Hot Designer Of The Week – Ted Baker
Ted Baker
In 1987 Ted Baker was born as a men’s shirt shop in Glasgow, England. The father and founder of the brand was Ray Kelvin. Ted Baker began to grow and soon other Ted Baker stores began to open around in the UK. In 1990 Kelvin opened a store in Covent Garden, London, and bought the company outright from part owners Goldberg & Sons. Ted Baker now belonged completely to Ray Kelvin and in 1995 Ted Baker Woman was launched.
Today the luxury fashion brand is nothing less than a global success in the fashion world selling both men’s and women’s clothing and accessories, fragrances, footwear, eyewear, skinwear, watches etc. in stores and outlets located all over Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, Asia, the Middle East and of course England. Ted Baker is also one of the fastest growing leading lifestyle brands in the UK, and throughout the whole process Ray Kelvin never forgot to keep the culture of the business retained and nurtured. In 2013 Ted Baker celebrated its 25th anniversary and marked the occasion by almost doubling.
The Bashful Success
After running the business as the CEO, Ray Kelvin, now 58, has no desire to stop: “I love it. I enjoy what I do”, Kelvin told the Telegraph in an interview. But he also explained that he “had to be quite ugly and assertive for the first seven years to stay in business, but once we got past that, then it was about hug culture.” Our own Editor in Chief Joe Alvarez quickly became a part of Kelvin’s hug culture when they met at the launch party of Ted’s Grooming Room back in December 2012. But besides his goodhearted desire to hug everybody Ray Kelvin actually happens to be a very bashful person. Ever wondered why the fashion brand is called Ted
Baker and not Ray Kelvin? “I didn’t want to be known as Ray the Bankrupt,“ Kelvin explains in the same interview with the Telegraph, so he just choose another name for his brand instead of using his own. And that’s not all. Kelvin has spent his whole career eschewing personal publicity, by never letting anyone photograph him in full profile. Maybe the face is half hidden or back to the camera. “I’m an ugly bugger. I don’t want people to see my face. I’m not into all that.”
Luckily for Ray Kelvin, running a fashion brand doesn’t require showing your face in public. So instead of focusing on personal advertising, Kelvin is focusing on outstanding attention-to-detail both in terms of his clothing and costumer service and the Ted Baker company definitely has it’s own way of how things are done.
No Ordinary Design Label
“No Ordinary Design Label” is a title the fashion brand gained after the first Ted Baker stores used to provide a laundry service for every shirt purchased. We now know that Ray Kelvin, besides his hug desire and bashful behaviour, also possess a quirky sense of humour and a whole lot of creativity. The creativity is an important strategy for the brand since they have decided not to advertise but instead rely on something called “Teducation”. Teducation is effectively guerrilla marketing, word of mouth and social media like Facebook and Twitter, and it seems to be working. Without any heavy discounting and advertising Ted Baker sales grew by nearly a fifth in the crucial festive period, thanks to Ray Kelvin and his loyal team’s “No Ordinary Design Label”-way of working and with the Ted Baker SS14 collection in stores, the great sales are almost destined to continue.
Ted Baker SS14 – Say It With Flowers
The Ted Baker SS14 show was a glorious circus themed event. For the women the show featured soft and stunning spring pastels, candy-coloured dreams, flower printed skater dresses and of course accessories containing the iconic bag, bags in leather, flower printed bags and pastel coloured bags, shoes and jewellery. The whole Ted Baker SS14 collection for women is about beautiful feminism both in shapes, colours and prints. It is the perfect collection for spring and summer. The men’s collection, on the other hand, lights up the mind just as much as the women’s. The collection features the fashionable English country gentleman’s wardrobe combined with Ray Kelvin’s attention-to-detail way of working. Each item designed with details made of perfection. A pocket with a print, a striped shirt, a printed polo, a pair of coloured shorts or a blazer with flower prints inside. Details everywhere. The Ted Baker SS14 collection is ready to improve your spring/summer wardrobe, are you?
Out with the plain and in with the prints.
