What Has Happened to Thomas Pink?

[Suede Chukka Norris]

Their quality is not what it once was.

If I pay $200 for a shirt, I'd like the buttons to not pop off after the first wearing. This has happened on the last 2 shirts I've bought from Pink.

 

[antirabbit]

yeah, Pink shirts sucks.
Ties are alright on the cheap.

 

[TheFoo]

Pink was never a serious shirtmaker.

 

[braised]

Foo - I disagree, about Pink's never being a serious shirt maker. I first ran into Pink in 1987. They had a shop in London on Dover Street if I remember correctly and a fantastic place in Canterbury. Plain shirts cost about 40 quid which was expensive but Jermyn St shirts cost 70. Their stripes and checks were a little more. I still have a couple of heavy oxfords that are fantastic, the blue end-on-ends are long worn out.

They really did an expansion in the late 90's that diluted what they were doing - earlier a lot of the cloth looks like it came from what I now know as the Acorn books and seemed to be made in the UK cottage industry of out and piece workers. It gave the shirts a particular charm and great value.

I'm not sure if they ever did bespoke or MTM, but as an "off jermyn st" entrant, they seemd to have the most credibility.

I did a year at UCL in 87/88 and then graduate work at Cambridge 89/93 and got to spend a good bit of time in London. Didn't have much cash so window shopped a lot.

 

[Despos]

It is not the same company it was then.

 

[braised]

Oh yeah, Pink is pretty much crap for the price right now.

If you want English shirts, its hard to beat H&K on sale and I've had great fun with shirts made by O'Flynn for New & Lingwood. I've got a soft spot for N&L because they had a shop in Cambridge on King's Parade - the annual sales kept me looking good.

 

[TheFoo]

Huh. I always thought 'Thomas Pink' was the brainchild of a couple of businessmen that wanted to capitalize on the prestige associated with an English shirt, going so far as to eventually open a boutique on Jermyn Street so that they could say 'Jermyn Street' on their shopping bags.

But I guess that doesn't mean they didn't used to make better shirts.

 

[imatlas]

Originally Posted by mafoofan

Huh. I always thought 'Thomas Pink' was the brainchild of a couple of businessmen that wanted to capitalize on the prestige associated with an English shirt, going so far as to eventually open a boutique on Jermyn Street so that they could say 'Jermyn Street' on their shopping bags.

But I guess that doesn't mean they didn't used to make better shirts.

That's what I thought about them, but I'd never heard of them until they opened a shop in San Francisco.

 

[GBR]

Merely an overrated name - not a good shirt maker.

 

[gumercindo]

Pink slim fit shirts >>>>>>>> H&K (I have both)

JMO

 

[amerikajinda]

They don't even use mother-of-pearl buttons.

 

[Suede Chukka Norris]

at least im not in the minority. overexpansion has boiled many a good maker's porridge

 

[kaxixi]

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

They don't even use mother-of-pearl buttons.

MOP are not a dealbreaker for me.

Pink was indeed the brainchild of three Irish brothers, who named it after a tailor famous for his hunting jackets. They sold their share to LVMH a few years ago. The Wikipedia entry is clearly written by the company's marketing branch, so isn't especially helpful, but I'd read this elsewhere as well.