oh and as for brands, idk. I feel like after being on lockdown for 3 months I hate clothes now but in terms of everywhere I've worked:

• Reception (Goodhood, Liberty) is a dope brand that does graphic tees inspired by restaurants all over the world
• Oliver Spencer (Harvey Nichols) does cool casual tailoring, can work on street fits if you tried hard enough
• Ralph (HN) is timeless, they keep bringing back 90s heritage graphics like the Polo Bear and Polo Sport stuff, however the new tees they print on are f***ing awful
• Saturdays NYC (GH, HN) is nice
• Sunspel (HN) do good basic tees if you work a good enough job to afford them
• 40s and Shorties (HN) did a collab with us and it was one of the best brands we ever stocked. Shame they got dropped
• Les Tien (HN) does the best quality sweats of all time. Shame the price is complete s***e.

I got a pair of les tien sweats and their layer jacket. Really good basics but definitely agree that their pricing is whack.

I worked at a boutique and it was a pretty bad experience. The owners were so controlling and always wanted things done their way. They did not give a f*** about staff feedback. The main buyer was horrible and would bend over for the owners, despite staff and assistant buyers advocating for different brands, diff size runs, stocking more from brands other than tees, etc. Some sketchy stuff, bad business practices, playing favorites, all of that bullshit. A couple of times we had brand reps come in heated about not receiving payments or missing returned inventory. One time I even had a brand rep come in and literally grab their products off the shelves lmao. I got some cool experience though, I learned some stuff about buying, manufacturers for good basics, e-commerce, and visual merchandising.

Thread has been boomin the last couple days