Just a quick update -- visited 34th St. tonight, and they have two racks of stuff from Coming Soon (made in Italy); some nice button-downs, mostly a lot of t-shirts and a few pairs of pants.
Lots more John Barritt there as well; also randomly spotted a pair of jeans from Earnest Sewn, though they were discolored, so that's probably why they were there -- last season the stores got in a handful of jackets from AG Jeans but those had defects as well. Also, 34th St. and Paramus got in these awful looking suits from Terzo Uomo (made in Italy) that look like they were inspired by one of Michael Jackson's stage costumes (will try and add pictures in a future post).
The shoe section was rather disappointing -- lots more shoes from Uomo Bravo, the Daffy's house brand, that looked pretty bad and some square-toed shoes from a company called Pronto Uomo - honestly, I don't know the last time square-toed shoes were in style, maybe 10 years ago -- what happened to other brands I've seen in the past like Enrico Fantini, Pia Mia, and Maldini? Sad to say, but it's getting to that point in the season when the good stuff has been picked over and the racks are starting to get filled w/lower-end merchandise -- strange seeing as how it's not even officially spring yet, but that's always been the pattern I've seen at Daffy's -- really nice stuff at the beginning and then the lower-end stuff starts coming in just to fill up the stores.
I know there are a few brands such as Transit that have yet to come out (though I hear that will be coming into stores very soon), but there needs to be a continual supply of merchandise that people are willing to buy, not waves of great stuff and then lulls of junk. I honestly don't know how they are opening at least two more stores in the next 12 months when they can't get in quality merchandise to fill their stores as it is; the product is going to get extremely diluted. In a future post, I'm going to suggest some brands that Daffy's should carry (or at least look into carrying) and hopefully expand its selection beyond the traditional labels they've been carrying for the past several years.
As a side-note - I'm not writing this stuff to criticize the buying staff; rather, I love the store and wish they had better things available year-round. I hope that my slight jabs will improve that situation rather than simply make people feel bad. But, I would honestly love to be a buyer for Daffy's or at least consult on some things to bring in some more modern-looking and better quality garments, which is one of the many reasons I started this blog; perhaps a JD and a BS in Computer Science don't necessarily fit the bill for that, but I've gotten to know the store so well and seen what competitors offer that I feel I could bring a lot to the table.
I will be visiting NYC in late May, do you think Mabitex & Incotex will be in stock by then? I really want to feel how good feeling when you buy the bargain at real bargain.
ReplyDeleteHighly unlikely you'll find any Incotex left over by then, maybe a pair of jeans or two -- the Incotex stuff is basically gone already, and it's only been in stores a couple of weeks -- supply was pretty limited. As for Mabitex, I'm sure you'll find something, exactly what I don't know. Daffy's gets in so much Mabitex that they always have stuff left over later in the season, but it probably won't be anything particularly great. Likely no wools, as there were very few to begin with this season; probably a couple pairs of khakis and some more out-there patterns will be left by that point.
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