Just realized that advice about 'less is more' was right for my jacket design

Last spring I was working on a bomber jacket for a local show in Austin. A older designer named Carla told me to ditch the zippered pockets and extra hardware. I fought her on it for weeks. Kept adding more panels and snaps. Finally tried her way with just two hand pockets and a simple liner. It sold out in two days at the market. Anyone else had a moment where stripping down a design actually worked better?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.ruby26d ago

Did you end up changing the fabric weight or lining when you dropped the extra hardware too? Curious because I tried something similar on a denim vest last winter, pulled off all the patches and snaps, and it looked good but the material was too stiff without the weight balancing it out. Ended up having to switch to a softer wash to make it feel right. Did Carla have any thoughts on that kind of thing or was it all about the surface details?

william_torres26d ago

Why would you want less when you could have more features that let you charge a higher price? Sounds like you just got lucky with the right crowd at that show.

scott.drew26d ago

Has anyone ever thought about how more features can actually make the piece harder to sell to a certain type of buyer? I remember reading somewhere about a guy who made these heavy custom vests with chains and all sorts of extras, and @william_torres he could barely move them until he stripped them down to just the leather and a single zipper. Sometimes the "less" part is what lets you hit a price point that opens up a whole new crowd who wouldn't have touched the fancy version with a ten foot pole. Like how some guitarists swear by the stripped down Telecaster models because the fancy ones with all the switches just get in the way.