I was fortunate enough to visit our manufacturer in China last month and begin planning our range for release over the second half of 2016 and first half of 2017.
I’ve gone a little more ambitious for the next range and included a swimwear set and a piece of sleepwear as well. Plus there will be a range of bra/panty/lingerie as well. If all the samples are successful, you should be in for some lovely lingerie over the next 18 months!
Below is a pic of one of the sample rooms in China during a break in planning.
It was great to get back to China again and catch up with the people that work in the business there. The hospitality is second to none and it’s interesting to see a culture with such a long history. Except for the taxi drivers. I think taxi drivers are the same all over the world.
We still have a couple of releases from the 2015/16 year to go and I expect the Sandra set to be available by April 11th or 12th at the latest. I did add a thong to the set very late and after the model pics had been taken so just static pics for that.
I also discovered an issue with the bra and despite the fact that I love it, the band doesn’t offer as much stretch as I anticipated. So I’ll be releasing it with an extender so it will fit correctly and sending one out with every Sandra bra sold.
If you’re a Newsletter subscriber, you will receive a notice and a substantial discount as soon as it becomes available. I’ll also be having a bra sale at the same time so if you’re into bras, get onto our Newsletter to receive the offer.
In other areas of my life I’ve started to realize that what I always thought of as decency, helpfulness and fairness is fast becoming obsolete. As a customer you should be able to expect you will be treated fairly and equitably throughout a transaction and if you are not happy, you are compensated accordingly.
Perhaps it’s my OCD relating to my attempts to make my own customers happy that makes other business processes so positively annoying. Seriously, how bloody hard is it to treat someone with enough respect to at least admit it when you have made a mistake!
I’ll be the first one to admit that perfection is pretty bloody hard to reach. But it IS an acceptable goal and you need to be striving for something! Striving for mediocrity isn’t an option. There’s no doubt I have made mistakes in this business, whether it’s sending an order with an incorrect size or getting a design so wrong that I would rather give it away than deal with the guilt of possibly selling something not up to my high standards.
But although I always try and look at the positive side of people, there will always be some halfwit wanker that wants to treat you like you’re an idiot and do their best to make your life harder. But to what end I wonder. Really, a simple phone call, email or sms with a dash of honesty and humility can go a long way to addressing a problem.
Rather than start an argument over a petty issue, I think some people should really learn the phrase ‘Hey, sorry mate. I just f**ked up’. Wouldn’t that be a nice change.
We would like to welcome Isabella into the HommeMystere family this month! Isabella comes in a panty, thong and a babydoll. She resembles the French Maid in looks and is designed for comfort and fun!
Cute thong style in black & white!
Isabella panty is similar to Rachel and Genevieve and is designed more for everyday wear and should be quite resilient. For guys looking for something bright and comfortable, Isabella panty is the way to go. Check the product description for more details.
Something a little different in our lingerie!
Isabella Babydoll comes with a non stretch satin panel in front, adjustable and detachable shoulder straps and garter belts and cups that can accommodate a C size.
We have also designed the babydoll with a 3 inch frill bottom to create a mini dress style that looks great with our Isabella thong!
Isabella Babydoll with thong (sold separately) is just the right length!
To celebrate the release of Isabella, we are offering a 20% discount on Isabella orders received until March 1st, 2016. Just enter the coupon code bella when going through the checkout to take advantage of the offer!
Has it really been a month since my last post?!? Time flies when you’re trying to get a new Showroom up and running!
Bring your partner and have a private appointment in comfortable surroundings
We’re pleased to say our Showroom is just about complete. We’ll be having a soft opening this Sunday, January 24th from 12pm to 4pm so visitors can check out the range and have a meet and greet, ask questions, give feedback and so on. There are still a few final touches to go on, but we’re sure you will be suitably impressed with what is possibly the only dedicated men’s lingerie showroom ever opened.
For those of you in Australia, you can now make an appointment for a private visit. We’re only making a few Sunday’s available and depending on demand over the next week or so, we will cut or add days accordingly.
The kind of environment women wish they had for lingerie fittings.
If you are visiting from interstate or overseas and wish to visit outside of hours, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate your schedule.
Update: Thanks to the guys that came in on Sunday. I appreciate it was pretty late notice and I was a bit concerned when no one showed up for a while! But eventually we had a few visitors that took the opportunity to try a few garments on and also take home a freebie or two!
We will keep appointments open for the next couple of Sundays then drop them back to once a month or so. In the interim I’ve had a few guys contact us via the site and request mid week appointments and that’s fine too. Wherever possible I’ll work with you.
We’ve been having a bit of a look at the past 12 months to see what we’ve achieved in the world of men’s lingerie.
Designs
It’s been a great year with a few new designs. Genevieve was certainly a big winner with everyone and many will notice we’ve already sold out of the Large and XL bras. Genevieve took the mantle of our fastest seller. For a while.
Monique was the next release and she has been the quiet one with subdued sales despite being one of the most comfortable bras in the range.
Our next release was Rachel and she could easily be confused as Genevieve’s sister. They have the same lines, same look although the Rachel bra is slightly larger in sizing. Rachel Teddy proved to be a winner with guys loving the thong back!
Anneve arrived and has taken over the title of fastest seller from Genevieve, but fortunately we made a few more of her so she will likely remain part of the family a little longer than the Genevieve bras. Anneve also marked our first attempt at a babydoll style and that has also been popular.
Vanessa proved to be a bit temperamental and arrived later than expected. The Vanessa skirt turned out to be a big winner with everyone, though the teddy was a bit of a failure! We gave away about 500 of the teddies due to a button fail in the manufacturing process.
Tiffany is our most recent arrival and she is gaining in popularity. The bra is the stand out winner here and it’s a style we may do again at some stage.
Store Update
In other news we updated the store at the beginning of the year and added bigger pics and improved usability for visitors. The old store was a bit clunky and despite a few minor issues, the transition has been surprisingly smooth.
China Visit
I was also fortunate enough to travel to Guangzhou and tour the factory where our garments are made and also meet with the technicians that put up with my constant pattern changes and adjustments! The meetings seemed to go well, although they may have been cursing me without my knowledge. It was a great experience and I’m hoping to head back over in 2016 for a few days to confirm release plans for 2016/17.
USB Pen Giveaway
We had a giveaway a few months ago after I got a little carried away and purchased a heap of branded USB pens for customers. They were loaded with a personal message, some pics of our early releases and a copy of our latest video. Which reminds me, I must upload that video onto YouTube soon too!
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday this year proved to be pretty big too! The cyber Monday and our stocktake/birthday sale in May/June each year are our biggest sale periods. It’s a great time for current customers to grab and extras of your favorite garments and also for new customers to grab a bargain.
Display Area
Possibly the biggest news for HommeMystere as a business was that we moved into bigger premises this year. It was a pretty big leap from our previous place and so far it’s proven to be a great move. We’re also cleaning up some space for a display area and fitting room for customers that want a more private and personal experience.
We will plan an open day and then trial clients via appointment to see if the experiment is a success. If you live in Australia and genuinely think you will take advantage of the opportunity to have a personal appointment, I’m happy to hear from you now. We’re located on the southside of Brisbane and appointments will be weekends only.
Peek at our Showroom wallpaper!
With all of this happening in 2015, I can’t wait to see what will happen in 2016!
Our annual sale over the Thanksgiving weekend has finished and the results are in! It’s been another very successful sale with plenty of guys (and girls) taking advantage of the great discount.
The downside of a successful sale is we start to rapidly run out of some lines. For example, our fastest selling style this year has been Genevieve and she has now sold out in sizes Large and XL in the bras!
Other styles that have recently sold out include the Rose Bra in Medium and Large, Scrunchy Panty in both Small and Medium and also the Large China Doll Panty.
Fortunately, we have more new lingerie to come. The full cup Tiffany set is due this week and we’re confident it will be very popular. Will it be the fastest seller? We’ll know very soon!
Tiffany bra and panty set due for release this week!
Watch for Tiffany arriving very soon…
(And Tiffany has now arrived. Use the coupon code word tiffany15 and receive 20% off the Tiffany set this week. Offer ends December 14)
You might have seen in an earlier post that sometimes things don’t always go perfectly to plan. But that’s understandable. If designing, manufacturing and retailing lingerie was easy then everyone would be doing it.
But it was still disappointing to discover our final production run of Vanessa teddies didn’t go quite according to plan. Though incredibly comfortable, we were getting a few emails to say the snap crotch buttons were not all staying closed all of the time.
So we’ve been considering what to do. We could possibly sew them up, or cut them up and use as polishing rags on my old Hyundai or maybe even give them to a charity for clothing perhaps? In the end we decided to give them away.
Very fun comfy teddy
Despite the minor fault, these teddies are still lovely!
Want to know what the fault is with these teddies? The teddy has a snap crotch held together with three little push buttons. The feedback we’re receiving is that on the odd teddy, one or more of the buttons will not stay connected while moving around. That’s it! Everything else is perfect! We haven’t heard of all three failing so you’re likely to receive a decent piece of lingerie.
To get one, all you have to do is place an order valued at over $30 USD. Based on the size of whatever you order, we will add a teddy. This is only until stocks run out and although we have a lot of theses teddies, some sizes will run out sooner than others.
I had my first meeting with interior designers Leonie and Theresa yesterday. The ladies are coming up with designs for our showroom and yesterday was an opportunity to see if we are on the same train of thought.
Fortunately we’re thinking along the same lines. I want a luxurious feel, comfortable environment and shades that show off our lingerie that can’t be appreciated in online photos.
If you want to see the style I like and where we’re heading, just visit our Pinterest Page and specifically the Store Ideas board. It will provide a guide to what we are thinking.
As a trial, we will generally open the showroom by appointment only. This will allow clients time and privacy to peruse the range and experience the various styles at leisure. If the service proves to be popular, we will extend opening hours to accommodate as required.
Of course we still have to build the showroom so check back from time to time to see how we’re progressing. We have a few fun ideas to make the experience even better but you will just have to wait to find out about those! Can’t spoil all the surprises. 🙂
Leave a comment and tell us what you would love to see in a lingerie boutique!
We can’t always receive our new lingerie as fast as we’d like so to fill in the waiting time we often pick up new products now and again.
One of those products is a branded USB pen. We wanted to provide our customers with some info on a USB and decided this was about the most practical method. So we’re giving away this pen with each order over USD $50 until they’re all gone – which we expect will take us through to Cyber Monday.
USB Pen loaded with pics, video and a note from the designer!
Each USB is 4GB and we’ve loaded some info on each pen. You’ll find some of our current products, promotional pics, long and short versions of our first video and also a copy of our next video that we’ll be uploading onto YouTube some time in November.
There are also pics of a few of our garments that didn’t make it past the sample stage and of course, some pics of our past favorites too.
How do you get one? Place an order and we’ll send a pen with your lingerie!
Interested in lingerie for me? Help us help you and take our survey!
Sometimes, regardless of how well you think you’ve planned something, it can all turn to utter crap.
We’ve had that happen this week when we received a few less than favorable reviews on the Vanessa Teddy that we just released. This teddy is without a doubt one of the most comfortable garments we’ve made. Unfortunately, we decided to try a snap crotch instead of the full crotch and some of the buttons are less robust than we had hoped.
This isn’t affecting all the teddies and we are getting some positive feedback from many customers. However if you have purchased a Vanessa Teddy and you are not happy with the snap crotch (or any other part), get in touch with us so we can make amends!
Vanessa Teddy with a Snap Crotch
For the foreseeable future we have removed the Vanessa Teddy from sale in the store and will work out what to do with the ones we have remaining. We may do a promo with them in the next month or two!
It was great to get back to China again and catch up with the people that work in the business there. The hospitality is second to none and it’s interesting to see a culture with such a long history. Except for the taxi drivers. I think taxi drivers are the same all over the world.
