You are not logged in.

#1 2022-05-02 04:38:14

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Independent Menswear Retailers

I was in Beverley in the East Riding in the footsteps of Clifton-Taylor. Most of my time was spent between The Minster and the church at the top end of the town. I also spent a lot of time on narrow pavements gawping at the front of houses and other buildings.

However, I did notice an interesting menswear shop near the North Bar - The Modern Draper. It had decent stuff in the window but I did not venture inside. I was not looking to buy anything. Lots of the brands are those mentioned on here. It’s not an Ivy shop - it is broader than that - and they are looking to expand beyond clothing. Looking on the net their story is quite interesting and there is a blog. It is not a cheap place and I did wonder what turnover was like. There was no equivalent in Hull where many shops, restaurants,pubs don’t even open early in the week.

https://themoderndraper.co.uk/pages/about

I also thought about Old Town in Holt, Norfolk. Another place in the middle of nowhere. They seem to do quite well. It’s another well-heeled and attractive location. Most of their kit looks like it could go straight into the costume department for shows like ‘When The Boat Comes In’ and other period dramas. It’s not dressy stuff more imagined working class stuff from a bygone age.

Any other retailers of note?


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#2 2022-05-02 08:44:36

Tim
Member
Posts: 289

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Old Town do a rather nice jacket in an Ivy-vein, soft shoulders, three button, fairly narrow lapel etc. I was turned onto it by a new friend on my visit to London - apparently it's available via Labor & Wait, one of my personal favorite shops.  Campells of Beauly probably deserve a mention - I've never visited personally but they're known for being a bit of a bastion of "Olde English" tailoring and do have some nice knitwear of the Shetland variety.

 

#3 2022-05-02 09:26:40

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

These shops do crop up in unlikely places - as well as some likely ones.  I relied at one time on a shop in the next town along, a tad more Young Farmer/Young Conservative than the one I live in, which has become a bit Rainbow Nation over the past ten years or so.  The chap who ran it had a nice window display: lots of check shirts and Harris tweed bits and pieces - and cords by Merit, which I liked (100 per cent cotton) but wore the arse out of a couple of years ago.  He sold Alan Paine sweaters at £75 a time.  It all had a nice, old-fashioned feel to it - and duly closed down during the pandemic.  By now I expect it's turned into a Turkish barbers' (proliferating like stink around here), a vape shop, tattoo parlour or something equally useful.  Shop across the street is stacked with Barbour.  No excitement there although the female staff are rather easy on the eye.

 

#4 2022-05-02 09:29:57

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Some good mens shops once to be found in places like St. Malo - selling Stetson, for example - but they were always closed.  At the height of the season, too.  Yet the place we used to stay in had an Irish/Scots themed shop on the main street, selling knitwear as well as whiskey, shortbread etc.

 

#5 2022-05-02 09:35:48

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

I wish I could remember the name of the old-established shoppe in Brigg, where my elder daughter once dwelt with her idiot of a first husband.  Tiny, cramped, it seemed like the last bastion of polyester Farah slacks in the back room.  I made the mistake of buying some bottle green cords from there.  The zip went within months.  I seem to recall them offering Grenfell - but this is quite a few years ago.  They'd been in business since about the time Kit Marlowe was filling his pipe and buggering small shepherd boys.
The East Riding is exceptionally nice.

 

#6 2022-05-02 09:38:14

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Jesting apart, it must be a thankless way of making a living.  Walked round a local park this morning.  Everyone seemed to be kitted out from Primark, Matalan, Tesco and that anonymous unit on the industrial estate near Cost Co.

 

#7 2022-05-02 09:51:33

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

‘The East Riding is exceptionally nice.’

Agreed. I did not really know it. Sparsely populated and not too badly affected by change. Employment opportunities may be limited though. Some ‘ladies who lunch’ types got on the train at Brough on the way home. They were heading to the Courtauld Gallery for an exhibition.


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#8 2022-05-02 09:55:21

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Dick’s of Edinburgh has good knitwear and footwear. Never been in the shop but bought online.


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#9 2022-05-02 10:24:16

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

There’s a once online only store that have recently opened up a ‘proper’ retail unit in Lewes, Sussex.

Darcy Clothing. Clearly specialists in the sort of gear you would expect to see Mr Darcey strolling around in. A lot of Victorian style shirts, boots and trousers. Like a Gentleman’s Old Town. 40’s stuff too. Spearpoint and grandad collar shirts, Fair Isle sleeveless jumpers. Similar to a lot of the vintage style civvy clothes Aero Leather do a trade in.

They do have some interesting looking cotton herringbone jackets that look as though they could tick some Ivy boxes. And Shetland sweaters.

The catch though is they look almost too cheap (even for me!). Those jackets are £89. Shetlands £75 (+VAT).

I wonder if they’re aiming at the TV extra or or Am dram market but if I’m ever over that way I’d drop in for a look.

 

#10 2022-05-02 10:29:31

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Also there’s one in my hometown. John Goodridge. Alan Paine, RL, Timberland, Gant etc.

Been going since 1927 and placed nicely on the corner of ‘Ivy Lane’

 

#11 2022-05-02 10:40:02

RobbieB
Member
Posts: 2219

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Didn't a poster on here approach Old Town re producing some Keydge style jackets? They weren't interested and I see that what they do offer hasn't changed in 10 years. I bought a silk tie from them and I've always been interested in the Canvey Cap but everything else they produce is as Kingstonian says. It must work for them but I don't see how.


'I am a closet optimist' Leonard Cohen.

 

#12 2022-05-02 10:55:11

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

No I don’t see how Old Town get by from their web shop. Those very basic black drawings remind me of old ‘back of Smash Hits’ clothing ads.

I’d be interested in their Hemsby sweaters but wouldn’t order based on how they’re shown.

 

#13 2022-05-02 11:30:59

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Spendthrift,

Lewes used to have a proper old bloke’s menswear shop called Hugh Rae. It was as an enjoyable a sight as the Clifton-Taylor buildings. It’s gone now but the signage still remains with a different shop in the premises.

https://oakleyproperty.com/about-oakley/blog/2017/07/27/nearly-700-years-old-and-94-years-off-the-market


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#14 2022-05-02 12:06:45

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

I have to say, the first job I had on leaving school was one of these old school gentleman’s outfitters. On the infamous YTS. I loved clothes and was happy to get the gig.

It was just awful. Very middle aged middle class business and golf wear. Nobody I served seemed at all interested in what they were buying. Mainly it was another six white shirts for the year, or a jumper for Christmas. Lots of wives buying for husbands they probably hardly ever saw. Tricks like pinching in the back of a coat or jacket while the guy was trying it on, Del Boy style, I thought was downright underhand.

When the owner manager told me to never sell shoes to a black man, as he’d share them with his brother and bring them back for a refund when they wore out I couldn’t stay. I don’t miss it at all.

 

#15 2022-05-02 12:21:32

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Kingston1an - That link was really interesting. Thanks.

I’ve never heard the term ‘slop shop’ for working clothes seller

 

#16 2022-05-02 12:52:57

woofboxer
Devil's Ivy Advocate
From: The Lost County of Middlesex
Posts: 7959

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Spendthrift - Lewes is close to Brighton of course where there is a thriving vintage look scene. Also down that way you’re getting an effect from Goodwood Revival.  Harvey’s Brewery have a beer shop in Lewes High Street, a very tasty pint.

Peggs and Son in Brighton.


'I'm not that keen on the Average Look .......ever'. 
John Simons

Achievements: banned from the Ivy Style FB Group

 

#17 2022-05-02 14:21:05

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Thanks Woof - I used to visit Brighton a lot in my mod days. And a bit later on when the Uni put on good Brit Pop and Acid Jazz themed mini festivals. I stopped going when it started to feel a little bit hippie student for my tastes. I go back from time to time with the boy - but that’s for the beach and Sea Life Centre. Hopefully he and The missus have no clue what I got up to there when I was younger!

Lewes is sounding interesting now though. I like a good brewery but have got spoilt by having our own Hogs Back brewery and their marvellous TEA just down the road

 

#18 2022-05-02 15:24:07

Runninggeez
Member
Posts: 688

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Before Harrington closed down Guildford had 5 menswear independents in the town. There are still 4 left as far as I'm aware.

In Sunningdale which is a few miles down the road, there's Mewes Menswear, which has been there for more than 40 years

 

#19 2022-05-03 02:33:51

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

RG - Is that the one by the train crossing? I’ve been past it often but never stopped to go in. Is it worth checking out?

 

#20 2022-05-03 03:09:56

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

These places should be cherished, valued and shopped in while they last: not unlike independent record and secondhand bookshops.  More close than open.  Is that simply the power of the Internet, currently driving market forces?

 

#21 2022-05-03 04:18:34

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

I reckon the internet is mostly responsible for this. Amazon is percieved to be the easiest way to buy anything. People like easy.

Amazon itself works ridiculously poorly, as you would expect a robot to. Click once on a red sweatshirt and it presumes you're forever looking for the same item, and pushes a hundred variations of it in your face for years every time you look at it. Search for something simple like Levi 501 and the first twenty items offered are sponsored other brands.

Also supermarkets becoming huge one-stop stores where you can pick up your food, gardening supplies, kettle, Easter eggs, shower gel, and pants, jeans and a hoody in one visit.

And sports superstores who are catering to people, mainly male I think, who don't appreciate clothes and don't like shopping or paying for them, people who for whatever reason see no need to wear anything other than simple sportswear. Of course there's those for who the hoody is the uniform you wear when sulking around in children's playgrounds and town centres.

I've never been on Ebay, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that it's grown away from the original intention of selling your unwanted items to people who do want them for a good price?

The further society gets into this, the further away from reality it will seem to walk into a men's clothes shop and ask for a pair of navy cotton socks or a grey crew neck wool jumper.

 

#22 2022-05-03 04:21:59

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Of course many of the retailers on the high street aren't helping themselves in the long run if they want to stay there. How many times have you been asked if they can email you the receipt? All so they can convert your walk in to a stay at home and click

 

#23 2022-05-03 07:43:36

Runninggeez
Member
Posts: 688

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

@Spendthrift, I haven't been into Mewes for a long time. They always had a fine selection of Lacoste when I used to browse or go in and which I would usually buy.

They seem to cater for the rich middle class gent that lived in the area. A lot Scottish golf sweaters, Farah slacks Daks sports jackets etc.

I would imagine nothing much has changed in 40+ years as they haven't a website.

 

#24 2022-05-03 07:45:25

Runninggeez
Member
Posts: 688

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Oh yes, it is the one by the railway crossing.

 

#25 2022-05-03 07:53:27

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: Independent Menswear Retailers

Thanks RG. I’ll stop in when I’m next over that way.

Yes. I imagine golf wear does very well in that area.

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
© Copyright 2002–2008 Rickard Andersson