The Ultimate Toronto Thread

[rwtc]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I was told it's 80% off, but it could be category dependent. Some great pieces. Great banter with the staff.

 

[othertravel]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I was told it's 80% off, but it could be category dependent. Some great pieces. Great banter with the staff.

There's two stores. The V Hazelton outlet is 80% off.

The Via Cavour is 60% off, and carries different lines of products, including Cucinelli, Loro Piana, and Stile Latino. Not a tonne of stuff, but some nice pieces.

 

[othertravel]

Toronto's Best Dressed: Dragons' Den judge Michael Wekerle

Things he likes: big bow ties, rakish hats and sunglasses—all day and all night

torontolife.com

Came across this. I was at a fund raiser where he donated some of his clothing, including a custom Dolce and Gabbana tux. Not my style, but I give him credit for being creative/colourful.

 

[rwtc]

80% off

Archives by Via Cavour (@archivesbyviacavour) • Instagram photos and videos

124 Followers, 0 Following, 86 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Archives by Via Cavour (@archivesbyviacavour)

www.instagram.com

 

[othertravel]

80% off

Archives by Via Cavour (@archivesbyviacavour) • Instagram photos and videos

124 Followers, 0 Following, 86 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Archives by Via Cavour (@archivesbyviacavour)

www.instagram.com

Wow. I was in there on Wednesday, and it was 60% off.

 

[partenopean]

Sorry, not sure what point you’re making?

The following is only my understanding and I may be wrong (if anyone knows better, please correct me).

Sears, an iconic US department store for almost a century, was struggling like all department stores in the 2010's. Then, some fund or someone, noticed something: The real estate occupied by Sears (just the value of the land, to use for further development into something that makes more money than a Sears store), was worth more than the enterprise value of the Sears company.
So they bought the company, expressly citing mismanagement and saying they would modernize the US icon to be retail behemoth going forward.
Then they killed it. Laid everyone off.
They then just had the land - prime real estate in Manhattan, Chicago, etc. to do with as they pleased.
On that space they could open superfood showrooms, goat yoga studios, condos with goat yoga studios in the lobby, civet coffee shops, etc etc etc.

The outrage was they killed the icon for real estate. People lost jobs, industries lost markets, consumers lost choice...just the landowners can now get rich.

The vultures started circling around Macy's, but Macy's took steps to prevent it.
HBC (Saks) was also targeted, but it went in different directions.



This was all before anyone heard the word "covid-19" or "lockdown".

Then the pandemic came.
And went (?).
But the world changed forever, and human beings and their behavior changed.

That's a separate issue than asking what's going to happen to that part of the Eaton Centre (also prime retail estate). But no one bought out Nordstroms in Canada to turn that part of the Eaton Centre into a goat yoga studio.

All department stores, like most mid-market retail, are struggling for a variety of reasons.
That's another discussion altogether.

It's interesting that they are adapting in different ways. If they can't adapt, they need to do what Nordstroms did.

Saks, for example, was thinking of turning their stores into some sort of Wework style workspace while shopping and sipping lattes....I didn't understand all of it.

I have a personal vendetta against Saks, and want them to go bankrupt for personal reasons.

But anyone who moved countries and took out a mortgage to work for Nordstroms in the post-2012 world is clueless about the market conditions of the industry they are working in. I'm sorry to say it, but that's it.

 

[Bersabee]

The following is only my understanding and I may be wrong (if anyone knows better, please correct me).

Sears, an iconic US department store for almost a century, was struggling like all department stores in the 2010's. Then, some fund or someone, noticed something: The real estate occupied by Sears (just the value of the land, to use for further development into something that makes more money than a Sears store), was worth more than the enterprise value of the Sears company.
So they bought the company, expressly citing mismanagement and saying they would modernize the US icon to be retail behemoth going forward.
Then they killed it. Laid everyone off.
They then just had the land - prime real estate in Manhattan, Chicago, etc. to do with as they pleased.
On that space they could open superfood showrooms, goat yoga studios, condos with goat yoga studios in the lobby, civet coffee shops, etc etc etc.

The outrage was they killed the icon for real estate. People lost jobs, industries lost markets, consumers lost choice...just the landowners can now get rich.

If I remember correctly the Private Equity firm (ESL Investments) bought the assets during the Bankruptcy auction so the firm was already in Chapter 11. It was either Chapter 7 to repay creditors or this so the Company was dead in the water either way.

 

[Viral]

Umm what’s going on here?

 

[induere_to]

After my last entry dissecting the Attolini jacket, many people reached out regarding how much they enjoyed my informative description regarding everything I discovered within the lining. Several of you have offered to give me your old never-to-be-worn-again garments. Well, today I received a package from the States, it had several garments inside of it but I was most excited about one of them in particular. A Cucinelli suit, though my dissection for this entry only features the jacket. A removal of the sleeve and a slight curiosity what I would find under the facing.

Jacket is a 48/38R, therefore the previous owner had the sleeves lengthened. I will only critique construction based on original production. This is why there is only two handmade buttonholes, done by the alteration tailor that did the work post-purchase. Aside from some buttonholes that was posted by another poster previously, I have only ever seen Cucinelli garments with machine buttonholes. Several ex-Cucinelli employees that are friends of mine were able to back this up. However, I know that Cucinelli production has changed a lot from previous B2B production to their now own private manufacturing.

One thing that baffled a co-worker of mine was the shoulder construction, which used canvas as the sleevehead, but only on the front and back of the armhole. This is obviously intended to keep the front and back of the sleeve looking clean and rounded but not to take away any of the shirring from the centre.

Between each canvassed sleeve head is domette, which I have found used as the sleevehead in Attolini jackets in the past. It's a soft fabric that is also used to canvas construction of chest pieces. Along the domette, you can see the many different stitches that display the steps that go into the sleeve construction of a jacket.

The picture below, displays the construction of a Neapolitan sleeve, this is how I was taught to do them, however the sleeves I've dismantled in the past doing alterations from companies like Attolini or Orazio Luciano do not make them this way. There are two slits that are cut into the top-sleeve panel, and pressed backward into the shoulder, the picture above shows the top-stitching (machine) that holds the fabric back keeping it place.

One thing I have not seen with any garment, is fusing along the edge of the top-sleeve, this is done for fast, mass-production. Sleeves are hung faster and with more ease and is a good example of cheap manufacturing. Behind the armhole seam, you can see the shoulder seam running perpendicular into the armhole. The fabric of the suit is a pinstripe, so that flat, blue non-pinstripe material you see holding the shoulder together is just more fusing.

Hanging the jacket sans sleeve. From this picture you can see how soft the Cuccinelli shoulder is, there isn't a lot of padding. I was going to save it for my next post when I take apart the skeleton of the jacket, but without spoiling nor surprises, the shoulder pad is made up of a single layer of canvas and domette... from what I recall. Either way, it's pretty light.

For comparison, the Attolini sleeve lining was attached with basting to the outseam of the jacket the same way that I was taught (only I was also taught to do the inseam as well. Cucinelli displays further examples of cheap manufacturing by anchoring the lining down with a piece of cloth to both the inseam and the outseam at the bottom near the vent opening of the cuff. Aside from these small anchors, the sleeve is mostly loose throughout the sleeve with nothing holding it in place:

Similar to the way my bespoke garments are finished, Attolini did similar, seams, which were raised and top-stitched. This what is also what is referred to as a lapped seam. Cucinelli seams are all open, lapped seams provide durability and longevity whereas open seams are far more delicate and far easier to come undone and wear out faster. You can see that the seam was cut (similar to the neapolitan sleeve), but rather than folding both seams in the same direction and tacked down, Cucinelli leaves this seam open.

I've noticed there can be a lot of confusion about prick-stitching and top-stitching as many people think it's done by hand. Factories use two different machines to do their edge stitching. One functions similar to a blind-stitch machine, Cuccinelli uses this on the inside of their facings and their piping. You can left up the edge and see a similar stitch pattern like that of a hemmed trouser. If you snag the stitch in the right place, you can see the whole seam unravel in just one pull. The other top-stitch machine is what you would see used along the edge of a jacket, collar, lapel, quarters and pocket flaps. It's a continuous thread that holds all of the layers together without all the mess on the bottom layer. This is what you will find on the edge of your Spier garments and other machine made products. I will include a picture at the end that shows the finishings under the collar that can exhibit how these machine stitches look.

If you look at the picture below, you can see the prick stitching runs in one continuous line crossing over from the lining to the piping of the fabric. This is something that would make no sense for any tailor to do by hand.

The pornographic shot of the anatomy of the suit... that, unfortunately I will try to cover separately. However, because many of you have brought me Cuccinelli jackets for alterations, I can explain a lot of issues you all have with your jackets from the following pictures:

Ironically, though you see full canvas, both the front panel and the facing are completely fused. Practically makes the full canvas useless. But what is even crazier is the lapel construction. Along the lapel crease line, we see a strip of fabric that is blind stitched to the jacket at the edge of the canvas... I have an odd suspicion that this may be Cuccinelli's really odd attempt at a bridle... Bridle-less or not, it cuts off the canvas and we don't see any more canvas run past the lapel crease. What is seen is more fusing; the lapel has absolutely zero structure to it at all. I've seen half-canvas production jackets that at least blind-stitch the lapels down.

Alas, the only production hand-stitching I was able to uncover so far is the back of the collar sides:

It is absolutely mind-blowing that Cucinelli suits can sell for over $4000 at Harry Rosen and become a household name with a luxury reputation, but nothing I have ever seen has had the opportunity to back this up. You can spend far less money and get superior product elsewhere. I'm getting pretty antsy and excited to start taking apart the construction of the chest and the trousers.

 

[rwtc]

View attachment 1919067

After my last entry dissecting the Attolini jacket, many people reached out regarding how much they enjoyed my informative description regarding everything I discovered within the lining. Several of you have offered to give me your old never-to-be-worn-again garments. Well, today I received a package from the States, it had several garments inside of it but I was most excited about one of them in particular. A Cucinelli suit, though my dissection for this entry only features the jacket. A removal of the sleeve and a slight curiosity what I would find under the facing.

View attachment 1919065

Jacket is a 48/38R, therefore the previous owner had the sleeves lengthened. I will only critique construction based on original production. This is why there is only two handmade buttonholes, done by the alteration tailor that did the work post-purchase. Aside from some buttonholes that was posted by another poster previously, I have only ever seen Cucinelli garments with machine buttonholes. Several ex-Cucinelli employees that are friends of mine were able to back this up. However, I know that Cucinelli production has changed a lot from previous B2B production to their now own private manufacturing.

View attachment 1919069

One thing that baffled a co-worker of mine was the shoulder construction, which used canvas as the sleevehead, but only on the front and back of the armhole. This is obviously intended to keep the front and back of the sleeve looking clean and rounded but not to take away any of the shirring from the centre.

View attachment 1919073

Between each canvassed sleeve head is domette, which I have found used as the sleevehead in Attolini jackets in the past. It's a soft fabric that is also used to canvas construction of chest pieces. Along the domette, you can see the many different stitches that display the steps that go into the sleeve construction of a jacket.

View attachment 1919077

View attachment 1919075

The picture below, displays the construction of a Neapolitan sleeve, this is how I was taught to do them, however the sleeves I've dismantled in the past doing alterations from companies like Attolini or Orazio Luciano do not make them this way. There are two slits that are cut into the top-sleeve panel, and pressed backward into the shoulder, the picture above shows the top-stitching (machine) that holds the fabric back keeping it place.

View attachment 1919079

One thing I have not seen with any garment, is fusing along the edge of the top-sleeve, this is done for fast, mass-production. Sleeves are hung faster and with more ease and is a good example of cheap manufacturing. Behind the armhole seam, you can see the shoulder seam running perpendicular into the armhole. The fabric of the suit is a pinstripe, so that flat, blue non-pinstripe material you see holding the shoulder together is just more fusing.

View attachment 1919081

Hanging the jacket sans sleeve. From this picture you can see how soft the Cuccinelli shoulder is, there isn't a lot of padding. I was going to save it for my next post when I take apart the skeleton of the jacket, but without spoiling nor surprises, the shoulder pad is made up of a single layer of canvas and domette... from what I recall. Either way, it's pretty light.

View attachment 1919083

For comparison, the Attolini sleeve lining was attached with basting to the outseam of the jacket the same way that I was taught (only I was also taught to do the inseam as well. Cucinelli displays further examples of cheap manufacturing by anchoring the lining down with a piece of cloth to both the inseam and the outseam at the bottom near the vent opening of the cuff. Aside from these small anchors, the sleeve is mostly loose throughout the sleeve with nothing holding it in place:

View attachment 1919085

Similar to the way my bespoke garments are finished, Attolini did similar, seams, which were raised and top-stitched. This what is also what is referred to as a lapped seam. Cucinelli seams are all open, lapped seams provide durability and longevity whereas open seams are far more delicate and far easier to come undone and wear out faster. You can see that the seam was cut (similar to the neapolitan sleeve), but rather than folding both seams in the same direction and tacked down, Cucinelli leaves this seam open.

View attachment 1919087

I've noticed there can be a lot of confusion about prick-stitching and top-stitching as many people think it's done by hand. Factories use two different machines to do their edge stitching. One functions similar to a blind-stitch machine, Cuccinelli uses this on the inside of their facings and their piping. You can left up the edge and see a similar stitch pattern like that of a hemmed trouser. If you snag the stitch in the right place, you can see the whole seam unravel in just one pull. The other top-stitch machine is what you would see used along the edge of a jacket, collar, lapel, quarters and pocket flaps. It's a continuous thread that holds all of the layers together without all the mess on the bottom layer. This is what you will find on the edge of your Spier garments and other machine made products. I will include a picture at the end that shows the finishings under the collar that can exhibit how these machine stitches look.

If you look at the picture below, you can see the prick stitching runs in one continuous line crossing over from the lining to the piping of the fabric. This is something that would make no sense for any tailor to do by hand.

View attachment 1919089

The pornographic shot of the anatomy of the suit... that, unfortunately I will try to cover separately. However, because many of you have brought me Cuccinelli jackets for alterations, I can explain a lot of issues you all have with your jackets from the following pictures:

View attachment 1919091

Ironically, though you see full canvas, both the front panel and the facing are completely fused. Practically makes the full canvas useless. But what is even crazier is the lapel construction. Along the lapel crease line, we see a strip of fabric that is blind stitched to the jacket at the edge of the canvas... I have an odd suspicion that this may be Cuccinelli's really odd attempt at a bridle... Bridle-less or not, it cuts off the canvas and we don't see any more canvas run past the lapel crease. What is seen is more fusing; the lapel has absolutely zero structure to it at all. I've seen half-canvas production jackets that at least blind-stitch the lapels down.

View attachment 1919093

Alas, the only production hand-stitching I was able to uncover so far is the back of the collar sides:

View attachment 1919071

It is absolutely mind-blowing that Cucinelli suits can sell for over $4000 at Harry Rosen and become a household name with a luxury reputation, but nothing I have ever seen has had the opportunity to back this up. You can spend far less money and get superior product elsewhere. I'm getting pretty antsy and excited to start taking apart the construction of the chest and the trousers.

Great analysis.

Their tailors in Solomeo are paid very well from what I heard, and them being in pretty much of nowhere in Puglia also adds to the final price. Their markup is in reality lower than Attolini's. This is the price of paying their Solomeo staff a livable, decent wage. Probably better than Brenton's compensation.

I have another sample suit. This is not a part of their Sartoria Solomeo (MTM) collection. This is RTW per the interior tag. Lots of hand made details.

Might be hard to see but the collar is 100% hand attached.

Handmade buttonholes

Handmade buttonhole at the front

Interior Lining

Hand finished lapels (this is the reverse side)

Interior tag

This in particular is quarter lined and I looked inside and really saw no fusing. Hard to capture with photos.

I'm not entirely sure what the ex-Cucinelli employees are talking about, since I've shown two RTW suits already lol.

Quality wise, some of their products are really, really good. At the top of the food chain. Let's take their vests as an example. All goose down. And they pluck it so the geese aren't hurt and select it by hand. Very few other companies use only goose down as the fill of choice for their garments, and those companies are all in the same price range. Reason? High material cost. And if you can find a sale on a leather goose down padded vest for example, it could be a great buy. There's really no alternative for something like that, unless you go to Kiton / LP. Very hard to find Kiton / LP on sale, so Cucinelli on sale really makes it a great value buy. But I respect that different people have different opinions and this might still not be your thing.

Cheers

 

[Jamesbond1]

You are going to Harry Rosen and buying brands to tell everyone that you shop at Larry’s shop and wear those brands.

Remember people also buy $100,000 Tesla’s just because their Friends and families think electric cars are cool to drive.

A lot of us like things but have no clue what we are paying for but we do know that it is a brand label.

Just like Tesla’s are cool to drive with lithium ion batteries that catch fire but it is so cool to own Elon’s junk!!

Great read and this is knowledge that a salesman at Rosen won’t have even no clue of though they sell you whatever is in the shop to sell!!

Also remember lots of us here prefer brand labels that fit like crap rather than a bespoke garment this is made exclusive for them and fits them well.
Fit is not so important that wearing brand labels for many

 

[mebiuspower]

Truth of the matter is 99% of the population here, even in the "center of the universe" Toronto, are very poorly educated when it comes to mens apparels compare to any other major population hubs like NYC, London or Paris. So HR SA only needs to know enough to peddle their stuff.

I went to HR to look at the 100 Hands shirts, and the SA couldn't explain to me clearly why they cost what they cost. She kept repeating they're "handmade" but I'm pretty sure they're not sewn by hand like a hand made sweater...

Besides, they have people that would walk in and say "Give me the most expensive dress shirt you have", and they'll sell them one of those...

 

[yusufhar]

I heard that 100 Hands only uses mulberry silk thread. They have their own colony of silk worms that are exclusively fed non-GMO organic mulberry leaves and that the colony is 100% sustainable and cruelty free. That adds a lot to the cost of each shirt.

 

[Jamesbond1]

When I grow up even though I’m 49 now I will own a Brunello Cucinelli suit and drive up and down Yonge Street in my Tesla.

Even though my 718 Spyder on order costs just as much if not more that that ticking time bomb made by Twat Musk.

Just dreaming here we are all allowed to have bucket list items!!

Oh yes I will not be posting any fit pics here as my branded suit will fit me like crap!!!

Tim you are a maestro and your honesty to the trade is hopefully appreciated in a town where we are not well educated as to what we are paying for!!

And you don’t even use the work bespoke with your shop like most of the others do even though they are not bespoke 🤣🤣🤣. But Auston Matthew’s wears them so I guess those suits are bespoke 😂😂😂

 

[rwtc]

I’m sure someone said Cucinelli is crap and I simply offered contrary evidence. In fact, a lot of wrong information peddled in the forum. At the end of the day, Cucinelli is quite similar to Kiton / LP. Just because you haven’t handled their products to make a judgement doesn’t mean all of their stuff is bad, or what I showed any less true. A lot of conclusions are made with a sample size of one. I’m sure if I wanted to “show off” I would have purchased a brand whereby I’m covered in logos, no? Lol

If you refuse to be reasonable, then there is nothing to talk about.