They don't make 'em like they used to?
Ovah at my other blog, I have been whining and moaning about things they don't make like they used to.
There is an appalling sameness in the pattern in which things are sold in the USA (I expect this is true of the rest of the civilized world, but I can only speak of the USA). Something comes out and it's judged to be VERY good. This chugs along for X number of years until the idiot grandnephew gets tired of running the family business. Maybe he wants to raise sheep in Montana, maybe he wants his own ashram, maybe he wants to market organic jute. Maybe he likes the family business but, being an idiot grandnephew, runs it to the ground. Whatever. One day Big Conglomerate, Inc. offers the idiot grandnephew much coin to go away and he takes it and, in fact, exits stage left. Big Conglomerate Inc. immediately shuts down production in the facilities it has here, and takes the whole thing overseas, preferably to a country where that sort of product is never, ever used by the local population. Quality takes a nosedive and prices, somehow, get higher.
I theorize that a people unaccustomed to wearing blue jeans, or sneakers, or buttondown shirts cannot possibly get all the nuances down.
Anyway, I got on this jag about all the items of apparel which have changed for the worse. I mentioned three, only one of which Poppy is good and sick of my discussing. (The original Izod Lacoste vs. the new and wholly inferior Chemise Lacoste tennis shirt*.) The list is long and sad and besides the aforementioned shirt, we have the LL Bean Casco Bay shirt, Levi's shrink-to-fit 501 jeans, etc.
Well, today I have a bit of good news. Someone got wise to the idea that people will pay ~$80 for the real sort of buttondown shirts such as Brooks Brothers used to make but no longer do, considering that Brooks Brothers now sells shirts it pretends are made just like they used to but in fact are made with inferior fabric in Lower Elbonia by a native population for whom sleeves are a foreign concept...and sell for $75. That guy is David Mercer.
He won't say it (although I will) but his genius lies in being able to CLONE, and I mean clone, the shirts that Brooks Brothers used to make. If you ever saw said shirts before the numerous buyouts Brooks Brothers had to suffer, you'll immediately get a memory whiplash. The fabric, the cut, the roll to the collar. The only thing Mercer's not yet fully figured out is the right shade of pink (the color of the pink Royal Oxford is the color the regular oxford cloth shirt ought be).
If he ever gets the idea to offer a MTM service -- let alone full custom -- he'll have a Hell of a job catching all the coin that will threaten to drown him.
So.
Finally there's ONE thing they make like they used to, even if it's not by the guys who used to make them like they used to. I'll take what I can get.
Now I need to see about who'll clone the old Lands' End rugby shirts, now that's almost that autumnal time of the year.
-J.
* I realize I'm a reactionary idiot, but what most people call a "polo" shirt is, in fact a TENNIS shirt. A golf shirt is just like a tennis shirt except the sleeves are hemmed. A polo shirt is like a golf shirt, save for the collar being more like a dress shirt's. Not that anyone cares.
There is an appalling sameness in the pattern in which things are sold in the USA (I expect this is true of the rest of the civilized world, but I can only speak of the USA). Something comes out and it's judged to be VERY good. This chugs along for X number of years until the idiot grandnephew gets tired of running the family business. Maybe he wants to raise sheep in Montana, maybe he wants his own ashram, maybe he wants to market organic jute. Maybe he likes the family business but, being an idiot grandnephew, runs it to the ground. Whatever. One day Big Conglomerate, Inc. offers the idiot grandnephew much coin to go away and he takes it and, in fact, exits stage left. Big Conglomerate Inc. immediately shuts down production in the facilities it has here, and takes the whole thing overseas, preferably to a country where that sort of product is never, ever used by the local population. Quality takes a nosedive and prices, somehow, get higher.
I theorize that a people unaccustomed to wearing blue jeans, or sneakers, or buttondown shirts cannot possibly get all the nuances down.
Anyway, I got on this jag about all the items of apparel which have changed for the worse. I mentioned three, only one of which Poppy is good and sick of my discussing. (The original Izod Lacoste vs. the new and wholly inferior Chemise Lacoste tennis shirt*.) The list is long and sad and besides the aforementioned shirt, we have the LL Bean Casco Bay shirt, Levi's shrink-to-fit 501 jeans, etc.
Well, today I have a bit of good news. Someone got wise to the idea that people will pay ~$80 for the real sort of buttondown shirts such as Brooks Brothers used to make but no longer do, considering that Brooks Brothers now sells shirts it pretends are made just like they used to but in fact are made with inferior fabric in Lower Elbonia by a native population for whom sleeves are a foreign concept...and sell for $75. That guy is David Mercer.
He won't say it (although I will) but his genius lies in being able to CLONE, and I mean clone, the shirts that Brooks Brothers used to make. If you ever saw said shirts before the numerous buyouts Brooks Brothers had to suffer, you'll immediately get a memory whiplash. The fabric, the cut, the roll to the collar. The only thing Mercer's not yet fully figured out is the right shade of pink (the color of the pink Royal Oxford is the color the regular oxford cloth shirt ought be).
If he ever gets the idea to offer a MTM service -- let alone full custom -- he'll have a Hell of a job catching all the coin that will threaten to drown him.
So.
Finally there's ONE thing they make like they used to, even if it's not by the guys who used to make them like they used to. I'll take what I can get.
Now I need to see about who'll clone the old Lands' End rugby shirts, now that's almost that autumnal time of the year.
-J.
* I realize I'm a reactionary idiot, but what most people call a "polo" shirt is, in fact a TENNIS shirt. A golf shirt is just like a tennis shirt except the sleeves are hemmed. A polo shirt is like a golf shirt, save for the collar being more like a dress shirt's. Not that anyone cares.
Comments
That's what I get for reading your other blog, I guess.
Badger, I didn't know you had a glutton-for-punishment streak. But wait until I get a rant going about 501s.
-J.
http://mercerandsons.com
If you order for the firs time there's a discount. The sad thing is ordering only 2-3 and loving them and then realizing you can't score the cheap-o price any more.
-J.