Suited for Success

Mon, November 10, 2008

By CHRISTOPHER CLARK, LONDON FREELANCE WRITER

Relationships within businesses are almost as tricky to navigate and support as relationships within marriages. Just ask someone running a family business.

This fall, David E. White combined the two, by adding an art gallery to his fixture downtown clothing store.

One of the two artists featured is Lynda White, a talented water colourist to whom he happens to be married. (The E, by the way, stands for Edward.)

Not only did he merge his own marriage with his business, he helped continue a similar tradition for a friend, Don Simpson, and his wife, Catherine.

Don Simpson

She, too, is a talented artist, specializing in a Forever Young series of paintings that she and Don sold at their own gallery on Richmond Row for 10 years. When their lease expired this year, White approached them with a wild idea he had been kicking around for some time.

For years, White has sold upscale men’s clothing, specializing in personal service for professionals who spend money to project an image of success.

And for years, he had farmed out the tailoring of the clothes. He also had been asked repeatedly by clients about the best place to have their fine threads dry-cleaned.

“I’ve always been a bit of a contrarian,” says White, 56. “I’ve never operated in a mall, for example, because I think that goes against the kind of personal approach we’ve always taken. So I began thinking about adding some more services to our store, a tailor and a dry-cleaner.”

He had experimented with a wider array of services when he moved into his current location almost nine years ago. At that time, he added a barbershop, and he had seen how popular it was for men working downtown who could schedule a haircut during a busy day and possibly pick up a sweater to wear out that night.

He waited until a space adjacent to the store opened up, and this summer he put his plan into action. He hired a tailor and set up a stylish space where customers could get their garments hemmed. To that, he added a dry cleaning service. Working with a few cleaners he trusts, he invites customers to drop off their clothes at the store. They go to the dry cleaners and are back for pickup within a day or two.

“Those things all made sense, but the art gallery,” White says with a chuckle, “that was a bit more of a stretch. But we wanted to make this a place where people wanted to spend time, getting their clothes tailored or cleaned.”

To make the plan work, he approached the Simpsons. Don had managed the couple’s gallery and Catherine’s career for more than three decades.

He was intrigued at the idea of running the gallery portion of White’s business, even if it would be the only gallery he had ever seen with a tailor and dry cleaner on site.

His expertise running such a business was exactly what White needed, and they opened the gallery/tailor/cleaner in mid-September.

It measures about 1,000 square feet and is directly across the foyer from the 2,700 sq. ft. clothing and barber shop.

“We wanted to create something unique, something that fits with our philosophy of doing things differently,” says White.

“I’m pretty sure this is the only such combination of services anywhere in Canada.”