dfagdfsh
Professional Style Farmer
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2008
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I've stopped into the RRL store in the past extremely briefly, but I had stuff to do in Georgetown today so decided to set aside a good 4 hour block to hit up all the shops. By far the highlight of the experience was the RRL store.
The shop itself is extremely small, very narrow, nestled in to an old brick building next to the gigantic Rugby store (which was meh as usual). RRL is probably my favorite brand, and I was really curious to see what they had in stock/how their stock had changed from what I've seen on ebay and from small retailers. I came in expecting to be underwhelmed, and left floored. The staff was very helpful and actually knowledgeable about denim and the products they sell.
The entire atmosphere of the store is actually impressive, with a ton of Americana memorabilia, includingo 60 year old boots, old records and old posters.
Like a bunch of other people on this board I've bought RRL jeans on ebay and thought they were a great value for the price, but not the greatest cuts, and with serious sizing issues. RRL has revamped all of their jeans, and all the sizing issues are gone. The denim is much cheaper than the retail prices I'd seen from outlet stuff on ebay. The new straight leg cut is much slimmer than the old one, with a lower rise. The slim cut is actually extremely slim now - in line with an APC New Cure. The highlight for me though, was the new version of the Slim Boot. It's the perfect compromise between a straight leg, with its generous top block (although low rise), and a slim jean, with a heavily tapered leg with a very, very slight flare, perfect for stacking. The denim comes in many different varieties: heavy raw, a lighter raw (with a different indigo dye), one wash and heavily washed. The washes are some of the best I've ever seen. The price point for most of the jeans were $225. I ended up buying a pair of the raw Slim Boot. The jeans do have the ugly back/front pocket stitching, but they removed it as I checked out, which was nice.
Other then jeans the store carries a ton of amazing stuff. They have t-shirts (which honestly left me underwhelmed, a very boxy fit and overpriced at $60), sweaters (including an extremely heavy shawl collar knit that is very similar to the one from w+h this season) and sweatshirts with vintage prints. The highlight of the other merchandise for me were the shirts. They have a good stock of the RRL button down oxfords, which are an amazing shirt at a very competitive price ($125). They're TTS but very slim fitting, I'd say they're the shirts J. Crew wishes they could make. They also had a collection of non button down collar shirts on sale, and I snagged one for $100. Again, TTS, but very slim.
The store also has RRL accessories, which are extremely expensive, but very tempting. They have the RRL leather satchel that Mauro picked up from Farinelli's, a leather messenger bag (~$1200 ish), a canvas duffle, a women's indigo dyed jean purse (~$700 ish), a canvas toiletries bag ($175) and some other things I didn't notice. They also have Indian inspired jewerly, sunglasses and wallets, including selvage, raw and faded indigo dyed.
As I don't own a digital camera I didn't take any pictures, but I'll get some shots up of the stuff I bought.
The store does take phone orders. I made sure to ask.
Other stores I hit up and impressions -
Georgetown Opticians - Really nice, got some new Paul Smith frames, although their prescription sunglass pricing is ridiculous. No way I'm going to pay $1100 for some Mosley Tribe aviators. Anyway, extremely helpful staff, and willing to help cut deals to lower prices.
Barney's Coop - Terrible. A marsupialed little brother of any real department store, with an abysmal selection. I asked if they had any BoO shorts and the salesperson just looked at me with confusion. Had like 4 things from Rag & Bone. Only good selection was of Nudie denim.
Rugby - Meh
H&M - Probably the worst H&M I've ever seen.
I'm really overheated right now so I doubt my post is as coherent as it could be. If you have a specific item you're looking for I might have seen it, so lemme know.
The shop itself is extremely small, very narrow, nestled in to an old brick building next to the gigantic Rugby store (which was meh as usual). RRL is probably my favorite brand, and I was really curious to see what they had in stock/how their stock had changed from what I've seen on ebay and from small retailers. I came in expecting to be underwhelmed, and left floored. The staff was very helpful and actually knowledgeable about denim and the products they sell.
The entire atmosphere of the store is actually impressive, with a ton of Americana memorabilia, includingo 60 year old boots, old records and old posters.
Like a bunch of other people on this board I've bought RRL jeans on ebay and thought they were a great value for the price, but not the greatest cuts, and with serious sizing issues. RRL has revamped all of their jeans, and all the sizing issues are gone. The denim is much cheaper than the retail prices I'd seen from outlet stuff on ebay. The new straight leg cut is much slimmer than the old one, with a lower rise. The slim cut is actually extremely slim now - in line with an APC New Cure. The highlight for me though, was the new version of the Slim Boot. It's the perfect compromise between a straight leg, with its generous top block (although low rise), and a slim jean, with a heavily tapered leg with a very, very slight flare, perfect for stacking. The denim comes in many different varieties: heavy raw, a lighter raw (with a different indigo dye), one wash and heavily washed. The washes are some of the best I've ever seen. The price point for most of the jeans were $225. I ended up buying a pair of the raw Slim Boot. The jeans do have the ugly back/front pocket stitching, but they removed it as I checked out, which was nice.
Other then jeans the store carries a ton of amazing stuff. They have t-shirts (which honestly left me underwhelmed, a very boxy fit and overpriced at $60), sweaters (including an extremely heavy shawl collar knit that is very similar to the one from w+h this season) and sweatshirts with vintage prints. The highlight of the other merchandise for me were the shirts. They have a good stock of the RRL button down oxfords, which are an amazing shirt at a very competitive price ($125). They're TTS but very slim fitting, I'd say they're the shirts J. Crew wishes they could make. They also had a collection of non button down collar shirts on sale, and I snagged one for $100. Again, TTS, but very slim.
The store also has RRL accessories, which are extremely expensive, but very tempting. They have the RRL leather satchel that Mauro picked up from Farinelli's, a leather messenger bag (~$1200 ish), a canvas duffle, a women's indigo dyed jean purse (~$700 ish), a canvas toiletries bag ($175) and some other things I didn't notice. They also have Indian inspired jewerly, sunglasses and wallets, including selvage, raw and faded indigo dyed.
As I don't own a digital camera I didn't take any pictures, but I'll get some shots up of the stuff I bought.
The store does take phone orders. I made sure to ask.
Other stores I hit up and impressions -
Georgetown Opticians - Really nice, got some new Paul Smith frames, although their prescription sunglass pricing is ridiculous. No way I'm going to pay $1100 for some Mosley Tribe aviators. Anyway, extremely helpful staff, and willing to help cut deals to lower prices.
Barney's Coop - Terrible. A marsupialed little brother of any real department store, with an abysmal selection. I asked if they had any BoO shorts and the salesperson just looked at me with confusion. Had like 4 things from Rag & Bone. Only good selection was of Nudie denim.
Rugby - Meh
H&M - Probably the worst H&M I've ever seen.
I'm really overheated right now so I doubt my post is as coherent as it could be. If you have a specific item you're looking for I might have seen it, so lemme know.