I’ve had my eye on The Buttery Store, the UK’s latest online menswear boutique, ever since they first contacted me back at the start of 2011. Since then I’ve actively followed their Twitter and Tumblr, monitoring their progress and watching it evolve. The store launched last week, after months of hard work from the two co-owners, Lee & Edd. I was curious about the store, and what motivated them to start it, and furthermore, what degree of experience, if any, did they have in the world of menswear retail. I caught up with them last week to find out.
Hi guys, you good?
L: All good thanks. Currently dotting the I’s and crossing the lower case t’s. Been a hectic last couple of weeks but we are happy with what we have achieved.
How did Buttery come about, and what qualifies you guys to run a store with this brand pedigree. What are your backgrounds?
L: I was the Buying and Merch Manager for Vans Europe for 7 years and always wanted to branch out and try my own thing. Me and Edd had been friends for while and always had a mutual appreciation for fine garments and on-line shopping. One drunken afternoon our ideals were cemented and our business was born. Just at this time Vans moved their office from London to Europe, I took redundancy and this provided me the resources to make the drunken ramblings reality.
E: The Buttery Store was born on a balcony of good friends gaff on a boozy bank holiday Monday watching the air show, waking up the next morning remembering the conversation texting Lee to make sure weren’t both being a bit romantic Lee giving it the nod and here we are. We both have a huge passion for the industry and are avid online purchasers, I had a few bug bares about some bad internet shopping experiences so we ironed out all the whys and wherefores before approaching the branding agency next step was to budget for everything and raid our savings much to the delight of our other halves and got the ball rolling.
We then nailed a shortlist of our favorite brands, turned up at Bread & Butter Berlin January 2011 with a blog some business cards and small plastic cows, sold the arse out of our idea and left Berlin with big smiles and secured brands. From there we developed a brand concept with our web team and went through the motion of building an online store, our ideas were simple from the start user friendly store quick to load, good stock control system and a phone that’s answered by people. We wanted to bring a certain air of novelty around the store with the cow being the mascot, partly because we try not to take ourselves too seriously and partly because with are both complete foodies!
Our golden rule is to try not to polarize or alienate the customer, we have a mish mash of brands from the dapper gent to the street rat Kool Kid Brands that you will be able to find at The Buttery Store for A/W 11 and S/S 12 range.
We have secured an UK online exclusive with christopher shannon x Eastpak catwalk collection for our A/W 11 launch, and european exclusive bag from Jansport Heritage. The store Is owned and operated by Ed and Lee, a whirlwind bit of background history. Edd, 28 years old, studied at Central St Martins went on to a career in jewelry design got fidgety and left, somehow woke up one morning owning a bar in my hometown called the Sunrooms, owned and operated it for four years, unable to dampen my passion for the fashion industry I decided to follow my dream as cheesy as that sounds and the rest is history!
Where is the store based? Is it a physical store or online only?
E: The Store is based in Westcliff On Sea and we are purely online only, we had an allocated budget and it made sense to focus on an online store over bricks and mortar, saying that we are not ruling out a physical store for the future.
You’re straight out of the gate with a multitude of awesome brands, how did you select them and what defines a brand as being right for the Buttery store?
L: 12 Months ago we set out with the aim of securing a brand list that encapsulates everything we both thought The Buttery Store should stand for. Heritage/Authenticity/pedigree are all key elements. We both agreed that the small details really count for a lot and you can see this running though everything we do, from the brands themselves, to the web site design, and even our packaging. We also love brands with a story and personality. Brands that really speak to people!
E: I had a bag full of my favorite brands as does Lee we then picked through these to try and narrow down a suitable blend and a nice mix of different styles for the day dresser and the night owl. It’s not just about what we like of course, we try and gauge peoples response to brands by blogging them way in advance, we know we wont suit everyones pallet but we want to introduce potential customers to brands they may not have come across yet. I have a slight obsession with denim so we have a few denim brands in the mix, not too many but a nice variety!
Are you at all worried about opening a new store with the widespread economic downturn?
E: Without the risk of sounding like complete douche bags and quoting straight from Lee’s mouth “anything worth having is never easy”. It’s very apparent how fucked up the economy has become and to say it hasn’t affected our decision making about certain issues would be a lie! Alas it’s there and we’re here so we need to keep thinking of ways to keep things fresh and concentrate on the job at hand.
L: Probably best not to mention this one to Stressed Eddy (ha ha). Seriously though this is obviously in the back of our minds and we’re under no illusions that it’s going to be a smooth ride. We still firmly believe that people will be willing to part with their hard earned cash if a piece talks to them on a number of levels. Detailing/craftsmanship and a story are so important. A prime example would be Heritage Research who hand make all garments in the UK/Use the worlds finest zips/ and base each collections on a period in history.
I’ve been following your Tumblr for months and months now, which documents the building of the brand/store. What has been the most exciting part of the process?
E: Just got to say Tumblr is a great tool it’s been our home since january we jumped on the Tumblr vibe way before Facebook and Twitter, it was the only way we could keep people updated on our progress and journey whilst the site was being developed.
Everything about the process so far has been very exciting, the brands we’ve picked up, the places we’ve been to, the people we’ve met. Yeah there have been some real shitter days, goods not arriving on time, delays on the launch, me being over critical about everything, a certain online payment company that move at the pace of a tortoise! It’s all part of the ride and I wouldn’t change a thing.
My own personal highlight has been securing an online exclusive catwalk collection from Eastpak x Christopher Shannon, A. the bags are unbelievably nice, B. It’s an honor to be taken seriously and for the brands to be supporting us so much. Oh and one other highlight was sitting outside Burg Und Schild (An awesome store I might add in Berlin) very hungover after a busy “networking” session at BBB and Capsule, meeting a couple of mental Canadian guys Brandon and Bahzad from Naked And Famous Denim, drinking Whisky with them and talking denim and general shit for hours Lee giving them an English lesson and introducing Canada to the word Clunge! Off the back of that we will be adding Naked And Famous Denim to our brand list in the not so distant future.
L: We decided early on that we wanted to share our experiences of building a business. We are normal guys and wanted to get our personalities and views across and tumblr has been a great tool in helping this process. The Blog contains All Things Buttery, whether this is music/art/fashion or even facial hair. In all honesty hand on heart I can say I have loved every minute of the journey so far. Even on a really bad day(and we do have them) we count ourselves lucky that are we doing what we love. My personal highlight was our first trip to B&B Berlin armed with a business card and a box of toy cows. It was amazing the response we received and the Brands really feeling what were all about. We came away happy men.
Likewise, what has been the worst or most frustrating part?
L: The most frustrating part is having to rely on others to get things done. e.g. Our friends over at Merchant Services.
Any major setbacks?
E: Again the only setbacks have been waiting on people to get their bits done, and without sounding like I’m moaning the merchant service provider!
What can expect next from you guys?
E: You can expect us to keep developing the site there’s a few aspects we aren’t 100% happy with, due to budget issues we couldn’t get all the photography done ourselves this season so S/S 12 will be purely in house photography only. Keep hunting out new and exciting garments, we will be constantly updating the site with new stock to keep everything looking fresh and introducing some awesome brands for S/S 12.
We really hope everyone enjoys the Buttery experience and we urge people to keep us updated on any ideas or issues they may encounter we can only grow as a true independent store with the help of you guys out there. All the support so far has been fantastic and I’d like to say a huge thank you.
L: Plenty on the horizon. Adding and seeking out more Awesome Brands. E.g SS12 we have already added Vanishing Elephant/Madien Noir and Super Sunglasses. We are currently developing our own line of Accessories. A look book and official launch party are also on the horizon.
