Men's Fashion

How much did you end up paying for it?

Love my two Canali suits. Like you said, I feel sharp as hell in them. Only two suits I own at the moment, not counting the 4 button Hugo Boss one I got for my high school graduation that is so woefully out of style nowadays.

Nice. I'd really like to have a brioni or Tom ford but my job doesn't call for me to wear a suit. I actually miss the days of sharp tailored suit. I've been looking into getting something nice enough to wear to Vegas and other special functions throughout the year. I just can't bring myself to spend 5K on something to wear 5 times a year.

Khane_sl said:

Ferragamo seems to suffer from the "Buy my name, not my quality" syndrome. Don't get me wrong, the shoes look great but... ~900 USD for a wingtip? ~300 USD for a polo shirt? Gimme a break. The Magnanni stuff seems a lot more reasonable. I almost threw up when I saw the prices on the John Lobb lines.

I think I'm going to start buying Allen Edmonds as everyone says the same thing "Great quality, last forever, can get them repaired whenever needed".

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Ferragamo shoes are actually quite decent. They have 3 levels of quality, the highest being Tramezza, with full grain leather, good year welted, and all that stuff that shoe snobs care about. Ive owned pairs from all three lines and never been disappointed with even the lowest quality SF. Allen edmonds are great quality, but they are built on really wide lasts. I also find them clunky and traditionalist. SF builds on a much narrower last so the RTW fits me better.

I wear suits basically every day, and have bought expensive and cheap alike, so here is my experience. My problem with suits is that they tend not to last more than 5 years before they start to look like shit/lose form/threadbare if you wear them regularly. This means you need between 5-10 nice suits at all times to get a decent wardrobe. Basically I buy 1 suit a year, and generally chuck a suit that is falling apart. If every suit is costing 2-3k, you need at least 15-20k USD startup cost for the suits alone, then a 2-3k/year upkeep. thats a pretty stiff cost to me. Also, the suit pants ALWAYS wear out before the jacket, so eventually you are left with a decent jacket but no matching pants. To offset this, I was buying 2 pairs of pants to go with each jacket, but this was less than ideal and more costly.

FYI, I normally get tailored suits and seldom buy off the rack, with a few exceptions. Fast forward to today, I almost never buy the really expensive suits anymore, I stick to something around 1k USD range. So what if you suit isnt in that super 150 zegna wool, and so what it might drape slightly less well, but if the tailoring is just as good (and no reason it shouldnt be) then nobody will notice or give a fuck. Who really can tell where your suit comes from just by looking?

IMO, save your cash for stuff that lasts decades, like shoes or a timepiece, which is what people are going to notice anyway.

After reading this thread and others on various other forums I decided to take the plunge and buy an MTM suit. I did some research on canvas vs fused, waist suppression, single vs double breasted, 2 vs 3 button, etc etc etc (mostly just personal preference choices).

So after figuring out what I thought I wanted I went to a very highly recommended local tailor. I told him what I wanted and he showed me a ton of different fabrics from about 8 different manufacturers (Southwick, Adrian Jules, Primo Coat Company, Loro Piana, Vitale Barberis Canonico, E. Thomas, Harrison, W. Bill). Knowing nothing about any of these brands, the smart thing to do would have been to pick a few I liked, get the information from him, go home and research. Instead, I decided to buy a half canvas, single breasted, 2 button navy suit from Southwick (super 120s wool). I spent 1500 USD on it, it arrives next week. I haven't found any definitive information but I'm starting to feel like I overpaid (quite severely in fact). Anyone have any experience with Southwick and know what they usually go for? The suit isn't paid for in full yet and I feel like if I go in there with some factual pricing information and a pissed off look he might knock some of the cost off in hopes of retaining future business.

I imagine you would be paying well over a thousand for a custom made suit regardless of the type of fabric you picked, but I've never gone that route so I can't say for certain that you got ripped off.

Unless of course this all happened in Thailand, then yeah, you got ripped off.

splorge_sl said:

allen edmonds are among the top made american dress shoes. I tend to favour italian shoe makers - ferragamo, artigiano, magnanni, all make excellent oxfords, some I have had over a decade and still look as good as the day I bought them. I have not had good experience with church's, I felt the quality was inferior. The holy grail of british shoes is john lobb, which are too rich for my blood. Its best to get a classic oxford/wingtip/cap-toe, you can look in the 50% off sale racks for past seasons and these types of shoes never go out of style. Stay away from monk strap, loafers, heavy brogue etc. at first until you have built up at least 3-5 pairs of more traditional styles.

A good shoe will last a long time, but only with proper care. If you are buying a 400+ USD shoe, invest in a (cedar) shoe tree, leave the shoes unworn two days for every day you wear it (this means you will need at least 3 pairs of shoes to get you through a week), and polish the shoes once a month or every 8 times you wear them, whichever occurs first. If you aren't prepared to take care of the shoes, then it will be a waste of money - keep buying your cole haan's or whatever every 2 years.

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I just purchased a pair of black Ferragamo oxfords recently and have been very happy with them. The design is timeless and the quality of the leather and overall comfort are tremendous compared to some of the lower end oxfords that I've worn.

I don't at all agree with the comment about paying the extra money for the brand name. Sure, it's one thing to say that it is stupid to pay $600 or more for a pair of shoes. It's another thing entirely to suggest that the extra cost in a pair of Ferragamo's comes from the name and not from the far superior quality that you're getting in return. I would love it if Johnston and Murphy made a pair of shoes at that quality for $200. I would buy them all day long. I have several pairs of Johnston and Murphys that I wear regularly; I like them well enough, but the quality isn't even in the same ball park.

Prova_sl said:

I just purchased a pair of black Ferragamo oxfords recently and have been very happy with them. The design is timeless and the quality of the leather and overall comfort are tremendous compared to some of the lower end oxfords that I've worn.

I don't at all agree with the comment about paying the extra money for the brand name. Sure, it's one thing to say that it is stupid to pay $600 or more for a pair of shoes. It's another thing entirely to suggest that the extra cost in a pair of Ferragamo's comes from the name and not from the far superior quality that you're getting in return. I would love it if Johnston and Murphy made a pair of shoes at that quality for $200. I would buy them all day long. I have several pairs of Johnston and Murphys that I wear regularly; I like them well enough, but the quality isn't even in the same ball park.

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J&M quality went in the shitter when they closed their Tennessee factory and moved all production overseas to thailand or wherever. They are now clumped in the same sellout category with cole haan and kenneth cole. It is pretty much down to AE and alden for american shoes, I think there might be 1 or 2 more brands that are quality but i cant be bothered.

My cheapest pair of ferragamos is from the much reviled and now discontinued studio line purchased in 2006. At the time i was delighted to get a pair so cheaply, and when I later realized the sole was cemented rather than stitched, I was really pissed off. Here I am 7 years later and the shoes are as good as the day I bought them and still going strong.

One day I shall own a pair or two of Berluti shoes.

For those on a budget but want to dabble with custom made suits...

http://www.indochino.com/
http://www.blacklapel.com/

They are done all online and I have no personal experience with them. From what I've read, the majority enjoy them... but people have been sent wonky suits before that don't fit properly. If a tailor can't touch it up, I know Indochino will re make the suit for you.

Another option for those on a budget...

http://us.suitsupply.com/on/demandwa...n_US/Home-Show

Benefit of suitsupply is they have been expanding recently and opening stores in major American cities, so you can actually walk in and check them out. Mostly on the east coast, but Seattle, Dallas and Denver are opening soon. I'm pretty sure they do custom made suits as well, but they will run you more than Indochino or Black Lapel.

As far as shoes, I too have heard J&M have gone down in quality as of late. I'm looking to invest in some AE's in black and brown before the end of this year (recent law school grad... but no job lined up just yet).

I've been meaning to get myself at least one nice suit. The ones I have are just meh. $2k I can rationalize spending but 5k I'm not ready to commit to. So what's my best bet at that price range as far as value?

Do you just need a suit or do you need shirts, ties, shoes, belt, etc.?

I think I'm going to update everything. I have nice shirts from Brooks Brothers, but I could use more of pretty much everything other than shoes.

I found this thread from the style forums that seems helpful:

http://www.styleforum.net/t/230570/b...nyc-under-2000

So basically just hit a Nordstrom or Barneys for the brands mentioned? Ralph Lauren Black Label, Zenga, etc? I know Brooks Brothers has their own store but not sure if the others do.

Or you can find a custom clothier and get something like an Adrian Jules MTM soup to nuts which should cost you well under $2k and probably be nicer than anything you get at Nordstrom. I regret going with Southwick for my MTM over the Adrian Jules. It came in last week and while the pants fit perfectly I was practically swimming in the jacket. I don't know if this was a problem with the tailor/clothier who took my measurements or with the factory cutting the pattern and actually making the suit.

Now I have to wait another week for the alterations to be made. But this thing better fit WAY better than it did on Friday when I went to pick it up.