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Are Premium Store brands good quality? (Dress Shirts)

superseiyan

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Hello, basically I'm curious as to how Premium Store brands (such as Nordstroms or Neiman Marcus brand) office wear compares to:

1.\tTrendy Wear - banana Republic, Zara (usually $80 full retail)
2.\tGeneric "designer" brands"”Calvin Klein, DKNY (usually $50 full retail, often at TJ Maxx or Ross though)
And
3.\tThe lower end of "˜proper' brands i.e. Boss or Brooks. (usually $100 full retail)

Basically, at the $50-100 price point, are you getting a decent quality item by buying a brand Nordstroms or brand Neiman Marcus shirt? Where would you group them in the above categories?

I'm upper 20s and I work in an office setting in the nations capital. I'm treying to transition into slowly upgrading on the quality of clothing I wear, within budgetary constraints i.e. I'm not yet making six figures. For example, I'm never going to by an Alfani or H&M dress shirt again--no offense, as I now have a reference point of how poorly they feel and how short their shelf lifes are.

Here is an example of a premium store brand shirt: http://tinyurl.com/4a3pth8

Actually for this thread we can talk office wear in general not just dress shirts, though that's what I'm shopping for now.
 

Achilles_

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I have a Nordstrom's brand shirt made with Egyptian cotton that I love. Seems to be pretty quality as well. Then again I bought it used for $10 (included dry cleaning).

I think they would work in a pinch though.
 

in stitches

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Originally Posted by Achilles_
I have a Nordstrom's brand shirt made with Egyptian cotton that I love. Seems to be pretty quality as well. Then again I bought it used for $10 (included dry cleaning).

I think they would work in a pinch though.


i had a few of the egyptian cotton woven shirts about 8 years ago they worked out very well for me
 

Quadcammer

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I have a couple Joseph & Lyman shirts (bloomingdales store brand), and I'm ok with the quality. They aren't alfani, but they aren't up to even CT/TM Lewin/Pink levels, by any stretch.

if you are pretty sure of your sizing, I'd seek better options online.
 

KObalto

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Originally Posted by superseiyan

Actually for this thread we can talk office wear in general not just dress shirts, though that's what I'm shopping for now.


That's a pretty broad request and pretty much encompasses what much of this entire forum is about. You might want to search specific dress items. There is a suit hierarchy thread which may interest you:
http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...suit+hierarchy

You might want to substitute "mens dress clothing" for "office clothing" as well.
 

Don Carlos

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I would pick up shirts on sale through CT, TM Lewin, or even Harvie & Hudson at a little bit more expense than the former two.

I own a few of the old John W. Nordstrom brand shirts (or whatever they're called) from 10 years back, and they are pretty decent. No idea about the current offerings there, but my educated guess would be that, if anything, quality went down as costs were cut. As for Neiman's, their house brand shirts are probably pretty decent, but my guess is overpriced for what they are.
 

superseiyan

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Originally Posted by KObalto
That's a pretty broad request and pretty much encompasses what much of this entire forum is about. You might want to search specific dress items. There is a suit hierarchy thread which may interest you:
http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...suit+hierarchy

You might want to substitute "mens dress clothing" for "office clothing" as well.


Noted.

I was primarily interested in dress shirts though, the "other office wear" was a tangent.....

smile.gif
 

Sazerac

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I've also bought a few Nordstrom house brand shirts when they were on sale. They're of good quality, and the fit on the slim model is decent. I'm not a fan of their collars, however. They're good for everyday wear but aren't special. For the price, however, the quality is solid.
 

mmmmpay

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I second the positive reviews of nordstrom shirts. Having owned both, Nordstrom is a bit higher quality to me than Banana Republic, nevermind that a non-iron nordstrom shirt is a bit cheaper. And while their a bit less exciting, that only makes them more versatile. I also believe their trim fit is trimmer than BR. I'm ideally a 15.5 neck, but make a 15 work with Nordstrom. At BR I wear the "small" 14.5, but the neck fits just about the same as a Nordstrom 15 (Strange I know). A 15-15.5 (medium) at BR, though, even slim fit, is far too big for me.

Hope this helps.
 

DStew

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Originally Posted by mmmmpay
I second the positive reviews of nordstrom shirts. Having owned both, Nordstrom is a bit higher quality to me than Banana Republic, nevermind that a non-iron nordstrom shirt is a bit cheaper. And while their a bit less exciting, that only makes them more versatile. I also believe their trim fit is trimmer than BR. I'm ideally a 15.5 neck, but make a 15 work with Nordstrom. At BR I wear the "small" 14.5, but the neck fits just about the same as a Nordstrom 15 (Strange I know). A 15-15.5 (medium) at BR, though, even slim fit, is far too big for me.

Hope this helps.


I will third that. Been pretty happy with the nordstroms brand dress shirts and pants. The hold up well, their trim fit is actually somewhat trim, and their smartcare(non iron) is really nice for traveling.

Like most places, never pay full price. Wait for the sales.
 

ExhibitA

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I know this is an old thread, but wanted to comment. I found a great brand in Faconnable. Great quality, price is a little on the upside ($100-200) range. Excellent shirts, but I've started to not want to wear all shirts with the same logo. I discovered Neiman Marcus (non-iron). I love non-iron as they handle travel wear best and even though they are not 100% wrinkle free they hold up better than my Ike Behar shirts for instance. Also, I found the Neiman Marcus brand on sale at lastcall.com for $44. I'm of the school that you can never have enough white and blue dress shirts, so I got some backup shirts for cheap.
 

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