When Inez Scheper lost her job in 2009, there was room to fulfill her entrepreneurial dream: opening a fashion store for tall people. She starts an online shop and sometimes invites her customers to try on their clothes in her attic. Customer contact shows that there is a great need for a physical point of sale. So Scheper rents a retail space in an Apeldoorn shopping center several times where she opens pop-up stores until she decides to open a permanent store in 2011.
Pretty Tall will have a permanent brick-and-mortar store in De Eglantier and sells clothing for tall women. “When the store had been running for a few years, women from all over the Netherlands, but also from Belgium, Germany and France, managed to find Pretty Tall. Most tall women also took their tall husbands to the store. They were sitting at the coffee table reading a book and drinking coffee.” Until the space next to the store becomes available in 2014 and offers the opportunity to expand the store with a men’s segment. The store has a new name: House of Tall and serves the whole family. “An average family spends about four to five hours with us. It is an outing that is guaranteed to be a successful day for every family member because they can find clothes that actually fit them.” House of Tall also had a store in Hoofddorp, but closed it after a fire caused irreparable damage to the neighbors and the aftermath of the corona crisis weighed on the results.
House of Tall has been around for almost fifteen years and, in addition to being a fashion store, it is also a community for tall men and women. “Many tall people, especially young women, don’t like being tall. They are often insecure. The result: They start to walk crooked and adopt the wrong posture.” House of Tall encourages tall people to show themselves, to walk upright and, for example, to wear nice heels. “It is not without reason that our motto is ‘Proud to be Tall’.”
Running a fashion store for tall people has opportunities and challenges, the latter of which mainly arises in the field of purchasing. FashionUnited speaks to Scheper about her strategy and creative entrepreneurial mentality.
House of Tall: The opportunities and challenges of purchasing
House of Tall is located in one of the largest local shopping centers in Apeldoorn and sells about 45 brands – 15 for men, about 30 for women – in its 370 square meter store. Scheper explains that the men’s supply is considerably smaller due to the scarce supply. “We see that men’s fashion brands are increasingly removing longer length sizes from their collections.” She points to the turbulent fashion landscape. “Everyone is now focusing on the core business and then extra long is not interesting enough.”
It means that Scheper faces challenges. “I once had to run a season without a jacket brand, but it also regularly happens that certain trousers are no longer available in size 38 and 40.” The range for women is more extensive. House of Tall has a number of brands that make products tailored to length and sells brands whose garments have a long fit. “There are many Danish brands that last longer. I am happy with that.”
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Scheper indicates that purchasing is one of the biggest challenges she faces. As she previously indicated, brands are cutting back on their collections, meaning that longer length sizes are often no longer available. In addition, according to the entrepreneur, there is no brand that specifically focuses on tall people. That sometimes causes frustration. “It’s no longer about looking at what is nice for the store, it’s about looking at what is on offer.” She sees that there are men’s brands that specialize in large sizes and often include a ‘tall collection’. According to her, it is a good mix, but does not always offer a solution. “The danger here is that a kind of collaboration arises between bigger and taller people. The ‘tall collection’ often contains sizes M to 6XL, while taller people are often narrower. They often need a smaller width and a longer length.”
Due to the scarce supply, Scheper has to make do with what she has. “As a retailer you want to be able to offer a complete look and collection. If there is only one sweater or shirt with the correct sleeve length, I am forced to buy it, regardless of whether it fits within the style of House of Tall.” Scheper would like to see more hip brands for boys. “A kind of Jack & Jones, for example,” she says. “I see a gap in the market for brands here.”
“Acquisition is a utopia for me.”
In addition, additional purchase is a utopia for Scheper. She has to pre-order everything and cannot make adjustments during the season. “That makes it very difficult. You buy something more than six months in advance and then you just have to hope that it catches on.” How Scheper deals with this? “Buy very carefully and ‘no-sell twenty times’ or buy too much of an item, which then does not go well.” She can laugh about it, but emphasizes that it is a very challenging way of doing business. “Not being able to respond to the season is the biggest problem I have experienced with purchasing in fifteen years.”
It sometimes causes an overabundance of stock. “We solve this by organizing a pop-up store two to three times a year in the north or south of the Netherlands,” says Scheper. “The temporary store will then open for about two weeks at the start of the new season. We bring a new collection, but also put together an outlet corner. This way I lose part of my old stock again.”
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House of Tall wants to grow and is looking for brands for tall people
House of Tall ended the last season well. The fashion retailer saw turnover increase on all fronts (the turnover of the store, webshop and pop-up store, ed.), Scheper shares. “The turnover among men has also increased by more than twenty percent.” This was mainly due to increased sales of jeans and shirts with sleeve length size 7, of which the fashion retailer managed to stock more during the winter season. Sweaters and sweaters sold less well. This was mainly due to late deliveries during the season, she says.
All in all, most sales are generated from the women’s segment. She prefers not to share specific turnover figures. “Our ladies to men ratio is 80-20. Naturally, the larger selection of women plays a very important role.” But Scheper also sees that inclusivity within the fashion world is more important among women than men. “That affects the collections of brands.”
The entrepreneur is increasingly finding nice women’s brands from which she can purchase, but does not always have the quantities to place an order. Her creative entrepreneurial brain is put to the test. “Nowadays I go shopping for some brands with my fellow colleagues,” she laughs. “We schedule a joint appointment. Then we have to see if we can get everyone on the same page and place a joint order so that we can achieve the numbers.” It’s not ideal, but it works. “You cannot handle those large numbers on your own. It is a lot of compromise, but in the end you are forced to do it together because no purchasing means an empty store.”
Scheper dreams of a purchasing adventure in which she can choose from the range on offer. “It would be a relief for me to be able to purchase all brands in longer lengths. A simple example: I would really like to purchase PME Legend for men. This brand offers the correct length sizes, but unfortunately the brand already has enough sales points near Apeldoorn. PME Legend is all the rage, you see it everywhere. Just because we are slightly different from other retailers, we cannot sell these types of trendy brands. I hope that will change in the future.”
How Scheper sees the upcoming purchasing season? “I’m going into it with a cautious, open mind. We want to grow, but the supply must be there. I am mainly looking for trendy men’s brands that can also dress narrow, tall boys aged 12-14.” The entrepreneur quickly thinks of brands that, for example, have straight jeans and wide-legs or cargo pants on offer. Labels with trendy shirts and sweaters are also more than welcome.
Source: fashionunited.nl
