Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Cesar Cruz, CEO at Sebastian Cruz Couture:
Q: For those who haven’t heard of it, what is the best way to describe Sebastian Cruz Couture?
A: We consider ourselves to be digital stylist for people all over the world. We educate the masses on the value of image; dressing well. We inspired them with our digital content (our daily social media looks). We empower them with our products.
Q: What is your backstory? How did your company come into being?
A: Fashion design is a wearable art. Branding is all about storytelling. My wife Natasha Cruz is the artist, and I am a storyteller. We never knew we would find success and build a brand in the fashion industry. This was truly our destiny. She has always been very passionate about design/drawing. I have always been very passionate about storytelling/painting a picture that has multiple reasonsings. After years of being together she showed talent for design and I simply saw an opportunity to paint a picture around it. Why the name Sebastian? She always wanted to name her first Son Sebastian, and I wanted to create a brand that we would be emotionally attached to. After we got married in November 2012 we figured out “our excuse to build a relationship with our customer.” We incorporated the brand February 2013, but (a lot of people don’t know this) we didn’t go full time into the brand until the summer of 2016! Previous to 2016 we had a franchise model, where Entrepreneurs wanting to get into the fashion space can buy into the brand and have exclusivity in their state or country (outside of the U.S.A.). They would be empowered to open up distributors for the brand (wholesale accounts) and sell our pocket squares around the world via stores. This model grew very quickly. within 3 months or so we already have over 25 franchisees and after 6 months we had a franchisee in every state. We had about 7 franchisees outside of the US that took control over several countries. They had a much bigger buy in but greater opportunity. My priority from 2014 (when we launched the brand) was to make sure the franchisees were finding success. In 2016, I realized very quickly that brick and mortar was not going to be the future. Many stores one day would close and therefore all the products we had in stores/all that work we put in would be washed away. I saw an opportunity to shift all of our efforts and go 100% eCommerce. So in the summer of 2016 I opened up our Shopify store, and used our first garment our White Paisley Dinner Jacket to launched the brand online. It was a huge success right away, one that lead us to go full time into Sebastian Cruz Couture. In its first year it became a Multimillion dollar eCommerce store. It honestly blew us away. I never thought it could grow so fast. I started paying attention to all the analytics and making sure that everything we did was based on numbers, and not necessary because “i feel it would look or perform better.” We hired the best agencies to run specific channels that required full time attention. This has lead to where we are today.
Everything we do as to solve some sort of problem; has a purpose. It all started with the pocket square for us AKA handkerchief. When we first conceptualized what became our first product and the heart of Sebastian Cruz Couture we noticed people were trying to fold their pocket squares in a certain way so that they stayed up in their pocket. It never happened. All the pocket squares available (and still to date for the most part) are all silk. You are not really able to fold these pocket squares in any way with the purpose of them staying up, because they will not. They will fall in or out of your pocket with basic movement. God forbid the wind hits it, because it will mean the square will fall.
We looked at this problem as an opportunity and designed a pocket square that was of high quality Italian linen with a hand crochet border. We realized that the turkish cotton we used with the border in conjunction with the linen fabric allowed the pocket square to be malleable, and keep the fold in the pocket without it moving around. At the time I only had my personal instagram page @callmerickie where I would post daily looks. It was getting a ton of engagement, and it was the page where I first took a look with our prototype pocket square without saying anything about it and we noticed everyone was asking immediately where to get the pocket square. The crochet border allowed us to create a contrast where we would many times match the border of the pocket square to our shoe color. This would make for a very unique look and start the movement that really created our brand.
Q: Can you give us insights into your products? What makes them unique?
A: We knew we didn’t want to be for the masses. We wanted to be a luxury brand (which is aspirational) and focused on the three principles mentioned above. Educate, Inspire, and Empower. The first two we offer for FREE. The last one the customer pays for. The customer gets empowered when the purchase/experience first hand our products. They are very unique and guaranteed to make a customer feel something. The compliments come with it. We noticed that when a customer purchases something from you and they receive an extremely positive reaction from their friends they become very loyal to the brand. That has been our experience with our loyal customers.
Our products are our excuse to build a relationship with people. We are blessed to have many loyal customers. Our collections are now designed around our loyal customer base. Our customers love out not only for the personal touch we give them, but really because the product is extremely unique and comes with an engaging way to showcase customers how to wear it. Really no other brand is doing this. We believe that the product has to be important/unique but the execution has to be even more creative. We show people how to wear that one jacket they purchased 10 different ways. This way the customer maximizes their wardrobe.
Q: Are there any customization options?
A: We have what’s called a “just in time” model. All of the fabrics you see are designed by us in partnership with the mills we work with (located in Italy & France). These are the same mills that Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, Fendi, Tom Ford work with. They essentially “let us in” because of our unique model and knowhow to where the fashion industry is headed. They knew for them to survive they had to partner up with creative mindes that have a different way of executing fashion online. They know that the luxury brands that have been around for centuries are hurting because of brick and mortar sales being down. Many of them have always operated from stores, and although they sell online the way they execute it is not scalable as it stands. Thus, hurting them in sales and creating uncertainty for them in the marketplace.
All of the fabrics you see on our website we design, and stock at our production houses in Europe. When customers order we submit into production and within 8-12 business days their garments are done. This allows us to offer customization to customers. Now a days customers want to make their products their own and we allow that. We actually have the ability to make a suit in one day (upon request). This has allowed us to “say yes” to a customer that discovers us on a Monday and is getting married on a Saturday. Customers can use our find your fit section to measure themselves, select “custom” when adding the pieces to their cart and complete the checkout for their handmade/bespoke suit.
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Q: What are the company’s plans and goals for the future?
A: Where we once started with a pocket square we now offer the full head to toe look. We will continue to expand our product selection, and everything else you can think of. We already design even interior of homes! We are beginning to build relationships with home furnishing brands! We will eventually come out with eyewear, perfume, bags, jewelry etc… We already have a womenswear brand that we have been working on for sometime now. Knowing we had to get into women was pretty simple, when most of the customers that find us our because of their wives :) We will continue to stay loyal to our loyal customers, and focus on providing them more options while showing them how to pair the look together. This is our biggest value prop, one that has become the heart of the brand. Other brands cannot develop this. It’s a talent and part of the storytelling process that creates the brand.
Our company is primarily located in Europe. We have multiple production houses. My wife and I live in Parkland, FL. We have a small factory in Miami, where we continue to hand make our pocket squares. All of our garments and HQ is in Europe so Natasha and I are always back and forth. We very much love the culture in Europe. It has become a second home for us. Operating from the U.S. allows us to distribute to people all over the world. We don’t have the stress of brick and mortar nor do we have that risk exposure with those fixed overheads that come with it. We have a model that is flexible and scalable.
We believe that one can have the best product in the world but if the execution is not there it will fail. I also believe that if the foundation is not solid it will collapse. This is why I made sure that anything we added to the brand was being added on a solid foundation that is scalable, flexible in the world we live in.
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