I was in Talbot's last month while Christmas shopping. It was scary, but not Cold Water Creek-scary.
Oh, you're just saying that to be all gotcha-ier-than-thou. They're perfectly nice clothing stores.
Nobody in Cold Water Creek would even acknowledge my existence. Despite (or because of) the fact that I was shopping with a very loud seven-year-old and had a goal of two sweaters in less than 10 minutes.
Talbot's understood me. They knew I wanted to give them money and flee.
Lately, with men's clothes, the characteristics that predict, or at least accompany, higher cost and quality seem to me to be (i) weight (cheap men's clothing, even from pretty well-designed sources like Uniqlo, is pretty flimsy), and (ii) "hand" (though thinner, cheaper shirtings feel rougher, more like newsprint).
Talbots appears to have my email address down as my grandmother's, and I got several emails saying "It was great to see you at Talbots!"
(Which, just looking up for the wording, showed me that they don't use an apostrophe.)
When you grab somebody's shirt bottom and pull it over their head.
Oh I see. Only silk shirtings for me, please.
Maybe the Urban Dictionary wasn't the place I needed to look.
[Grits teeth] A fabric for shirts, in contradistinction from a suiting.
You have suits made from something different than your shirts?
??? Hi quality, lo cost is the combination to look for, right? Any tips on where to get that?
Briefs are made from worsted wool, unlike suits and shirts.
Dude, you can't pull someone's socks over there head. It's impossible.
"their". Too many rounds with the boxed wine last night.
I bet there's a fetish site that proves you wrong.
But you can do it over here head.
The next time somebody talks about a "rough briefing" I'll know exactly what they're talking about.
I should start wearing a suit to the bar. I usually wear older clothes because the place is so smokey that I don't want my useful clothes getting stunk up. Given how often I need to wear a suit, they're the least useful clothes I own.
17: I always wondered why people measured sock quality in deer-years.
If that's a briefing, then what's a debriefing?
It's spelled D-briefing. It's for bigger butts than a C-briefing.
I prefer a fleece pantsing to a denim one.
I'm very much enjoying this thread.
I should go buy some shoes soon. My current ones have a small hole in the sole and are covered in salt marks.
What's a shirting?
When you try to shit, but squirt by accident?
25: That's the only reason why I rarely go to that bar. Nice place, but having to wash my jacket after I go there takes away from the experience.
I prefer to think of it as having a strong atmosphere.
The nice thing about wearing a suit is that you can go to bars with a no smocking rule.
I was recently given two pairs of jeans by someone who recognized the need. They were appallingly expensive even on sale, and the original price was something like $180 per. $180, for crying out loud. The most I ever paid was maybe $20, though that was back in the Devonian.
Those A. Cheng clothes have got to be targeting a frumpier more conservative crowd.
Uniqlo isn't very wonderful quality, but it's fair, and it's cheap.
Wait, are the things in the link supposed to be high end clothes? Aren't those like $70 jeans and $220 coats? I thought you linked to some Talbot's website and was impressed that they seemed to look OK. Or is it some kind of house brand for Talbot's. Now I'm confused.
E.g. jeans at Talbot's are also $70.
And Talbot's looks (to my untrained eye anyway) completely different. I'm confused.
It's possible to pay MORE than $70 for jeans?
re: 44
In the UK, ordinary mainstream brands [like Levi] would cost more than that. GAP jeans cost more than that.
I'm concerned that the $155 "Weird Guy Slim Tapered Leg Stretch Selvedge Jeans" make the model's ass look completely awful.
Talbots looks different because those are clothes for actual middle aged women (in general - I mean, I've been picking up the occasional pair of pants there since my twenties, and if you need a good quality suit in a non-standard cut or fit they're virtually the only place, but considered as a source of sweaters and blouses and jeans and so on, they're targeting middle aged or older women). The place heebie linked is targeting younger, creative class rich women who are playing with the idea of eighties stodginess and the idea of a certain kind of eighties/nineties middle age, probably based on memories of what their mothers wore. (Like a more expensive version of when I was 25 and absolutely obsessed with vintage khaki dress for success suits from about 1980. ) The clothes on the site heebie linked only look "like Talbots" if you don't follow fashion.
48 was to 43.
I would be happy to hold forth about the trivialities of fashion until far into the night because I am a bad anarchist.
48: did you just say heebie doesn't follow fashion? This could be as good as the "rate of change of fashion" thread!
Actually, let me revise that - "only look like Talbot's if you aren't interested in a particular subset of women's clothes that rely on what you might call gradations of boring'". I find boring clothes that are distinguished along really minor and rather dull lines and are basically about frumpiness to be pretty interesting. (I realized today that I have three virtually identical light blue shirts, for instance, and that I enjoy wearing them with my three pairs of navy blue pants, all of which are slightly different from each other in tiny boring ways, and that I could easily wear nothing but blue shirts and blue pants to work every day of the week based on my existing wardrobe.)
So anyway, if you're interested in interesting fashion, yes, probably those two websites look similar.
Don't retreat. I'm only interested in interesting fashion, particularly low-cut dresses and miniskirts, and the two websites don't look similar at all.
My view is that the A. Cheng website shows the clothes were intended to be playing with a frumpy aesthetic and slipped over the edge into actually frumpy. But then, I dress frumpy--but only from Goodwill with clothes that don't fit properly, so.
In the UK, ordinary mainstream brands [like Levi] would cost more than that. GAP jeans cost more than that.
Jeans are for the social elite? What do normal people wear?
This cannot possibly actually be news to Ned; thus, he must be trolling. Normal people wear soft rolls, or "baps."
Sometimes with currants, sometimes without.
Gap Jeans in the US cost about $70. Or roughly the cost of the jeans shown at the linked website.
Winning.
Good day for free cell, Halford?
The Cornish wear pasties, so they don't get raided like Minsky's.
66: That's interesting. I'm glad to live in a free country where I can pay to see boobs.
56.2: Sta-Prest and Ben Sherman, oi!
Sta-Prest and Ben Sherman, oi!
Oh good, I'm catching on.
I'm concerned that the $155 "Weird Guy Slim Tapered Leg Stretch Selvedge Jeans" make the model's ass look completely awful.
Whereas mine make my ass look awesome. That's what I hear, in any case. They sure do feel good.
Almost feels like you're wearing nothing at all? Nothing at all? Nothing at all?
70: Nothing comes between you and your weird guy?
Gee 71 is going to give me nightmares about being videotaped naked or something.
Actors do that sort of thing all the time, but what am I, a trained professional?
71-2: On the contrary, they're snug in just the way they should be (...laydeez).
The clothes on that A.Cheng site aren't expensive enough that I'd expect them to necessarily be nice or well made, unfortunately. There's a vast middle range of too-expensive clothes that might sometimes be quality, sometimes not, even among things from the same retailer. (Looking at you here, Banana Republic.)
Quit staring at my taupe-covered ass.
Banana - or at least their factory version - happens to have one buyer who completely understands my desire to look like a high society socialite from the 70s. And their clothes work really well on me. Banana and Goodwill will do it for me.
Sure, some jeans have $70 price tags on them, but they're usually superseded by the markdown to $44.50, and then the subsequent markdown to $29.
Blume, do you know where this lady shops? They might have the look you're going for.
My grandmother buys me the same pair of presumably $20 Wrangler jeans every year for Christmas. I think everyone I'm related to would be horrified by the thought of spending more than $30 on a pair of jeans. I have a couple of pairs of Levi's that I won't wear around family because they'd think I was frivolously throwing money away.
Also 55 is right. Also to humor the Trollford, obviously I mean the Talbots cliche, and paying full price $70 for Gap jeans happens less than than 10% of the time, I'd bet. They are heavy-handed with sales and discounts.
In the UK, ordinary mainstream brands [like Levi] would cost more than that. GAP jeans cost more than that.
So worth a UK person stocking up on clothes while in New York, then?
Levi's jeans got cheaper, but their quality is less too.
I do remember it kind of being a big deal in the 80's when people paid $100 or more for jeans with holes in them.
A. Cheng isn't high end the way that somethign like Celine (love, love in a conservative French way) is.
GAP jeans are also crap in terms of quality now and consistency.
I have fond memories of wonderful merino wool sweaters (just basics) that were reasonably priced from 92 or so. I really want a sweater like that but can never find onw.
I haven't had insomnia in a really long time. However both crossfit and my morning classes are cancelled, due to sleet, so whoo! Otoh, kids won't understand that I can sleep in.
Blume, do you know where this lady shops?
I don't know, because all I can see is that snake belt and aaaaaaack. Not that I would be wearing campy snake jewelry all the time otherwise, but my revulsion at snakes is so strong that the mere thought is aaaaaaack.
The post title has inculcated a Bowie earwurm, btw.
I'm wearing my hat that has ear flaps. Because fashion.
83: There are certainly enough of them cluttering up my subway station with their giant shopping bags. In theory I approve of tourists, but in practice they're irritatingly underfoot.
(Stupid iPhone, no undo button if I accidentally highlight and delete what I've written- writing it out again. )In summary I usually have one "good" pair of jeans maybe €90-100 on sale, for going out, maybe Armani Jeans brand, and a few pairs of ordinary jeans, usually this brand http://bit.ly/1hRQ8k7. My criterion is usually that they not be low rise jeans. I never got into skinny jeans which I don't think suit me. My "good" jeans at the moment though actually cost €25 in a discount shop, they are Ralph Lauren "skinny" which are not skinny but straight legged. The only downside is that the indigo is not quite colourfast and I end up with blue skin especially on my hands.
I buy quite a lot of tops for work from this brand - http://maboutique.co.uk/en/gerard-darel-round-neck-striped-jumper.html- I am wearing the identical jumper right now - when they are on half price or less (paid about €50). It's a very fine smooth knit and looks well with a suit. I can't wear any of their trousers because the hip /waist ratio is all wrong, have to go for German brands for that.
Oh yes during the Irish boom, shopping trips to New York were a big thing, trips out to some discount place on a bus, buy all the Christmas present clothes. Probably "saved" the price of the flights which were low at the time but hardly saved when accommodation added in.
83: In high school I knew a foreign exchange student from Spain who hauled suitcases full of jeans back home every chance he got.
€100 is something like $130 dollars. I don't think I have any trousers that cost that much, unless you pro-rated the portions of a suit.
... and expensive clothes often look like the sale bin at Talbot's.
Obviously banking on a stampede towards the aesthetic in this song.
Not the sale bin, this is deliberate.
This too.
It's only deliberate if you assume that humans have meaningful levels of free will after factoring in material, cultural, and biological determinism.
I think the more we have this conversation about what decent jeans cost, the more likely I am to eventually be guilted into buying some. The most recent jeans I bought cost $7, which works for me. And then the first day I wore them, someone threw up on them, so maybe it's in my best interests to stay with cheap for a while.
"It was society wot made me wear a tea-cosy on my head, guv'nor!"
99: "Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea-cosy, does not try it on his head." -- Billy Connolly
Do people still use tea cosies? I would have figured thermoses and microwaves and such would have really cut the need.
OMG, Moby, don't put a thermos or microwave on your head. What's wrong with you??
98: The boyfriend urged me to get myself a costly pair of jeans about a year ago as a Xmas treat. I'm too embarrassed to admit how much they cost, but I can tell you they've been sitting in my closet untouched and even unhemmed for more than a year because I just know that I'll somehow ruin them right away.
My hat has ear flaps and a bill. But it isn't plaid or red, because I'm not cool enough for that yet.
101:
[Note to self] Tell Jeeves I am wise to his game re: greasy residue on teapot.
The most recent jeans I bought cost $7, which works for me.
Me too. Someone keeps dropping off Ann Taylor and Banana Republic jeans in my size at Goodwill. I know it's obnoxious to gloat about great bargains and I will continue.
That said, they're super thin. When did all mid-range jeans become made out of such thin material? I agree with everyone above who said or implied that that's what makes them crappy.
Let me be the first to suggest 96.2 as an alternative to women unhappy with jeans.
they've been sitting in my closet untouched and even unhemmed for more than a year because I just know that I'll somehow ruin them right away.
This is why I stopped purchasing anything white, besides an occasional layering shirt. I am unable to reach in my closet and actually select a white item to wear for the day.
I bot 2 pairs of jeans yesterday, one for $35, one for $45. Nothing fancy, just Carhartt. Current Carhartt wardrobe is starting to get pretty frayed, I'll have to get new overalls soon, and I am contemplating having my coat patched professionally. For some reason I wear the wrists out really fast -- does that happen to anyone else?
Are Carhartt overalls a hipster thing or a frozen North thing or just you?
but my revulsion at snakes is so strong that the mere thought is aaaaaaack.
Oh, then maybe this is more up your alley.
114: Anarchist for awhile, hipster for awhile, getting back to just me and the construction workers and oogles, it seems like. A lot of people have some kind of insulated boiler suit, often but not exclusively Carhartt, for winter biking.
Hip-hop for awhile too, but probably still only around here for the coldest days.
So there's a taxi company in Spokane called "A-CAB"? Heh.
A lot of people have some kind of insulated boiler suit
As long as it has the button flap on the ass.
B'lieve your thinkin' of a union suit, Boston.
The boiler's all the union they need.
I thrift / vintage shop my jeans because cycling quickly wears out their nether parts, and most jeans designed with reinforcement for cyclists I find Chrugly and/or too expensive. Has anyone here worn this Levis line for cyclists?: http://us.levi.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=11844101 First I hear about it.
I grew up buying 90% of my clothes at thrift stores, and it has served me well in the age of fast fashion. At a store at any price point* make no assumptions of uniform quality, and inspect each piece separately. This goes for two of the same item, even. I've bought stuff at H&M that is better made than some things from JCrew, even though on the whole that is not the case. In terms of what to look for, first check the tag for materials and the seams. If the fabric is some terrible synthetic blend** or the seams poorly done, forget it. Then feel the garment: does it feel gross? If yes, then it will look cheap, even if you overpaid for it at some trendy shop. Then check 1) if there's a pattern, does it line up at the seams? 2) if it should be lined, is it? 3) Is there excess fabric for alterations or buttons in case you lose one? 4) If there's a pattern, is it dyed into the thread or printed on top of the material? I've basically given up on modcloth after buying a dress that turned out to be cheap, unlined cotton. It was basically on par with a $5 dress I'd bought at H&M, though it cost 10 times as much.
On other things:
1) If it fits well, it will look more expensive than if it doesn't, regardless of how it was made.
2) Groom yourself. If you are impeccably groomed, people will be less likely to scrutinize your clothes and will assume they're probably nice. I saw a woman who I assumed was homeless because she had stringy unkempt gray hair and was wearing a ratty olive knit cap. Then I noticed she was wearing a rather well-cared for fur coat (with white tennis shoes), and we were in a nice part of Chicago. Either someone's donating mink coats to homeless shelters or she is actually rich.
*caveat being I don't actually shop at really high end places like Saks 5th avenue or Prada or whatever. High end in this case is JCrew and its ilk.
**terrible is modifying synthetic. There can be nice synthetic blends, like those in high end sportswear.
terrible is modifying synthetic
Yoda is your tailor?
Also, that link embedded in the post, yikes!
Many women's jeans now have so much spandex/lycra in them that they break down too quickly. So they fit well for about thirty seconds.
We don't have good thrift shops around here, which is frustrating.
I will sit smugly enjoying the fact that my peculiar proportions mean that there are no jeans more flattering on me than men's Levis. No tradeoff between fit and durability.
The downside of that, of course, is that saying that men's Levis are the most flattering available option on me doesn't mean that they actually look good, just better than the available alternatives.
I am just about the least clothes-aware person ever and the situation with thin jeans has gotten bad enough that I noticed it. Jeans, even pricey ones, are thin pieces of shit these days. They're basically leggings that pretend to be denim. I wish to register a complaint.
Maybe six or seven years ago, I went to a store that sells only varieties of jeans and a tolerant salesperson brought me lots of jeans and I patiently tried them all on without losing my shit and vandalizing the place. For my restraint and virtue, I found a brand of overpriced jeans that I think flatter me, and I would happily pay their extortionate prices to steadily replace jeans without ever thinking about jeans again. But no! These jeans too are now thin pieces of shit, and I can't believe that even though I solved this problem once, I may have to solve it again.
You can't step into the same jeans twice.
But no! These jeans too are now thin pieces of shit, and I can't believe that even though I solved this problem once, I may have to solve it again.
Back in Chicago I found a pair of Sevens (fancy jeans) in a thrift store, marked down to what a new pair of regular jeans would cost. I bought them as I was a fancy lawyer at the time and the associates at my firm were slowly introducing casual Friday into the culture. And I wore them on several Fridays, feeling very hip and self-assured. Then one day I came home and got comfortable, and they split all the way from the crotch to a point very near the top of a back pocket. I was ruined. I may have told this story here before.
and it's true that I never could step in them again.
I am shortish and widish and do not fit well into standard sizings. So I have made my peace with paying good money for clothes that I will actually be wearing a lot. I have had enough of changing into a series of unflattering outfits and becoming too miserable to go out at all. don't think I actually paid €100 for the last pair of those jeans a few years ago but that's what I'd pay now.
Of course I love to get a bargain if I can.
