Australian Members

Originally Posted by Sator

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Just catching up with this thread since returning from NYC.

I must say hello to Ethan one of these days and see how he is going. I hope he finds a place where his talents are put to good use and he is justly rewarded for his abilities.


Sorry for the necroquotation but I couldn't help but notice this post:



BTW JCrew stuff is pretty atrocious. You would be laughed at by the Americans on this forum for lamenting their absence. My first encounter was in Boston when I walked into their store mistaking it for a JPress. I was horrified. Then some American on this forum pointed out my error. This time I checked out both the JCrew and JPress stores in NYC. JCrew remain awful but I wasn't too impressed by the dull conservativeness of JPress either.

You know, as for Country Rd their current stuff looks like it is made in the same Chinese factory as JCrew. There was time when CR stuff was made in Oz and was really well made. I found an old 1980s CR shirt in my GF's wardrobe and was amazed at how well made it was. It still looked new.

A lady at the 6th Ave Brooks Brother's store (next to the Radio City Music Hall) asked me about CR and she said that in the old days her two favourites stores were CR and BB. In those days (1980s), these two firms really made nice stuff - made in the US and Oz respectively.

Other than that, I know too much about cut and construction for my own good these days. I can dissect a garment with my eyes. It totally takes the Romance out of it. I go through high end stuff on 5th and Madison shaking my head in disgust, or worse merely react with cold and objective indifference.

The last few years have been the worst for CR both in design and manufacture.

Originally Posted by meister

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The last few years have been the worst for CR both in design and manufacture.

I think the CR brand is moving towards the trendier side while the more conservative styles are getting moved to their newer Trenery label. Still doesn't say anything about their quality though. And CR is starting to get very over priced seeing 50/50 cotton poly blend sportscoats retailing $300.
Still I notice some of their ties are still made in Italy but who knows how much of that is actually true.

Originally Posted by merkur

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Anyone know how much Katrina's charges for simple shirt sleeve shortening? I have previously tried Expert Alterations in Block Arcade and they were pretty good but a tad over $20 per shirt from what I recall. Alternatively, anyone know of any good alterations places to do simple alterations (like sshortening shirt sleeves) for a competitive price? Thanks

Originally Posted by fxh

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In my limited experience anything less than $30 is cheap

And from what I know shirt sleeve shortening isn't "simple"


To properly shorten shirt sleeves, it should be done from the cuff.
Therefore, the tailor needs to remove the cuff and the placket, re-cut the placket vent and shorten the sleeve, and then re-attach the placket and cuff, making sure to pleat the sleeve-end correctly. As fxh notes, it's not exactly a simple procedure so anything less than $30 sounds pretty good (bearing in mind that, like most things, alterations here are more expensive than in the US so US prices quoted in other threads are misleading).

Originally Posted by Sator

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You know, as for Country Rd their current stuff looks like it is made in the same Chinese factory as JCrew. There was time when CR stuff was made in Oz and was really well made. I found an old 1980s CR shirt in my GF's wardrobe and was amazed at how well made it was. It still looked new.

Originally Posted by meister

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The last few years have been the worst for CR both in design and manufacture.

The decline of Country Road is very sad.

I had quite a lot of CR stuff throughout the 1990s, up to when they switched manufacturing to China in the late 1990s.

Shirts were sometimes oddly-sized, but the quality was great - nice cloth, pattern-matching at the sleeveheads, (very thin) MoP buttons and so on.

I also had some great trousers in wool, linen and corduroy. The cord ones, in particular, wore very well.

Along with a whole lot of other linen items, including shirts and shorts, perhaps the piece de resistance was a really nice, three-piece linen suit.

Then, regrettably, manufacturing moved to China, the quality plunged, but pricing remained the same and I didn't buy anything there for a decade or so. I've recently bought some shorts and socks there again, but the quality is still pretty atrocious.

Compare the CR experience to Herringbone's move to China - HB suit prices actually dropped a bit but the quality remained very high. That's the way to ensure customer loyalty, as you don't feel that you're being ripped off in pursuit of short-term profit.

CR didn't have an Ethan to help it along like HB did. I wonder how HB will do now, though.

Ah Country Road. When I first started working out of uni I thought a Country Road suit was the ultimate in menswear, and I unfortunately indulged myself with two on separate occasions. In hindsight a big mistake. One was even a size too big, and coincidently I just sold it on ebay for the princely sum of $102.70 after it has sat in the back of my wardrobe for the last 3 or so years. The other is also probably floating around and might also find its way onto the "˜bay shortly.

Country Road now days is purely a casual affair for me - no shirts, suits or ties however I will pick up the occasional odd trousers for work if they are on clearance for less then $50. My biggest issue with their casual clothes is their sizing is way too large. I am typically a medium, however a medium sized t-shirt fits like a parachute. That said, my last purchase from them was only last week - a navy canvas belt on clearance for $15 ("˜reduced' from $50). What are their footwear like? I noticed a pair of boots that I might be interested in on one of their 50% clearance days.

Originally Posted by CHECKstar

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Also, Melbourne gents what's the go with this humid weather?!

So friggin annoying. Was talking to the boss this morning and said to him I was getting 'angry' about the weather. For a moment you could see the thought cross his mind: 'Is this guy going to go postal?'

Got two different meetings today with a bunch of people who have either the word 'Director' or 'Senior' in front of their title so have had to suit up again.

Any Sydney siders seen any decent sales of late?
Anything at Harrolds, Myer, DJs? Other?

I'm after a couple of solid colour suits
Blue Label, Canali, Zileri, Caruso etc

Originally Posted by fxh

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So let me get this straight: they all said you were wearing yellow camp linen pants was it because they were see through they looked camp?

They are a funny colour actually. In natural light they look cream but under artificial lights the yellow comes out. A small win however just then; a colleague just discretely asked me where she can buy a pair for her husband.

As you're in Syd JP, you should check out the new(ish) MJ Bale stores in QVB and Wesfield. Some of the suits are 50% off and they're as decent RTW quality as you could hope for in this city, for respectable prices (esp on sale). They have a really nice grey windowpane/PoW check 2 button currently on sale that looks a million IMO.

New Harrolds in Westfield is a bit of a joke... a lot of designer garbage from what I saw. Like a mock-tweed wrinkled jacket with holes ripped in the sleeves, very "derelicte", for $1,400... Gee-zus.

I believe MJ Bale suits are made in Japan, so you would hope the quality to be at least decent. The suits in their online store look quite good.

Country of origin doesn't of course gurantee quality levels, but from what I could see the quality was good - on a par with the latest Herringbone stuff. The fabrics in the suits looked pretty tasty - or, at least to my taste.

I have a few suits in fabrics similar to those in the store so I was prevented from going nuts fortunately.

Originally Posted by CHECKstar

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They are a funny colour actually. In natural light they look cream but under artificial lights the yellow comes out. A small win however just then; a colleague just discretely asked me where she can buy a pair for her husband.

Now THAT is very camp.

Her husband wants to get into your pants.

Originally Posted by Journeyman

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The decline of Country Road is very sad.
I had quite a lot of CR stuff throughout the 1990s, up to when they switched manufacturing to China in the late 1990s.

I was part of a team that did a small study for CR on supply chain etc. in or around 93.

We had access to management and factory warehouse etc. I might even have the report somewhere but even then they were getting their stuff through Saipan and China as were many other leading brands particularly USA brands as Saipan was USA territory and could legitimately have Made in USA on label. The labour was all from China - essentially migrant/ temp workers to Saipan.

It matters not where clothing or anything is made.

A Chinese manufactured rocket or submarine is no less "quality" than a USA or French made.

Many "quality" "European" brand cars, such as Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, Bentley, and Lamborghini are manufactured in China for the domestic market as well as increasingly exports.

To suggest they can't make a decent suit or pair of pants is not credible.

The issue is quality control, price point, market tolerance of throwaway fashion, demand, costs, profit, convenience.

Originally Posted by Phat Guido

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- Is Holland not in Europe?
- a MTM suit from Canali or E. Zegna will be start at about A$2500 & you won't get service from a tailor but a SA following a guide book, hence E. Zegna has a history of botched MTM.

Made that mistake SIX TOO MANY TIMES; only suit no. 5 was a reasonable fit. And BTW, Zegna MTM now starts at $3250 for a basic suit in Satoriale fabric! Do not pass go. Do not take the chance unless you're certain the fitter's any good (preferrably a tailor, but that's rare as heck in this part of the world).

Originally Posted by Phat Guido

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- I wonder at times why some of you go on on about the price without actually inspecting goods - especially in this case & the amount of diatribe I hear when it was uncovered that Herringbone moved their suit production from Japan to China.

Got 4x Herringbone Made in China suits, 2x HBone Made in China sportsjackets, and I have no complaints, but the occasional compliment from other gents, and stares of approval from some pretty hot women here and about. So I concur; don't know what the friggin fuss is all about. Ah well... go figure.

And I also concur: $1000-$1300 for good MTM is extremely reasonable. Think about it this way: HBone charges $995 for core suiting ; MJ Bale, $1095; and Ring Jacket, about $1025 depending on the X-change rate. Zegna, as mentioned previously, starts at $3250. Don't know about Canali, PZ, Caruso and other higher-end foreign labels, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find something below $2000AUD.

Take care PG.

ZG out