NYC Recap

Well as I mentioned, every store has gotten in shirts from Sait (made in Italy) - parent company of Mastai Feretti and Truzzi. There is a huge amount of it in the system now so if you can't find a shirt that you like that fits you to a tee, you're not looking hard enough.  All at the insanely low price of $26.99-$29.99. Retail on all of these is well over $150/shirt, despite what the original MSRP on the hang tag may indicate.

If you didn't catch the Twitter post, a select number of stores now have linen blazers and a few summer-weight wools from David Chu (made in Italy), from $69.99 (linen) to $169.99 (wool). Some stores also had a small selection of pants and a few shirts from the Lincs brand (David Chu diffusion line sold at Dillard's). Very nice stuff and again insanely low prices -- the pants were all $19.99. Available only at 34th, 57th East Side and Philly from what I have seen thus far.

Knits came into every store from Daniele Fiesoli (made in Italy) and 34th St., 57th East Side and Soho had a small selection from Solosali (made in Italy) as well. Beautiful stuff all around, and well worth the asking prices.

g'art (made in Italy) merchandise is back after what had to have been at least a two year absence. This stuff is pretty good. Not phenomenal, but I'd say it's on par with John Barrit merchandise -- cut well, constructed decently and fully made in Italy. And unlike some other brands which are styled pretty badly (FB, Sottotono), this stuff is pretty fashion forward, though at times can be a bit tacky. Definitely take a look at these items when you get a chance -- shirts, pants, shorts, leathers, knits, a little bit of everything, but only at 34th, 57th E. Side and Soho from what I saw. Just be aware that there is liberal use of synthetics, especially in the suits.

34th St. & 57th St. had a very small selection of samples from Patrizia Pepe (made in Italy). Many items were damaged in some way and the managers would not give any discounts (I'm talking huge rips here, not just a button or two missing). However, I did manage to come across this beautiful trench coat to the left. The picture from my phone does not do it justice.

***An important note for those of you looking at these sample items - the Patrizia Pepe hang tag lists them as a size '42' EU - that is the size they put on all the samples -- Patrizia Pepe does not actually produce merchandise in that size. So you have to try on the items and see if they fit; they will all be different sizes. I know this, yet the folks at Daffy's corporate haven't figured it out after how many years of selling these items and continue to mismark the sizes on the items. Idiocy IMHO.

I also noticed a number of items from Xagon Man (made in Italy) thrown in with everything, but it appears there was not enough merchandise this year to warrant its own little selection.

A handful of shirts from Spanish shirt maker Arnau came into 57th St., West Side. And the ever illusive Incotex pants made an appearance at 57th St., East Side, in the form of literally two pairs of white cotton pants, both in larger sizes. Doubtful we will be seeing much more from that if that is all I saw.

And finally, mixed in with the white shirts in many of the NYC locations, you may just find a few Gitman Brothers or Band of Outsiders oxford button-down shirts from Hirschleifers. Don't ask me why these items were thrown in with everything else. All I can say is that Daffy's employees don't know any better.

So those were the highs of the week - mediocre stuff included a bunch of shoes from Bass and Sebago which did not seem too awful - better than the Versa items that came in a few weeks ago. Ties and folded shirts came in from Altea - nothing great - I can't understand why they continue to insist on selling the folded shirts that are such junk when there are such phenomenal Italian shirts sitting on their racks. Boggles the mind.

Low points - t-shirts from Ami Sanzuri, and suits from FB (made in Italy).

And finally, for those wondering what happened to the 44th & Broadway merchandise, I was told that they had some huge transfers out of the store in recent weeks.  The 34th St. store received a number of the high-end suits which I saw sitting on the racks incl. a few Pal Zileri (made in Italy) items.

Quick Recap

Will have a larger write up early next week after I visit some NYC locations tomorrow, but here's the important bits:

HUGE shipment of spring shirts from Sait (made in Italy) including Mastai Feretti, Bonser, Agho, Truzzi (yes, there were a number of Truzzi-branded shirts mixed in) and a TON of other labels, too many to list here. This is probably one of the largest SAIT shipments I've ever seen, and a lot of really quality pieces in there in all sorts of fabrications. If you can't find dress/work shirts in there that you like, there's something wrong with you.

Knits from Daniele Fiesoli (made in Italy) and Teodori. The Fiesoli items included Wool & Co. and a few other labels, and the Teodori items were all marked as samples, including a few pieces from Jil Sander and Dunhill.

Those are the important parts from this week. The not-so-great bits I will fill in early next week.

My JCM Collection

Been wanting to post these pics for a while - specifically a number of pieces that I purchased from Jey Cole Man (made in Italy) from Daffy's for the spring, plus a few Alfie Bobo (made in Italy) leather jackets that I came across in Elizabeth, NJ last week. A few notes on the JCM pieces -- the ties are all JCM ties - the knits, there are three polka dots (navy, black and brown), one solid silver, and two brown/blue horizontal stripe ones w/a square bottom; the final one is a light brown tie w/a crumpled look. As for the blazers, just wanted to point out the multi-colored buttons on the tan blazer.

Weekend Update

So the Friday truck brought in a bunch of well known characters, some good, some pretty worthless -- knitwear from Daniele Fiesoli (made in Italy) came in, mostly knitted vests from what I saw. The worthless side of things came from Estro Moda, specifically, Umberto Zebra (made in Italy) and a few other random brands mixed in - poor fabrication and construction, and a lot of gaudy detailing. Never quite understood why they keep carrying this stuff every season.

Forgot to mention - earlier in the week, the Spring line from Paul & Shark (made in Italy) came in, including a few pair of really nice leather casual shoes, which sold out quite quickly from what I understand.  Also in shoes, we got pretty ho hum stuff from Via Spiga and Impulse.

That's it for the week; if I get time, I will finally post pics of my Jey Cole Man findings - I actually purchased quite a nice tie selection from the line for Spring which I hope to showcase.

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Suits, Leathers, and Tackiness

Had to make a return to the Philly store today, so I took a peak at some of the items that came in so far this week. Suits came in from Antica Sartoria Italiana (made in Italy) (these came in last week), and a few linen/cotton blend suits from Kemitch (made in Italy) - neither of these are particularly special, but the Kemitch suits are at least cut decently and are an ok material.

Leathers samples came in from Alex & Co. (made in Italy) - some really beautiful items, including the very on-point letterman jacket seen below, and some really odd suede pants with tags indicating they were produced for Donald Pliner - there were about 5 pairs of these things, all in size XL. I can't help but think these were women's items rather than men's. Everything was between $99.99 and $129.99. Unsure if these will make it to every store, as based on what I saw in the Jersey stores, samples are being allocated to individual stores rather than across the system (see info re: Elizabeth 1/9 store in prior post).

And the worst part of the week which I fear we will all have to deal with for a while is some pretty awful stuff from Sottotono (made in Italy) and a new entrant to Daffy's this season, Ores Quinto (made in Italy). Both of these are brands to stay away from at all costs, unless you need something costume-y or a schmata to throw around. It's interesting that the Ores Quinto website seems to display half-decent merchandise, yet the stuff Daffy's got in is utter tackiness, including the plastic-like vest seen to the left. I just don't understand how this stuff makes it past a simple test of 'is this in fashion' or 'is this decent quality' when it is purchased overseas. Daffy's cannot continue to be the dumping ground for stuff, Italian or otherwise, that nobody wants. That's not a way to do business.

And One More Thing....

Of course, I stupidly forgot to mention -- Hirshleifer's items are already in stores. The only NJ location that received the merchandise was East Hanover - random selection of items from Thom Browne, Band of Outsiders, Levi's Vintage, APC, Woolrich, Brunello Cuccinelli and other well known high-end designers. The rack was quite small but here are a few pics to wet your appetite. My guess is the NYC location for this stuff is 57th & Lex., as that is where it went last season. Most everything was in larger sizes, unfortunately. Prices were decent - the Thom Browne blazer below was marked at $299, though a pair of Cuccinelli shorts was still over $100.

Roundup, Through 1/15

Sorry for the slow updates; I haven't had much time to spend on the blog of late, but I did manage to do a tour of all of the Jersey Daffy's locations over the past week. Here's what I came across:

Samples all over the place - It seems like before they put the main lines out, Daffy's is putting out samples from their usual suppliers. These are often the nicer garments and at much lower prices. That said, the largest selection that I saw was at the Route 1/9 store in Elizabeth, NJ. Leather jackets from Compagnia Delli Pelle (made in Italy), including a few from Alfie Bobo, leathers from Bomb Boogie, and knitwear from Teodori (made in Italy). Most other stores also got in a few random samples from Teodori, the Jersey Gardens store got in a few samples from Patrizia Pepe (only t-shirts), and a few of the stores got in bits and pieces from John Barritt as samples as well.

Shirting -- Looks like the full line of Poggianti (made in Italy) shirts came in, including shirts from Villa Bruner, and there were also smatterings of shirts from Sait/Mastai Feretti (made in Italy) (Bonser, Agho, Jeff Kerry, A. Basile, Mastai Feretti...) and from Alea (made in Italy) (G.V. Conte, Rosso Malaspino, Alea, H.B., The Golf Club, Harry Brook...) -- I believe we'll see larger selections from these last two in the coming weeks.

As for Jey Coleman -- the only Jersey stores to get the merchandise were Paramus, NJ and Jersey Gardens. No other Jersey store received any JCM items.

Other, more unfortunate, merchandise - HUGE swath of pants from Banana Republic, and a selection of jeans from Chaps (yes, the Ralph Lauren brand sold at JC Penney and Kohl's) -- both from the same manufacturer - JEMB is the vendor code if that rings a bell to anyone; seems like they have production facilities in Egypt and China.

Apologies for not posting Jey Coleman pics as I promised. Hopefully will have those up in the next few days along with some pics of the leathers I saw in Elizabeth this weekend. More updates coming your way later this week.

Oh, and forgot to mention --- a number of items from Alternative Apparel came in- t-shirts, tanks, and button downs. Decent stuff, especially at the prices - $8.99 for t-shirts, $16.99 for the button-downs.

Mid-Week Update

First off, I would like to make an announcement which some of you that are members of Styleforum may have already found out - Mabitex has, from what I have been told by some folks at Daffy's HQ, gone out of business, which is why we didn't see their pants last season and won't be seeing them for the foreseeable future unless a company buys out what was left.

A moment of silence for some of the best pants we ever got to see at Daffy's.



Now...on to the better news - the good -- a few more pieces from Jey Cole Man (made in Italy) came in this week, along with some belts, ties and suspenders - these were quite awesome mind you - some in white, some in gray. I will have pictures of my Spring JCM tie collection, and my overall JCM purchases, soon (probably Monday).

Shirts are coming in at a fast pace -- Poggianti (made in Italy), Alea (made in Italy) and Sait/Mastai Ferretti (made in Italy) are already being put out onto the floor. Alea & Sait shirts are slightly better made than the Poggianti shirts, but they're all pretty good.

Unfortunately, the pants racks were FULL of the same Banana Republic branded pants again. And when I was in the store today, they were bring a giant rolling rack of Cosby sweaters from the basement w/mostly items from Birillo and Stacatto. I've told the wonderful folks at Daffy's before that this stuff simply cannot be sold here, but clearly someone never got the message. Even the manager putting out the sweaters told me that she could not understand why they kept getting them in as they never sell. Mind you, many of the Cosby sweaters this season are of such poor quality that the labels are little stickers and will peel right off the garments. Those things belong in an incinerator.

The other large shipment that came in was a TON of French Connection merchandise, including trench coats and a few leather jackets. The stuff is decent, but honestly Daffy's should be focusing on European merchandise. Not faux European merchandise which they're getting from Gordmans of all places.

That's the mid-week update for now. I'll be heading to the NJ stores this weekend to hopefully pick up whatever remaining JCM merchandise I can find - believe it or not, at least down here in Philly, I'd say 75% of that merchandise that came in last week is already gone. HINT HINT folks at Daffy's -- get in stylish, well-made, quality garments and people will purchase them. Get in junk, and the stuff will sit on your racks for the entire season. This ain't rocket science.

Quick Rundown

Been busy w/work, but over the weekend I visited all of the Manhattan stores except for Wall Street. Every store got in a decent amount of items from Jey Cole Man (made in Italy), and every store except for 44th & Madison seemed to have at least a few suits in stock as well. Largest suit collection is at the regular locations -- 57th & Lex, 34th St, and Soho. The brand new store actually did not have as large of a selection as I was expecting, likely because they still have a huge amount of Fall/Winter merchandise left over, and I'm talking good quality stuff -- still Isaia, Pal Zileri, and other high end stuff to be had for great prices, and particularly of note, a lot of beautiful Ortenzi (made in Italy) suits.

Other stuff not worth your time - the only other Spring merchandise that had come in by this weekend was a bunch of sweaters -- everything you saw was from the same company that puts out the Cosby sweaters, and yes, there were more of those to be had as well, especially at 57th West Side store (Birillo, Stacatto -- branded items). The other non-Cosby sweaters, but still from the same manufacturer were under the labels of ARDE, 76-06 and Warren Jeans (all made in Italy) -- all these sweaters were a very thin knit, and were 50% Cotton/50% acrylic. At $16.99 each, not terrible, but not worth your money IMHO.

Also came in (I believe non-spring stuff, just general merchandise) -- shoes from Giorgio Brutini, and Versa -- all horrible stuff. And sneakers from Reebok and Puma - Puma seemed decent, don't know why they're stocking Reebok items.

Look for more updates later this week. I am assured that more Spring items will be coming our way this week, so stay tuned.

 

JEY COLE MAN IS IN STORES NOW!!!

I'll have more info later this weekend, but all you need to know right now is that Jey Cole Man (made in Italy) is in stores now. Philly got in a pretty nice selection, including a number of suits (size 40 on up for those looking down here). I wasn't planning on it, but as a result I will now be heading on up to NYC this weekend to grab what I can while it's still fresh.