We had a pretty good fashion thread in here last year, and hopefully we can get another good one going. In the spirit of the current economic climate, I'll start off by passing along a coupon good for 30% off at Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy from Nov. 13-16:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f166/MaStAViC/GAP.jpg

This particular one cannot be used online anymore, but can be printed out and used at any B&M store (I did so myself today at BR).

I have decided to make a more concerted effort to not pay full price for clothes given that there is such a high markup on them and there are so many sales. Brooks Brothers usually has a very good sale after Christmas, and I intend to buy my work clothes for the year then.

If anyone has any advice on finding good deals on high-end dress shoes (e.g. Allen Edmonds or better) I'd appreciate it, but it appears that good shoes are almost never on sale. And while we are on the topic of shoes, what do you guys like for wearing in situations that are a mix between casual and dressy? For example, if you were going to go to a nice lounge and wear jeans and a nice shirt with a jacket?

sometimes Sierra Trading Post has good deals on closeouts, ie:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/Allen-Edmonds.html

I bought a paid of Born's I really like that work well with jeans or a bit dressier. I'll try to figure out what they're called

also, yeah, paying retail for big brands is ridiculous. Banana retail price is about twice as expensive as it should be.

Retailing is going to be an absolute bloodbath for the next 6-12 months. Barney's and Bergman currently have 40% off sales after trying them out on a limited basis over the past several weeks. I was at Wilkes Bashford in SF on Tuesday and they had 40% off plus $300 off the first $800 spent. Further, it was clear that this was on a heavily underbought Fall inventory (beautiful Fall Arny's coats discounted down to $800). Last season's Bergdorf Goodman Cucinelli knits, Barbera/Kiton tailored clothing was all over Jeremy's in SF (a one off designer castoff/discount store)--the first time since 2001/2002).

I expect discounting to accelerate from Thanksgiving through January and might tighter inventory control in 09.

For super-preppies:

slick,

I have some brown monk straps that fulfill that roll quite nicely.

I bought this two months ago, and have revamped my fall/winter wardrobe considerably. Highly recommended to those that are fashion challenged.



$20 bucks at amazon, and it comes with a free year subscription to the magazine as well.

I have a couple books in that genre and they're all pretty much similar and the advice is quite sound. A lot about style is finding what works for you. People have different silhouettes and can make different things happen. I wish there was more quality writing on the subject of different body shapes, styles, etc. But it would probably result in me reading about casual urban stuff and being bitter that I can't look like that. I'm gonna cut this short before I get into some esoteric tirade about personal choice and doing what you want and individual expression with some std ghey mixed in.

I second the brown monkstrap suggestion. I have a pair of these from Allen Edmonds, which are great with a suit or with jeans and jacket:



I think AE has discontinued this line (it's called Mora), but you might be able to find them online.

I also just picked up a pair of boots from R.M. Williams, which I think would fit most dressy casual situations:



There are sometime deals for these online, but I actually picked them up at the retail shop in NYC. They're usually made-to-order, but they happened to have a pair in stock in my size and the color I wanted, so they gave me a half-off off-the-rack discount.

This is what I have.

Paul Smith Starrs are really nice to wear with jeans. You'll probably want to try them on your feet first instead of buying online though, since they run long and narrow.

Also, this terrible economy means everything is on sale. I've been going a bit nutty lately.

Sale at Saks in Manhattan is pretty good, and likely to get better through January. Ditto Bergdorf. Barney's not so much. I'll be checking out Jay Kos and Peter Elliott tomorrow.

Should be shopping with stinkypete tomorrow so I'll encourage him to follow up and give a report on eurotrash-y designer-wear.

X posted from styleforum thread:

I am so tired. Can barely type this. I just came back from the saks on 5th ave in NYC. I was there for 8 hours.

I mainly got a million shirts: 4 Canali's at $56 pre-tax, 1 canali at $36 pretax, 1 zegna at $66 pretax, 3 armani's at $66 pretax, 1 borelli at $60 pretax, 1 gucci at $80 pretax and 1 Paul smith at $60 pretax (all rough estimates). I will be returning some no doubt. I also got a pair of seven jeans for $58 and a diesel shirt for $16. The worst of these shirts would qualify as the nicest in my closet. Pretty good score for a complete noob. Also a good time to open a Saks card.

Quick update from Saks. Up to 70% off a good chunk of the 6th floor (men's tailored clothing).

Waiting for the elevator with stinkypete, man who resembles Bob Costas walks by to the men's room.
Me: I think that was Bob Costas.
stinkypete: Who's Bob Costas? <mumbles something in Swedish>

It was Bob Costas. He's about Evan's height.

Hopefully sp will contribute his excellent purchases.

i tried to convince daver to purchase a pair of these at saks:



but he just mumbled something about how his bonus this year is only going to be in the six figures even though he's been short CDS all year. the shoes we're only $9995, not even 5 figures.

he then convinced me that i should purchase one of these at bergdorf goodman for $400 but in a much sexier colour:



being the nit i am, i muttered something about this thing going on sale for half the price on friday so the daver told me that colombo never goes on sale - maybe in january if there's anything left. so i bought it and had the tags snipped off so that returning it would not be an option. we then walked over to barney's and obviously the same scarf was there on sale for $175. they didn't have my colour so the daver tried to convince me to buy it and return the ugly colour to bergman. i of course opted not to **** with my karma and was immediately rewarded by finding out that the gamble i had taken on oil futures earlier that morning had made me $1400 while i was out shopping. i don't know a damn thing about oil, but i do understand manipulating karma.

also picked up a fantastically gay zegna blazer marked down to $500 from $1700, and am seriously regretting not picking up a grey bowler hat that the daver sarcastically told me to get.

Bowler hat suggestion at Bergman was not sarcastic. Fur hat suggestion at Barney's was sarcastic. There were 8 of those hats on the wall and we all know you're not doing dick this weekend so you should man up early Friday and get your ass over there.

As for the scarf, we both know you got the best color in that pattern, and you neglected to mention how I got the saleswoman to check you out by suggesting you were a rich European dude spending Mommy & Daddy's money.

If you don't get the hat you're going to regret it for years. Up to two weeks ago Clark still asks me to send him pictures of the sunglasses.

Have fun this weekend with your BFFs!

wat?

now that i have educated myself, i must point out that it was a fedora, not a bowler hat.

Actually it was a trilby. Fedoras have wider brims.

screw you

Anyone have trouble finding high end clothes in their size? My neck is around 14" but my local high end store has a few 15" shirts but everything is 15.5"+. Kind of annoying that it's so hard to find clothing when I'm 5' 8" 135 pounds. Not insanely small by any means.

That's so sick. Down here a Canali will set you back $250.

I don't know dude 5'8'' 135lbs is pretty damn skinny. You might have to find a boutique that cuts their clothes on the small side or get it custom tailored for you.

I am not sure where you live but look up some of the nice stores and tailors in the biggest city near you. You should definitely find what you are looking for there.

Ok thanks.

Hey guys, just wondering what you fashion-conscious people would recommend someone with red.. more so auborn hair and hazel eyes to wear for colours? I've never really considered my fashion and just wore random polos with nice jeans I thought looked good; not really ever considering colours. Anyway, I suppose I should probabally post a picture to get the optimal response... I'm 20 years old in my 3rd year of university and the downtown scene isn't all that spiffy aside from the odd night here and there. Thanks.
edit: here's some pics.. probabally won't help my cause any, I assume most bbv-tards don't check this place out anyway.

recent pic without any colours, bigger guy etc
[/URL]
[URL=http://g.imageshack.us/img160/pic6cr8.jpg/1/]

recent closeup: