Thursday 29 November 2012

2013 - My prediction for wedding suit trends.


Here are my annual predictions for the 'Wedding Suit Hire' industry, fortunately I don't foresee one particular trend for 2013 (as I have in previous years) but rather an eclectic bag of different tastes and ideas, I think this could be the current state of the wedding industry, as a whole and I for one, think that is fantastic news for everyone!  The trend for individuality and creativity can only lead to more unique and wonderful weddings. 
One particular trend does stand out for me at present and that is 'Individuality' I can only see this trend  becoming stronger & stronger throughout 2013. There is only one problem with this, 'individuality' and 'suit hire' are not necessarily two terms used in the same sentence!  This is where I think the creativity will have to come in, grooms will be increasingly purchasing custom made suits or accessories (or both) whilst hiring the perfect ensemble to compliment his outfit.  Essentially acting more like a bride (and complimenting bridesmaids) when purchasing 'The One'.


  
2012 saw yet another increase in popularity for 'Three Piece Suits'  Our 'Harrogate' & 'Worcester' hire ranges were once again our most popular hire suits.  I predict the popularity of 'Three Piece' suits to continue or more accurately the popularity of 'fancy' wedding waistcoats to continue to decline.  

However I do foresee a return of the 'Wedding' waistcoat,  just a slightly different take on the 'usual' wedding waistcoat.  I predict plain coloured waistcoats, pure wool and double breasted waistcoats to slowly start to be seen thoughout 2013.  



Slim Fit will still be very popular throughout 2013 however I also predict a trend of a 'Tailored' fit (a fitted suit, which is not slim or skinny).
Made to Measure services will continue to be increasingly popular because of the trend in slim & tailored fit.  
A return to more traditional modes of dress for men will be seen through the 2013 wedding season.  



Neckwear will be a rather varied bag in 2013.  I predict the decline of the ruche/scrunchy style of cravat to continue but I predict the more traditonal style of cravat to be seen again.  Ties in regular, slim and skinny widths will be, once again, the most popular style of neckwear worn by our grooms but I am increasingly excited about bow-ties and I predict that 2013 could just be the year that bow-ties make it into the mainstream for wedding suits. 

Accessories will be the must-have for the 2013 groom, tie bars, collar bars and pocket watches will be used increasingly.

Monday 26 November 2012

Christmas Opening Times

Please note Christmas Opening Hours refer to when appointments will be available over the festive period*. 

We remain 'By Appointments Only'  

*Also refer to the hours Jack Bunney Limited will be available for collection and delivery of hire suits.


23rd of December 2013 - 9am to 5pm - By Appointment

24th of December 2013 - CLOSED

25th of December 2013 - CLOSED

26th of December 2013 - CLOSED

27th of December 2013 - CLOSED

28th of December 2013 - 8:30am to 5pm - By Appointment

29th of December 2013 - CLOSED

30th of December 2013 - 9am to 5pm - By Appointment

31st of December 2013 - 9am to 1pm - By Appointment

1st of January 2014 - CLOSED

2nd of January 2014 - 9am to 5pm - By Appointment 



Please telephone 02085941654 to make an appointment for this period. 

Thank You
Jack Bunney Limited

2013 Wedding Suit Hire Collection - Whats Happening.

2012 has proven to be another awesome year for Jack Bunneys.  Once again we have surpassed our own expectations and hired, sold and made more wedding suits than we even thought possible!  We have met some wonderful people and we have been part of some truly incredible weddings.  We consider ourselves very fortunate to have carved out a client base of creative, particular and discerning customers.

Where do we go from here?

In 2013 we are hoping to expand our 'Wedding Suit Hire' collection and further integrate our other more bespoke services.

 How do we intend to do this?

We have created a new 'Wedding Suit Hire' suit, which is a departure form our usual styles, we have called this style 'The York'

'The York'  is not like our usual styles, it is still Slim-Line, but is a more casual, relaxed style of wedding suit.   The fabrics are soft lightweight cloths available in two colours.  First there is a chocolate brown, this incredibly lightweight fabric is a 'True' chocolate brown and is made of the finest super 100's pure wool.  It feels luxurious to wear and has a softer finish than some of our other more formal hire suits.   The second is a light blue, the fabric is a lightweight mohair and wool blend from Vitale Barberis, it is fine, luxurious but still sharp.
The York differs from our other suits because it is not the usual Jack Bunney 'Ceremony Suit'.  Our usual wedding suits are normally specifically designed to fall between the usual suit genres of Morning Suit, Evening Suit and Lounge suit.  However the York suit is definitely a lounge suit.   It does not have a covered button, like our other wedding suits, instead it has a bone button.  It does not have a bluff edge like our other wedding suits, instead it has a saddle stitch on the lapels and the pockets.  It also features an outer ticker pocket, unlike any other wedding suit we currently have.

The York  Wedding suit was designed with the primary purpose of being suitable for the popular 'Vintage Style' of wedding.  The 'Vintage' tag however is not exclusive, this term has become more of an umbrella term for those weddings which have a 'Vintage' feel or theme, it also incorporates those weddings with a 'Country' feel or theme and those 'DIY' styles of weddings.  The Vintage term now applies to almost any wedding style which is more unusual and creative (our type of customers!).

When we designed the York we designed it is a Three Piece Suit, this means we designed it with a matching waistcoat first and foremost.  However we know our customers and we know that having a unique wedding, means you need a lot of opportunities to stamp your own identity on your wedding suit.  So we also designed some new waistcoat options for the York suit.   These are not like the standard wedding style of waistcoats you would associate with a wedding suit.  Just like the design of the suit itself, we wanted a total departure from the 'conventional', we designed 'Pure Wool' waistcoats in both single and double breasted to compliment the Vintage them perfectly.  We also have a vast selection of other colours available in these waistcoats, which will not be available to hire but rather have made-to-measure on a bespoke basis, thus creating a truly unique ensemble.

Accessories are also a rather important factor when considering a 'Vintage' theme, accessories make all the difference when creating a unique, personalised ensemble for your wedding suit.  With this in mind we created our new online shop, to sell all of the most popular accessories for our new wedding suit designs.  Some of these accessories cannot be purchased anywhere else, and will compliment your style perfectly.  The Jack Bunney Shop only opened recently and is proving rather popular.  It was created with the sole purpose of supplying all of the accessories (with the exception of shirts and shoes) for our new 2013 wedding suits.

Our final new idea for 2013 is something which we are very excited about.  It incorporates our new Vintage Wedding Hire Suit with our most popular 'Made To Measure' service.  We are calling this service 'Bespoke Hire'  It is a little complicated at first but the idea is actually rather simple.  When we designed the York suit, we designed the suit to perfectly compliment two of our most popular 'Made-to-Measure' suits.  The two Made to Measure suits are both a country tweed check, one in a brown/fawn shade, the other a grey/blue shade, both in a superfine super 120's worsted wool.  We also made, from these fabrics two ranges of 'Hire' waistcoats to compliment these suits.   We are however only allowing those Grooms that choose a 'Made to Measure' suit to hire these waistcoats.  This will make sure those only those customers who choose to have something created which is completely unique will have the opportunity of hiring suits which perfectly match.  This new service has all ready proven to exceptionally popular and we hope this trend grows throughout 2013.

Those are our new ideas for 2013 so far.  Obviously there will be a few surprises as we progress through the wedding season so please keep an eye on our Facebook & Twitter feed for the latest info.





Tuesday 20 November 2012

Wedding Suit Hire Availability Update - 2013


As our 'Wedding Suit Hire' service has increased over the years, our business has been busier and busier!!

This does however mean that to meet the demand we can only book weddings which we can actually fulfil.  This ensures each wedding is given the correct amount of time and attention, this also ensures we have a full stock of sizes available for each wedding.  Jack Bunneys has a long tradition of excellence in customer service and we would NEVER let any of our customers down, therefor we can only book so many weddings every week.

I realise this is disappointing for some and I would like to apologise for being unable to supply 'Hire' suits for those whose weddings fall on the dates listed below:

The below dates are now FULLY BOOKED for 'Wedding Suit Hire'



9/10/13 to 15/10/13: FULLY BOOKED


16/10/13 to 22/10/13: FULLY BOOKED


23/10/13 to 29/10/13: FULLY BOOKED


30/10/13 to 01/12/13: FULLY BOOKED


01/12/13 to 06/01/14: FULLY BOOKED







21/05/2014 to 27/5/2014: VERY LIMITED AVAILABILITY *





*Very Limited Availability: There are now restrictions on some ranges, some ranges may be unavailable.  Also some restrictions may be in place on the quantity of suits available. 






Please be reminded that our Made to Measure services, Made to Order services and other Retail options are unaffected.  (please allow up to 12 weeks for the completion of a made-to-order or made-to-measure)










Friday 16 November 2012

Copyright theft from jackbunneys.co.uk

For those of you that follow Jack Bunneys over on Facebook you may know what this post is going to be about before you even read it.  But for those of you who don't know, I shall give you a quick run down of what this is all about.

Over the years our little business has always tried its very best to be original.  We deliberately try to look at how things are done in a slightly different way.  It is a sad fact that the reason that we do this, is because we have to, we are a very small little business, tucked away in a corner of East London that most people do not venture to all that often.  This inevitably means that in order to attract customers we have to offer something special.  We have been very lucky and have worked very hard to achieve this.   Now we are in a fortunate position of having a reputation for offering an alternative to other more mainstream businesses.
This has become the issue, because of our success over recent years, we have found more and more businesses 'plagiarise' our work.  Either stealing our images direct from our websites, stealing 'text' from our websites and blog posts or just simply stealing our ideas.

I understand that as a professional business owner, this is just another part of business.  In the past I have always dealt with these issues in a similar way.  I send a very polite email asking them to remove the offending material, if this email has no response or no action is taken, I will then send a letter and finally the threat of legal action.  And in the past this action has always been successful.

But....it is very annoying!

There is never any compensation, never an apology and more importantly the customers never find out what a bunch of unprofessional, unimaginative, untrustworthy people these are.

I can assure you that if the offenders had either the intellect or the imagination to create our images (or our text) they would not need to steal them.  This leaves the only other conclusion possible; the business people who feel the need to steal copyrighted material actually do not know what they are doing and neither have the skills or the ability to create the product they are trying to sell you, which in turn makes them dishonest.

So that is my general rant about stealing copyrighted material over and now back to the 'real' reason I decided to write this post.   I will try not to let my own personal grievances influence your thoughts and simply let you decide what you think of the situation:

1. Back in 2008, I was researching wedding photographers and come across a blog article from a photographer, where the TOG had become frustrated with constant haggling and comparing of prices, so to try to prevent this in future this high-end wedding photographer decided to write a blog article detailing exactly what was involved in her job & what you actually receive for your money.  I thought this was a great idea and wrote my own article detailing exactly what we do for our money.  I did this as a personal exercise at first, it was interesting to list exactly what is involved in each and every suit hire we do.  I then decided to post this article on our blog and use this information on our current brochures, price lists etc.   This is the article:

http://jackbunney.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/wedding-hire-service.html


2.  More recently in 2011, I was asked a question by a customer which prompted another blog post all about our company.  In this post I also included some of the main points made in the previous blog post mentioned.  This blog post is here:

http://jackbunney.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/whats-difference.html


3.  Then later in 2011 we had our new website designed.  The designers, using their own initiative decided to use the recent blog post for the 'About Us' page,  on the provision that I could always change the text later.  I decided I quite liked the text and left it alone.

http://www.jackbunneys.co.uk/about_Jack_Bunneys.htm


4. Which brings us to now.  It seems that another company has decided to use the text from these two blog posts and our website for their own means.  Using the exact same text (even the poor grammar) on the front page of their website and the 'About Us' page of their website (coincidentally).

Now I don't normally do this, and yes I do realise this may not be the wisest decision I have ever taken, but as I said I am getting rather cheesed off with it now, but I am going to name the company and have attached images which are screen shots of their website, so you can compare them at your leisure, (just in case they decide to change their website when they see this post).

The company is John Francis, their website is http://www.john-francis.com  &; these are the screen shots from today.  

I would sincerely like the owners of John Francis to respond (not in private) online by posting on this blog. To explain excatly why text was copy & pasted from one of your competitors websites.

  I am reasonably sure you will respond with the standard line of 'I know nothing about it, it's all the web designers fault' but as far as I am concerned that is not really an excuse, if you really REALLY cared about your business and what you do, you would have the ability to write a few lines of original content for you website.

This is a real issue for all businesses and at the moment a serious problem for everyone in the wedding industry.  Our troubles, as a business, are small by comparison to some, I am reasonably sure that everyone I know within the wedding industry who creates their own products from scratch, has been affected.

I also know that most businesses would rather not involve themselves in an online debate but would rather simply just have the images or text removed and get on with their jobs.  This has always been my line, I must admit, but consider for a moment the possibility of doing things a different way, if everyone who has been effected by copyright theft, instead 'Names and Shames' these companies online, using as much evidence and information as they can gather, the consumer will become wise to these charlatans and hopefully avoid them. This, as far as I can tell, is the only thing that is going to stop them, after all if there is no money to be made in copying your hard work then there is no point stealing it!