The unofficial Drake's London Appreciation Thread

[pireyesa]

.

 

[Berto1]

I made it at Lopez Aragón.

LOPEZ ARAGON 1976

López Aragón es una marca española, pensada para todos aquellos que por encima de las modas y tendencias prima la elegancia clásica, trabajamos con ideas en tendencia, pero siempre es y será nuestra máxima, La Armonía, La Elegancia y el Estilo, todo con ello con nuestra impronta personal...

www.lopezaragon1976mto.com

You also have Oteyza (https://deoteyza.com/). It’s more expensive but it’s truly outstanding.

Hope it helps

 

[chaloye]

Drake's prices are above what common sense dictates, to be honest I think at some point they are gonna loose a piece of market because there's a increasingly huge gap between price and value.

Perhaps, i think it's interesting to buy some unique pieces (overpriced but really unique). On more general clothing, the pricing it's ridiculous (for instance Rugby shirts, games jackets, ....).

Would agree with this. Question for people on the forum. Which brands do you think offer better value for Rugby shirts and the like?

 

[gettoasty]

Barbarian is something I’ve been looking at @chaloye but the nicer make imo seem harder to come by ie what I’ve seen on Instagram

 

[multiccy-csa]

Would agree with this. Question for people on the forum. Which brands do you think offer better value for Rugby shirts and the like?

William Crabtree has a far smaller range and is generally more conservative in styling, but i think the rugbys are made in the same factory as those of Drake's in Portugal, but are a fraction of the price.

Search: 13 results found for "rugby"

We are Tailors with a trusted and extensive family history William Crabtree & Sons is a venerable name in British Textile history.

www.williamcrabtree.co.uk

Their knitwear is largely William Lockie, who also supply Drake's, again at a significantly lower price.

But to wade into the wider debate on pricing...i believe with Drake's, you are paying extra for the styling, which despite what everyone says, is pretty unique, in their own way, particularly among a certain demographic. They weren't the first with all their shetlands/shawls/chinos/raglans, but they don't pretend to be, rather they execute pieces with excellent, and sometimes unique features of design. For example, the shape of the collars on their OCBDs (and other shirts, including long points), although a subtle point to some, really are unique, and (at least to my eye - am i the only one?) are the best-looking in the market. Of course it doesn't cost any more to make them that shape, but someone designed them to look like that, and delivered it to us - and that has value, to those who like the look.

 

[pireyesa]

I made it at Lopez Aragón.

LOPEZ ARAGON 1976

López Aragón es una marca española, pensada para todos aquellos que por encima de las modas y tendencias prima la elegancia clásica, trabajamos con ideas en tendencia, pero siempre es y será nuestra máxima, La Armonía, La Elegancia y el Estilo, todo con ello con nuestra impronta personal...

www.lopezaragon1976mto.com

You also have Oteyza (https://deoteyza.com/). It’s more expensive but it’s truly outstanding.

Hope it helps

Thanks, going to Madrid in a couple weeks. Will visit them.

 

[NassimBandini]

I think this debate occurred many times on this forum. About Drake's and other brands, probably.

But the question of value is not really interesting to me because value is subjective. For most people on Earth, anyone on this forum is already a mad person for spending their money in clothing items like we all do. I realized that again recently when a friend asked me how much I had paid for my Drake's denim chore. Although I had bought it second hand for a third of the price, my friend still considered that I was crazy.
What I wanted to point was the fact that Drake's is properly a business that is not run as well as it should be. When you see the cult following they have, they shouldn't be in need of borrowing money like they did.

And as I mentioned, the inaccurate and not very helpful size charts are a good indication of this: can you imagine the operational costs of this?

Increased return rates
Customer service overload
Higher logistics and warehousing costs

And that's just the obvious costs, you'd also have to take into account the hidden costs:

Decreased customer lifetime value
Damaged brand reputation which leads to higher cost of customer acquisition

I don't want to sound like a harsh critic because saying is always easier than doing but other smaller brands manage to provide accurate size charts and I feel confident buying from them online whereas I would have been probably very disappointed by my first Drake's purchase if I hadn't met someone from the forum IRL who warned me about bow unreliable were the size charts. So I got my first Games blazer in 42 (although I'm more 38 or 40 in general) but still had to return the trousers because they didn't fit me.

Now, I can only imagine that it isn't the only part of the business that they don't manage as well as they should and when you add up everything, we could be talking hundred of thousands of dollars objectively wasted.

 

[Berto1]

Thanks, going to Madrid in a couple weeks. Will visit them.

Lopez Aragon does not live in Madrid. He went to Madrid every week to take measurements of potential customers.
Write to him earlier to see what his operating model is now.

Oteyza has a store and is open daily.

Good luck

 

[Berto1]

William Crabtree has a far smaller range and is generally more conservative in styling, but i think the rugbys are made in the same factory as those of Drake's in Portugal, but are a fraction of the price.

Search: 13 results found for "rugby"

We are Tailors with a trusted and extensive family history William Crabtree & Sons is a venerable name in British Textile history.

www.williamcrabtree.co.uk

Their knitwear is largely William Lockie, who also supply Drake's, again at a significantly lower price.

But to wade into the wider debate on pricing...i believe with Drake's, you are paying extra for the styling, which despite what everyone says, is pretty unique, in their own way, particularly among a certain demographic. They weren't the first with all their shetlands/shawls/chinos/raglans, but they don't pretend to be, rather they execute pieces with excellent, and sometimes unique features of design. For example, the shape of the collars on their OCBDs (and other shirts, including long points), although a subtle point to some, really are unique, and (at least to my eye - am i the only one?) are the best-looking in the market. Of course it doesn't cost any more to make them that shape, but someone designed them to look like that, and delivered it to us - and that has value, to those who like the look.

Many thanks, William Crabtree seems very interesting

 

[single_origin]

.

 

[hpreston]

Yuck.

Total Emperor’s New Clothes vibes at Drakes for years now. Prices way too high for what is offered. Was in their NYC store a few months ago and left after a quick walkthrough.

The only Drakes stuff I still have is what they made for Barneys New York. Awesome scarves mostly.

Yeah paying above an obscene price for an item of clothing in the interest of helping fund one of their team trips is certainly not my idea of value

Yeah. All of this. Been a Drakes fan for a while, their style is great, but wow, prices have gotten a bit …. I mean, over $300 regular price and $225 archive sale price for a pocket square.

As I see the editorials and look books it does feel like we’re funding their global travels.

 

[henrip]

Can anyone confirm the size M measurements? The work shirt measurements seem to vary a bit every year and avcording to the size chart this medium is same as my large one 🤔.

Drake's Archive

Drake's Archive

drakesarchive.com

Also, to get into prices. It feels dum to pay 265€ for a shirt you can’t even return and at the same time end, essense, nordström, mr porter and my local retailer have Drake’s shirts on sale for 120-180€ range and most if not all are returnable. Too bad none of them have this particular shirt. Archive prices in € are basically the same as retail in London. If someone is looking to buy multiple items it would be worth to spend a weekend in London and buy everything on Savile Row. No risk for size issues or lower quality items that we have also seen on archive sale.

I still think Drake’s is worth the price in £. They have great silhouette and interesting details. For example the work shirt is perfectly in between actual work shirt and dressier shirt. While William Crabtree makes high quality rugbys I really like the stitching Drake’s does on their rugbys. € and $ prices are not sane…

 

[K. Nights]

Can anyone confirm the size M measurements? The work shirt measurements seem to vary a bit every year and avcording to the size chart this medium is same as my large one 🤔.

Drake's Archive

Drake's Archive

drakesarchive.com

I have this shirt in L and it fits smaller than the size chart indicates.

 

[Rolf]

Yeah. All of this. Been a Drakes fan for a while, their style is great, but wow, prices have gotten a bit …. I mean, over $300 regular price and $225 archive sale price for a pocket square.

As I see the editorials and look books it does feel like we’re funding their global travels.

While I don’t disagree that price have increased significantly (although so have most brands..), it’s not quite that bad though? The $225+ items you refer to are 90x90 scarfs and not small pocket squares are they not? Unless there are some insane mark-ups to your territory.

 

[Trevallon]

There is indeed the same conversation going on every couple of months about pricing and "are they worth it".
The fact that so many people have such a strong emotional reaction towards the increase in price shows (I think) that they are still doing a lot of things right, because we all still want the stuff they make, but, frustratingly, can't or don't want to afford it. At least not with the same frequency as in the good old days, when they were more affordably priced.

I don't think that some of the criticism is just though. As for sizing, which comes up a lot, I have to say from my experience that, once you have dialed in your sizes with Drake's products they are consistent. At least the Games series, OCBDs, Shirts etc. I don't own any of their knitwear. I don't really consult Drake's size charts, but rather contact their excellent customer service.

(I hope I don't have to eat my words, because I ordered the brown linen games suit in my regular games suit size from the archive sale. Non returnable...).

Also quality. I have bought a lot of Drake´s in the past and the quality is superb. Maybe that is also why I'm not upset by their prices as strongly: I don't "have" to buy so much any more. I have a lot of their clothes, they actually look a lot better worn in as they are now, and will be a pleasure to wear for years to come. So, I haven't really noticed a decrease in quality as the prices went up. Quality seems consistent. They still manufacture mostly in Europe and England, with European and British fabrics, which I applaud.

I really like their editorials, lookbooks and the general vibe they create. I can understand how some people might be a little miffed at the constant display of happy nights out in hip metropolitan areas, with great restaurants, seemingly no hangovers and everyone dressed impeccably well...

But the vibe is nice, and paradoxially doesn't seem to reflect the obscene amounts of money each individuals outfit in the photos is worth.
To illustrate, what I mean by nice: there are no luxury cars (which I don't care about), no stacks of Louis Vuitton luggage on trolleys in front posh hotels, no yachts... it still seems approachable and inclusive. The other end of the spectrum being, let's say, the uber-ridiculous display of "living well" on the account of people the likes of Alexander Kraft.

So, to sum things up: still a lot of love for Drake's from me. I just cannot get angry at them for being ever more expensive. Even though they have largely priced me out of being able to afford them. Will continue to be inspired by their editorials. Have learned a lot and am therefore able to create "poor man Drake's adjacent looks". (though @BananaKing is still the king of those).

And will probably still buy something once in a while without telling my girlfriend how much it cost...