The Kingsman Lloyd Story

I welcome you to follow our journey as we create a lasting impression on the fashion industry. If you are interested in knowing how Kingsman Lloyd got started or even creating your very own clothing brand you can follow our story here. Any new developments or progress will be documented here for your viewing. Enjoy!

- Anthony Morales

Episode 1:

The Christmas Party

The Kingsman Lloyd journey began, one night, back in December of 2015, while I was getting ready for an annual christmas party. Leading up to this party I remember spending a whole week trying to find the right outfit for the night. After countless hours of searching I had finally decided on the right suit for the event. To my surprise that week-long search ended up being trumped by one very small detail. What bow tie was I going to wear? The fact was that no matter what outfit I chose or however long it took to find I always overlooked the most important detail… the bow tie! It was weird because the only reason I overlooked that detail was because I could never find a bow tie to complement my personality and spirit. Finding a bow tie that would allow me to express myself accurately was like finding a needle in a haystack, it wasn’t going to happen. This is why I was stuck, for the longest time, just picking bow ties based on their matching patterns. This is where I found myself that December night, disappointed, determined, yet inspired to find a solution. That specific moment is when I realized I could no longer search for the perfect bow tie, I had to create it!

On our next mini-episode we will dive into our research, planning, and development. 

Episode 2:

The Planning Begins

After acknowledging our commitment to create a unique line of bow ties, we spent the next couple of weeks researching what it would take to get started. We first knew that we wanted to have our bow ties handmade but didn't know what that entailed. This brought us to the question of how exactly could we achieve this? From there we started to research DIY tutorials on bow ties. From this batch of research we basically found everything that we needed to get started. It was understood that we first needed to invest our time and money into creating samples. We then set out to order everything we felt was necessary to create these samples. We ordered a sewing machine, materials, and fabric samples. These fabric samples came from a online distributor, who allows anyone to upload patterns to be printed onto different fabrics. From this distributor we were able to look at hundreds of patterns and specific fabrics. After viewing dozens of patterns we found a total of 11 licensed patterns that we were interested in ordering. We knew before ordering these samples that they were only going to be used for research and inspiration. Our number one goal was to create our own designs and in order to achieve this we needed to get as many fabrics and patterns in front of us. Once all our materials and fabrics were in we started to work on our bow tie samples. 

On our next mini-episode we will continue to dive into our research, planning and development. 

Episode 3:

Our First Fail

In our last episode we left off with us creating our very own bow tie samples. To our surprise sewing bow ties was very hard and did not come as a second nature to us. After a handful of failed attempts we could not create a visual bow tie sample. We decided, for the moment, to stop creating our samples and instead research manufactures and seamstresses. We realized we needed to higher professionals in order to create and visually see the quality we wanted to achieve. We were not ashamed of our first failure as we saw this as an opportunity to better understand manufacturing. While researching for manufactures and seamstresses we came up with a new question. Where do we want to have these bow ties made? Do we want them made overseas in Italy or here in the United States? We first looked into Italy because of their well known fabrics and apparel manufacturing. After countless Skype conferences and phone calls we ended up reviewing dozens of bow tie samples, with five Italian manufactures. We found that all these manufactures had their own unique patterns and fabrics to choose from. We knew we had to make a decision. Which one of these five Italian manufactures were we going to commit to? Could we commit to more than one?

Stay tuned to our next mini-episode to know which manufacture we commit to.

Episode 4:

Made In USA

In our previous episode we left off with a major decision on hand. Which of the five Italian manufactures were we going to commit to? After reviewing the pros, cons, and quality control of all five Italian manufactures we had finally made a decision. We decided to have our bow ties made here in the United States. Even though this was a small set back for us we felt it was the right thing to do for our brand. We wanted to prove to ourselves that great quality and affordable manufacturing can be found here in the United States. During our initial research of manufactures and seamstresses we found a great manufacture in Vermont. This manufacture has a strong business model that caters directly to private label companies. After a few phone calls and emails we knew we had the perfect manufacture for our bow ties. Once we decided to commit, this manufacture gave us a handful of instructions to follow in order to create our bow tie samples. Our manufacture requested us to mail a package with our fabrics, tags, hooks, loops, and a detailed list of all the requirements for our samples. From here we set off to gather all the materials needed to complete and mail this package. We noticed we had most of the materials needed on hand, except a tag for the inside of our bow ties!

Follow us on our next episode were we design our company tag. 

Episode 5:

Designing The Tag

After two weeks of brainstorming we came across two unique tag designs, which we felt would perfectly represent our brand. For one of our tags we decided to incorporate our name, slogan, and location.

Kingsman ♛ Lloyd
Gentleman . Traveler . Scholar
New York      

 100% SILK
     HANDMADE   
   IN USA  

By the time we finished designing both tags we found ourselves questioning how and where to place them on our bow ties. After pondering the idea for a while we came up with a creative idea to unite both tags into one!

We realized that an all-in-one design will allow us to create a unique dangling-loop effect for our tags. We could achieve this effect by folding, sewing, and using the excess fabric on the right hand side of the tag as a divider.

Episode 6:

One Ugly Tag

Stay tuned for more mini-episodes and updates. Follow Kingsman Lloyd as we take this journey to create the perfect bow tie!