A custom ring from Gemvara

Two custom style brands announced expansion plans today, indicating that mass customization is finding success with investors and customers.

Gemvara, a website that offers customizable jewelry settings with a myriad of stones and different metals, raised a third round of funding worth $15 million from European venture capital firm Balderton Capital. That brings their grand total raised to $26 million since their 2008 founding. {VentureBeat} The new financing round will be used to add merchandise options, make new hires and continue improving their online configuration tool (which we find to be pretty good in its current state).

J. Hilburn, founded in 2007, has raised $7.25 million and competes in the popular custom-made men’s shirt category (previous coverage of custom shirt makers ProperCloth and World of Alfa here). They didn’t receive any additional funding today, but did announce plans to expand into e-commerce after three years. {TechCrunch}

While the natural first reaction to the news is “it took them three years?”, what’s interesting is the fact that J. Hilburn is on track to do $20 million in revenue this year. Driven largely by an Avon lady-like team of “style advisors” who take the bespoke model back to its roots by making in-home or in-office appointments with clients to take measurements and show fabric swatches.

Last year, the by-appointment model resulted in sales of 60,000 shirts, sweaters, pants and other menswear items. J. Hilburn will now use e-commerce to make it more convenient for existing customers to order new items. There will also be ready to wear items available for anyone who hasn’t been measured.

Particularly in the case of J. Hilburn, this is the direction more luxury brands need to move in. High income shoppers aren’t a monolithic group, but by and large one characteristic that they share is being busy. Sure, there are some people who have the luxury of time and money, but for the many people whose money comes as a result of sacrificing large quantities of time convenience is key.

They may not have time for an in store experience, and the internet remains one of the best tools to overcome that. In-home and in-office measurement options are a good way to maintain the luxury experience while transitioning shoppers to e-commerce, and will probably result in lower than average return rates as well.

A new collection of shades from Prada will come complete with tiny letter, number and symbol squares that can be inserted into the sides of the frames where the brandâ€s logo normally sits. There is a heart, a star, a dollar sign and an exclamation point among other characters, and you can use them in any combination you want, if of course you have the $365 to spend on a pair of these sunglasses. {The Cut}

Sunglass Hut will have them on sale in black, tortoiseshell and white. The earpieces come apart to allow insertion of the personalization characters, but you can choose only two to put in each earpiece at a time. {stylemebad}

What do you think – are customizable shades cool or too teeny bopper? Do you like them but have no interest in paying $365 for something as fragile as sunglasses? We’re not sure what to make of it, but donâ€t think it will be a big enough hit and pump up Pradaâ€s sales. Let us know your thoughts!

We would suggest a moment of silence if we werenâ€t too busy wondering if we were the only ones who had assumed the Walkman was already out of production. Apparently Sony has still been making Walkmans, though they have become mostly obsolete with the advent of Mp3 players – namely, the Apple iPod, which was introduced around this time of year in 2001.

Dying, but not dead yet

Sony will continue producing Walkman devices in China and distributing them in the United States, Europe and some Asian countries, and the more updated (but still relatively old news) Discman is still made by Sony. Digital Walkmans that display lyrics and have improved digital noise-canceling technology are also available, though we wonder why Sony doesn’t just pull the proverbial plug. The LA Times spoke to an unnamed source at Sony who claims that someone out there is providing a “consistent but small demand.”

The Walkman, which saw its first model launched 31 years ago in 1979 at a retail price of $200, is largely regarded as the first big step in portable music – the ground work on which the Discman and iPod were created and thus an incredibly important gadget in the music biz. About 220 million have been sold worldwide to date. {The Washington Post}

Though the Walkman will likely be remembered most for making music widely portable, the fact that the device marked the beginning of customized music lists is equally as important. The Washington Post calls the Walkman the “father of the mix tape.” In this case, the Walkmanâ€s reach has far exceeded the boundaries of music and entertainment, as these days you can customize nearly anything – including chocolate bars.

Now letâ€s take that moment of silence for the Walkman.