It’s the 10th year anniversary of the Gentleman’s Gazette! To kick-off our celebration, we’ll answer frequently asked questions we received from our readers and viewers in today’s video. Cheers!
Video Transcript:
Sven Raphael Schneider: Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette!
Preston Schlueter: And cheers to 10 years!
SRS: Absolutely, cheers!
SRS: I started the website in February 2010 and we thought it was a good idea to talk a bit about our history, our journey, our wins, as well as our fails.
PS: Right, so with that in mind, we’re actually putting out a couple of videos to celebrate this ten year anniversary but today’s video, we’re going to start by answering some frequently asked questions from our fan community.
SRS: Yeah, we thought it’s easy to just have a boring about us video but we wanted you to get involved and you provided tons of questions so let’s dive right in!
What did you do before you started the Gentleman’s Gazette?
SRS: Honestly, I am from Germany. After graduating from high school, I went right to law school because that’s how it works there and I realized it wasn’t for me but I kept going and so I had an exchange semester that brought me to the US which is where I met my now wife, Teresa, and I went back to Germany, finished my law studies up until 2009, and then I came to the US in August of 2009. I did a Master’s of Law at the University of Minnesota, finished that but realized I did not want to work in law. I then got married to Teresa and in the time period between waiting for my work permit and getting it, I started the Gentleman’s Gazette.
Why was it that you chose to start the Gentleman’s Gazette and how did you pick out the name?
Montblanc Masterpiece 142
SRS: I mean, frankly, at the time, it was just a hobby for me, right? It was the first time in my adult life that I didn’t have anything to do, I wasn’t allowed to work but I had picked up that hobby of classic men’s style as a teenager and it all started with Montblanc fountain pens and then I bought Montblanc cufflinks because I was dealing with him on eBay and so I needed a shirt that had French cuffs which, I did not know what it was and so I realized, “Oh now I have the shirt, now I need a suit.” Then my first big book was a Gentleman from Bernhard Roetzel and I dove into that and I just realized, “Wow, there’s so much more to it,” right? And so that became my hobby, I think forums like Ask Andy about clothes that already were around, A Suitable Wardrobe was around, it’s not around anymore really and so I just thought, “I could do it better and I had time on my hand,” and so I just wanted to share it and write about it and create something that I enjoy.
PS: And where did the name come from?
SRS: Frankly, I mean, Teresa and I were just thinking about it and we liked the alliteration Gentleman’s Gazette because it has this kind of newspaper feel, it had this kind of vintage-inspired feel so I think it was very easy and then Gentleman’s Gazette was like, “Oh yeah, we could we could use that.”
Where did you find all of your resources?
SRS: Yeah! I mean, I started with the Gentleman book from Bernhard Roetzel, as I said before, from that, I found other German books and I read all of them then I also started visiting craftsmen, right? I went to shirt makers, tailors, umbrella makers, shoemakers, and so forth and just learned from them by being there, by looking at things. I found vintage men’s fashion magazines which I thought were fascinating so I would travel around in my spare time, visiting flea markets and libraries and old stores and oftentimes, people just give me their old magazines. In libraries, I would bring a digital camera, just take lots of snapshots and so I was just able to build up a wealth of knowledge by that and whenever there was a book I could find on Amazon or eBay, at the time was huge, I would just buy it and that’s how I accrued on my knowledge.
How did you come up with the Gentleman’s Gazette logo?
SRS: You know, that’s actually a good question. This particular logo was inspired by the Arrow Collar man and the original logo though looked a bit different, right? It was actually something that I designed myself that were just like two figures from illustrations around the crest with like Gentleman’s Gazette in a scripted font that was kind of gold and you know, a year in or so, I realized, you know, it’s not that great of a logo, it’s hard to put in watermarks, it’s hard to print on anything, so it was like okay, time for a new logo so I actually saw this one and I used Adobe Illustrator and other things to kind of create it. I wanted it to be simple but very distinctive so I chose White Tie because most people don’t even know what that is anymore, right? But I also left the top hat off because I felt like that made it too dated and so yeah, I don’t have any plans on redesigning it anytime soon. Maybe we will, in the future, but for now.
How long was it the case that you (Raphael) were doing everything before you hired anyone else?
SRS: Honestly, it was too long and in the beginning, I think we’re all like, you know, we want to do things our own way because we think we know it best and only we can do it exactly the way we can do it. Talking to Antonio actually opened my eyes to outsource things. He was like, you know, “Are you still doing everything yourself? I have these Virtual Assistants in the Philippines and they take up so much of my load.” And I was like “Wow, that sounds really cool.” So I did that, I hired a virtual assistant and my expectations weren’t that high, right? It was like her English is not perfect, she’s not from here, and her work ethic wasn’t that great either but it still helped a lot and then I got another VA and she was a lot better and it was like, “Wow!” It blew my mind what they could all do and so from then on, we started bringing on more of those virtual assistants, remote workers, and over the years, they’ve gotten really better and better. We learned how to hire better and now, we can really find excellent talent who can even research and write and then have an interest in the subject matter which is really hard to find in the US, in general.
PS: And since then, the team has continued to grow, of course, we’ve got Chris now, our full-time videographer. We’ve got Kyle, who is here part-time as on-camera talent.
SRS: Exactly!
PS: We’ve got lots of virtual assistants both on our content team and on the customer service side.
SRS: And we have a whole team in a warehouse but that’s all outsourced through 3PL which means third-party logistics and they, you know, pack the goods exactly the way we want them to and they’re here in Minnesota so we can go over there and check it out but they’re not our employees, right? And then even people like Santiago, who kind of manages the Spanish Gentleman’s Gazette channel, if you don’t know about that, you can check it out here.
Knit Tie & Pocket Square by Fort Belvedere
Was there anything at the start that you took for granted or thought would be easy, and turned out to be more difficult than you originally expected?
SRS: Oh yeah, totally. I mean, the first thing was just building a website, right? I went to law school, I was always interested in computers and hardware but I’d never really built a website. I had a little bit of an experience with Dreamweaver and so that’s what I thought I would use until I realized, wow, this is hard. And then a friend told me about WordPress which, at the time, was really new in the marketplace and then later on, you know, when you create products, I never created products before, it took a long time and we had a bunch of different product lines and it was just some products were already in our living room just waiting there to get into the warehouse but we weren’t ready yet with a shop, just developing the shop took a lot longer and I mean, the lesson I really learned was it always takes longer and it costs more, no matter what it is.
Now we know how the Gentleman’s Gazette got started. Now, how did you specifically then start the Fort Belvedere side of the business?
Treasures can be found at vintage stores but rarely during sales
SRS: Frankly, it was because of you, right? I would write about my acquisitions from flea markets or vintage stores and people asked, “Well, where did you find this?” and I said, “I got it from a flea market in Vienna.” And I realize it wasn’t helpful and they were not really happy with the answer so we said, well, what if we actually made these things inspired by the 30s, with the vintage flair but now, modern in sizes that people can wear today in a way that we can reproduce what we really wanted and so that was a starting point. You know, that came really early, it was in 2011, right? The idea sparked and then by the time we created our business plan and everything and created our shop and everything, I think it took around like 2013 for us to actually sell stuff because it just takes a lot of time. Especially, if you have no experience in products and for me, it was just like a dream come true because now, I could actually create. I couldn’t just say, “Oh it should be like this.” I could actually make it like this and offer it like that and sell it. So, it’s like the perfect opportunity to create exactly what you want, not just you know, find some vintage item that is somewhat close to what you want but not really exactly. I think just by continuously doing the research, working with smaller companies in Europe, especially for all the raw materials that have a tradition and a commitment to quality, I think that’s so important that we can provide an end product that is also about quality.
Are there any plans to make Fort Belvedere products more easily accessible to European customers?
SRS: Well, it’s an interesting question, we get it a lot, especially from German customers, which is quite funny. But we are a relatively small company, right? We’re not Amazon that ships tens of thousands of packages each day and because of that, the rates we get, especially international shipments are higher than bigger companies would get. Now, we offer free shipping at certain thresholds, you know, $75 in the US. I think it’s $325 currently internationally and if you’re below that, shipping can be quite expensive and we’re just quoting what FedEx or UPS quotes us and we pass it on to you. Now, there are other companies such as MyUS.com and we’re trying to implement that, we’re basically, you know, we would ship to their warehouse in the US and they would then ship it to the customer in different parts of the world and they can do that at such low rates because that’s their entire business. You can just go to MyUS.com and sign up there. We’re also trying to implement and by the time you see us, we may have already implemented it. So we don’t try to exclude customers in Europe or elsewhere and we even thought about opening a warehouse in Europe but that leads to a whole slew of other things, right? You have to look at taxes in a different way, you have to look at GDPR in a different way because now your goods are located in Europe so you’re subject to different laws and just having a physical warehouse and shipping from there complicates things. It drives up costs because energy costs and regulated costs are more expensive there so we calculated it through and at the end of the day, you, as a customer would pay more if you bought something that was shipped from Europe than if you ship it from here and keep it simple. Sad but true.
PS: The devil is in the details, I guess.
SRS: Absolutely!
How did Raphael go about choosing Preston and Kyle for the channel as on-camera presenters?
SRS: Yeah, I mean basically there are two aspects of it, right? One is subject matter expertise, right? Is this a person who knows about classic men’s style? And cares about it? Is there passion? Is there interest? Because being in front of the camera and explaining things is just essential that you know what you’re talking about and that you are really like a clotheshorse and if you want to do that. Two is I wanted someone who was different than myself in their style because I think classic style is manifold and here, at the Gentleman’s Gazette, I want to show that there is not just one cooking recipe, I want to show their different takes on things, right? There is the vintage angle, there is a more modern angle, there is maybe a mixed angle, and it’s an evolution to find your own style and so I wanted people to be different the way I was, right? Like Preston is super slim and skinny and you know, he’s sometimes very kind of academic and it’s very different than I am and I like that about him and the same with Kyle, you know, like physically very different, right? He’s bald, he has a beard, and he likes, you know, no pleats in his pants, I like pleats, right? He likes a slim cut, I don’t but nevertheless, we’re all classic style and so as we grow and progress and bring in more people on the Gentleman’s Gazette, I want to keep that spirit, right? Passion and caring about it and knowing about it and being different than what we already have.
What is your current video production setup, and how has it changed over the last 10 years?
SRS: Well frankly, let me start with how it was and then you can talk about how it is right now.
PS: Sure!
Kyle Thibodeaux
SRS: In the beginning, it was just Teresa and me, we were filming in a small basement studio and it was just a small room of a porter that was in our apartment building. It was all very tight, we had to move stuff around when we took photos and we could film but we both had no experience in this and I mean, you can tell in our early videos, we definitely got better. Then, I think later on, we started hiring local freelancers who would come in and film and today, it’s so different.
PS: Right! So when I first started about a year and a half ago, our location had changed. Of course, we’re now in our much more ample studio space in your home which is nice, not in a cramped basement room somewhere. And I first started working with our freelancers to some extent, we have currently moved to a model where most of our in-house production is filmed by Chris, our videographer, and then we’ve got a team of editors who are still working for us in that capacity. Chris edits some of the videos and our freelancers do some of the other editing so we’ve got kind of a well-oiled machine right now with our filming and our editing so that we can get lots of high-quality video out to you, the viewers.
SRS: Yeah! We also have like, you know, people who write scripts, right? There’s Christopher Lee, he writes articles and we do scripts. So, we just have that entire team and then we have people in the backend, you know, create all the links for YouTube, who transcribe all the text, who make sure description is all correct, the links are all set, the cards and the videos we mention are all there, so everything works together, so it’s a swift production.
PS: It takes a village, as they say.
SRS: Absolutely!
What are future plans for the channel?
SRS: Honestly, I mean, we want to make more videos for you. At the same time, we want to keep them in high-quality and increase the quality. So I think the next step is that we will have three videos a week and by now, that may already be the case, but that’s kind of the short-term goal, three videos per week and then just making those better and better. Right now, we don’t have any plans to publish, you know, once a day or really even multiple times a day. We’d rather keep the standards high, make them higher, maybe make longer things, maybe travel more, travel to Europe, travel to all those craftsmen doing things like that where we feel we provide a lot of value and then the other thing we mentioned, just bringing in more people that are different so we can represent a different shade of classic men’s style.
Club chairs in a gentleman’s cigar lounge
As the business continues to grow, would you ever consider doing an in-person meet up for some of our fans and followers?
SRS: Yes! I think, you know, at the Gentlemen’s Gazette, we try to build a community that brings like-minded peers together, right? We had a forum at one point in time but it was so much spam, it was really hard to manage so we got rid of that but in our future, I definitely see real-life events. I’ve seen something like Menfluential where there are a lot of people, right, so there’s a lot of interesting cool minds but very little time to talk to everyone. So I think if we were to do something, that would be in a smaller scale with more a more select group of people, and we would try to add value in the sense that you know, you learn about let’s say, how to shine shoes or you learn how you’re measured for a suit or for a shirt and we go shopping together, right? Or do things that are of interest to you, we’d have you know, maybe have Preston sing, you know. We’ll go to a nice bar, we have a nice dinner together. Things like that, we have an opportunity to wear nice clothes, Black Tie or White Tie, right? Where else can you do that? I think that’s something we want to do. The problem right now is that none of us here is an event manager so we’re trying to find someone and the first probably would be someone local but it’s definitely something we want to do, that’s part of our future and it’s just not happening now quite yet.
Growing up, what were your dream jobs?
PS: That’s a good question! Well, I think it has changed a little bit over the years. My parents always remind me that when I was very young and people asked me what did you want to do when you grow up? Even at 3 years old, I would tell people I want to be a Paleontologist which is somebody who examines dinosaur bones and science in that regard. So things have changed over the years, obviously, menswear is a big hobby of mine so I’m very glad that I landed where I did, here at the Gentleman’s Gazette so I can talk about that to people and I’ve got a little bit of an audience in that regard too but other than those two things, obviously, music is a big part of my life as well. You know, if I could continue to grow that music career, that would obviously be ideal for me.
SRS: Yeah! Let’s make it happen. For me, as a kid, I wanted to be a professional soccer goalkeeper, football. Now, I am a happy entrepreneur and I want to be part of the Gentleman’s Gazette and Fort Belvedere and grow that and just offer more and more things gentlemanly, right? I’d love to create like a furniture line with nice club chairs, right? Or just things pertaining to the gentleman lifestyle, no matter whether it’s a suit or you know, a bottle opener, things like that. So we have a long way to go and clothing is at the core so we start with that first and hopefully, build a full-fledged clothing line and then we see what opportunities arise and what we can do but that’s what I want to do.
To Preston: what are the pros and cons of being a jazz singer?
Preston at the mic during a jazz concert
PS: What I would say is difficult is really probably not something that applies just to Jazz but really to any musician, the arts are not greatly subsidized here in the United States as they are in Europe or other places. So if you want to do big things like put on a concert, you oftentimes will have to self-fund that as I did for my most recent endeavor. There are places you can go to find some funding but it’s not easy, you have to be a self-starter and in a way that kind of relates to how you started this business, you have to have enough of a passion for it that you’re willing to make a financial outlay and go the extra mile and take risks in order to get that reward that you want. As far as benefits or pros are concerned, I just love making music for people. When I have an audience whether it’s a hundred people or whether it’s five people, if they are grateful for what I am doing and they appreciate the way that I handle a song and how I’m working with my fellow musicians. To get that applause and that gratitude from people, there are few feelings that are better, in my opinion.
When will we be able to hear Preston sing?
PS: Well, we’ve got good news for you, in that case. We’ve finally got some footage ready and as I said, we’re putting out multiple videos to celebrate the anniversary so you’ll be able to see some concert footage of me as part of this celebration, so stay, tuned!
SRS: Honestly, we weren’t just slacking but the rights management with YouTube and the kind of music Preston sings, first, we had to figure out just how that all works.
Will we ever see a Lady’s Gazette?
PS: Well, I think there are two components to this. The first one is sort of a logistical component which is just the fact that classic menswear has a greater sense of continuity. Obviously, there are details that have changed but the overall wardrobe of a shirt and jacket and trousers and maybe a waistcoat has stayed generally the same in the broad strokes for about a hundred and fifty years whereas women’s wear is much more kind of cyclical and dictated by fashion and changes a lot more so that continuity isn’t there but that actually really isn’t even the main reason why we haven’t done it.
SRS: Yeah! Honestly, I think even in menswear, you could find more fashion-forward stuff but we don’t do that because it all started as a hobby, right? It was a passion for me so and I did this because I cared about it, I wasn’t interested in starting a business or just making money, it was about classic men’s clothing and I think it’s just very important to stay true to yourself and not just be everything to everybody, right? And for that reason, we’re not talking about trainers or the latest fashion trends because it’s not us, it’s not what interests us, we’re interested in the classic piece of it and we truly care about this, right? And so I think you can only love a job if you really care, otherwise, it’s very kind of obvious you’re just doing something, I don’t know, have a mattress review side so then you get like affiliate income. Well, that’s great, you can make money that way and I can respect people for that but it’s not something I want to do with my time. I want to spend my time doing something I enjoy and I love, not just because I can make money with it.
PS: So if you were holding out hope for the Mattress Gazette, sorry but you’re probably not going to see that any time soon.
SRS: Yeah and you will also never see a Lady’s Gazette by us but if someone else picks it up, sure go for it! We’d love to direct people there but we’re not going to do it.
PS: Obviously with that said, we do, of course, appreciate our female viewership and we’re glad you’re here and that you can get some lessons from us or some enjoyment out of our content but at the same time, the Lady’s Gazette, if you will, just isn’t where our passion lies so you’re not specifically going to see that from us.
Where did your jazzy intro music come from?
PS: I think that is something that really has become kind of integral to our brand, if I’m correct, it was actually composed for us so it’s personal to our channel and at least as far as I know, it’s not anything that we’re planning on changing anytime soon.
SRS: Yeah, I think never say never but as Preston pointed out, we had it composed for us. Sometimes, people ask “Oh, where can I find it?” No, this is the Gentleman’s Gazette intro song, you can’t find it anywhere else, it was made for us.
Raphael’s White suit
Is there anything that’s changed in your approach to menswear in the last 10 years, or rules that you look at differently now?
PS: Well, I’m currently 25 so 10 years ago, I would have been 15 and I think around that time, I was really just starting my style journey, kind of getting into classic menswear.
SRS: I mean you were 15, right?
PS: Right! Yeah so obviously, a lot has changed in those years because I’ve really gone on the entirety of my journey since then, learning all about the history of classic menswear and everything we cover here at the Gentleman’s Gazette. So I think within those last 10 years, that whole journey has really been fully formed for me.
SRS: Oh yeah, I remember when I was like 19 or 18 graduating from high school, I was wearing like a white suit with a mao collar. I mean it was bad, I had like these black boxy shoes, yeah, wasn’t a good look. For me, I think 10 years ago, I was a little more vivid in colors, I think I’ve toned down a little bit more now. It was even more extreme 15 years ago for me but I think, style is a journey, right? You start somewhere and it’s constantly evolving. You never stand still and so as you find new things, you may be infatuated with one style for a while and you only wear knit ties or you only wear, I don’t know, naturals and pastel tones and it changes and that, for me, that’s the fun part about it.
What style mistakes have you made in the past?
PS: Well, I remember when I very first got into classic men’s style, some of the things I would do, you know, is wear maybe a tie and a pocket square that we’re almost the same in color or pattern or maybe they weren’t exactly matching but they were definitely close and now, obviously, you want to have a little bit more variety between those two accessories so that it’s harmonious but not so matchy-matchy.
SRS: Yeah totally! I actually just made a video about all my beginner style mistakes, let’s say, some of them I probably committed a lot more. Just check it out!
Young Raphael in a teddy bear tie
What do you guys do on a regular basis that is ungentlemanly?
SRS: I mean, the modifier is regular basis, otherwise, there would be a lot of things I think that I would have to mention there. I think if you would ask my wife, she’d say that I’m not always friendly when I talk to customer service representatives and I think they just feed me scripted answers. I can be very direct and it’s sometimes funny when I’m on the phone, people around me, they’d just almost laugh, right, because it’s very unusual. I’m just more German, direct, and harsh in a certain way, right? People also tell me in email, sometimes, my tone can be very harsh and not warm and welcoming and I think it probably has to do with the fact that where I grew up, it could be very very direct but yeah, I mean there’s challenges all the time and I think when, you know, I or you realize that we were in the wrong, we apologize. Because there are lots of things that I think we do that are ungentlemanly, right? Maybe you yell at someone, right? Maybe you get drunk or wasted or there are things that I have done, you know, that I’m not proud of and I think even as a gentleman, you do those things and the question is how do you deal with them and how do you kind of apologize, do you own up to your mistake and take responsibility? Do you walk away and just behave the same way? Or are you embarrassed or are you going to make any changes about it?
PS: I think nobody’s perfect and on that note, if you’d like to learn more about How to Apologize Like A Gentleman, you can find our video on that topic here.
SRS: My man, Preston!
What do you think when you see a man in a nice suit, wearing trainers?
PS: I think to myself, here is an opportunity to reach out to this gentleman and try to key him into the wisdom of good classic men’s dress shoes. In other words, I consider it a teaching opportunity and a learning opportunity for that gentleman so long as he’s willing to have a conversation.
SRS: Yeah! I would just think he could have looked better.
Never attempt to wear sneakers with a full suit
What are some of your least favorite aspects of fashion today?
PS: In my opinion, I don’t love the current trend that has really persisted, I would say, for maybe almost 10 years or so now that really favors very very slim cut everything and of course, I say that as a guy who is very slim cut myself. Obviously, our commenters are often quick to point out that a lot of the things that I present in videos are cut roomier for my slim build than what is currently popular in men’s fashion and while I think there are certainly some opportunities for me to maybe get a few more things in my wardrobe tailored so that I could really zero that fit in, I appreciate having just a little bit more volume and a little bit more body and structure to kind of build up that ideal male silhouette that they had focused on in the 1930s, in particular, rather than having everything be so slim that it’s almost kind of sprayed on or constricting.
SRS: Okay yeah no that’s very true. What I want to say is fast fashion, I think that’s something I despise and you know, clothes today, are a lot less expensive than they used to be 30 or 40 years ago. The quality is also lower, you know H&M and Zara, they, you know, produce a lot of low priced stuff and the emphasis is on having more and more different seasons and always something new and I’m more interested in “Let’s make one piece, let’s make this one tie in a fabric that is timelessly classic that I can wear now, five years from now, ten years from now.” You know, that it’s not slim but it’s not too wide. It’s just very stable and if you look at it from an ecological point of view, you know, it is just one piece of silk that you can wear for a long long time rather than buying cheap, throwing away, buying cheap, throwing away, so I think there are many advantages to not having that fast fashion but to investing in quality and I think that focus on just cheap and fast versus slow and quality is what I dislike.
Antonio Centeno and Aaron Marino
PS: Well said!
What are your opinions about some of your contemporaries in the YouTube space, like AlphaM or Teaching Men’s Fashion?
SRS: Well, you know, I think at the end of the day, right, we all like our style and what we do and deep down, we think what we do is probably best. That being said, I know I’ve met Jose Zuniga in person, I’m friends with Aaron from Alpha M and I have a respect for them and what they’ve built, you know, do I agree with them in everything they say? No, and that’s okay, I think it’s remarkable what both of them have been able to achieve and for other channels, it’s the same thing, right? If it’s a smaller channel like the Kavalier or the Elegant Oxford, I just always look at it from what can I learn from them, right? How can we become better and serve you better by seeing what they have done well and maybe the mistakes they made because if they made mistakes and you don’t have to do them, what’s better, right? What’s your take on it?
PS: I would echo all of that. I guess to just sort of sum up at the point we’ve made here, we applaud them on their successes and of course, you know, everybody’s got their own opinions but to each their own and I think one of the great things about our YouTube menswear community is there is room for all of our different opinions to coexist.
SRS: Yeah! And I think that is that, right? We actually meet, we are friends, we try to work together, we help each other out. If you don’t understand something that’s going on and I think that is very valuable for a community because it’s not about against others and then against us, it’s like together, we’re creating something that’s bigger than ourselves.
Do you own your own tailoring shop?
SRS: No, we don’t and as a matter of fact, like when I started, right? I never wanted to be in a physical shop location, even though for some people that’s like their dream, I always felt like standing there in the shop and waiting for your customers was waste of time because once you started doing something, someone would come in then you are interrupted and it’s just not something that I ever personally enjoyed and I still don’t enjoy it today and so I built the business knowing that I never wanted to be a shop clerk. That being said, as we’re growing, will I rule out that we’ll ever have a shop? No, that being said, creating physical shop locations is expensive. You pay for the staff, you have an upfront cost of just you know renting or maybe even owning but then also building everything out and if you own or rent their long-term leases and as you grow, they’re not very flexible so at this point, it’s not a focus for us at all. I could see us getting there as we’re growing just to have a place that was more like a gentleman’s lounge where people can experience everything that is gentlemanly but at this point, we’re not there yet.
How do you feel about secondhand clothing, such as suits or shoes?
Preston Schlueter wearing a vintage Brooks Brothers tie
PS: Well, speaking from my own personal experience, I love to find vintage items. I think they can fit into my personal aesthetic and I think you would probably say the same.
SRS: Oh absolutely and it’s not just clothes, like a lot of the furniture we buy or other things, I buy vintage. I love vintage! Now, I draw the line in underwear but other than that, pretty much I’m all for it.
PS: Absolutely! So if you want to see some videos about the pros and cons of buying vintage and about our personal best vintage buys, you can find them here.
SRS: Yeah and obviously, the great advantage of vintage is you just get extremely high-quality. I don’t care if someone else has worn it before me you’re going to wash things and disinfect them, I have no problems with it.
PS: Yeah, I would assume that years from now after I’m gone, some of my clothing is probably gonna survive me too and it’ll be handed down to somebody else. So that’s the hallmark of a quality garment, I suppose.
SRS: Yeah, the way I think about it is it’s greener, right? It’s more ecologically friendlier than just wasting all that stuff and even today, where I’m at a point, you know, I could just buy everything bespoke made for me, I still love to find old vintage overcoats because it’s hard to find a specific fabric and I love, you know, that the bargain aspect of it. I love that it’s vintage, that it’s different, and I simply enjoy it.
In the future, do you ever plan on retiring the channel or passing it down to somebody else?
SRS: Well, never say never, right? If someone shows up tomorrow and offers us 1 billion dollars for Gentleman’s Gazette, I’d lie if I said I wouldn’t consider it but honestly, this is what I love to do. I am 35 now, I have zero interest in retiring the channel or passing it down, I’m not tired of it. I feel like we’re just getting started here, especially with the team growing and the dynamic and being able to do more, I love that. Yeah, if I die, I hope I’ll pass it on to someone that keeps the torch lit up because I would hate for it to just go away.
PS: That’s good to know! So with that said, I guess cheers to our past 10 years and to 10 more and hopefully, many more in the future!
SRS: That’s right! Cheers and thank you for being part of this!
What other questions do you have for us? Let us know in the comments section below!
