How to spot quality when buying used menswear

If you flip it over, you see irregular stitches here, right? So, that means this collar was added by hand. This is a Ralph Lauren purple label suit. Yes. Retail price 4,000. This is 695. You can tell if you see this label, it just says Ralph Lauren on it. This is the made in Italy line. Okay. Realistically, every suit you buy off the rack should be altered, right? If you think it fits perfectly off the rack, chances are your standards are too low. Wow, Raphael. So, for a young man like myself that's getting into suiting, wants to look a little bit elevated, what would be some of the advantages of buying a vintage garment like these ones that we have here versus going to a new store and paying hundreds, if not up to a thousand, for a brand new suit? Well, one of the things is I think is you get unique items, right? You get something that no one else has, plus you get a much higher quality at a lower cost level, right? For example, today, if you spend $100 suits or $200, $300 H&M, it's all going to be glued, fused, canvas, interlining. You take something here off the rack, right? This is bold look 50s, right? You open it, it says here, it says a tailor-made clothing of distinction and if you flip the collar open, if you flip it over, you see irregular stitches here, right? So, that means this collar was added by hand. I see. That's something, if we look at this suit here, this is a suit supply, right? Yeah. You don't see that here, right? This is machine stitching here. And this suit was twice the price. How much was a suit supply suit? $800. Yes, this suit is $425. I mean, $46 regular. It's highly unusual, right? Because it has a shawl collar. It's something you usually see in a tuxedo jacket, right? So, you have to like that and of course, the advantage with something new is that you can find exactly the size. This has this element of treasure hunt. That's true. You go in, you know, if you come in and you say, I want a gray three-piece suit with a stripe, the chances that you find it in your size are rather slim. Yeah, whereas you have something like this. I mean, look at this fabric. It's so, this is so unusual. Absolutely, right? And you're just like, wow, you would not be able to get something like this new because the fabrics are not made. No, I mean, even if you were going bespoke, you wouldn't be able to find something like this right now. And you know, this, I mean, this is a beautiful store. Richard's Fabulous finds in Chicago. Everything here has a size tag for the jacket, for the pants. It tells you the decade and the price. Yeah. That is really cool. And walking in here, it doesn't smell. No, it's all dry cleaned. Yes. So, that's really, really good. But here, right? Like, what's your size, for example? I'm 40 or 42, depending on the cut. Then, let's go look here. Yeah, let's have our section. And this is sorted by era, as well. So, we're looking at 30s to 60s. Yeah. And you know, here, this is a quality menswear shop. I think all the vintage stuff is of a reasonable quality level. But sometimes, you are somewhere and you don't know what it is. I think the first thing I do is I would go through and I would look for the irregular stitching at the collar because I can do that without even taking it off the jacket. So, I can very quickly see. Then, the second step is you look at the cuff buttons. Okay. Because sometimes, if you see a handmade buttonhole, you know it's a higher quality garment. How do we know it's handmade? Really, it's... I mean, this one doesn't have a buttonhole. Okay. This one doesn't have a buttonhole. You know it's... So, like, you can undo the button, basically. You can undo it. Okay. That is one thing. And then, the other part is you see that it's irregular and we'd have to something that's more handmade where you can see it better. I'll point it out when I see it. Yeah. Okay. The next thing I would do is I look at the lining. If the lining on the sleeve is hand sewn and you see it by the irregularity, then, you know, it is highly likely that the rest of the suit also has a higher kind of quality level. So, we're looking for a lot of imperfections, actually. Yes. That tells us that it was made. Yes. Correct. And the advantage, right, of having a hand-sewn garment is the stitches are more flexible, so it feels more comfortable. Okay. Interesting. You see pick stitching that is machine stitched because it's very regular. Yeah. That is not a style that you see anymore today. Okay. This, what you have here in your suit, looks irregular and it's supposed to be like handmade, but it's actually a machine that makes it and the machine is trimmed for imperfections. So, it looks. Okay. It has that touch, but that's typically what you get in a modern suit. This is something that is very vintagy. Right. So, this is 1940s. 1940s. Oh, no. So, it's the size 50s. 40 short. Yeah. 50s, 40 short. Right. So, you know, for you, that's not going to work. Yeah. Because, typically, do you wear 40 long? 40 regular. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, you just, you just, I mean, try this one on. You never know until you try it on. Yeah. Exactly. You just have to try it, right? And you, typically, I would go through and look at the stuff, see what I like. Here, for example, if you touch this. Right. You can feel the shoulder pad, but look at this fabric here. It's almost like it's a stripe. There's a, yeah, but it's a little irregular. It's almost like a shantung yarn, like a silk yarn. That's why it has this feel to it, as well. It's almost like a... Exactly. Red. Red fleck. Yeah. Red fleck. Well, this is, I've never seen a suit like this before. This is a great example. But, look at this. Custom Tailor Progress Company, Chicago. Right. If it was custom tailored back in the day, you know, at least the interlining and everything of this suit are going to be great. Yeah. I'm seeing if anything catches my eye here, this is my size. And, you know, this is another thing here, right? The style of the lapels, right? Your lapels have a certain cut. Sometimes, this is called the gorge hide. Like in the 30s and the 40s, the gorge was much lower than it is on yours. So, it gives you a very distinct vintage look. Also, the pants, right? They're oftentimes cut fuller and wider. I'm more comfortable. So, Now, what about if somebody wants to buy a vintage suit for the quality, but they don't want to look like they're wearing necessarily an older garment? Then, you probably want to go with a more modern suit. You know, get something from the 2000s or look at the proportions where it's something that looks very much like what you can get today, right? Maybe get a ketone suit of eBay, for example, or maybe an Isaiah suit that is, you know, a factory-made garment, but at a high level that has a style that suits you. Yeah. Could you also, maybe with this one, because the jacket isn't hugely different to what I'm wearing today, but the pants will be a lot fuller. Yeah. Could you also just tailor the pants to a more modern style? You can. I mean, these are, I mean, look at these, how wide these are. Yeah. This is quite wide. Yeah. And with pants, yes, in theory, right? You could take it all open. You could open the seam and you could almost recut it. It's easy to cut something down, but that's a lot of work. Yeah. It's like re-sewing entire pairs of pants. Okay. With jackets, oftentimes, the issue you have is length. You know, if you shorten it, and the proportions of the pockets don't line up anymore, that's a problem. But if on a pair of pants, I would say you can take them in a little bit. Okay. But, you know, don't try to make a slim fit pair of trousers out of something like this. I see. And here, you know, you can see this is like nicely, there's also a reserve down here, right? You could let these out. There's about like an inch on this side and an inch on this side. You see, on this side, it's really, there's not much, but there's something in here, but it's only to let it out. These are so generous. You wouldn't want to do that, probably. Yeah. No, you don't need it. No. I suppose it's also the element of are you butchering a piece of history by changing the fit? Correct. Do you find that there's a difference between people's bodies back then and therefore the sizes that you see? I would imagine people were generally slimmer in the 40s and 50s. You probably don't see too many large waist sizes. And they were also, yeah, and they were also like shorter. So, if you're really tall now, if you're bigger, you'll have a harder time. Yeah. Now, this suit, to me, looks very modern in its style. Very 60s. What is it that's making me think that? I mean, you can tell me. Well, maybe I would say that it's the lapels being quite skinny, but so you would say this is from the 60s, probably. It doesn't actually say on this one. So, it doesn't say this one, but probably you see the slim lapel, but even so, the gorge is lower and sometimes also like the the roundness on the corners can give you a certain particular feel. This is very cool. Well, it has this kind of, it's a brown and kind of a charcoal, but it's not a stripe. It's almost like a rope, like twill weaves going down. Right. So, yeah, it's a darker business suit and it's called Bond. Made in Rochester, New York. Yeah. Tailored. It's very cool. $200, $195. Yeah. $200. Normally, you know, when you are in a retail store like this and you have an expert, like Richard Curating stuff, you will normally be paying a little more. Now, look here, right? You see this coloration, but really, I think all that is, it's just dust from sitting for a long time. So, you have to kind of, you know, undust, use a brush and just see is that what's happening and sometimes people want, I've seen people wearing old suits with actually holes in them or stains because like I like this cut and I like this look. That's a little overboard for my taste. This is a great example of something that you would find. So, this is a Ralph Lauren purple label suit. Yes. Retail price, $4,000. Yeah. $4,000 to $5,000. Yeah. This is $695. Yeah. And see, this is, you can tell, if you see this label, it just says Ralph Lauren on it. This is the Made in Italy line. Okay. I think these ones were made by St. Andrews, not the Made in England ones were made by Chester Berry and the Chester Berries are different in the sense they had a kind of rather soft interlining and they also were cut a little roomier. So, you know, if you have a, if you wear a 44 or 40 in a Ralph Lauren purple label made in England, it's gonna be a little wider than this one here. And here, this is the handmade buttonhole. From this side, it's hard to tell but if you look in the back, you see how quite irregular it is. That's the hallmark of the handmade buttonhole and then the collar again, right, it's handmade here. So, even without the suit, this is a good suit. Right. And of course, here, you know, Richard does all the work for you but sometimes you go places, you don't have that information. So, you have to use your eyes to decide what's good and what isn't. Absolutely. And this is obviously, you know, more a modern cut because it's more of a modern suit and but you see here, there's not that much left here to let out, for example. So, that's something to keep in mind. Yeah. Realistically, every suit you buy off the rack should be altered, right? If you think it fits perfectly off the rack, chances are your standards are too low. Wow, Raphael. What is this here? The Mr. Shops, the store for men with champagne taste. North Riverside Park, Harlem Irving Plaza. Wow, what a... I always wonder when you get these suits, what stories has this suit seen? The life that this is, yeah, the life that this has lived. Oh, right. Well, this wrinkling kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, you know, when you buy a new suit, for example, you have what is called a half canvas. So, most made-to-measure companies give that to you. It's less expensive but it means the top part is, you know, sewn and then the bottom part is glued. Now, what happened here is that glue has come off from the dry cleaning. Heated it up. And it looks fine here but it doesn't look fine here. Yeah. So, that's... I suppose this color is also unforgiving of that. And that's why I think a lot of people love vintage because anything pre-2000s, not always but the majority, are still going to be canvassed. Once you get into anything after 2000, if you're spending less than a thousand dollars, I guarantee you it's probably going to be... Right. It's probably going to be bonded. Half canvas or fully bonded fuse, whatever you want to call it. Let's take a little stroll. So, aside from suits, Raphael, what are some of the gems that you can find in a vintage store or even a thrift store that you should think about? You know, accessories are one thing, right? Because there's less of a fit issue typically. I mean, ties sometimes are quite a bit shorter. Yes. So, that'll be an issue. Which I quite like. And you can find, you know, these are like slimmer knit ties, for example, here are sorted by color. You can get these like more out there patterns which, personally, I'm not a big fan of the 70s ties, you know, or the 90s print ties but if you want that, it's a great store. I also like to buy overcoats because, you know, they fit roomier and just the fabrics were heavier, which is nice for a town like Chicago. Just look at this one over here, you know. Where do you find a men's coat like that? You don't. Or this one here, right? Like it looks like more of a brown but if you look closely, you know, these yarns, the fiber is all individually dyed and then twisted into a yarn and you get this color but it's very easy to combine because there's, you know, dark brown, reddish brown, kind of a chocolate brown, oatmeal, some green. There's so many colors in there that it's just easy to combine because no matter what you pair with it, it all looks like it's harmonious. It's the uniqueness as well. So, even these ties over here, I mean, these are wool ties, 15 bucks each and something like this is just beautiful. Yeah, and you know, depending on what you want, I mean, I own over 500 ties, right? So, I'm like, I sometimes see something like, oh, this is unusual, right? So, then I'll buy it just because it's unusual and I'm like, oh, I like that. I haven't seen a particular color. I'm like, oh, this is cool. I'd like that but with the ties, you have to make sure that you try them on because old ties can be dramatically shorter than new ones. Yeah, it may not be a look that you'd like. Yeah, absolutely. Look at these shoes here. Yeah, it's kind of an interesting, it's like a derby but with kind of this Norwegian theme. Yeah, not too sure about this. Clipper, but look at this one, for example. This is a kilty loafer from Johnston and Murphy in a two-tone spectator version. Not something you'll find much elsewhere but he also has like plates and trophies. Yeah, I need to do some redecorating from the stuff that's in the store. I mean, I would say, you know, when you're in a store like this, look around and talk to the owner and understand, you know, what do they specialize in? What are they proud of? I mean, here, like a cool pair of suspenders, for example, right? And do you see the silk here? What's special about the silk is that you have a woven pattern. So, that's a jacquard weave on the mill and then it's printed on top, right? So, this white and these are printed but the base fabric is also interesting. It's just much more expensive to produce a fabric like that. I see. I mean, here are, you know, these are more like, you know, English-inspired, like field jackets and stuff like that. This is like Ralph Lauren. I could see that this also sells quite well these days. Yeah. Extra, extra large. I mean, yeah, you can find these on eBay, too. I mean, the advantage here is you can just walk in and try everything on and see everything. I mean, now this. I'm not sure how I feel about a previously worn robe. Yeah. Oh, really? Oh, in that case. I mean, it looks quite new. That's not my size. Still online at $2,500. 800. Exactly. It's silk, right? It's a silk robe. Printed silk. I feel very sexy wearing this. That's worth the price alone, the feeling. I should charge people's touch. Send me the invoice. Put it on your tab.