Premium Outlets clothing quality and selection is it worth looking into?

[TylerDurden83]

+1. The BB at Aurora seems to have a selection of real stuff most of the time. Other BB outlets I have been to were exclusively 346 crap.
I've heard the Michigan City outlet mall is ok, but i've never been. Anyone else been there? Pleasant Prairie up in Wisconsin was a big waste of time. Too bad because its close to Gurnee Mills which has the Last Call and is worth going to.

I bought a coat and scarf from the Burberry factory outlet in Michigan City many years ago when I was in college and it was clearly made for the outlet. The coat was decent quality but the horns were a clear give away. The horns seemed to be made of a cheaper material than coats at the store in Oak Brook. One of the sales people even made a rude comment about it. The scarf also was made from a cheaper material and the pattern was slightly different.

 

[invictus]

I just went to the Yeoju Premium Outlets in South Korea today and it was not good. I mean, sure they had a lot of stores and a lot of brands, but I wasn't sure if the price to quality ratio was all that great. I went to the Zegna, Brooks Brothers, Brioni, and Hugo Boss stores to take a look at suits, if they were cheap, but I couldn't find anything that I liked in my price range. Most of the prices of suits were above $1000 dollars (except for the Brooks Brothers options), but nothing seemed worth it. I would have gotten a Brooks Brother's suit, but the Fitzgerald line in my size was all out. My girlfriend did end up buying a purse today at a considerable discount, but I didn't have any luck. Anyone else out there with any luck at the Yeoju Premium Outlet in Korea? I've also heard there was another outlet mall in Paju...anyone have any experience there?

 

[thinman]

Although I like outlet malls with NMLC and Saks Off 5th stores, they are filled with mainly made-for-the-outlets merchandise. I look for price tags with the original price struck through by hand, not by machine (they aren't fooling me when they strike through an "MSRP" by machine and print a new price in the exact same font as the "MSRP"). I also stay away from most of the house brands at Saks Off 5th, because I'm unsure of the quality. At BB and RL outlet stores, the merchandise from the mainline stores will be on the few racks marked "Clearance", or at BB, look for the maximum percentage discount and avoid the "346" labels. I can be in and out of most BB and RL outlet stores in 5-10 minutes. They have that little merchandise from their mainline stores.

I bought 4-5 pairs of Ferragamo Tramezza shoes at the Ferragamo outlet stores about 6-7 years ago, so I like them when I can find them.

 

[manchambo]

I buy a fair amount of my stuff at this type of store, particularly Off Fifth, Last Call and The Rack. I think that they key to this sort of shopping is to go into every trip with the expectation that you are probably not going to find anything worth buying, and to be very willing to leave empty handed. I would say that more than half the time I will take a pass through the sections of interest to me and see nothing that stands out. You definitely can't go in with a really specific expectation (like "I need a blue pin-striped suit") and expect to come out happy--you are liable to wind up buying something that isn't really that great, or something that got passed over in the stores for a very good reason. But if you go in with a more general expectation you can do OK. I can't remember how many times I've been through last call without buying anything. Then a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon the wife was sick and napping, the kids were watching a terrible movie, and I decided to head over out of boredom more than anything else. I wound up with two Brioni ties for $60 apiece and two Ike Behar Gold Label shirts for $30 apiece. I had no intention to buy any ties or shirts and no expectation that I would find anything worth buying. Next time I really want something I'll probably go over there and find nothing.