Allen, Texas Outlets and Feb. Clearance

[style from the heartland]

Any cowboy sartorts with recent experience at BB, NMLast Call, PRL factory stores in the Allen location. I will be making my first trip to the behemoth of outletry for some weekend clearance shopping. Anyone seeing SF-approved items there?

Needed: the usual, classic blazer/dress shirts/trousers.

 

[nsoltz]

I find that the LastCall at Grapevine Mills has a larger dept. Haven't been to Allen in a month or so, but I was not tremendously impressed with LastCall. Polo RL is average and all BB outlets look alike-- mostly the outlet-made 346 merchandise with the very rare piece from the stores.

Grapevine Mills was really sparse last weekend (except for the Isaia suit I picked up for $280-- see my post about it). The pre-sale starts March 2 so we should expect new merchandise then.

 

[style from the heartland]

Worth even driving up there? I agree w/ BB outlet. I can stop at their mainline and look for anything left at end of their clearance.

 

[nsoltz]

Well, depends upon how far you are driving...

I would never say never because even with a smaller dept, the exact item you want might be there. In fact, the larger store might generate more traffic which would in turn decrease the number of bargains!

All I know is that I am now starting to take over part of wife's side of closet so I better stay away from the outlets, eBay, SF and, of course, retail for a while. Or at least until the March 2 pre-sale at LastCall.

 

[Philosoph]

I live near there and have had 0 luck so far. The outlets in allen seem to cater more to the socks-and-sandals tour bus shopper crowd than anyone else. It's always possible you may find something in your size, but I've to find anything good in mine.

 

[swoobie]

I bought a few merino brioni sweaters for $62. They were very fine gauge and solid colors except for a little contracting band around the neck and sleeves. Very nice and very inexpensive. I also bought a couple of brioni dress shirts at $75 - sharkskin grey and a solid white - both very nice. I think it is hit or miss and the store is much smaller than Grapevine...

 

[Philosoph]

I thought Grapevine sucked too when I was there, but I think it's a little better than Allen.

 

[style from the heartland]

I was not too impressed w/ NM-LC. Some Ike Behar (believed to be seconds) DS. HF/Hugo Boss suits in my size, about $599. A couple Corneliani/Isaia suits odds and ends. Two Borelli and a couple Zegna DS. Saw some yellowing around the neck of two of the white ones. Slacks were very unimpressive--lots of black and a few strange fabrics in the taupe, more desirable colors.

Walked away empty handed.

 

[dagenham]

It really depends on timing. The mainline NM stores just finished the Last Call sale and are in the process of sending all of the sale out. The Last Call stores won't really have any new merchandise for a while, the end of Feb or beginning of March.

That being said, the winter sales are generally smaller than the summer sales, so the selection of merchandise won't be as great. I was at both the Grapevine Mills and Allen locations a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty sparse, even noticed some merch that I had seen on my last vist a few months prior. Try again later this year and I guarantee you won't walk away empty handed.