The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...

Took some trips to a few more Daffy's locations at the end of this week; found some amazing stuff, and some pretty awful stuff. Here are the highlights:

The Good -- The best merchandise of high-end stuff from Tyrone (see prior posts) appears to have been placed in the Elizabeth, NJ store this season -- found a wool suit from Raffaele Caruso (made in Italy) for $400, and a linen-blend blazer for $500, both size 44 -- don't ask why the blazer is priced higher than the suit, I can't answer that. Other than that there were a few t-shirts from CP Company (made in Italy), a pink buttondown shirt from Zegna, a polo shirt from Zegna Sport, and some merchandise w/the TYRONE house label, also made in Italy. Not a very large selection persay, but nice stuff if you fit into larger sizes. Strange enough, no ties at this location even though the high-end ties have been dispersed around the NYC stores. There's a good chance you may find some more of the high-end merchandise from Tyrone's at the new Co-op City store in the Bronx which is opening next month -- seems likely they'd save some of it for the new store, though I can't imagine what they'll be filling it w/otherwise. Would love to hear from anyone about what they're carrying there once it opens.

Also, every store got in a nice selection of casual and streetwear from Space 2000 SpA -- specifically merchandise from two labels, Bomb Boogie and Censured. While most of the stuff is produced outside of Italy, the cut and fit of this stuff is great, and is made much better than the other casual-wear they get in (read: Umberto Zebra and Wembley Road). Some really nice outerwear -- nylon trench coats, and vests; also a few interesting short-sleeve button-ups which reminded me of the American label Rogan. All this said, the stuff isn't phenomenal, but at this price-point, you'd be hard-pressed to find better prices on similar merchandise for the spring/summer. For example, a pair of slim-fitting shorts for $16.99 -- you won't find that anywhere else at that price-point, at least not until late August when stores are clearing out their summer merchandise. And w/most of this stuff, compare it to the prices being charged by Yoox.com -- at least 2-3x the prices Daffy's is asking.

The Bad -- Some more leather jackets came in at 34th St. and in Elizabeth, NJ stores -- stuff from a company called Mirage and some biker jackets from a company called Knoles & Carter. Both were priced at $200/jacket. Mirage was decent, not horrible, the stuff from Knoles & Carter just looked poorly made. The problem I have with this stuff is mainly the price-point -- for stuff that is clearly marked 'Made in Pakistan' and 'Made in India', they're charging a significant margin over the jackets made in Italy which are made a heck of a lot better.

I can't find anything about Mirage, and the K&C website, aside from looking very amateurish, has some pretty awful-looking jackets pictured. I also found similar K&C jackets on a site called DrJays.com which is selling them less than the Daffy's price -- I don't know if they're similar quality or not, but let's just say I'm not impressed with this particular merchandise.

...and the Ugly -- Took a quick stop in at the Secaucus, NJ store on my way up from Elizabeth & Jersey Gardens; never much of anything there, but I noticed two racks of these horrible looking shirts , one from a label called 'Visitor' and another from a marked 'Gionfriddo' (pictures on the sides). The Visitor shirts looked to be some sort of oversized linen shirts, with labels that looked like they were from the 80's. As a side note, merchandise w/outdated labels probably means the items are deadstock or the company producing them doesn't care enough to have them updated, so don't go buying their merchandise -- case in point, to the right is a label from a line of shirts Daffy's got in a few months back, Roberta Galiffa -- the model on there looks like he's from an early 90s International Male catalog.

As for the Gionfriddo polos, they just lacked and sense of style whatsoever. Particularly to be aware of w/any merchandise at Daffy's -- the labels on these shirts say 'Styled in Italy' -- not actually produced in Italy. Anything which says that is usually inferior goods and not worth your time or money.

Anyway, that is the end of another week of my Daffy's escapades; I'll probably only have one or two visits this week to try and pick up some more Transit merchandise, but I don't expect there will be very much to report. As such, I'll be writing a post entitled, 'Playing Daffy's Buyer', where I will make some suggestions as to lines the company should carry, as I clearly make enough comments about the stuff they shouldn't carry ;)