HERE AND NOW

[tbrock]

See in the UK, J Crew is waaaay more expensive than RL. RL polo is just ubiquitous. They've cheapened the brand by having it constantly in TK Maxx, and not the bad stuff or weird sizes either.

 

[cerneabbas]

Also the cheapo Ralph Lauren from their outlet stores and ASOS
J Crew full price is expensive for what it is imo but they have loads of sales,I don't think that I paid more than £20 for any of their shirts (which is probably the right price for them) they sometimes have unusual colours and designs.

 

[Clouseau]

Never been a big fan of JCrew, only got a Madras ss shirt from them, rather good i must say.
I really dislike RL logo, got a few items with it though, all presents from my ex-wife (that's why she is ex).

 

[cerneabbas]

The short sleeve shirts and a cotton jumper are all that I have from J Crew,I don't think that their clothes are great quality and they are very over priced (imo).
The short sleeve shirts for £20 are a reasonable price and the shirts are quite casual,good fit,nice colours and as I said they're quite unusual here,they also have no logo which is good.
I have also got a few short sleeve button downs from Marks and Spencer,again casual cotton shirts,good fit,nice colours,cheap and no logo,sadly the collars have got smaller over the years.

 

[Kingstonian]

In the early 80s my then girlfriend had a younger brother who was very much into the Casual style.
I can remember giving him and some of his mates a lift and they were very angry that Pringle jumpers were now available in a 'club book' meaning that they were within everyones budget and now no longer had the exclusivity that they had wanted when they bought them.
The funny thing is that sometimes you don't have to pay huge amounts for something unusual,I wear J Crew and Lands End short sleeve button downs in the Summer and I can be 99.9% sure that I will never see anyone else wearing them,whereas much more expensive Ralph Lauren is quite common.

Lands End items can be a good buy and they are frequently on sale. So I have the seersucker half sleeve in two colours. I have lots of their flannel shirts, from the years when they have better plaid options, and I also have their excellent supima cotton long sleeves in decent colours - blue and maroon.

The only Ralph Lauren I have is a bottle of the green after shave. You can wear that without a visible logo.

 

[Svzn]

I wandered into a J Crew on Regent St years ago, I already had much of what they offered but thought it would be a good place to start from if I was younger.

RL, CP, Stone Island, it's already been said. I'm thinking Danny Dyer.

 

[tbrock]

Only got one J Crew item; an extortionate denim shirt that was on sale. Very heavy denim. Tend to only wear it in summer ironically, as extremely slim fitting. Good on cooler days where you don't want a light jacket. A lot better quality than any RL polo denim I've come across. Would definitely buy more shirts if nothing else.

 

[cerneabbas]

This is the only RL shirt that I have,I also have a few polos,always makes me smile when I wear this because I can imagine other people shaking their head and thinking 'silly old sod wasted his money there,should have got one with a white or orange logo so that it showed more'.

 

[cerneabbas]

Sadly the colour doesn't show up very well in the picture,the shirt is a Green/Turquoise colour,its quite unusual and I had a couple of women say that they liked it (no blokes thankfully) I think it was £20 including delivery,ridiculous really that it went from Mauritius to USA and then here.

 

[Clouseau]

The JCrew Shirt i have says "Indian Madras" on the label, but is also made in Mauritius. The collar has a very decent size.

 

[Luigi_M]

You can wear that without a visible logo.

This I'd say a fundamental point, and I'm glad to see that other gentlemen share it.
I came to the lenght of removing the tags from my ties, since I'm annoyed by people grabbing them to look who's the maker (in Italy it might happen).
To the stupid question "nice tie, who's is it" I usually answer "it's mine, I paid for it"

 

[Botolph]

Funny, pretty sure I remember J. Crew being relatively cheap here in the US. I have some chinos and an OCBD I bought at a shop some ten years ago while traveling. Not from their heyday by any stretch, but decent quality.

RL, I have a few items. They do some nice checked oxford buttondowns, knits, and other— but here Stateside it can be found most department stores so it isn’t exactly sought after for the label, at least in my circles or even the pseudo ultras/casual scenes who follow MLS(that I know of). These folk like the more overt/obvious labels like Weekend Offender, Peaceful Hooligan, etc., all beyond the scope of the look we’re homing in on HERE AND NOW™.
I don’t mind a logo if it’s small and subtle, such as the laurels, a polo player, a crocodile, etc. They’re unobtrusive, they’re not words strewn across a shirt, and they’re often in colors that match and look clean and sharp on the shirt(or are tonal and very subtle).
No big problem here with logos— I just tend to shy away from them on most items. Clean, neat, and understated is the orders of the day for me.

 

[cerneabbas]

Funny, pretty sure I remember J. Crew being relatively cheap here in the US. I have some chinos and an OCBD I bought at a shop some ten years ago while traveling. Not from their heyday by any stretch, but decent quality.

RL, I have a few items. They do some nice checked oxford buttondowns, knits, and other— but here Stateside it can be found most department stores so it isn’t exactly sought after for the label, at least in my circles or even the pseudo ultras/casual scenes who follow MLS(that I know of). These folk like the more overt/obvious labels like Weekend Offender, Peaceful Hooligan, etc., all beyond the scope of the look we’re homing in on HERE AND NOW™.
I don’t mind a logo if it’s small and subtle, such as the laurels, a polo player, a crocodile, etc. They’re unobtrusive, they’re not words strewn across a shirt, and they’re often in colors that match and look clean and sharp on the shirt(or are tonal and very subtle).
No big problem here with logos— I just tend to shy away from them on most items. Clean, neat, and understated is the orders of the day for me.

I prefer no logo but sometimes if I really like an item I will put up with a logo,perhaps on another item a logo might stop me from buying it.
I have seen hoolies wearing RL caps,Harrington style jackets and polos,also Chavs wearing Caps and the polos that they seem to prefer have the MASSIVE logo that takes up half the chest.
On the whole I think that RL is fairly mainstream here and I quite like the look of some of their clothes.
I am sure that big companies do market research and they probably know that their customers mostly prefer logos,odd imo is that even Marks& Spencer and Next have logos on some of their clothes now !

 

[tbrock]

Yes, I noticed how odd that high street places like Next have logos now, actively aping the placing and style of brands like RL and All Saints (ugh). I don't get it. It loses its meaning as conspicuous consumption. So strange.

 

[Clouseau]

I have also got a few short sleeve button downs from Marks and Spencer, good fit,nice colours,cheap and no logo,sadly the collars have got smaller over the years.

yes i have the same issue with Gap ss Madras shirts. Sad as otherwise the cloth is made in India and they are quite nice (and cheap).