Society grooms men and women very differently as they grow up. As a woman, I grew up with a good sense of fashion, a way of feeling confident with what I wear. For some reason, men have never focused as much on grooming. This led me to start Legere, a business catering to the needs of empowering men with a smart wardrobe, helping them carry themselves with grace and confidence.

Our brand promise was clear: marrying high-quality fabric with immaculate custom clothing. We got Egyptian cotton fabric, wool, linen, and silk sourced from a century-old factory in Italy. When it comes to quality, our brand seeks no compromise.

After the initial phase though, the business went through a crisis. We weren’t able to get much response beyond friends. Identifying the problem was turning out to be an unexpected challenge. So we decided to go back to basics. We got down analyzing what the customer really needs and how we could provide it.

That's when we decided to focus on custom clothing by introducing a new concept - “wardrobe-planning services”. This was a genuine breakthrough, we tasted some success post that. However, one thing that kept troubling us was our advertising. We had tried doing a campaign or two, but those attempts failed. After that, it was a case of ‘once burnt, twice shy’ and I was reluctant to try advertising again.

However, in 2020, as we know it, the pandemic came knocking at our doors. And since our unique selling proposition involved physical interaction, business came crashing down. We had no use in keeping the shop open. We more or less shut it down. This however paved the way for a lot of time to learn and rebuild. Armed with new learning, I decided to try advertising again. Fortunately, I received opportunities to attend courses by #SheMeansBusiness and Academy of Women Entrepreneur co-hosted by Meta, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). I also participated in its pitching competition to bring my learnings into a comprehensive business plan.

The training has made me understand the importance of brand-building and accumulating traffic, before attempting conversion. I was obsessed with the idea of “conversion” online. But I realized that for a brand that emphasizes a tailor-made experience for men, we were hardly tailoring our content for different audiences. Building custom content for our different audiences helped us enhance our brand image during the pandemic. The pandemic also gave us an opportunity to re-organize the team, optimize our systems, and prepare for our next round of growth. I now hold the vision of expanding across multiple bases in Taiwan and replicating the experience we provide for men, and I’m elated to say that we’re on the right track!