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.