In a few weeks, the world has changed, although the extent of the change has only been clear for months. Advani recalled a sign placed in the brand’s stores in mid-March that said it would reopen on April 1. “I found out that April 2021 would have been ambitious,” he said.
At the time, the company was not the only one to believe that it simply needed to weather a storm of months before normalcy returned. He put the retail store team to work on remote projects, such as sending gifts and handwritten notes to his best customers, and used the Pay Check Protection Program to pay these employees and owners. It also started producing masks, which would account for 13% of sales last year and provide the company with the necessary cash flow.
At the end of the summer, the end was not in sight and the company’s revenue was stagnant. “Every time I called an investor, he said, ‘Please tell me that the Ministry has not closed,'” said Reese. He had faith in the executives, but, he said, “if you weren’t worried, you weren’t paying attention.”
In August, the start-up decided to “stop betting on the return happening”, as Mr. Amarasiriwardena said, and reformulated the business around new ideas: the notion that remote or hybrid work would continue for years, and the codes of office clothing would loosen permanently. The company focused on “pointed” clothing that could be used in many different situations. It would continue to promote its science-based approach to exclusive clothing and fabrics.
Crazy confusion ensued. Fabric that has been programmed for blazers has been reused for runners. The company edited items that were already in production, inserting elastic waistbands where previously there were sewn waists and narrow hems on suit pants to give “tennis cuts”, while pausing orders for suits, blazers and dress shirts. The modified pants took a scant 30 to 45 days to be reversed, compared to the company’s typical product schedule of four to six months.
The Ministry of Supply photographed all 200 items on its website and rewrote the descriptions, with the aim of “getting rid of each pair of high heels, each brown shoe, each shirt well folded inward, each mention of office or office environment. work, “Mr. Advani said. She renamed about 25% of her products to make them more attractive to remote workers – removing the” dress “from her” Apollo shirt, “for example.