The smell of freshly cooked toast transports my wife back to when she was four; back to her grandmother's house in Northampton; to the dining room table laid for breakfast; to the toaster popping its contents of Sunblest bread upwards, ready to be spread with Anchor butter. The details of this are amazingly recalled from a simple smell.
"The smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived"
Helen Keller
Leading on from a sense of smell can be your sense of colour. Apparently, the artist Wassily Kandinsky heard sunsets and saw music. Some people say they see numbers in colours. Days of the week can become scarlet or crimson. It is said that horses don't see colours but bees and snakes can. Some people can see colours which others cannot. Interesting, I thought, when so often our clothing websites feebly attempt to describe the colour of garments when all our senses forge to contribute our opinions on so many aspects of what we see. One quotation that both amuses me and confuses me is this:
"The man who cannot visualise a horse gallopingon a tomato is an idiot"
Andre Breton
On the web store. Should we simply first photograph our products and brands and leave our customers to visualise? I'm sure the majority of men can and do it well. I know that product information has to be written to enhance search engine optimisation and all the other advantages of submissive journalism that is involved and successful. But then I remind myself of when I'm actually selling clothes physically within the bricks and mortar environment. 'How does it feel?' is a simple question, but nonetheless a loaded and complex one. I know from experience this is the key that will decide whether 'it's a sale' or 'I think I'll leave it'. This sense of 'feel' that is not smell, colour, visual, or any other, relies on our bodies' internal structure and make up which combines all of our senses. There is no doubt that this is a real place where a web site cannot enter into.
I took a pair of Levi's Vintage 1966 501s from stock; I pulled them on and it's a magical transformation as I time travel backwards to my youth. The clubs, the nights out, the friends that have long disappeared and the football matches to mention but a few aspects of this 'feeling' phenomenon! Sunspel's new tee shirts 'feel' only how a Sunspel feels! I unpacked a new Fred Perry Laurel Wreath polo, slipped it on and I was transported back to 1969, to my Suedehead days. Like the smell of toast for my wife, the 'feel' and smell of the cotton has remained a powerful force. A fitted Moncler parka 'feels' extraordinary. Sensations cannot be generated by a website description, getting the garment 'on' can.
The capacity of wearing clothes new and old continues to delight me, so I urge you to order on line and check the 'feel'. If it doesn't excite or deliver, return it, we will credit you. Maybe order another style or brand, they all seem to have their individual character and feel.
Remember, buy with a feeling, as much as your eye.