Australian Members

Went to Azzaro's on the way home from work tonight with a mate to look at the Pasinis. I had a chat with Alessandro, who told me that there is a shipment of Cantarelli suits coming, should be there in a couple of weeks.

He mentioned the forum and said he is lurking occasionally. If you read this Alessandro, please join us!

Originally Posted by fxh

Click to expand...

Frames aren't all that hard to fit properly.

A good optometrist will fit you with glasses properly - theres a lot of variables. Not to mention the bit about what sort of specs suit you and your face.

Sadly the story with glasses is an exaggerated repeat of other retail items in Oz.

Almost all, and I mean even those marked Made In Italy designer ones, are made in a few factories in China.

The average frame is mostly just plastic.

Markups in Oz are around 1,000%. And the market is dominated by international giant Luxottica, which owns OPSM, Sunglass Hut and a whole bunch of other big brands you wouldn't guess.

As an example just look at what you can get online from USA and prices. We go to Taiwan a bit and Ms fxh always gets two pair of script fashion glasses, different latest frames, plus lenses, for $80 aud for the two pairs - 24 hours from exam/ script - choose frames to collect. (I don't get them because my face and huge nose is distinctly non asian size. Taiwanese name for Caucasian is "********".)

I have about 8 pairs - mostly bi-focals but some readers only. My latest glasses are from Shuron - makers of Malcom X's original black /silver Ronsirs - they also have the hipsters fav Buddy Holly styles. I have Shuron Revelation Tortoise shell with "Relaxo" temples plus clip on sunnies and some Ronsir original Malcolm X style blacks..

Here - if you can find them they will be around $400 for frames - online they are $75 - $90.

I use Optometrist Attic - Vick is a great helpful bloke who will answer all your idiot questions quickly and honestly.

http://optometristattic.com/

Others use Shuron's own site directly and I hear good reports about them.

You can measure yourself (theres temple length, style and bridge width and depth and lense width and depth etc ) but you'll get more benefit and advice from using an Optometrist.

Don't go to a conservative business dress mob of salespeople or a bunch of fashion hipsters and unless you have an asian nose don't go to an asian optometrists shop with all the cute girls. Go to some older person in the suburbs who will examine your eyes for disease - free on Medicare - yes its important you don't go blind through disease (a mate of mine went blind at 21 glaucoma) - and who will give you a bit of advice about shapes for your face.

Shop around and ask if they mind you ordering frames online and if they'll fit scripts to frames.

Get them to measure you up so you can specify online.

Be nice be friendly and you'll find most old school Optometrists really appreciate Shuron frames and workmanship.

Shuron isn't the only place for frames at all. I just think they are solid and reliable.

I wear them confidently and sneer at the Thornbury hipsters.

I go to a daggy optometrist where the owner will not let his very competent dispenser son and equally competent optometrist be free to do up the shop. But when it comes to dispensing and fitting they cannot be beaten. I went to the fanciest shop in my suburb and around 5 dispensers/optometrists tried to fit my specs (AUD800 Porshche frames). Total fail. Got my dough back and off to the daggie shop which did it in two goes. Just goes to reinforce fxh's point. You know how to dispense or you don't. They will also install in vintage frames amd adjust same - no complaints only a warning like "hey something may go wrong - but let's go for it".

Hey Aus members, I started reading through pages but which 377 it's kind of hard to find information that I know will be in here but where it is... well, I figured it was easier to just post and ask.

I'm a 23 year old student about to have a billion interviews with jobs and things over the next several months, as well as just wanting to look better, but my issue comes with not knowing where to shop to try things on and figure out the proper sizing I need - particularly in shirts. I'm chubby, not overly, but don't know any good places to go where the recommendation won't be "well get something baggy..."

Also, as is becoming evident by reading anything and it relates to that question - does anyone know any good tailors around the Sydney area? Thanks, sorry that this question sounds terribly new and will have probably been asked a million times.

Originally Posted by California Dreamer

Click to expand...

Went to Azzaro's on the way home from work tonight with a mate to look at the Pasinis. I had a chat with Alessandro, who told me that there is a shipment of Cantarelli suits coming, should be there in a couple of weeks.
I dropped in at lunchtime. Luciano said that they are Cantarelli Tailor suits. Some will be 3-roll 2 with a softer shoulder and more casual silhouette, while others will be more classic.

We should organise a group meet-up there one day.

Originally Posted by Utini

Click to expand...

Hey Aus members, I started reading through pages but which 377 it's kind of hard to find information that I know will be in here but where it is... well, I figured it was easier to just post and ask. I'm a 23 year old student about to have a billion interviews with jobs and things over the next several months, as well as just wanting to look better, but my issue comes with not knowing where to shop to try things on and figure out the proper sizing I need - particularly in shirts. I'm chubby, not overly, but don't know any good places to go where the recommendation won't be "well get something baggy..." Also, as is becoming evident by reading anything and it relates to that question - does anyone know any good tailors around the Sydney area?

Thanks, sorry that this question sounds terribly new and will have probably been asked a million times.
Welcome Utini, good of you to join us. There's a few queries in there. I gather you're from Sydney, so it would be better for the Sydneyites to tackle your more specific questions. I believe that Charles Nakhle has the rep as the best shirtmaker in Sydney; based in Paramatta I think. There's a few good Sydney tailors who've been discussed at length and I'm sure someone here can help you out. Also if you enter "Sydney tailor" in the search styleforum.net command on the top right, you ought to find plenty of references. Sizing for shirts is a bit subjective; guys differ in how fitted they like their shirts to be. For myself, I measure the neck size so that I can fit a finger down inside the collar when the shirt is buttoned up. I like my sleeves to come down to the joint at the base of my thumb, so that some of the cuff shows under a suit. For the chest I allow 4 inches over my actual chest size to allow for movement, and try to get the shoulders to be pretty much the exact width of mine. If you do go to a tailors they will happy to take these measurements for you. If you have a large neck, you are probably going to find that you always need to make alterations to any OTR shirt to make it fit you. Once you start doing that you realise that MTM shirts are not so expensive, and you might want to look at getting one or two MTM. You'll find that some brands are of a more generous cut than others, and better suited to your body shape. Jack London, Calibre and Arthur Galen, for example, will be way too slim. Herringbone and Rhodes and Beckett are cut more generously and offer reasonable value when on sale (like about now). You should get out and try on lots of different brands while their sales are on, and identify a few that give you a good fit. Don't buy anything without trying it on first. Look to get the collar, shoulders and length right as a prioirity - the chest and sleeves can easily be taken in. Good luck with the interviews.

For Canberra SF members the Op shop in Eyre St Kingston had 3 Boss suits on the rack this am. Were on the small side but looked in good nick, reasonably priced.

Originally Posted by fxh

Click to expand...

Frames aren't all that hard to fit properly.

A good optometrist will fit you with glasses properly - theres a lot of variables. Not to mention the bit about what sort of specs suit you and your face.

Sadly the story with glasses is an exaggerated repeat of other retail items in Oz.

Almost all, and I mean even those marked Made In Italy designer ones, are made in a few factories in China.

The average frame is mostly just plastic.

Markups in Oz are around 1,000%. And the market is dominated by international giant Luxottica, which owns OPSM, Sunglass Hut and a whole bunch of other big brands you wouldn't guess.

As an example just look at what you can get online from USA and prices. We go to Taiwan a bit and Ms fxh always gets two pair of script fashion glasses, different latest frames, plus lenses, for $80 aud for the two pairs - 24 hours from exam/ script - choose frames to collect. (I don't get them because my face and huge nose is distinctly non asian size. Taiwanese name for Caucasian is "********".)

I have about 8 pairs - mostly bi-focals but some readers only. My latest glasses are from Shuron - makers of Malcom X's original black /silver Ronsirs - they also have the hipsters fav Buddy Holly styles. I have Shuron Revelation Tortoise shell with "Relaxo" temples plus clip on sunnies and some Ronsir original Malcolm X style blacks..

Here - if you can find them they will be around $400 for frames - online they are $75 - $90.

I use Optometrist Attic - Vick is a great helpful bloke who will answer all your idiot questions quickly and honestly.

http://optometristattic.com/

Others use Shuron's own site directly and I hear good reports about them.

You can measure yourself (theres temple length, style and bridge width and depth and lense width and depth etc ) but you'll get more benefit and advice from using an Optometrist.

Don't go to a conservative business dress mob of salespeople or a bunch of fashion hipsters and unless you have an asian nose don't go to an asian optometrists shop with all the cute girls. Go to some older person in the suburbs who will examine your eyes for disease - free on Medicare - yes its important you don't go blind through disease (a mate of mine went blind at 21 glaucoma) - and who will give you a bit of advice about shapes for your face.

Shop around and ask if they mind you ordering frames online and if they'll fit scripts to frames.

Get them to measure you up so you can specify online.

Be nice be friendly and you'll find most old school Optometrists really appreciate Shuron frames and workmanship.

Shuron isn't the only place for frames at all. I just think they are solid and reliable.

I wear them confidently and sneer at the Thornbury hipsters.


Hello Chaps, another Aussie from Melbourne checking in. I have to say that this thread has been life changing

I also wanted to add my 5 cents to fxh's reply. I just purchased a pair of Shuron glasses a few weeks ago form a US website after measuring myself and have to say they are amazing. I am never buying any other brands again. I got one pair for specs and one more pair to install sunglass lenses into them. Very happy.

Originally Posted by Geoffrey Firmin

Click to expand...

For Canberra SF members the Op shop in Eyre St Kingston had 3 Boss suits on the rack this am. Were on the small side but looked in good nick, reasonably priced.


How small?

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know somewhere that has some nice cotton Argyle socks? Browns and Navy would be great. Cant seem to find any good range at the department stores or regular retail.

Also to the above guy who is quite young and in need of business items, try Herringbone. They have good regular cuts in both shirts and suits which will work well for you, they also do MTO.

Originally Posted by Gassyndrome

Click to expand...

How small?

Well I am a 48 Regular they were not wide enough across the shoulders for me. I tried to find a size on the suits but didn't come across one, odd. So the best bet would be to drop in and see for yourself here is a link I found which lists the Op Shops and their locations in Canberra http://opshop.org/opshoplist/ACT/CANBERRA

Thanks for that - I'm a Euro 50R so no good. Sounds enticing though.

Does anyone think the chap at Azzaro will snap and send me pics of anything in a 50R? I mean a Versace Collection for anything less than $600-700 seems pretty decent to me.

Versace Collections stuff are waaaaay slim. I can almost go 48EU when most of the time 46EU from department stores be almost too big for me.

Sorry for the late reply all, been away fishing at Lake Eucumbene today. brrrr.

Anyway thanks for all the advice and reply's, I actually also bought some shurons some time ago with the measuring etc but hated the frames once they came in. I'm a tall guy with an oval/longish face and really need to try glasses on before comitting, so online is out for these. but there are a few boutique optometerists in Canberra and one (arcidiacomo I think) is a client of my mums book keeping business, so I might visit him and see what he has.

Originally Posted by blahman

Click to expand...

Versace Collections stuff are waaaaay slim. I can almost go 48EU when most of the time 46EU from department stores be almost too big for me.

Again, it depends on the model. There are currently three blocks. The city, trend...and I forget the last one. If you look on the tag it will have a code along the lines of V3KAA03 and V21236 for model and block number. Those are from my 3-piece city suit which is quite a classic cut (strong shoulders, minimal waist suppression)

What does the code on your new casual cotton suit say? That is a very slim cut.

Ask Alessandro next time you see him to explain the differences in the different blocks and how to spot them on the tags.

You are correct though...some Versaces are very slim...almost sculpted (I think some are a drop 8).

Dunno. Must have dropped the tag while I was rummaging for the receipt on the way home .