In Italy I was a somebody. I came to Australia and started again at nothing, without the language.
The room heard what I could not say yet. The rest of me had to wait.
"being in Australia, I felt like I was a second-class citizen. I felt like chip on the shoulder, people looking down at me and so on."
That is me, out loud, on our own show. Not a line from a marketing meeting.
A room makes up its mind about you before you speak
You might be here to work out whether we mean any of this. Good.
Is this just a tailor telling me I need a suit? I would ask the same question.
So let me tell you where my answer comes from. Years of being looked past, in a country I had chosen.
"For many years, I had a chip on my shoulder."
"Then I came here and I started from scratch, from zero, right?"
I was thirty, back at school, in a language I was still learning.
Two things come up again and again from people who find us. My work is good and people still look past me. And the one I hear most: I want to be listened to, not admired.
Nothing about my work changed. The way people spoke to me did
So I used the one thing I knew. Colour, fit and cut, on myself, every day.
"the way that I was treated, I was spoken to, it changed drastically."
Same hands. Same work. Same man.
"there was a moment where the way I looked and the way I dressed had influence and control in the room around me."
What came back with that control was a voice. I had carried one the whole time, and nobody could hear it.
The room you walk into decides what you have to look like
On the show I put the idea to Dr Clinton Schultz in my own rough words.
"if I want to speak To the wolves, I have to look like a wolf."
He is a Gomeroi Gamilaroi man who speaks in front of very different crowds. He handed the line back to me sharper.
"you're more likely to be accepted by the wolves if you reflect the wolves."
Some rooms he walks into with his "ochre" on, loud and proud about where he comes from. For other rooms he puts on a suit.
He is the same man in both rooms. The room only has to be able to see him.
Dressing to be heard is a different job from dressing to look good
Most people get the order backwards. It costs them the hearing.
"you need to understand that if you don't look like the person that is meant to be heard, people won't listen, right?"
There are people who look the part and know very little. The room leans in for them. And there are people who know the work and never get the hearing.
That second group is who I work for.
"let me give you your voice."
So the first thing in our room is not your size. It is a question about you.
Before we talk fabric, what do you want people to think when you walk in?
We are "stylists first, tailors second", and that order is where the work gets done. Your answer picks the colour, the cut and the cloth, in that order.
Clinton got a jacket that hangs easy on him. Not a three piece suit. A three piece would have been a lie about who he is.
"it's not about the suit. It's not about tailoring."
"how can I make it so whatever you say, it's heard in the way that it's meant to be listened to"
You stay yourself. The room starts listening anyway
The first change happens inside you. You stop getting ready to be put lower in the room.
You get seen. You get asked what you think. You walk in and you belong there.
Outside, the change is plain. People hold your look a second longer. The meeting starts from a better place, and the work follows.
A tailor saying your clothes change how people treat you is a sales line with a suit on the end of it. Fair enough.
What I am telling you instead is what happened to me in real rooms. That is why the promise here is a hearing, and the suit is only how it gets to you.
You can see what we build for men, and what Angela builds for women.
Made to fit you. Not the other way around.
If you want that hearing, book a consultation. Tell us about the rooms you have to walk into, and we will work out the rest.
Presence is power.
Bruno Falcone
Frequently asked questions
Why does a tailored suit change how people treat you?
Because the room has already placed you by the time you sit down. Fit, colour and cut are the first things people take in, and they decide whether you are the one worth hearing out. Change what they see and the hearing changes with it.
Is this about looking rich?
No. Looking rich is easy to spot and easy to see through. This is about looking like the person who knows what they are talking about, which is a different thing and it holds up longer.
Will I still look like myself in a custom suit?
That is the whole job. We ask who you are first and build to that answer, so the clothes say the true thing about you louder. Dr Clinton Schultz got a soft jacket, because a three piece suit is not him.
What happens in the first meeting?
Coffee, then questions about the rooms you walk into and what you need people to think when you get there. Then we talk colour, fit and style. Fabric comes after that, never before.
I get my work by word of mouth. Why would my clothes matter?
Because the person who was sent to you looks you up and sizes you up before they shake your hand. Word of mouth opens the door. How you turn up decides how fast they trust you once you are through it.