Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2012-11-15 08:50:34)

yes ive taken to wearing a mac/loden overcoat over my jacket but it can be inappropriate on a warm day, also defeats the purpose often of wearing nice clothes in the first place if on entry & exit to a venue you look like you run a detective agency ..

paul stuart looks really good online, but id like to try on before making a decision. why is it that these places exist in the US but not in England anymore? .. can only think its because us brits cant run a business efficiently .. anything of quality is just insanely expensive, as well as most of the buying public is so ignorant / broke these days they have no interest. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

also Fed Ex from the US dutifully smacks on VAT which adds another 17.5% to whatever taxes etc were paid over in the US anyway .. fucking politicans. Grrrrrr again.

We should get together and set up a menswear store, selling decent quality menswear for reasonable prices. How fucking hard can it be?

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2012-11-15 09:20:26)

exactly .. Rip Off Britain in force .. not just VAT but inane whopping charges for Duty ?! what happened to free fucking trade .. fucking politicians meddling in everything.

The biggest shame is that I am not rich, not by a long shot.  TBH I am still wearing fused suits among my rotation and try to target these on days where I am likely to go to dirtier places. I commute daily as well, but only by bus which is not too filthy, but still not clean either. I usually stay standing and always take of my jacket and overcoat because its way to hot anyways. I rest these items folded over my attache case.

As for bespoke I have never paid the likes of saville row. The most expensive was around 1800 lbs actually but this was for Dormmeuil''s Ambassodor suiting or Zegna Best cashemere jacketing. Anything bespoke from the Row in these 2 cloths would have been well into the 5000 to 6000 lbs (significantly beyond what I could or would pay).

Buying online is always hit or miss. I have bought suits online but only with the expectation that there would be some very extensive tailoring needed anyways. With RTW my tailoring costs were always considerable since the necessary alterations could never be handled by in store tailors' services that are usually included when buying suits. Frustrating!  My biggest problem has always been that I am fairly slim except for my fairly broad square shoulders and prominent chest and this accompanied by a thin neck. Can you say collar gap! I am basically covering both sides of the spectrum simultaneously. In the end I just gave up with RTW. I still have alot of barely acceptable suits I don't wear and only a few that are now fairly flattering but only after they were altered several times over.  It is true that Canali has always been cut huge, even their slimmest model with the most waist suppression (the Anthony 19xxx) was still very generous.

Oxford and Brioni are top of the line RTW but with a severely generous cut and extremely expensive going well into bespoke prices. You really have to be a sheik (fat and rich) with these. Zegna sartorial and couture could be a sweet spot because they show up on sale often and systematically in 2 stores around my area. The thing with these however is that they seem to be cut with alot of shoulder slope. When I put them on and button up the collar floats above my neck, and when unbuttoned the collar falls back down and forces the front panels open. Would need extensive recutting.

It's funny though because you guys are ordering from north America sometimes and I am ordering accessories from UK or France often. The shipping cos are happy i guess!

check link for idea of some of the floral type designs ..

http://www.raffaello-network.com/raffties/list_products.php?start=30&rangeid=10&routep=1&lim=30

^^ Not in a long time. The repeated change of owners and the decline in quality in recent years has destroyed any faith I had left in the company.

hmm never tried h&h ..what are the shirts like in there? any good?