SPIER & MACKAY - Official Affiliate Thread

[sydneycider]

I am with you…but I feel like it was insinuated; someone said at the Armoury you’re paying for the styling and creative process and I deduced that as saying that’s where the cost lies between SM and Armoury. But I am sure I am over reading that comment.

Obviously The Armoury is higher quality, Ring Jacket and Ascot Chang are world leaders in RTW clothing and do excellent bespoke. If I could afford it, I would buy from The Armoury, but I can't justify over a months salary on a RTW suit.

What I was saying is that The Armoury charge a premium compared to other bespoke or MTO options. The most prestigious tailor in Sydney charges as much for fully bespoke as The Armoury does for RTW.

Anyway, I'm perfectly happy with S&M because I'm not an oligarch and their clothes are 80% of the way there. I just wish they'd focus in on what works rather than trying to be a shop for everything, see Natalino as a good example in a similar price range.

 

[DonRaphael]

I would 100% do this. Hell, I wouldn't even mind if SM solicited group opinions for any such orders, like NoMan did in the days of yore with Formosa.
I don't begin to assume I know what sells, but I would have to assume (certainly amongst the SF crowd) a top shelf fabric made up in a navy full canvas would do better than something like the brown POW DB they did this year.
And, in that case, SM would be looking at literally zero leftover inventory that needs offloading at a discount and/or loss.

Rick once told me that the premium fabrics are very expensive, like Fox Bros, and thet they don't sell as good as you'd expect. So they make less of them.

So I suggested to him this exact solution: GMTOs. Zero leftover inventory, zero loss. If they don't attract enough interest, they can just cancel the plans. But he told me that the required volume to generate revenue is too much to be able to make it work solely throigh SF. So I suggested that they put it up on the site as well to possibly generate more interest, like SkoAk used to do. I didn't get any response on that 😂

 

[1st Step]

Just in...

 

[DonRaphael]

Just in...

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While I don't have your suave/swag, this makes me sad that I didn't grab the SB version. Wear in good health, sir!

 

[1st Step]

While I don't have your suave/swag, this makes me sad that I didn't grab the SB version. Wear in good health, sir!

Thank you Youngman, On The Site Both Are Really Busy Jackets, I Encourage You To Get One Or The Other, For A (AMoon) It's Really Soft!

Ooh, You Got It, It's A Quiet Swag!

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

Reminder that Spier does tailoring well
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No arguments from me. I just put in a new MTO for a 3-piece suit + extra pants. I've been lusting after a proper chalkstripe suit for most of my adult life and figured now was as good a time as any. Until then, I wore their cream flannels today with one of their button-down polos, and yesterday, I wore their stone coverts with one of the first MTM shirts I ever got from them. They are all a pleasure to wear (next best thing to being naked amirite) and worth every penny.

I also wore their shawl cardigan last week on an awkward first date; it was more armor for my soul than protection against the Bay Area's notoriously mild winter/spring. Spoiler alert she was way hotter in real life than in her pics and of course left as soon as possible and then ghosted me (see, this wouldn't happen with aforementioned ultra high end escorts...le sigh...) but at least my lewk was on point.

But that doesn't mean I don't get a headache from scrolling through all the junk on their site to get to the few consistently good items. To be perfectly honest, part of my disgust has nothing to do with SM and everything to do with us the audience. We always talk about sustainability, style over fashion, timelessness of menswear, etc etc but the truth is SM wouldn't be going through the trouble churning out all this trendy crap if no one was buying, if a bunch of mid-30s white collar workers weren't the same as any 17 year old spoiled haul girl lolling through a dopamine spike at Primark or Zara or Shein or whatever. In other words, this casts a mirror on some practices on the part of people who know better, myself included, and I'm not liking how ugly that reflection is.

 

[XxLogo]

Haha . Paging @XxLogo to let Rick know this thread needs the company's presence

I mean at this point this is more like an Unofficial S&M thread without their presence here at all unless it’s a controversial thing that needs to be addressed so it makes the company look good for addressing

 

[c689]

If you buy a overcoat with other things like trousers, will it be shipped in a seperate box?
Now I received my EOW order, but the overcoat is missing...

 

[St1X]

If you buy a overcoat with other things like trousers, will it be shipped in a seperate box?
Now I received my EOW order, but the overcoat is missing...

They always shipped all of my items from a single order in the same box. Reach out to customer support and ask them

 

[wilcthree]

Reminder that Spier does tailoring well
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Nice. If this is the SM Minnis Dark Grey Sharkskin suit, this thing is it! I wore the exact same outfit this past weekend for a funeral.

 

[XxLogo]

If you buy a overcoat with other things like trousers, will it be shipped in a seperate box?
Now I received my EOW order, but the overcoat is missing...

Yea they usually reach out if something is OOS and ask for your decision prior to shipment. Even if you forgot to respond, they usually won’t ship it until hearing from you.

If there hasn’t been any email, or refund, they likely did indeed forget it and contact CS.

 

[JTrent82]

They pressed my new chinos on the seam wtf?

 

[Doxe]

People on SF love to whine, especially when the market gives them what they demand.

• 10 years ago the complaint was was how you had to fly to Italy and get bespoke if you wanted a Solaro suit. Now S&M has brown or green Solaro for CAD$648.
• 5 years ago it was how no manufacturer did Italian shoulders or high armholes, now S&M has a revised Neo cut with just what was demanded
• Leather A1 jackets to rival Valstarino at 1/4 the price: Yup
• Melton Peacoats that are so thick and heavy that Dutch sailors from the 1870's are impressed: Check
• Knitted polos straight out of Jude Law's wardrobe on the Talented Mr. Ripley but at less than the price of a 3 pack of polos from Zara: Of course

But that's not good enough for some. Nope. It seems everyone wants to buy a Ferrari for the price of a Ford. Give your head a shake. S&M is a mid-tier, Chinese manufactured, menswear focused micro-brand.

The comparables are Suit Supply, or Indochino, not Ring Jacket, The Armoury, or Italian micro-brands like Oracio Luciano.

My approach is to experiment on styles or fabrics using S&M. If I absolutely need that cut or fabric in a higher quality garment, then there are lots of MTO options are higher price points.

Even Voxsartoria's son is shown on Vox's IG wearing S&M.

The lesson is clear: experiment with decent quality and accessibly priced RTW like S&M and then when you have your style dialed in, go to Steed and blow the bank.

 

[TheLawBeard]

Rick once told me that the premium fabrics are very expensive, like Fox Bros, and thet they don't sell as good as you'd expect. So they make less of them.

So I suggested to him this exact solution: GMTOs. Zero leftover inventory, zero loss. If they don't attract enough interest, they can just cancel the plans. But he told me that the required volume to generate revenue is too much to be able to make it work solely throigh SF. So I suggested that they put it up on the site as well to possibly generate more interest, like SkoAk used to do. I didn't get any response on that 😂

Step number one if he wants them to sell better: take better product pictures.

There are a number of sportcoats I've passed over because Spier's photos didn't look great only to later see a real world photo and have non-buyers remorse. Sure, I can search for the fabrics online but there have also been a few that came up with nothing.

Spier needs to make it easier for us to know what we're buying. And yeah- that applies to QC and size consistency.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

People on SF love to whine, especially when the market gives them what they demand.

• 10 years ago the complaint was was how you had to fly to Italy and get bespoke if you wanted a Solaro suit. Now S&M has brown or green Solaro for CAD$648.
• 5 years ago it was how no manufacturer did Italian shoulders or high armholes, now S&M has a revised Neo cut with just what was demanded
• Leather A1 jackets to rival Valstarino at 1/4 the price: Yup
• Melton Peacoats that are so thick and heavy that Dutch sailors from the 1870's are impressed: Check
• Knitted polos straight out of Jude Law's wardrobe on the Talented Mr. Ripley but at less than the price of a 3 pack of polos from Zara: Of course

But that's not good enough for some. Nope. It seems everyone wants to buy a Ferrari for the price of a Ford. Give your head a shake. S&M is a mid-tier, Chinese manufactured, menswear focused micro-brand.

The comparables are Suit Supply, or Indochino, not Ring Jacket, The Armoury, or Italian micro-brands like Oracio Luciano.

My approach is to experiment on styles or fabrics using S&M. If I absolutely need that cut or fabric in a higher quality garment, then there are lots of MTO options are higher price points.

Even Voxsartoria's son is shown on Vox's IG wearing S&M.

The lesson is clear: experiment with decent quality and accessibly priced RTW like S&M and then when you have your style dialed in, go to Steed and blow the bank.

Good rant, 10/10. I don't think anyone here will disagree with anything you said, and in fact this kinda supports everyone's arguments, namely that SM is great several things, and we keep on coming back for those things. Their shirts and tailoring is same or superior to stuff that costs 2x as much from other vendors, and the style details are bang on, SF-approved, wonderful, *chef's kiss* my checking account hates Rick. I don't need to go to Steed any time soon because why bother when SM gets you 90% of the way there for 10% the cost.

It's everything else though, the stuff they've been putting out in the past few years, that has largely been disappointing and, for the final sale gambles, a waste of money.