Good morning from D&S HQ
On a very a warm August morning, it's great to make time to sit next to the fan and bring you up to date on the world of Dapper & Suave.
We've both been through furlough and then redundancy from our day jobs, but as you will see from our earlier posts, it's given a chance to apply both our business and creative skills to the business we love.
COVID-19 has had such a big impact on the world, and everyone's story is different.
One way that we thought we could make the best of the situation was to raid our fabric cupboard and give them new life as facemasks. Our brand is known for it's love of quirky designs, and our only rule has been they have to be great quality and still have our brand identity.
As the world has shifted ever more online, we've also set ourselves the challenge that if your order comes in before 3pm UK time during the week, we will post your order tracked that night, sometimes arriving in the UK the very next day!
As online has become our only opportunity to talk to and meet our customers, we've also spent time on the website to get it looking it's very best. We want to welcome you as we would in person, making the whole experience easy.
It's the same with our Etsy shop platform, where we've listened to our customers (Caroline and Charlotte we're thinking of you - thank you!) and grouped the choice of designs (60!) into Animals, Florals, Interests and Shapes.
In Animals you'll find out best selling cows, butterflies and cats and more.
In Florals, we've created styles for everyone in blacks, navy and brights.
Interests is where we've had fun with fruits, beards and even wine corks.
And finally, in Shapes you'll find spots, stars and chevron designs.
We love the stories we hear back from people...
One customer buys them for his 90 year old grandmother; other customers have started buying them for their friends because they like the way we wrap them.
We've had one gentleman who is sadly losing his sight and likes the bright and cheerful designs to wear when he takes public transport.
Personally we've both found that wearing masks is not something we're getting used to yet, but the fact that we can wear a bit of our personality on our face helps. We're both smilers and we're learning to smile with our eyes, and remembering that you can still speak to people when you are wearing one!
Don't worry - we'll still be bringing more pocket squares, bow ties and ties into the range in the coming weeks. We're keeping our posts about facemasks to #facemaskfriday but we hope they still bring a smile.
Thanks for reading - we're off back to the sewing machine!
Stay safe and stylish
Rob
D&S