The complete “lifestyle” service to customers can be seen around you every day. Coffee shops do not just offer coffee and donuts anymore. You will find CDs, books, kitchen supplies, syrups, and even ways to contribute to charitable causes. The same principle applies to shops offering the luxury lifestyle, although the selection of products and services entails a more refined choice of the customer’s preferences.

Take Francis Ford Coppola for example. We all know him for his movies, but his name has become a brand that means high-quality to the consumer. The Coppola Winery bottles and offers their own select labels. At the shop on the winery itself you may expect to find many other options of wine. But what they really sell is not wine, rather they sell premium quality. Instead of a hundred types of other wines, you find goods that serve the lifestyle of their visitors.

These luxury goods include premium sauces, homemade pastas, cigars, subscriptions to Coppola’s celebrated short fiction publication, exclusive vacation packages in South America and the Caribbean, and… you guessed it… Rani Arabella cashmere. If you are a retailer of high-end products, learn from a master of high-end production, and provide end-to-end service to your customer by offering luxury goods for all their needs.

How do you serve a client in the 21st century? A vast array of services tailored to the specific needs of the customer. If your customer is shopping based on price, provide a wide range of services at the the greatest value to their pocketbook. The online portal into a vast Product Search comparison is one of the many tailored services that has driven Google to such a superpower in consumer shopping. If your customer is looking for quality, offering a narrow range of quality products only serves your clients halfway. Take this boutique in Atlanta for example; in these pictures you see the Rani Arabella section of their store. They don’t just stock cashmere blankets in one of every color - they carry the complete line of Rani Arabella luxury goods. So when a customer needs a product for a different room, a different occasion, or a different species (see the dog sweaters), they know they can find the same quality they have grown to expect from their initial purchase.

It is no longer adequate to simply be a generic women’s clothing store, offering ten thousand variations that satisfy the same basic need. People shop for more than just a product itself - we love to see what is new and creative out there. We want to be wowed. Take Hermes, for example. You can visit their website and “travel the world of Hermes”. For people looking for a watch, they do not offer an endless variety of watches. They offer you four. But the brand name speaks to the quality of the watches, both in construction and sophistication. Once you have a new watch, you can browse through fragrances, ties, handbags, teacups, or beach towels. Who has time to go to nine different stores? Today’s shopper wants to go to one or two, knowing that everything they see will live up to quality they expect.

If you don’t know Coterie, it’s THE show for high-end women’s fashion.  Your favorite brands are likely in the list of the 1330 vendors whose Spring 2009 releases are now being evaluated in preparation for full-scale production.  If your brand was not at Coterie, they are probably imitating one of the brands that were.

The pictures of the Rani Arabella booth show you just how diverse the product offerings are.  Cashmere is not just v-neck sweaters anymore.  Rani makes attire for the bedroom, for outdoors, for looks you want to show off to your friends, but also for private settings you want to show off to just one person.  Headwear, wraps, bedding, pillows, even sweaters for your dog to wear. Rani even has a cashmere key fob to complement the cashmere lifestyle.

The attendees at Coterie in 2008 sought uniqueness, they looked for something special. We’ve all seen a thousand versions of a purse or jacket – we don’t want another slight modification and this year’s color. We want something that wows us. Something that pops when you put it on, that makes others take notice. That makes you feel better in a way not easily described, but that is easily recognized.

Quality is a prerequisite. The cross-stitching weaves and the linking weaves done by hand were among the fine details noted among the insiders evaluating Rani’s latest collection. The breadth of coverage made Rani Arabella rise to the cream of the crop; the enjoyment a customer gets in their favorite sweater can now be found in other products for many situations.

Rani Booth at 2008 Coterie

In upcoming posts we will be looking at what it means to be a specialty store in today’s market. How you as a shopper can find the quality you need for every aspect of your life, and how a retailer can position themselves to serve their customer completely.

Where do you start for a luxury brand? What qualifications do you look for in craftsmanship and a sense of style that enables the creation of a product of supreme quality?

I asked Rani these and other questions, and one story stood out above the rest. It may be the definition of an artisan. When traveling the villages of Italy in search of the talent that hand-produces articles of clothing, he set up shop with a middle-aged artisan whose home and production were part of one estate. This man specialized in men’s shirts. Months later, after a wonderfully positive response from those who had purchased these shirts, Rani thought of expanding into women’s shirts of the same quality.

“My grandfather made men’s shirts. My father made men’s shirts. I make MEN’S shirts.”

This had nothing to do with sexism. Rather it’s about specialization. In an Old World mindset that puts quality and reputation above profit, the thought of altering the speciality that had served generations well was downright heresy. Rani Arabella incorporated this manner of quality into its business philosophy. Only make products of the highest caliber, for quality stands longer than opportunity. Thankfully Rani found artisans of other specialities over time, including this line of women’s sweaters.

fabric artisan

When Harris, Rani Arabella himself, asked me to write about his cashmere products, I enthusiastically took him up on the offer. Surrounding myself with luxuriously soft fabrics once again, browsing the web for new fashion products with an actual hand in the process, and checking stylehive and notcouture.com every day…. um yeah, I’m in.

I first encountered Rani Arabella cashmere while working for a high-end linen store. Around Palm Beach, there are two styles: 1. maximum chic with unmatchable quality 2. Imitating style #1.

Rani Arabella is one of the authentic brands. They create patterns, they set trends. The first time I met Rani, I learned something new about power brokers within luxury fashion.  Previously I knew Buyers, who famously foresee the hot fashion colors six months in advance, and in some cases choose the trends by what they choose to purchase at “market”. In one stroll through the cutting room floor of Rani Arabella, I understood more about the root of fashion items. Someone has to make the products that appear at market. Someone had to choose which colors to dye the fabric, which colors to mix, and what would be hot in 18 months time!

That day was the start of a love affair with cashmere. I am still smitten, perhaps you are too. Let’s explore the production, the styles we like, and the latest trends in a cashmere world.

three throws you can snuggle in

design ideas. how should this blog look? From the Italian production facilities to the Palm Beach offices, the surroundings are elegant, the product beautifully made, and the clientele refined. How do we create a blog with a parallel sense of style?

blog color ideas

color ideas for blog