Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Gazzarrini Update

Update for those of you looking for Gazzarrini items -- both the Elizabeth stores (Rt. 1/9 and Jersey Gardens) had sizable selections of Gazzarrini merchandise this past weekend, including roughly one dozen suits per store. That likely means just about every store in NYC got a similar selection. Will be heading up to NYC again this weekend, so be sure to check here Monday for a system-wide update if warranted

And a side note -- most stores also got in some nice Hush Puppies shoes in the past few weeks, as well as some casual shirts from Arnold Zimberg in the young men's dept. (I could do without these shirts, but such it is).

Friday, February 24, 2012

Gazzarrini Has Landed for Spring

Gazzarrini (made in Italy) is in stores now. A huge selection of suits, sportcoats, pants and shirts came into Philly this week. Unsure how much other stores will be getting, but it's probably safe to say that 34th St., 57th East Side and Soho will be getting large selections as well. The new times square store might have something too, but from what I've heard of late, they've already given up on the store as a place for putting the better merchandise.

For those who have never seen/heard of Gazzarrini, please search for some prior posts on the site. It is probably one of the best lines, if not the best, of merchandise that Daffy's gets in for men. On-trend, great-construction, and the only brand I've ever seen in Daffy's menswear that consistently has a show at Milan Fashion Week.

Also finding its way into Philly this week was an assortment of items from an Italian boutique in NYC called Verdi & Kennedy, formerly called La Camiceria Italiana (the Italian shirt-maker). I only saw a few shirts and a polyester rain coat in the main area, but there was a nice selection of ties and belts, all great items and all made in Italy. They were all marked with one of those two brands as it appears everything was made private label for the store. But well worth your time if you find this stuff

13 Stores Later...

So last weekend (Sat, Sun and Monday) I racked up a total of 13 Daffy's visits in NJ and Manhattan. I'll soon have pics up of some of my more interesting finds from last week.

In the meantime, will be making my usual Friday evening stop at the Philly store today and hope to also post info about some great stuff that came in this week. And don't forget to use the 10% off coupon available on the Daffy's website right now - it's good on all merchandise, but only lasts til this Sunday.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Lower-NJ Recap

Recap of the stores in the lower part of NJ (all relative of course seeing as there are no stores south of Elizabeth):

- Route 1/9 Store: Received sizable selection of suits and sportcoats from Copen Group, as well as pants from them as well -- you will see a lot of George Hamilton, Royal Hem and Basile items from Copen Group. Small selection of pants from Giab's, and no Italian shoes at all, which is odd considering that is where I bought all my Boemos shoes last season.

- Jersey Gardens: Also received decent selection of items from Copen Group, including pants, suits and blazers, and I noticed several of these suits were marked for Alessandro Dell'Acqua, who designs some really nice stuff which I've seen often on Yoox. No Giab's pants at this location, and whatever Boemos shoes had been there were already ravaged over and gone from the store.

- Secaucus: Strangely, this store had a great selection of Giab's pants including those marked Edwin and Whipcord, and a small selection of Copen Group items as well - one suit marked Regina Schrecker.

That's the quick rundown - I will be in NYC tomorrow, and anticipate visiting at least 5 stores. Monday will be Paramus, Totowa and East Hanover to complete my tri-state tour. More updates coming - I presume there will be some items special to the NYC stores that have yet to make it to NJ or Philly locations.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Quick Note

Quick note for those that have not been following the Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/yellowbaggers) --

Shoes are now rolling in from Italian shoe maker Boemos. The batch I saw on Wednesday were some really nice boat shoes made for an Italian department store named Glou, and I believe more of a selection will be arriving on trucks today and put out over the weekend. There were also more Tremp (made in Italy) shoes than I had seen the prior week, so there must have been a shipment I missed somewhere. Mostly driving mocs, but nicely made stuff and better than all of the other junk sitting on the shoe racks. (Oh, and still a few pairs of Florsheim by Duckie Brown mixed in with everything else).

(Update: 2/17/12): Will be doing a lot of Daffy's shopping this weekend, but wanted to update this post w/the great stuff that came in this week (not one bad thing I can say so far) -- suits and blazers from Copen Group (made in Italy) - look for a hang tag that says 'Copen Group' or one with a crest on it, or look for the vendor code that reads 'COPE' backwards on the Daffy's tag (see prior post as to how to read a Daffy's price tag) -- some really great stuff - look for labels marked De Curtis, Royal Hem, Pennesi and Marlane - some might not have labels inside the garments. More shoes from Boemos, mostly those marked GLOU, but there were a few others marked Boemos - I expect that the 34th St. store will get a nice selection of these as it has in prior years. A very small selection  of pants from Giab's (made in Italy) came in - some of the best pants they get, but you have to sift through the Banana Republic junk. And a large selection of items from Xagon Man (made in Italy) and for the first time, this is getting my full approval based on what I saw - decently constructed garments and smartly styled. And finally, a small selection of shirts from Milena SpA came in under the Carrel, Del Siena and B>More marks.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Highs and Lows, Like Always

As I've said before, Daffy's always amazes me in its ability to bring in such high end goods and such junk in the same week. And this week was no exception to that tradition.

The best stuff was a small selection (maybe 1 dozen pairs down here in Philly) of shoes from Florsheim by Duckie Brown. Priced between $119-$139 from what I saw. Not the best constructed things in the world (made in India), but a great brand that is generally only found at places like Bloomingdales and high end boutiques, well worth the asking price. Half the stock had disappeared by Friday evening when I had gotten there and they were put out that day (hint hint, folks at Daffy's corporate).

Other shoes that came in that seemed ok were Weejuns by Bass. Decent looking stuff, mostly some tasselled loafers.

A small selection of ties cam in from Intermoda SpA (made in Italy) under the Moschino and Ferre labels.

And for those of you with a more exotic taste in fashion, closeouts came in from Beau Brummel, a small boutique in NYC, which carries some rather odd-looking European made clothing. This stuff is decent and worth a look, mostly pants, blazers and a few suits under the Beau Brummel name and another called Giovanni Gentile.

The mediocre stuff -- items from Alessandro di Lange (made in Italy), which includes shirts under that brand, plus other items including blazers and suits from Adamus and Karl Momoo. Not the best stuff in the world, but better than Kemitch, FB, Umberto Zebra and Sottotono.

And more mediocrity in the form of Italian knitwear - a few cotton sweaters from Hi-Way, which has been at Daffy's before - I believe these particular items were labeled as '9153' or some four digit number starting with a 9. Decent, but far from special.

Suits from Tallia. These are the Macy's house-brand, and I honestly don't understand the point of bringing this stuff into the store. As much as I hate the FB and Manzini suits that have come in thus far, at least they're brands no one else is carrying. You can find these same items at Burlington, TJ Maxx/Marshalls and all over the web at flash sale sites. They're styled decently but that's all the praise these suits will get from me.

And the "how did this get here" item of the week - a huge batch of shirts from a company called Diport USA. These are just generic, poorly made polos - some cotton, others part rayon/part poly. Makes absolutely no sense to me why this stuff is in the stores. I suppose if you need a rag to wipe your car, the 100% synthetic shirts will make good shammies.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Weekend Update, 2/5/12

Here's the rundown from the last week, a few items of note, though the majority of stuff that came in falls into the 'avoid at all costs' category:

The full line of leather jackets from Compagnia Delle Pelli (made in Italy) came in (as opposed to the samples some other stores got a few weeks back), including leathers marked Messagerie and Alfie Bobo. Great stuff, best prices you will find on any leathers of this quality in any store, bar none. I wish people really knew how great this stuff was. As a side note, I forgot to mention that 34th St. received leather samples from Alex & Co., much of the same as we got down here in Philly.

Shoes came in from Tremp - read: a handful of pairs. Philly got in maybe one dozen pairs total, and I did a Jersey run this week, the only other store in Jersey to get in men's shoes from Tremp was Jersey Gardens, and they literally received 3 pairs. The women did a lot better on this end than us fellows. A few stores also got in shoes from Joseph Abboud, but that was only a few pairs per store and nothing really fantastic.

Most stores also got in decent selections from Eugenio Sorentino. This stuff is decent and worth a quick look-over if you're in the market for some casual items for spring.

Aside from that, the major amount of merchandise that came into stores this week was from FB (made in Italy) including suits and pants and lots of suits from Manzini. Both of these brands are to be avoided at all costs. I will admit every so often there is an FB suit or blazer that is half-decent, but that is few and far between. On the whole, this stuff is poorly constructed and terribly styled. Also to avoid are a few cropped  cotton jackets from Haspel - this is the kind of stuff styled for men in their 50's and 60's and has no place in Daffy's - stores like Syms used to stock Haspel all the time.

And if you're still reading, a shout out to Nancy from the Paramus store. Always happy to take time to chat about Daffy's.