-L.A.S
Monday, April 26, 2010
Club Monaco Spring 2010
This apparently hit the web while I was away so I figured I would chime in with my 2 cents if you guys don't mind. Overall, I think things look pretty good - nothing incredibly original, but what is these days anyway? It's tough to look at anything from Club Monaco and not see shades of Polo (the giant acquired Club Monaco in 1999), but what surprises me the most is the obvious influence from some other brands. The J. Crew effect continues its reign of sartorial dominance here. Everything from the styling (i.e. rolled jeans and chinos with sockless hardbottoms) to fit, though this stuff appears less lean, seems to have a soft spot for what Frank has been doing with his team for the past few seasons. You can even see a little bit of Thom Browne/Black Fleece in the jacket and trouser proportions - kudos on the diesel cuffs. What really got me though was the madras suit (matching jacket, pants and tie), which is a pretty obvious Engineered Garments snipe. I have no problem with wearing your influences on your sleeve so no harm, no foul in my eyes. The one sad thing is that I really want to buy some of this stuff, but CM is making it difficult for me to spend my hard earned money by refusing to open an online store. I'm not sure what the rationale is for all this forgone revenue, but I hope it's not a "too good for a webstore mentality" because I would just buy all this from Polo if I had the money.
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Having 7 Club Monaco stores within close proximity makes viewing their collections very easy, not to mention ridiculously easy to get whatever I want on sale. :)
ReplyDelete"This apparently hit the web..." That's dead construction homie, stay away from pronouns!
ReplyDeleteThat vest in no.28 is an uber Thom Browne snipe.
All these pants are ugly.
I feel like if Ralph doesn't stop f--king around, CM is going the way of Martin and Osa. They have a shot at doing something big if they would open an online store. With that being said, if Uniqlo opens more stores in the U.S. (outside of Manhattan) CM is totally screwed.
ReplyDeletePowder blue blazer. Yes please.
ReplyDeleteIf it resembles T Brown its becuase the stuff is designed by a dude what used to work at brown...at least i am pretty sure i remember reading that somewhere!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great collection! Some of the jackets are fantastic
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of CM shirts, especially when they are on sale here in Toronto. I never bought a CM shirt more than CAD$19.00. I save $$$ on shirts to buy EG jackets. (I bought 3 so far from EG SS10), I think i will starve my kids this month.
ReplyDeleteYeah, their sales are epic. Oxford for $25, $15, and sometimes $10 bucks on sale. And they're fantastic. I don't have one where I live, but I visit the ones in DC or Dallas almost monthly.
ReplyDeleteI don't see them going the way of Martin & Osa, simply because M&O was trying to take on J Crew almost item by item. I think CM is unique enough (but still appealing to J Crew customers) to have a place in the market. Honestly, (to call back to an earlier blog post) they strike me as doing exactly what Banana Republic should be doing.
I always find it interesting how CM focuses on one 'signature' shade for each season. The majority of items in the store are some shade of white/black/grey with a couple items made in the shade of the season. During F/W they were fans of yellow while it looks like they favor powder blue for S/S.
ReplyDeleteThe suits aren't "inspired" by Thom Browne. They're basically stitch-for-stitch reproductions (with less handwork obviously). Everything from the jacket length to the height of the fastening point to the button stance to the grosgrain trim on the functioning cuffs to the back buckle fastening mechanism on the trousers. The irony is that Thom Browne used to work at CM but left over "creative differences" and now they're literally reproducing his line for the mass middle market. Even down to the construction of the neckties.
ReplyDelete