Today we’d like to introduce you to T.D. McMurry.
Hi T.D., can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Louisiana and was always drawn to the arts. I started playing music when I was 10 or so and thought that would be my calling in some way, shape, or form. As I got older, no matter the job I had, I always played a couple nights per week at the local restaurants/bars as my creative outlet. When I started working in men’s retail in 2019, it was kind of a wakeup call. I remember thinking, “Oh, I get to be creative at work? This is awesome.” And it’s felt that way ever since. I moved up and became a manager at a store in Louisiana before moving to Charleston to open our own. It felt natural to me, because I always put a lot of thought into what I wore. If I was playing a gig, I wanted to fit the vibe of the music and the venue. If I was going to a corporate dinner, I wanted to dress the part and fit in there. I always used fashion as a way to express myself, and getting to help others find their own sense of style has been incredibly rewarding.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Anytime there is a new business, there are bound to be some struggles, but we’ve got a great community here that has been very supportive. Our biggest obstacle was (and still is) just letting people know we’re here. I know that’s true for a lot of brick-and-mortar stores. Once they’re in the door, though, people have been really receptive to the products we’ve brought in and the environment we’ve created.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our shop specializes in everyday, elevated, casual menswear – the stuff you’re grabbing five days a week. We don’t do suiting, and we do pretty minimal athletic apparel, but we have everything you’d need in between – date nights, office attire, boozy brunch, game days. What sets us apart is the service you’ll get in the store. We’re a small, relationship-based business. We want to get to know all of our customers on a personal level so that we can help them find the things they could use in their day-to-day lives.
From a brand standpoint, we’ll always have a few familiar favorites like Billy Reid or Rails, but what we love most is getting to introduce smaller, lesser known brands to our customers. We’re always searching for smaller operations that do their craft really well. For example, we brought in Original Madras Trading Company last year. They started in the 1970s just making the handwoven madras fabrics, and began selling them to brands like Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew (just to name a few), and they launched their own line in 2020. It’s a family run business, and we love working with them because you can feel their passion in it. NN07 is a more contemporary brand out of Denmark. They’re bigger in Europe, but their hold in the US market has grown significantly in the last few years, and we’re the only store in South Carolina to carry them. Being able to bring in these brands that are new to people really helps them develop their own sense of style, because we get to show them new styles and silhouettes they would have never tried before.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
What makes people continue to come back to the shop is the service. Like I said, we’re a relationship-based business, and I think the thing that makes it work so well for us is that I genuinely love talking with people. I love hearing about how others grew up, what they studied, and what brought them to Charleston. I think when someone tries to fake being interested in those things, people can see through it, but when it’s an authentic, genuine interest, they can feel that too. This job is fun for me. Some people think it’s crazy that I’m on the floor six days a week, but it doesn’t feel like a job to me; it’s a passion, and I’m fortunate that it also happens to be my “work.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tdmcmurryshop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tdmcmurry.shop/
