THE commuter town of Reading seems an unlikely birthplace for Nathan Bogle,
whose trendy Rag & Bone jeans are sold all over the world.
Bogle moved to London at 16 to study law and business, but he hated it.
“London was a bit of a playground for me,” he said, “and studying wasn’t
really a priority.” What he did discover was modelling, and he started doing
it seriously when he was 22.
Bogle modelled in fashion shows in Milan and Paris. He worked in South
America, Australia and Cuba for top designers such as Dolce & Gabanna,
Armani and DKNY.
“Modelling was great. I got to see some amazing places,” he said. “I don’t
really have any kind of education, so I fell into modelling. It was money
and I got to travel, which I love, but it was limited.”
So seven years ago Bogle moved to New York for “a change of scene”. He was
working with the modelling agency Wilhelmina, which promotes itself as
having more male supermodels than any other agency, when he realised that he
himself had business aspirations. He said: “I wanted to get my teeth stuck
into something more serious.”
Bogle decided to start his own business using the money he had made from
modelling. He found the inspiration he needed when he and a British friend,
Marcus Wainwright, realised they couldn’t find the jeans they wanted. “My
uniform was jeans and a T-shirt. I thought, ‘Let’s design our own jeans and
get that going’.”
With no formal training in manufacturing clothes, Bogle surrounded himself
with graders, cutters, sewers and marketing experts for three years to learn
all he could about jean design and manufacturing. “It was very intense,” he
said. He sought the advice of clothing- industry experts, who were sceptical
about his plans.
But Bogle was determined, and initially invested $50,000 of his own money to
develop a product. Since then, several hundred thousand dollars have been
ploughed into the business. Wainwright, who had owned a communications
company in London, Energy Audits, was also an investor.
At the beginning, Bogle sat down and looked at jeans on the market, and asked
what would he change. “Without the internet, it would have been a lot
harder,” he said. “The resources you can find online, and being in New York,
the fashion capital of the world where there is a ton of talent, really
helped.
“Some people pointed us in the right direction, but most of our knowledge came
from our research.”
Bogle said he interviewed many sample makers and pattern makers. Some were
good, some were not good enough. “It was tough, but eventually we found the
right kind of team, got the fit down and got the garment down.”
Bogle found a company in Kentucky that would make the jeans, and fit his
vision to manufacture domestically. “America is the home of jeans and we had
looked at the image and ethics. If we were going to do it, we wanted to do
it right.”
Bogle also realised he could have more control over the product if it was made
in America. “The ethical side of it was very important. People seem to care
about that, certainly at the bracket where we are at ($200 to $250) for a
pair of jeans, and ultimately you can see it in the product and in the
quality of the sewing.”
He likes to describe Rag & Bone as “denim purists” because of the style of
jeans and the fabrics used — imported Japanese denim. “The Japanese are very
tuned in to the quality of cotton and indigo, and a lot of their mills have
representatives in America and in New York.”
Once the product was developed, Bogle was ready to start marketing. His first
sale was a “travelling salesman kind of deal”. He recalled: “We went in
there, wearing the jeans, and gave them the full pitch, the whole story.
They had just wanted to look at the product, but it worked out and it is an
account we still have.”
Bogle also developed a strategy about which shops to approach. “We started
quietly in America and in London, simply because we wanted to establish the
right kind of accounts before we blew into every boutique.”
Today half the company’s business is in America. Rag & Bone jeans
are sold at Barneys in five cities and at upmarket boutiques. They are
priced at up to £300 in shops such as Harvey Nichols and Liberty.
“We wanted it to be a slow burn rather than a flash-in-the-pan brand. We are
looking 10 years down the track and want it to be more than just clothes. We
want Rag & Bone to be more of a lifestyle brand. We want to expand into
footwear and homeware too.”
Bogle is surprised by the early success of his company. He now has a third
investor. “Ultimately, if you want to go really big scale, cashflow is the
key. You need a lot of it.”
But the work is paying off. The company was formally launched only last year
and is about to launch a women’s line. Sales are topping $1m and Bogle
expects this to double within a year.
When he was setting up the business, Bogle had asked a 70-year-old man with a
lifetime of experience in the clothing industry if he had any advice. He did
— it was “don’t do it”. But Bogle said that knowing what he does now, his
advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs is different. “You just have to do
it. If you believe in something and have a product that will fill a niche,
go for it.”
