After the closure of the nice "weekend" shop in Knightsbridge, the smaller shop opposite New & Lingwood, the one with the nice "marble" sign over the door, is now gone too.
The new logo is awful, and the new, grey-ish labels look dirty and cheap.
The product range has changed quite a bit. Gone are the wild variety of butcher's stripes, and eccentric multi-colour stripes.
The ties with the LSD-inspired, almost Duchamp-like coloured patterns - gone.
H&H have become "Modern".
Last edited by Beestonplace (2016-08-06 04:43:41)
Last edited by Bop (2016-08-06 04:45:34)
I see he's nailed the I'm just going to produce a white pigeon out of my blazer pocket look down to a tee. What is it with pocket squares and these people?
They closed the smaller shop, which incidentally is the one I used to frequent, because they expanded the big one and wanted to consolidate. Pure business move, but I am a little sad over it. Richard H and Mark M worked out of the little one.
The upside is their bespoke operation is 100% in house now, which is cool.
But - what about the poor American tourists who are now going to be all disappointed that instead of the old Miss Moneypenny atmosphere the new shop is all halogen downlights and blonde wood?
Que sera and all that shit.
Buying stuff in the old shop somehow felt right. It was nostalgic, somehow politically incorrect, many scruffy old customers turned up, the pyjamas on the shelves in plastic wrappers...
Nowadays it looks and feels like a chic boutique, in all possibly bad ways.
But then how you you explain the relative succes of mid-market clobber like Polo RL, Gant, Tommy Hilfiger and even Barbour?
Biggest problem for me is still the current retail system. If companies want to be successfull they have to find a way to avoid the middleman and sell directly to the customer. Best example are William Lockie. If I order from them directly a lambswool jumper is 100€ incl. shipping, at my local shop it's 140€. With cashmere it's even worse.
Is it true that they manufacture a seperate "outlet centre" line? I had the impression that for example the heavy cotton sweaters were of considerably lesser quality than one I bought in a RL boutique.
Some lines yes, such as Brooks Brothers "346" range, but a lot of last season's and what hasn't sold in the RL boutique will inevitably find their way into the outlet shops. Some of it is, some of it isn't.
Certainly here in the Netherlands and also the UK, at least some of the stuff ends up in the outlet stores, I've seen it. Retailers are another matter as you rightly point out, but definitely the RL branded boutique stuff ends up in the outlet villages. Of course, I am not referring to the Purple Label lines and such like. But we shouldn't be under any illusions that a bog standard RL OCBD in a boutique is somehow of a higher quality and more rare than the fare in the outlet stores. It's the same gear, made from the same cloth, to the same specifications, in the same offshore factories.
I think the Roermond stuff is even nastier than the "real" stuff.
I bought three Brooks Brothers ties for $129 (Canadian) in one of the outlet stores at Niagra, all classic, enduring BB patterns. 90% of the stock in there was last years 346 or Red Fleece, but you can find the good stuff too.
So, H&H have sent me an email - they want me to send me a gift.
What's so bad about Roermond? It's as awful as most other outlets in Europe. The Mall in Tuscany was escpecially bad and seemed mostly aimed at Chinese and Arabs. I liked the one in Bicester though. They had losts of merchandise from their stores and some at great prices. RL had many Purple Label items and Loro Piana wasn't only made up of strange colours as was the case in Roermond.
If you want to buy quality stuff, look for brands that have their own outlets at their production facilities e.g. Northhampton shoe makers or some of the Italian companies producing suits or knitwear.
I don't get how people are so desperate for outlets. Over the last few years the selection during the sales has been excellent and usually at discounts of 30-50%.
ok bzut this thread is about H6H
I am really sad about all this. Usually, H&H were my Autumn and Winter go-to places when in London. The larger shop on the corner had this wonderful 1970ies feel to it. And their gear, while largely rebranded and overpriced, was nice, in a midly eccentric/traditional way.
Now they sell slim fit merino sweater with a small v neck. Do I need to say more?
http://www.filmnoirbuff.com/article/harvie-and-hudson-from-suit-to-knots
This is my favoured FNB article. But is outdated. H&H dont sell that nice stuff anymore.