Hi there, I'm based in the UK, and I'm looking to do a bit of searching around in charity shops and online. I would welcome any advice on what names to look out for.
Having lived out of the country for 20 years, most of my retail experience dates back to the late 1980s/early 1990s. I flew in to London several times a year, so I did have some opportunity to check out local brands, but mostly I had my stuff made by my tailor in Hong Kong, or picked up things in Tokyo. So I'm not fully au fait with what tends to be good quality and what tends to be disappointing.
I'm focused on jackets and coats. I have far too many suits and ties already. For the jackets, the sort of names I imagine would be well put together would be Savile Row in general, Chester Barrie, Aquascutum (had an Aquascutum suit at university, I believe), DAKS, then a bunch of cheaper and presumably less well-constructed clothing from brands like Hackett, Paul Smith, or less fashion-forward names like Austin Reed. Back in the 1980s AR had a decent rep for affordable quality, but don't know if standards started to slide towards the end.
For coats, had some luck in the past with Grenfell (oddly enough), a beautiful original 1960s Macintosh that I got in Camden in the late 1980s, Dunn & Co. and Hackett. I had one Hackett that I really liked, then I lost it, then I bought another one new against my better judgement and have realised very belatedly that I don't like it, so that's for ebay at some point.
Although the UK seldom gets anything like as cold as Boston/Chicago or even NY, you do need a coat a lot of the time due to the unpredictability of the weather. I'm pretty well kitted-out in that regard. I have a lovely crombie made by Crombie that I bought in mid-90s; a slim, Italian-made brown herringbone from Barneys NY that I really like; a smart and solidly built Ralph Lauren pea coat; a not-so-slim grey herringbone from my tailor, which is... fine; my Barbour.
What I don't have is anything with a raglan sleeve, and sometimes I want that unstructured look with jeans, nor do I have anything tweedy or with a check - again, I like that more casual look. I don't have a trench coat either, but not a huge fan of the Burberry/'scutum look and at 5'8" it's easy to get swamped in one. Looked at Loden, but think it's just too warm for this country.
I apologise to those who have already seen me expressing some low-level angst in a different thread about not using my footwear collection. This is related to that thread, in that the feedback I have received - which boils down to "Wear your clothes and shoes, man!" - has got me thinking about getting out of the house and dressing up a little more frequently.
Any tips much appreciated.
Having lived out of the country for 20 years, most of my retail experience dates back to the late 1980s/early 1990s. I flew in to London several times a year, so I did have some opportunity to check out local brands, but mostly I had my stuff made by my tailor in Hong Kong, or picked up things in Tokyo. So I'm not fully au fait with what tends to be good quality and what tends to be disappointing.
I'm focused on jackets and coats. I have far too many suits and ties already. For the jackets, the sort of names I imagine would be well put together would be Savile Row in general, Chester Barrie, Aquascutum (had an Aquascutum suit at university, I believe), DAKS, then a bunch of cheaper and presumably less well-constructed clothing from brands like Hackett, Paul Smith, or less fashion-forward names like Austin Reed. Back in the 1980s AR had a decent rep for affordable quality, but don't know if standards started to slide towards the end.
For coats, had some luck in the past with Grenfell (oddly enough), a beautiful original 1960s Macintosh that I got in Camden in the late 1980s, Dunn & Co. and Hackett. I had one Hackett that I really liked, then I lost it, then I bought another one new against my better judgement and have realised very belatedly that I don't like it, so that's for ebay at some point.
Although the UK seldom gets anything like as cold as Boston/Chicago or even NY, you do need a coat a lot of the time due to the unpredictability of the weather. I'm pretty well kitted-out in that regard. I have a lovely crombie made by Crombie that I bought in mid-90s; a slim, Italian-made brown herringbone from Barneys NY that I really like; a smart and solidly built Ralph Lauren pea coat; a not-so-slim grey herringbone from my tailor, which is... fine; my Barbour.
What I don't have is anything with a raglan sleeve, and sometimes I want that unstructured look with jeans, nor do I have anything tweedy or with a check - again, I like that more casual look. I don't have a trench coat either, but not a huge fan of the Burberry/'scutum look and at 5'8" it's easy to get swamped in one. Looked at Loden, but think it's just too warm for this country.
I apologise to those who have already seen me expressing some low-level angst in a different thread about not using my footwear collection. This is related to that thread, in that the feedback I have received - which boils down to "Wear your clothes and shoes, man!" - has got me thinking about getting out of the house and dressing up a little more frequently.
Any tips much appreciated.
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