The CM Graveyard: First Sartoria Partenopea... next J. Crew?

[smittycl]

One Family Built Forever 21, and Fueled Its Collapse (Published 2019)

The retailer’s bankruptcy filing, and interviews with former employees, give a rare glimpse into a family controlled, intensely secretive operation.

www.nytimes.com

 

[smittycl]

it gets worse the more I find out
Hopefully they’ll let me cancel the order

How did your order turn out? Did it arrive or was it cancelled?

 

[noobanker]

How did your order turn out? Did it arrive or was it cancelled?

canceled the order.
Rake has great service when you call and connect with one of the personnel.

 

[Aloysius16]

And over in the U.K. Chester Barrie will shortly be no more. A storied name and more recently largely a department store brand. But their premium Italian made lines plus a small amount of clothing still made in at Cheshire Bespoke will be going down too.

 

[Quesjac]

And over in the U.K. Chester Barrie will shortly be no more. A storied name and more recently largely a department store brand. But their premium Italian made lines plus a small amount of clothing still made in at Cheshire Bespoke will be going down too.

"Prominent Europe’s wholesale business remains unaffected. It will continue to wholesale Richard James Mayfair and Chester by Chester Barrie in John Lewis."

As I understand it the relation between the basket of trademarks, etc and the historic company has been getting thinner and thinner.

 

[smittycl]

This actually makes me feel awful. Looks more like an ad for Kohl's. Can't believe it's for Barneys New York.

 

[LA Guy]

This actually makes me feel awful. Looks more like an ad for Kohl's. Can't believe it's for Barneys New York.

View attachment 1289531

It's the same for everyone at the end.

 

[StockwellDay]

Missed this from a month or so ago. Pretty much sums up the state of things:

The new workwear: has the suit finally died?

Hardly anyone wears a suit to work now. How did we all get so scruffy? And what about all those lovely ties? Richard Godwin charts the demise of looking smart

www.theguardian.com

 

[bry2000]

This actually makes me feel awful. Looks more like an ad for Kohl's. Can't believe it's for Barneys New York.

View attachment 1289531

@smittycl the liquidator is handling the sale and it shows here. It really pisses off the veteran salespeople who work there.

 

[dieworkwear]

Missed this from a month or so ago. Pretty much sums up the state of things:

The new workwear: has the suit finally died?

Hardly anyone wears a suit to work now. How did we all get so scruffy? And what about all those lovely ties? Richard Godwin charts the demise of looking smart

www.theguardian.com

Curious, what do people like about that article? It's gotten a lot of posts here.

 

[StockwellDay]

Curious, what do people like about that article? It's gotten a lot of posts here.

I haven't seen it posted in other places, but a couple things resonated for me.

The comment about how quickly things have shifted; 2014 --> 2019, resonated for me. My work/office has remained the same, but the dress code shifted pretty significantly.

If I look around midtown nyc/think about client meetings/etc., almost no one is in a tie anymore. It feels like a blink of an eye, but when I think about 2014, everyone in my office in midtown was in a suit/wearing a tie, everyday. Last year, the office transitioned to jacket (suit or sport coat) sans tie, (around the same time as most of the big banks). No one would blink if someone didn't wear a jacket at all, since most the day men are in wool trousers and dress shirts, with a jacket hanging in their office. Meanwhile, on the streets, it's become very rare to see full suited men with ties. I used to read comments like this about the west coast or secondary and tertiary markets, but not New York.
Sure, we've had some pretty significant electoral results between 2014 -> 2019, but if you looked around at commerce, economy, general zeitgeist etc. there hasn't really been much of a change. No recession, no major war, no big terrorist attack in the US; Allowance for your iphone/tech, you could probably time travel back to 2014 and things wouldn't FEEL that much different culturally (if you managed to avoid politics)

In addition, the writer's take on this feeling more like a permanent shift rather than something that will ebb back, seems right to me.

Finally, the halfhearted longing for a return back to when men were in full tailored clothing with a tie, also struck a chord.

 

[dieworkwear]

I haven't seen it posted in other places, but a couple things resonated for me.

The comment about how quickly things have shifted; 2014 --> 2019, resonated for me. My work/office has remained the same, but the dress code shifted pretty significantly.

If I look around midtown nyc/think about client meetings/etc., almost no one is in a tie anymore. It feels like a blink of an eye, but when I think about 2014, everyone in my office in midtown was in a suit/wearing a tie, everyday. Last year, the office transitioned to jacket (suit or sport coat) sans tie, (around the same time as most of the big banks). No one would blink if someone didn't wear a jacket at all, since most the day men are in wool trousers and dress shirts, with a jacket hanging in their office. Meanwhile, on the streets, it's become very rare to see full suited men with ties. I used to read comments like this about the west coast or secondary and tertiary markets, but not New York.
Sure, we've had some pretty significant electoral results between 2014 -> 2019, but if you looked around at commerce, economy, general zeitgeist etc. there hasn't really been much of a change. No recession, no major war, no big terrorist attack in the US; Allowance for your iphone/tech, you could probably time travel back to 2014 and things wouldn't FEEL that much different culturally (if you managed to avoid politics)

In addition, the writer's take on this feeling more like a permanent shift rather than something that will ebb back, seems right to me.

Finally, the halfhearted longing for a return back to when men were in full tailored clothing with a tie, also struck a chord.

That's all true, but it also seems like a running theme in tailored clothing editorials since at least the 90s. The death of the coat and tie is something that gets perennially written about over and over again. And certainly, on this board, it's a continuing theme for as long as I can remember. The Mad Men phase was just a passing fad in what has been a long trend.

I suppose I'm just surprised by how much traction this theme gets in editorials. It almost seems like its own industry. Every year, writers gather around and milk the cow to get a little more out of it. And I imagine the readers reading it knew this reality to be true even before reading such posts, but everyone still loves reading this same thing.

This isn't a knock on you or the people who posted the article. I'm just surprised by how many people posted that article and how many people emailed it to me.

The blog Ivy Style sometimes feels like a daily blog where people gather around each day to say "yea no one wears Brooks Brothers anymore." It's like that day in day out for the last ten years.

 

[StockwellDay]

That's all true, but it also seems like a running theme in tailored clothing editorials since at least the 90s. The death of the coat and tie is something that gets perennially written about over and over again. And certainly, on this board, it's a continuing theme for as long as I can remember. The Mad Men phase was just a passing fad in what has been a long trend.

I suppose I'm just surprised by how much traction this theme gets in editorials. It almost seems like its own industry. Every year, writers gather around and milk the cow to get a little more out of it. And I imagine the readers reading it knew this reality to be true even before reading such posts, but everyone still loves reading this same thing.

This isn't a knock on you or the people who posted the article. I'm just surprised by how many people posted that article and how many people emailed it to me.

The blog Ivy Style sometimes feels like a daily blog where people gather around each day to say "yea no one wears Brooks Brothers anymore." It's like that day in day out for the last ten years.

I get that. I've read the same articles. Maybe they didn't resonate as much because it didn't ring so true. I was still wearing a suit and tie. My colleagues were doing so. And even my clients (in New York). I'd go to industry conferences and people would be in suits and ties. Today that's all changed. We have finally capitulated. I wonder what styleforum CM visitor numbers look like over past 5 years? What about Crompton's blog or even Put This On/Yours? I like your memes on Twitter (How I dressed in '09/How I'm dressing today); very similar to what were writing about here.

Also, when someone writes something like this and it gets published in a mainstream media publication, it feels like validation (hey, I've noticed that; I'm feeling that; now a type of authority has validated how I'm feeling or what I've seen). There must be some psychology term for this that I'm not aware of.

 

[dieworkwear]

Also, when someone writes something like this and it gets published in a mainstream media publication, it feels like validation (hey, I've noticed that; I'm feeling that; now a type of authority has validated how I'm feeling or what I've seen). There must be some psychology term for this that I'm not aware of.

Fair.

I think there will be another uptick at some point. I think this stuff comes and goes, but it requires big cultural shifts. You need some kind of popular TV show or musician to start championing the suit. It has to feel cool, and then some bleeding-edge cultural group starts wearing the suit again and people follow.

But in the long run, I think it'll slowly disappear more from offices. It'll probably remain in government and courtrooms, and it'll continue to live on in the same ways traditional garb in every society lives on -- through weddings and funerals. It'll die because it's a formal garment, but also live on because it's a formal garment. People don't want to look formal in non-formal situations.

I also think that a tailored jacket at this point is such a common language, most people can get away with wearing a sport coat in cosmopolitan cities. Maybe not in super small towns, but in places like NYC or San Francisco, you can wear a sport coat if you're willing to stand out a little. I would be surprised if that changed in my lifetime.

Regarding the article, I suppose I'm just surprised how many people can still make money off that pitch. And successfully so because those articles gain a lot more traction than other fashion topics. Links get passed around in a way that doesn't happen if someone says "I notice more people are wearing fleece." There's something about the death of the suit that tugs on people.

 

[StockwellDay]

Fair.

I think there will be another uptick at some point. I think this stuff comes and goes, but it requires big cultural shifts. You need some kind of popular TV show or musician to start championing the suit. It has to feel cool, and then some bleeding-edge cultural group starts wearing the suit again and people follow.

But in the long run, I think it'll slowly disappear more from offices. It'll probably remain in government and courtrooms, and it'll continue to live on in the same ways traditional garb in every society lives on -- through weddings and funerals. It'll die because it's a formal garment, but also live on because it's a formal garment. People don't want to look formal in non-formal situations.

I also think that a tailored jacket at this point is such a common language, most people can get away with wearing a sport coat in cosmopolitan cities. Maybe not in super small towns, but in places like NYC or San Francisco, you can wear a sport coat if you're willing to stand out a little. I would be surprised if that changed in my lifetime.

Regarding the article, I suppose I'm just surprised how many people can still make money off that pitch. And successfully so because those articles gain a lot more traction than other fashion topics. Links get passed around in a way that doesn't happen if someone says "I notice more people are wearing fleece." There's something about the death of the suit that tugs on people.

The suit has emotional baggage attached to because of all the situations you mentioned it being worn, including graduation, interviewing for first job, formal dances, etc. Suits were about signaling growing up (what the article mentions); wearing or not wearing JNCO jeans doesn't have any of that emotion attached.