Kuhlman Clothes

One of my favorite suits is a Kuhlman double black stripe on black (hard to describe) SB. I enjoy their shirts colors and styles as well, and wanted to know if there was a general feel for the longevity of their clothes at the price point ($55-$65 for shirts, $495-ish for suits).

My basic price range is <$70 shirts, <$500 suits right now, and am looking for a few RTW stores besides thrifting. (Thick As Thieves will be getting an order from me in the nex few months, btw.)

My understanding of this clothing is that it was started up by a guy who got disillusioned with Banana Republic, so I'd imagine you can expect similar quality. This is from talking to an employee in-store several years ago.

Not long ago, Kuhlman made a decent quality suit for the money. Their designs were very unique compared to other choices in the price range. Recently, the company has fallen on hard times after overexpanding and outsourcing production to India. They are now trying to get back to their roots (i.e. design and quality). If you can get it at a discount, it's probably still worth the price.. but I would probably avoid paying full retail until things get turned around.
http://www.startribune.com/535/story/934260.html

I visited a Kuhlman store in Atlanta (Phipps Plaza I think) for the first time last summer. They had a 50%+ off sale on and I almost bought some very decent, Italian-made grey wool trousers for $40. Their shirt fabrics were nice but the style too Etro bold stripe for my taste. I did get one for my wife. I wouldn't touch the suits but they could represent a good alternative to most other department store suits I suppose. Some of the ties were nice too but my best find there were Italian-made pocket squares in patterned linen and cotton for $9 - love 'em! Some have contrasting pick-stitched edges rather than rolled and are very cool.

I have a few Kuhlman shirts from 2002-2003. They're quite well made and while a bit Etro-esque, could be OK for the right occasion.

I have 6 cashmere blazers and a suit and countless shirts, some ties, a pair of shoes and some pocket squares from them.
I paid $20.00 for the suit, which was a manufacturers sample and made better than average out of super 120s E Thomas fabric.
The details on the suits made in Italy are nice, half canvass construction. I love the blazers, they are cut nicely and for 100% cashmere at $15.00 a pop, how could you go wrong?
Funny thing is all the sleeves are made for functional button holes, but they are all stacked....I functionalized a few of them and I have stacked functional button holes...never seen that.
If you can find an outlet of theirs the deals are insane. I remember spending under $100.00 and getting a suit, 3 blazers, 6 shirts, a pair of shoes, 2 ties, 2 pocket squares, 2 cashmere sweaters, and 2 pairs of their very nice italian flannel pants.
I think those days are gone and I mourn them! I was going to go to their outlet in MI City IN, today, I called and they shut down last month. We will see what their re-construction brings.

We have the Kuhlman store in Atlanta at Phipps but I have not been impressed with the quality. Some cool designs. I believe this is a German designer...

There's a couple here in Chicago. I first went there last summer and they were having some really good deals. I've only bought maybe 2 shirts there and 1 pair of pants. I'm not going to say the quality is amazing, but I like the quality. If you get the stuff on sale, it's a great deal.

I would pair them up with BR.

Well, I got the suit (Italian made) for $180 which I just couldn't pass up. If I hadn't moved away from Denver right before that store went belly up I probably would have bought quite a bit: "Euro" shirts don't really scare me that much.

Thanks for the info everyone.