Thrifting

[jason_carreira]

@Glen, well the sleeves were really short on me, but I'm not sure if it's just the sleeves or if the shoulders were riding up because it's too small there too. I'll measure it up tonight across the shoulders, sleeves, etc.


Has anyone else noticed thrifts marking up some brands? I saw 3 Hickey Freeman suits there last night, 2 of them $30, one $20. Much higher than the other suits. Fortunately they don't know Aquascutum or Gieves & Hawkes.

[LesserBlackDog]

@ JC - The Salvation Army near me has done that. They actually have a separate section of "designer" brands, which is mostly women's stuff, but there is inexplicably some men's stuff there too.


The inexplicable part is how they decide what qualifies as "designer." I saw a Burberry sport coat in the designer section for $30 while another, nearly identical Burberry jacket was hanging in the men's regular sport coat section for $7. I haven't even recognized some of the brands hanging in the "designer" section, while stuff like Ralph Lauren, Harris Tweed, London Fog, etc. has gone through the regular section, so I'm not sure how they decide which goes where.

[jason_carreira]

Yeah, the Goodwill's near me have opened a separate boutique store with JUST "designer" stuff in them... Of course, they don't necessarily know what's good, but I did see an amazing Burberry DB blazer there. But at $50 when I know what I can find at regular thrifts I left it.

[heimdal]

I had a chuckle when I saw a Calvin Klein suit for $80 at a local value village. I mean, you can get some ck suits brand new for roughly the same at winners brand new.

[glen_delossantos]

It depends on who works at the thrift stores. In my area, the only things I've seen marked up are Hugo Boss, CK, Lacoste, Coach, etc. I'm thankful that nobody here knows about the "heritage" (there goes that word again) brands.

[LesserBlackDog]

Got my Burberry trench back from the tailor.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/theantiduck/P1060145.jpg


No "before" picture, but just imagine the same coat with no waist suppression and mid-shin length. Pretty much your stereotypical flasher coat. I'm very pleased with the results of the tailoring - still a conservative fit with room for a suit coat underneath, but 1000x more modern than it was before.


[Edit] And before you start planning an intervention - those shoes in the background belong to my roommates. Fear not.

[jason_carreira]

Looks very nice! Intervention? I have more shoes than are in the background... Should I be worried? Or just because they're sneakers?

[LesserBlackDog]

Haha... I meant more because they are cheesy sneakers... believe you me, I've got way more shoes than that stashed away, out of sight.... ;-)

[jose_jackson]

Nice ties, BenR!


I got the camel hair blazer back from the tailor a week ago. I promise I'll post pictures when I get a functioning camera.

[jason_carreira]

@Glen I measured the Gieves and Hawkes tweed coat... shoulder to shoulder seam is about 18.5", from the bottom of the collar to the bottom of the jacket is 30", and the sleeves are around 23" with about 1.5" of fabric up inside for the hem, so probably about 1" could be taken out.

[jason_carreira]

Picked up my first Sulka tie yesterday as well as a NWT vintage Christian Dior that I liked the color and pattern of:

[glen_delossantos]

Some things I left at the thrift stores. Let me know if you want them and I'll try to pick them up.

2 White Facconable shirts, 2 Blue Facconable shirts.






Green Herringbone Harris Tweed Sport Coat ~42R






Tassel Loafers. AE Bridgeton 8.5D








Tassel Loafers. Custom Grade English Shoes 8.5E. Anybody have any idea what brand?










@Jason - thanks for the measurements. Currently in the middle of a closet cleanout among other things.

[jason_carreira]

Glen, I think those are Church's. Very nice shoes.

[Big_Scooter]

Haven't been thrifting too much lately, myself. These are my finds from the past few weeks on the few trips I have taken:


2 brooks brothers crewneck sweaters. One navy merino with thin yellow horizontal stripes, one lambswool black argyle that I gave to my dad. $1 each


1 Peter Millar button down collar, white with small checks in fall colors, $1


express cotton producer dress pant, light gray pinstripe, $3


brown banana republic button "luxury blend" mock neck sweater (button neck). Luxury blend, as it turns out, means 70% cotton, 16% angora rabbit hair, and 14% cashmere. No rabbits killed in production; angora rabbits have fleece. Really soft sweater, regardless. $3

[jason_carreira]

I went back to the synagogue thrift where I found the Oxxford suit and saw the 38 Hickey Freeman... FINALLY open after I went 2 other times to find them closed....


Anyway, the 38 HF was still there, but when I looked at it I'm not sure if you guys want it. Here's a pic:





The jacket's material is kind of rubbed so that the pattern is softer and greyer, whereas the showing portion of the pants isn't so rubbed and the pattern is more crisp. Not sure why. If you want it I'll pick it up and send it off.


I also took a look for other stuff and found two nice suits in size 37. One of them was the brown glen plaid Brooks Brothers 346 I saw before. The other is a really nice grey pinstripe Hickey Freeman & Sons:


The BB (note this has a subtle brown color that doesn't show up here.... it's not deep brown, just subtle brown tone)







Here's the 37 HF:








I almost bought this for myself even though it was just a bit too tight around the middle. It's a brown striped, peak lapel, double breasted Hickey Freeman suit that fit in the shoulders:





I decided it was a bit too much for me. If someone else wants it, let me know.


All I ended up getting was a Joseph Abboud shirt and a tie:





Then, last night, I went to Savers to use my 25% off coupon before the big sale, and I found myself an awesome Hart Schaffner Marx brown herringbone tweed sportcoat. I wasn't going to get it but it fits AMAZING and I love the patch pockets:











I also bought this Hickey Freeman Boardroom suit that's really nice. It's a 44R though, so too big for me, but I figured either someone here or on eBay would want it. Let me know if you're interested:














The one bit of wear I saw was at the back below the middle belt loop... Almost looks like where a tag was sewn on? Dunno. I figured that part doesn't show and it's not very bad:




If there's anyone who's a 48L I saw a couple of nice suits there in that size, but I didn't figure that's a very common size. There was also a size 50 HF peak lapel blue pinstripe.