We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Raphael Tilley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Raphael below.
Raphael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Motif Stylez Menswear was started from the idea that there were more fabric in the world than your basic blue, black, grey, brown and occasionally burgundy. I found myself buying the same color suits so out of mere frustration I was on a quest to find more fabric choices and offer them to many people around the world.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Raphael is a hard-working father and engineer who simply wanted to create a brand of custom suiting and accessories for men. His educational and professional training centers on engineering, but his passion lies in creating elegant, sophisticated suiting for the well-dressed gentleman, no matter what his occupation. He is one of the rare people who can actually craft and design custom men’s suiting. His creativity allows him to visualize every detail of the attire; his analytical training assures him of accurate measurements, that result in the perfect suit designed specifically for each individual client. No matter what your occupation, whether you are an engineer, sales professional, or C-Suite executive, every gentleman should be able to embrace the elegance, and style a well-made suit affords him. Mr. Tilley has grown his company to include custom suits, dress shirts, ties, shoes, and accessories including pocket squares, cuff links, tie pins and lapel adornment. All pieces are coordinated from complementing fabric selections, colors, to design styles, and patterns. As the business continued to develop, Raphael noticed some of his clients could benefit from a concierge service. So, as any conscientious business owner would do, he decided to meet the needs of his clients. He implemented a service that allowed him to come to the client and take measurements, bring pre-selected fabrics, and designs to the client, and allow the client to choose what they want in the comfort of their own surroundings, without adversely impacting the client’s most valuable resource, their time!
Many well-dressed successful business men in Huntsville, have been outfitted by Motif Stylez. Suits are well designed from a stylistic view, and they are crafted with the wearer in mind. The attire is made to the custom measurements of each client.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I feel as if my customer service helped me tremendously and I say that because customer service is at the forefront of my business. It allowed my current clients to tell other potential clients what I offer and how I aim to please any and everyone I come in contact with.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The year of 2020 was a struggle because of Covid-19 with my business being where I have to meet clients face to face put a strain on the business. With everyone scared of Covid and was going out into public place many people didn’t have a need for custom suits so I saw my bottom line numbers be cut to a 1/3 of what I usually was making per month. So I got creative and started doing raffles for custom suits and I started giving away free items to keep visibility on my brand. I know it sounds crazy that I would give away free things when I wasn’t hardly making any money at the time in the business. However, during that time God was dealing with me to be a blessing to other people and so I was obedient to the word. Fast forward to the coming months after Covid subsided, I had some of the biggest months because of my obedience to God.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MotifStylez.com
- Instagram: Www.instagram.com/MotifStylez.com
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/MotifStylez
- Linkedin: MotifStylez