On our visit to Tacoma to catch another glimpse of the FlowerHouse installation, we discovered another gem born from the Spaceworks Tacoma project: the better-used menswear mercantile, Feather & Oar. 

 

Previously a three-month retail popup as part of a joint initiative of the City of Tacoma and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce designed to activate empty storefronts, the initiative makes no- and low-cost temporary space available to artists, fledgling creative entrepreneurs, organizations, and community groups by placing them in unused commercial properties. Similar projects have been successfully implemented in a variety of cities — from London to Ohio — as a response to the recession.

 

The new permanent Feather & Oar is a handsome space with a classic assortment of men's apparel and accessories ranging from designer to vintage. Beautifully merchandised with a haberdashery charm, the store is unequivocally tailored for both the fashion pro and novice alike with a timelessness aura. Unlike consignment stores or a vintage stall within an antique store, you won't find packed rounders of vastly different styles of clothing. In fact, the layout and assortment is so genuinely cared-for that you'd hardly guess you were in a used clothing store until you look at the prices.

 

Visual aesthetic aside, it's owners JD Elquist and Travis Pranger that bring life to the brand (the third partner, Drew Collier, was not in the store on our visit). While retail might be the name of the game, the experience is more like casual Sunday supper with fashion as the main course. The duo make an effort to introduce friends, neighbors, and customers to each other as they offer styling tips and suggestions befitting each client's own personal story.

 

As we pinpoint growth and opportunities in the menswear category, we're confident that non-digital concepts like Feather & Oar are an important part of the cultural experience — giving every man a face-to-face opportunity to affordably express individual style.

 

Change is relative.

 

After much anticipation, the new WSJ Magazine and the new T Magazine hit newsstands within a week of each other. One cover headline read “PURE ELEGANCE”, and the other “TRUE ELEGANCE”. Yes, both headlines were in all caps.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the drama, Deborah Needleman was the editor in chief of the WSJ Magazine, but left to overhaul T magazine for The New York Times. WWD has stories about both here and here that are worth reading.

 

This isn’t a tribute or take down piece of either approach. Truthfully, we were very excited to compare and contrast how dueling editors would relaunch and redesign from the helm. There was an infographic in the works and plenty of quantitative research so as to carefully give an unbiased opinion based on facts. We counted the times that each editor used terms like change or simplicity (too many). But, in the end, the results and content was shockingly similar:

 

Kitten heels – Check. Supermodel profile – Indeed. Black and white statement pictorial – Done. Designer profiles – Without a doubt. Game changing rings from Balenciaga by Nicholas Ghesquière – Spot on. Feature on the son or daughter of a mega fashion portfolio founder (Pinault vs. Arnault) – Naturally.

 

According to our research, the biggest difference between the two came in the form of advertisements and photo editorials. While both produced excellent feature stories, T Magazine had 11% more ads as a portion of total pages, but had 21% less photo layouts. If that is an effective long term strategy or not, remains to be seen.

There's a strong message about branding, innovation, and execution however, that is relevant both inside and outside the media and fashion forum: when launching a product or service, don't simply subscribe to a formulaic approach based simply on what others are implementing. Create your own vision, differentiate, and find a true customer need.