Saint Harridan - Masculine clothing and accessories for women and transmen.

[randomness]

My friend cme recently recommended Saint Harridan. Since at least a couple of my friends have expressed interest in the kinds of clothes they sell, I thought I'd post about them in case other friends are looking for suits, dress shirts, and the like.

cme went to one of their pop-up shops recently and bought some clothes. As she described the process to me I realized that she was describing an experience that was very reminiscent of the standard men's experience in buying formal or business clothing. Saint Harridan sounds like it's reproducing the men's formal wear shopping experience for a new audience.

This makes all kinds of sense, of course. If you're selling the same sort of clothing it seems reasonable to use a process that has produced good results in the past. But it was particularly intriguing to me to hear it described by someone who had no previous personal experience of buying formal men's wear and for whom it was a novel clothes-buying process.

She says that one other advantage of going to one of their physical locations, pop-up or otherwise, is that they have a much larger variety of fabrics available there than they do on their website.

There's no particularly good business reason this market niche has been left unfilled by men's formal clothing specialists--I'm pretty sure a good tailor can build a suit for anybody, given practice and time--but what I hear is that women and transmen continue to have issues getting good fit from the existing men's clothing vendors. It's good to see a company entering this market.

Comments

[persis.livejournal.com]

I helped (in a miniscule way) with their Kickstarter. While a suit is not something I need for my wardrobe, I know plenty of people who do want a well-fitted suit, and am glad it is an option for people who are not male-shaped.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I thought Buzzfeed's assessment of them (http://www.buzzfeed.com/lilyhiottmillis/9-androgynous-clothing-labels-you-should-know) was good in that they said the company sells one suit, customized perfectly. Which is, as it turns out, a niche I may need at SOME point... but I've decided to go with some of the other routes first, because I need to explore dressing more masculinely at a lower price point first.

To that end, I bought three dress shirts at Penney's today, yay!

Also, style and usage point: my trans contacts prefer "trans man" to "transman," pretty much across the board, as far as I know. You may have trans friends who feel differently, but I wanted to mention it since it came up in your post.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Also, style and usage point: my trans contacts prefer "trans man" to "transman," pretty much across the board, as far as I know. You may have trans friends who feel differently, but I wanted to mention it since it came up in your post.

Thanks for the note. I'm actually just echoing the usage on Saint Harridan's site.

Someone should probably contact them about that.

[jab2.livejournal.com]

following Saint Harridan on facebook based on your post has made my facebook feed MUCH more visually delightful. wheeeeee! (and thanks!)

[karakara98.livejournal.com]

Not my style, but it makes me happy that this exists. I have long envied the fine menswear clothes buying experience. Womenswear is geared towards quantity over quality, which makes me sad.

Everlane is closer to my style, but is taking the route of fine materials, fewer styles/sizes. This is a fine business model, but it fills me with rage that their largest women's sizeis a 34" bust.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yay! I hope it proves useful.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

I've found that judicious following makes my Facebook experience much, much better.

Glad you're enjoying it!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I have long envied the fine menswear clothes buying experience. Womenswear is geared towards quantity over quality, which makes me sad.

Yes, definitely. Perhaps this is the way change starts, with a niche retailer doing a particular kind of clothing first.

Everlane is closer to my style, but is taking the route of fine materials, fewer styles/sizes. This is a fine business model, but it fills me with rage that their largest women's sizeis a 34" bust.

Aargh! Deeply frustrating, and all too common. bedfull_o_books likes to repeat a snarky comment that Victoria's Secret is that there's nothing bigger than a C cup in their entire store. (This apparently isn't true anymore, though they still do design for a particular body shape.)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you helped with their Kickstarter! This was definitely a project worth getting off the ground.