'Before PURE had a name'
Pure by name, Pure by destiny
A light-hearted and only slightly exaggerated look at the naming of a company.
Nick Falkingham, Managing Director, Pure Collection
When my partner Adam and I were planning our new cashmere business, we had no idea that it would end up being called Pure, because we started not with a name, but with a vision.
Adam is an expert in cashmere. His family have been in the exotic fibres business for generations. Adam can pick up a hank of raw cashmere and tell you what grade it is and to within half a tögrög1 what it is worth. He is on first name terms with all the top Mongolian cashmere herders and has acquired quite a taste for fermented mare's milk.
My own field is the less exotic one of organising. Our plan was that Adam would source the finest cashmere in the world, and I would manage the team that turned it into the world's most desirable cashmere clothing. We would aim for quality, pure and simple, in everything we did, always putting quality before cost. If our designers wanted mother of pearl, we'd have them carved from real oyster shells. If a collar needed three hours of pure silk hand embroidery, it would get it and hang the expense.
The clever twist was that by offering our collection direct to customers instead of via shops, we could cut out the middleman and keep our prices on the low side of sensible. Our garments would be irresistible value for money.
When we were ready, we consulted a friend who runs a successful mail order business.
'Value is good,' he said, 'but image is everything. What are you going to call the company?'
'Haven't got a name yet'
'Ah well, what you need is some expert help'
Discreet enquiries produced the names of various advertising, marketing, design, corporate identity and direct marketing agencies. One or two styled themselves like law firms, or 70s rock ensembles - Torrington McCallion Gerolymbos & Moon2. Others had opted for homely, unassuming names like Potato while a small hardcore had bizarre names clearly designed to challenge.
We duly rang each one and travelled to London for a series of meetings in which we explained what we were about and what we wanted to achieve. A month later we returned to hear their recommendations.
The first agency - I'll call them Grated Rat2 - said that just as the quality of our cashmere would set us apart, our name should make us stand out from the crowd. Nothing ordinary would do, we must be zingy, daring, up to the minute. Somewhere in our brief we had written that 'fine cashmere worn next to the skin is an exquisite sensation'. They had blown this statement up and put it on a slide. This, said their creative director, was the key to our identity.
'It's about sensation, pure bliss, the loving touch. Cashmere makes a woman feel sexy and feminine. But we don't want to patronise women' - all around the table his colleagues nodded - 'the clever thing is to talk about the effect she will have on men . . . so here is your new name . . .' He clicked for the next slide.
Heart of Cashmere: warms you, melts him
Another click, and up came a picture of a man's head floating in a dish full of green liquid. On the agency side of the table, everybody laughed.
'What's this?' asked Adam, looking uneasy.
'That's all that's left of him,' said the smartly suited art director. 'He's melted, you see . . . turned to jelly . . . in a jelly mould.
So where are the pictures of the cashmere?
It's cooler not to show the product,' said the art director. 'That way you have to imagine what the clothes must be like to have such an amazing effect.
That fellow's suit,' said Adam as we walked to our next appointment, 'it's at least 10% rabbit
Some of the presentations that followed I have mercifully forgotten, but those I remember include:
A Passion for Cashmere - (because we are passionate to be the best at everything we do)
The Big Soft Cashmere Company - (because nothing is softer)
Perfection - (because we had said that I am an obsessive perfectionist)
Mere: Cashmere less Cash - (because our prices were sensible)
White Dragon - (because our cashmere comes from Inner Mongolia where the world's best cashmere is harvested and where there be dragons, and because we use nothing but Inner Mongolian White, the finest grade)
The last agency started with a long self-congratulatory speech about themselves, after which they scraped around for some left over praise to lavish on us and our ambitions. 'We have given it a lot of thought,' said their managing director, 'and we think you should call yourselves . . .' He held up a placard that said:
CASHMERE GOLD - PURE PERFECTION
The agency then introduced a man who looked a little like Henry Kissinger. He was wearing a cashmere jumper in which he seemed ill at ease, as if he'd rather be wearing a leather patched jacket and smoking a pipe. He had been a professor of psychology in some university until they dug him out. Apparently he knew everything about why people did anything.
After a while I noticed that if I leaned forward Kissinger leaned forward. If I folded my arms, he folded his.
'Why gold?' said Kissinger. 'Well, I don't have to tell you that pure gold is the most desirable metal on earth. Everyone goes nuts for it. Do you know that Indian villagers have got more pure gold hidden away under the mud floors of their houses than there is in er . . . in the Bank of India. . .'
I scratched my nose.
'Gold, heavy, gleaming and pure,' said Kissinger, pausing to give his nose a reflective scratch, 'has been prized all over the world since the most ancient times . . .' He went on to describe the mask of Tutankhamen coated in pure, the pure golden ornaments that lie heaped on the floor of Lake Titicaca.
Not all gold survives. Only pure gold. Pure gold doesn't corrode or tarnish. This is because gold atoms do not combine easily with other substances, which is also why the gold nuggets found in nature are almost always pure gold.
This is very interesting, 'I said, but what's the connection with us?
Your cashmere is pure in the same sense as gold is pure. You use only the very finest fibres of the highest grade of cashmere from the world's best producers. You are the cashmere equivalent of the gold standard. You are pure 24 carat cashmere.
I hate to contradict you,' said Adam, 'but cashmere does actually combine wonderfully well with other materials. Silk, for example, and cotton.
'Ah,' said Kissinger, holding up a hand. 'Stop there. When you say silk and cotton, I take it that you are talking about pure silk, ie 100% silk, and pure 100% cotton?'
Well then, it's the same thing. Pure cashmere, pure silk, pure cotton, you are still the gold standard.
'Sorry' said Adam. 'But this pure gold comparison doesn't really work. The gold sold in shops is not pure. It's mixed with other metals such as silver and copper because pure gold is too soft to be used in jewellery. Unfortunately the cashmere people buy in the high street is also often less than pure. It can contain ordinary wool, camel hairs . . . Our cashmere really is the finest fibres of the highest grade of the best cashmere. That's what I would call pure.'
This is when the idea struck
'The word 'pure' seems to have cropped up quite a few times,' I said, tugging at an earlobe. 'Why not just call the company Pure?'
They all looked at me as if I were mad
'That's just preposterous,' said Kissinger, and his hands stayed stubbornly at his side.
So then there was this word, Pure. The more Adam and I thought about Pure the more we liked it. Pure. Pure. Pure. It fitted our ideas in all sorts of ways.
So then there was this word, Pure. The more Adam and I thought about Pure the more we liked it. Pure. Pure. Pure. It fitted our ideas in all sorts of ways.
Pure passion - to be the best at everything we do, from sourcing the best fibre to offering the best customer service
Pure joy - of dealing with people who love what they are doing and love sharing it with you.
Pure pleasure - of wearing beautiful, incredibly soft garments
Pure luxury - of pure cashmere blended with pure silk
'Can you think of anything better?' I asked Adam
I can't think of anything else at all.
'Pure it is then.'
'Pure it is.'
'Here's to Pure!'
'To Pure!'
And that is how Pure got its name.
1 A tögrög is the Mongolian unit of currency. L1 = approximately 2380 tögrög
2 Names have of course been changed to protect all concerned
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE WORD PURE AND PURE THINGS
· Pure or nearly pure diamonds are transparent and colourless
· Scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory in the US have been making electronic transistors out of pure diamond
· Pure white marble is an emblem of purity
· There is a nightclub called Pure in Las Vegas
· If you google for 'Pure' you find about 222 million hits
· A pure tone is a sound wave consisting of energy at only one frequency
· Pure carbohydrate has no known unique use in the human body
· Pure mathematics explores the boundary of mathematics and pure reason. It has been described as "that part of mathematical activity that is done without explicit or immediate consideration of direct application," although what is "pure" in one era often becomes applied later. Finance and cryptography are current examples of areas to which pure mathematics is applied in significant ways
· The philosopher Hegel describes a dialectic of existence: first, existence must be posited as pure Being, but pure Being, upon examination, is found to be indistinguishable from Nothing
· Pure water is virtually colorless and has no taste or smell
DEFINITION OF PURE FROM MERRIAM WEBSTER DICTIONARY
Main Entry: pure
Pronunciation: 'pyur
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): pur·er; pur·est
Etymology: Middle English pur, from Anglo-French, from Latin purus; akin to Old High German fowen to sift, Sanskrit punAti he cleanses, Middle Irish úr fresh, new
1 a (1) : unmixed with any other matter pure gold(2) : free from dust, dirt, or taint pure springwater (3) : SPOTLESS, STAINLESS
b : free from harshness or roughness and being in tune -- used of a musical tone
c of a vowel : characterized by no appreciable alteration of articulation during utterance
2 a : being thus and no other : SHEER, UNMITIGATED pure folly
b (1) : ABSTRACT, THEORETICAL pure research (2) : A PRIORI pure mechanics
c : not directed toward exposition of reality or solution of practical problems pure literature
d : being nonobjective and to be appraised on formal and technical qualities only pure form
3 a (1) : free from what vitiates, weakens, or pollutes (2) : containing nothing that does not properly belong
b : free from moral fault or guilt
c : marked by chastity : CONTINENT
d (1) : of pure blood and unmixed ancestry (2) : homozygous in and breeding true for one or more characters e : ritually clean
4 : having exactly the talents or skills needed for a particular role a pure shooter in basketball
synonym see CHASTE
- pure·ness noun
DEFINITIONS OF PURE ON THE WEB
· free of extraneous elements of any kind; 'pure air and water'; 'pure gold'; 'pure primary colors'; 'the violin's pure and lovely song'; 'pure tones'; 'pure oxygen'
· arrant(a): without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers; 'an arrant fool'; 'a complete coward'; 'a consummate fool'; 'a double-dyed villain'; 'gross negligence'; 'a perfect idiot'; 'pure folly'; 'what a sodding mess'; 'stark staring mad'; 'a thoroughgoing villain'; 'utter nonsense'; 'the unadulterated truth'
· concerned with theory and data rather than practice; opposed to applied; 'pure science'
· saturated: (of color) being chromatically pure; not diluted with white or grey or black
· free from discordant qualities
· (used of persons or behaviors) having no faults; sinless; 'I felt pure and sweet as a new baby'- Sylvia Plath; 'pure as the driven snow'
· in a state of sexual virginity; 'pure and vestal modesty'; 'a spinster or virgin lady'; 'men have decreed that their women must be pure and virginal'
· An object is pure if it has no contamination or foreign material
· made completely from one substance
· unalloyed silver in its pure state. Typically refers to silver that is 99.9% pure. Pure silver is the most reflective of all the precious metals and is highly tarnish resistant. Unfortunately it is also quite soft and does not work or heat harden appreciably. For these and other reasons fine silver is often mixed with small amounts of other metals to produce tougher, harder wearing. Pure silver is also known as 'fine' or 'three nines' silver
· An attribute of a procedure that indicates there are no side effects
· water is actually a good insulator (poor conductor), meaning that it does not conduct electricity well. Because water is such a good solvent, however, it often has some solute dissolved in it, most frequently salt. If water has such impurities, then it can conduct electricity much better, because impurities such as salt comprise free ions in aqueous solution by which an electric current can flow
