What do buy in New York?

[Cant kill da Rooster]

...

 

[skefferz]



JJ's Hat Store is around 55th and 5th IIRC. Best place to get your Panama.

It is 32nd ST and 5th AVE.

 

[Tropicalist]

The more i listen to your advice and browse the stores mentioned, it is becoming clearer that i should focus most of the weekend on Americana. With globalization, it looks like there is very little unique character left anywhere except perhaps that driven by local quirks of tradition - BB button down collar shirts, seersucker, gingham, madras and straw hats qualify and also perhaps Brooks Brother's blazers in bottle green and burgundy! However, wearing traditions that are fading in their own country of origin carries its own risk of standing out in dressing where these things are unknown! Nevertheless one will give these a good try for the sake of sartorial experimentation.

 

[redtree00]

Bencraft Hats in Brooklyn for all your summer head-ware needs. Huge selection and great pricing.
Make sure you ;

2. Look up the hats online first and mark down the items and colors you like.
4. Go the Williamsburg store under the bridge and not the Boro Park Store (any hat you want as long as its black)
6. Tip the young guy helping you as soon as he brings you the first few hats to try on.

 

[Tropicalist]

Thanks for all those who responded. Just typing this out in the airport lounge to kill time. Here is a report back on what I found in New York. It was sale season.

Paul Stuart - spend 30 minutes. Clothes were ok in quality but a bit unimaginative. The casual belts were very nice. Service was so so. Did not buy anything.

JJ hats - great little shop. Good attentive service. No sale. Bought a Panama. Nice but ehire wehn i really wanted natural straw colour. Promptly lost it with 48 hours of buying it.

Brooks Brothers- went to couple of smaller outlets before finally landing in the flagship store. Ended up buying a seersucker suit. Unstructured jacket with pleated trousers. The jacket fits about as well as a off the rack one can but I can more my tailor clicking his tongue before improving the fit. Bought a madras cotton Bowtie just for fun. Don't know if I will ever wear any of this but it fitted with my search for Americana. Saw a real shoehorn for about 70 dollars. Nice but a bit too expensive. The only shirts that appealed were black fleece line- however at almost $200 they compared poorly with bespoke.

Peeped into a few more stores- but found them to be uniformly dreary with unimaginative displays. The service was decent, but The clothing was uniformly boxy even when marked slim - and I am not a small man at size 44. Thankfully noone on the street was wearing the too tight too short clothing which is all the rage in Asia now. Unfortunately poorly fitting clothes were much in evidence.

Overall I am returning with having spent a lot less on shopping than I had budgeted for. London is a significantly more attractive place for shopping for men an Tokyo comes a close second.

 

[plei89]

You lost your hat, within 2 days of buying it?!

 

[capnwes]

PM member capnwes.

Thanks for the plug Spoo!

I will add, you probably won't find links any cheaper - short of inheriting them. Many (150-200) to choose from.