RIP Irving Shulman

Sad to hear about the passing of the company's founder, Irving Shulman, who passed away at the age of 96. Great article from a local paper: http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/famous/118823129_Daffy_s_founder_knew_how_to_attract_a_crowd.html

Quick Update

Stopped in at 44th & Madison tonight, wanted to mention a few bits and pieces -- a few Luciano Barbera ties from the Tyrone shipment are hidden amongst the tie selection at $50 each, and there are a number of Prada belts all around sizes 36-38 are next to the ties as well -- $80 a pop.

Also, it looks like Daffy's is getting in dress shirts from Alara. These things aren't too spectacular -- the only place I've ever seen them outside of Bloomingdales was Loehmann's. Fit is good, but not made as well as other brands Daffy's carries like Mastai Ferretti and stuff from Alea. Charging a $10 premium on these shirts for some reason, over the normal $30 dress shirt fee -- so $40/shirt. At 44th street, they were all on the wall w/the folded up shirts in plastic.

As a note to all Daffy's locations -- I don't care if you keep the Calvin Klein, Sean John and Geoffrey Beene shirts folded up. But PLEASE -- do not put out the good shirts folded up in boxes or in plastic wrap and then expect that they're going to sell. No one, except for likely myself and a few other obsessed fans, will have the patience to look through every box and shirt to look at the size and color/pattern -- and then I've had employees get upset when I ask to try one on.  Do us all a favor and keep shirts like those from Milena SpA (Delsiena, Milena, Mauro, Marcus, etc...) accessible on the racks. You can keep the lower-end made in China stuff boxed up and hidden from view for all I care, but don't ruin some of the best merchandise you have.

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 ;)

Transit Has Dropped + More Shirting and High-End Ties

Glad to say one of my favorite brands Daffy's gets in each year has finally hit the stores. Transit (made in Italy) came in last week for women and came in this week for men. Unfortunately, like most years, the selection is not very big and you likely won't see a wide array of merchandise in most stores. The usual suspects should get a decent selection -- 34th St., Soho, 57th East Side. Paramus, NJ and 18th St. usually get some as well, and the store I visited tonight was 57th West side, which definitely is carrying it, though maybe 20 pieces total at this particular location. Prices are a bit more expensive than other items, but it's well worth it -- the quality and design on this stuff is just awesome.

For those of you unaware of the brand, probably most unless you're a 'Yellow Bagger' ;), I'd say it's an aesthetic very similar to John Varvatos -- very laid-back, with a rocker edge; however, the quality is way better than any of the stuff that Varvatos gets produced over in the far east. The only caveat being that Daffy's usually gets mostly knits and outerwear, and all in larger sizes -- smalls are very hard to find. On occasion, they'll get in some pants and/or shorts.

I've posted some of the favorite items I spotted at 57th St. west side (Apologies for the picture-quality -- it's all taken on my Blackberry). One is an army-green striped cotton-henley, another was a cotton roll-neck knit which is very on point right now (see offerings from Vince's spring line starting at $200+), and my favorite is the jacket - linen/cotton blend w/a very distinctive edgy look to it; sadly, it wasn't in a small, only a medium at this store. Pricing, as mentioned is slightly more expensive than most items -- the jacket was marked $119, unsure of the other items pictured, likely between $50-$60. Hope to have more pics up of some nice Transit finds later this week.

Some other stuff worth mentioning ---

57th St. west side had some additional merchandise from Tyrone (see prior posts) -- specifically, they had one white dress shirt from Zegna in a size 16 (most I've seen of these is at 44th & Madison store), as well as a number of ties from Isaia (a few wools) and Luciano Barbera -- all these ties were marked at $40 -- not very many, maybe 6 or 7 in total -- remember to look for the little white price tag with the handwritten price on it.

Also, it appears some new shirting came in. Not very many pieces, looks to be samples, but the store had shirts from a Spanish label called Arnau (made in Spain), apparently made by a company called A&C Camiseros. Quality was pretty good, though didn't catch the price since nothing in my size - likely $30/shirt which is the usual and customary for dress shirts at Daffy's.

More Culturata, Not Much Else

The latter part of this week, unfortunately, didn't bring much aside from John Barritt merchandise mentioned in prior posts. However, the Paramus, NJ store got in a few more shirts from Culturata (made in Italy) -- really nice stuff, and a steal at $30 a pop -- previously mentioned here, about a month ago.

The only other stuff I noticed were some polo shirts from a company called Robert August, which is apparently a surfboard company (the pic on the right is the logo on the neck-tag of the shirt, not a shirt I actually saw). Nothing special at all, pretty generic stuff -- but it was all $6.99/shirt, so can't hurt if it looks nice on you.

Aside from new merchandise, I paid a visit to the Wall St. store for the first time in about 4-5 months. I don't often visit that particular store, as it's both out of the way and often has one of the worst selections out of all Daffy's locations -- though they had a very nicely organized shoe section if that entices anyone (aside: which reminds me, I need to write up a post at some point ranking the different locations). I figured, couldn't hurt taking a look since I was already stopping by Century 21. And the store (Daffy's Wall St.) lived up to its reputation (in my mind) and had absolutely nothing worthwhile. Though, stopping at Century 21, I noticed they just got in spring outerwear from the label ZeroSettanta (made in Italy) - I mentioned this a while ago, but I'll say it again just for those who may not have seen the comment before --> Century 21 sells these jackets starting at $150 and going up to $250. Daffy's sells literally the same exact merchandise for $80 and under. As much as I think C21 has its act together moreso than Daffy's in several areas, the pricing there is just horrendous on the vast majority of items.

Quick Update, and a Slight Rant

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.

Coming Soon, Ties from Personality Milano

Quick update on a few nice bits and pieces I've seen over the past few days, neither one had a lot of merchandise, but worth mentioning:

1) Coming Soon by Yohji Yamamoto (made in Italy) -- Small selection of casual wear at the Soho store from Coming Soon, produced by Sinv. Previous years have also had items from Love Moschino and McQ by Alexander McQueen, both produced by Sinv as well. Various shirts, pants and a few pieces of outerwear, all reasonably priced given the label -- button-down shirts were a bit expensive at around $50, but I saw a jacket for $70 -- so some of the stuff is a better buy than others. Still, very nice merchandise which will likely go very fast.


2) Ties from Personality Milano (made in Italy) -- This is part of the shipment from Tyrone's mentioned in prior posts. These were all marked at $50/tie. High for Daffy's considering the most expensive ties there are usually $30, but you're paying extra for the fact that these are retail closeouts rather than direct from manufacturer. The ties were all standard width, nothing on the skinnier side from what I saw. Only seen at the 18th St. store, and that is the only Tyrone merchandise they have from what I've seen. There were maybe 5 or 6 ties in total from what I found, and they were all mixed in with everything else on the tie rack, so get ready to dig.


As for other stuff, all the stores have gotten in a huge amount of merchandise from John Barritt (made in Italy) (see prior posts) - including suits, blazers, pants, shorts, etc... This includes stuff marked 'Mr. Ramos' and 'Luck in Luck' -- again, not my favorite stuff, but construction isn't bad. Also, it seems like some of the stores have gotten a small restock of Jey Cole Man (made in Italy) -- truly one of my favorite brands --- a few stores also got in some cool studded belts if you can find them -- belts seen at 44th and Madison and 18th St. stores.