Meeting with Patrick Philippo, Founder of Webmenshirts.com

Going to meet Patrick Philippo is getting ready to share a moment with a passionate man with feet on the ground. A man of conviction, rich in energy communicator who talks about everything but especially mode. The creator of the brand Emporio Balzani and Andrew McAllister and founder of www.ChemiseWeb.com, received us in his creative workshop in Epinay sur Seine.

A nearly fifty years you look and dynamism of a young man. What is your secret ?

Here's an interview begins as I love them! Seriously I think it is no secret, or rather that there is only one: in life you have to have passion. This is what keeps young and did hold. Passion is a powerful engine. That said, I have no merit, I inherited mine from my father.

It is your father who sent you this taste for fashion?

Yes. It is with him that everything started. WebMenshirts not a single website out of nowhere. Roots, you have to get them home in my father began his career as hawker markets. He took his truck and he would sell his own clothing creations. After which his case has gained momentum and has opened its first fashion store. Others followed. So I was bathed in this universe young and when I was old enough to join him, I did.

What fascinated you at first in this trade?

Fashion is a complex phenomenon that has something fascinating. It is made by a few and for all. Create clothing that is participating in a formidable field experiments. What is exciting about this job is that it is constantly in motion. If history is rich, its future is not less. And that is precisely what will and forth between tradition and innovation that makes all the salt of our business.

How do you define fashion?

I think that is often mistaken about her. Fashion for a creator, it is not in step with the times but rather predict the times. Being able to interpret today what tomorrow will bring. Fashion is a kind of perpetual renewal, hence the energy that emerges. That's why she lives, just like nature, the seasons rhythm. If fashion shows are every year around the world and stalked expected, it is for this reason that they have something to offer us that is about pure pleasure. Perfectly accessories and therefore totally essential!
What is that you pushed to move from physical sales to online sales?

There were several reasons for this. But I think the most obvious was the desire I had to get into a new challenges and to work differently, with more freedom even at screen. Internet is a great tool. It allows to rethink its prices exactly because selling directly to consumers without having to go through intermediaries. It also allows all audiences by offering an unlimited trading area. And it's a "light" structure somehow. One of the strengths of WebMenshirts is undoubtedly its ability to innovate. Where large groups and chains are frozen because of the heaviness of their processes WebMenshirts opts for flexibility.

And this flexibility, you need only Internet?

No. We also have our mode of operation. The only thing for us is not debatable is the quality of the finished product. For the rest, we are not closed to any hypothesis, we do not bridles us. Instead, we let our ideas live. And also as we produce shirts in small quantities and limited editions, we can afford to go off the beaten track, to be bolder and therefore more exclusive and original than our competitors.

Your success do not come only from a production difference, but a difference of mentality?

I firmly believe that. A brand is not just a name on a label. A brand is also the translation of the spirit of its creators. We adhere or not there, but it really is within the personality. Creative coupled with a trader is not just there to make a living. It is also there to give and take pleasure. And I think one can not go without the other.