Today's Highlights

• Q and A: Andy Bell, President, House of Carrington
• Don't waist an opportunity
• Fashion hits and misses from Accenture

NEWS

Bring on Fall

Lija premiers its fall 2009 Active and Tennis collections.

WG USA expands sales staff

Marco Salerno, national sales manager for World Golfers USA, announces the hiring of five regional sales representatives.

Apparel hits runway at ING event

The International Network of Golf reports on the spring fashion show that will be held as part of the 19th ING Spring Conference, May 17-21 at French Lick Resort in Indiana.

Drink, please?

Ecco announces a new, limited-edition black and cognac saddle style from its best-selling Classic Premier Collection.

FEATURE

Q and A: Andy Bell, President, House of Carrington

By Janice Ferguson
GPA Writer

Editor's note: Based in Hartland, Wisc., House of Carrington was co-founded in 2005 by Andy Bell and his brother, Tim Bell. The company produces impeccably tailored luxury apparel inspired by a time when details mattered, and cater to those who appreciate life's finer offerings. Andy Bell shares his story and philosophy on golf apparel with the Apparel Wire.

Q.: How and why did you start House of Carrington?

Andy Bell: The company was started to address what we believed to be a gap in the market. That gap was for elegant, sophisticated sportswear - classic yet modern clothes for a 30 - 65 year old man. The market is full of casual images of washed and rumpled product. The other side is the performance product chasing the young, hip and cool guy. Our guy wants to be dressier than that. He wants a beautiful polished cotton or wool gabardine trouser, not a chino pant. Our guy always has his sport coat close at hand. Our guy wants to look great no matter where he is and he understands there are moments in life that require more than a knit shirt. He's the guy that prefers to be overdressed and is fearful of ever being underdressed.

Q.: What is your background - have you always been in the apparel and fashion industry?

Bell: I actually grew up in the golf business. I played junior golf and college golf in the Dallas area. I was fortunate or unfortunate, depending on your point of view, to play against Justin Leonard, Harrison Frazar and Trip Kuehne ever week in high school. Junior golf and college golf, it was those same guys plus Stewart Cink, David Duval and a whole host of others. I was honorable mention All-American in 1989, and when you look at the first two teams, almost every one of them is on tour today. I owe these guys a debt of gratitude for beating me like a drum. It made me realize quickly, I needed to get a job. Through high school and college I worked at Stonebriar Country Club in north Dallas. AC January was my swing coach - his brother and tour legend, Don January, was the director of golf at Stonebriar, so it was a good fit for me.

I started mowing greens and raking bunkers - moved into the bagroom, and from there to the pro shop, ultimately ending up buying and merchandising the pro shop. My father's third job when I was growing up was selling suits on the weekend in a small men's specialty store in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I used to go with him on Saturday mornings to the store. At the time, the men's specialty store was a gathering place, and men would show up to read the paper, have a cup of coffee and catch up with one another. That was my first exposure to fashion and apparel, and it stuck with me. I went to work for Polo Ralph Lauren right out of college. I was a sales rep for the golf division. Through a 10 year career with Polo, I was able to move up in the organization and ultimately became the national Sales and Operations Manager for the golf division before moving over to hold the same title for the men's business in department stores. I was blessed to see many facets of the organization. It was a terrific education for me with the strongest apparel brand name in the world.

Q.: What is the basic philosophy you've established for House of Carrington?

Bell: the House of Carrington brand draws its inspiration from the 1920's and 1930's - in our humble opinion, the height of men's fashion. Our philosophy is to push that elegance and sophistication, and push the idea of dressing up, or better yet, dressing for the moment. The day to day business operation takes its cue from the same era. We try to build personal relationships to deliver unparalleled customer service. Technology can be a crutch and enable people to avoid the personal contact that is the foundation of great relationships. The business has to be 50 percent great product and 50 percent great service. One can't exist without the other, especially in a difficult business environment like we have today.

Q.: Speaking of the current economy, what does House of Carrington's pre-books look like for 2009, and what if anything are you doing differently this year to ensure you weather the storm?

Bell: Advance orders for spring were healthy given the climate. It grew for us, but not at the growth rate we've been used to. The interesting phenomenon is the in-season reorder business. Both golf shops and specialty stores have become very conservative with advance orders. We started to see this for fall of 2008. With leaner inventories, they are reacting to what is selling and chasing the business more. We saw the in-season business jump from 10 percent of the season to 23 percent. This presents a huge challenge for the vendor side, as I can promise you, there isn't one company that wants to invest in inventory and hope sales come in later. Given the long lead times for production of product, everyone has to start making production decision for the earlier fall deliveries now. Just like the retailer, the wholesaler is working hard to do business but keep inventories very lean. When the business comes back, and it will, we'll all be dealing with a short supply of product until we can get production levels back up. For us, we're continuing down the same roads. Making sure our representatives are visible in the market and our service is better than ever. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary partnerships.

Q.: The story of how you named House of Carrington is an interesting one - a real place and real people from the early 1920's. Tell us the condensed version.

Bell: The whole idea was built off of my wife's great grandmother. She was living in Paris in the 1920's and 30's, a sort of Hemingway thing. When I read her story I was inspired by their ability and desire to dress for the moment. We built a family of brands to deliver this idea. We had a foundation of real people and real events to work with, but have taken our share of liberties with re-telling the story. I don't want to end up on Oprah getting yelled at for lying to the world. The brands have different points of view. Legend is focused on golf and the country club life. Andrew is more tailored and dressier. Blacksheep take the Savile Row idea and twists it with a younger attitude. Isabelle is a combination of Legend and Andrew. The commonality for all of the brands is sophistication and elegance.

What we hope to get people to understand about the 20's and 30's is that every day was filled with moments - work, church, dinner parties, sporting events - and they dressed for each of them. Today, unfortunately most men go through life with the same uniform of chino pants and a knit shirt that doesn't quite fit them right. This takes them from the office, to the golf course, to dinner with their wife, to church - everywhere.

Q.: You say that House of Carrington is not a lifestyle brand, yet your clothing can be found in not only top resorts and pro shops, but in finer men's boutiques throughout the country as well. If not lifestyle, then what?

Bell: "Lifestyle" is a word that I think gets over used in our business. Just because someone makes multiple product categories doesn't make them a lifestyle - it makes them a collection. People's lives should be so interesting and diverse, that no single brand can cover the needs of their "lifestyle." We make product that is elegant and sophisticated that will cover a lot of moments in your life. We don't make cargo shorts - if you're going on Safari, you need cargo shorts. Notice I said Safari, not golf. We don't make performance product - if you're going to work out, you need this product and we can't help you. I'll debate the need for performance product in golf, at least based on the way I play. If I play 18 holes of golf in four hours, riding in a cart, drinking four beers and smoking two cigars, I'm not worried about perspiration. If I was a speed golfer aiming to shoot a low score and sprinting around the golf course, then sign me up for something that is going to wick moisture and keep me from smelling bad.

For information, visit www.houseofcarrington.com.