I don’t think I remember any Black Friday season being this good. Six more great sales started last night. There’s End, Meyvn, and Club Monaco for casualwear (the last of which now includes third-party brands); Skoaktiebolaget and Pediwear for some amazing shoe deals; and The Hanger Project for classic men’s accessories. Running through the stores, here are some highlights:
End: One of my favorite shops for casualwear. The selection here rivals Mr. Porter’s and, for Black Friday, they’ve discounted almost everything 20% off. The promotion is automatically applied at checkout and it stacks on already-discounted items in the sale section. Like with Mr. Porter, I think the easiest way to tackle this is by browsing their list of brands, although if you need some suggestions, here are some I really like:
- Workwear: Nigel Cabourn, Levi’s Vintage Clothing, Blue de Paname, Arpenteur, Kaptain Sunshine, Needles, Neighborhood, and RRL. The LVC 1947 501 jeans are a great straight-leg model if you want something a bit more comfortable through the thigh.
- Contemporary casualwear: Nonnative, Barena, Elka, Albam, Margaret Howell, Maison Margiela, Maison Kitsune, AMI, Tres Bien, Wings & Horns, and Our Legacy. This Margaret Howell fishtail parka looks especially good.
- Neo-retro outdoor brands: Battenwear, Epperson Mountaineering, Mt. Rainier, and Patagonia. Pair one of the Battenwear jackets with LVC 1947 501 jeans, a Jamison’s Shetland sweater, and these Diemme boots.
- Casual Outerwear: Barbour, Aspesi, Belstaff, Mackintosh, and Stutterheim will get you through any kind of weather, and the styles are versatile enough to be paired with almost anything. The Barbour section includes a ton of stuff that’s not just outerwear as well (e.g. bags, sweaters, shirts, etc).
- Ark Air: I wrote about Ark Air a couple of months ago. They’re the civilian wing of an old military uniform manufacturer. I like how the prices aren’t over the top, relative to what’s on the market these days, and the 20% discount only makes it sweeter. For something a little more upscale, I’m a big fan of Ten C.
- Knitwear: Inis Meain, Howlin’, Jamison’s, SNS Herning, and Inverallan. I’ve always thought Inverallan has some great shawl collar cardigans.
- Shirts: Gitman Vintage and Individualized Shirts are nice for easy, go-to basics. I also like Portuguese Flannel for, well, flannels.
- Shoes: End is low-key one of the best shops for sneakers. See the selection for Nike, Adidas, Vans, Superga, and Reebok. They also carry some great niche lines, such as Shoes Like Pottery, Spalwart, and Buttero. For something a little more rugged, check Diemme, Red Wing, Yuketen, Timberland, Tricker’s, and Viberg. Vibergs are rarely discounted and their service boots are great with workwear.
- Accessories: Finally, Anonymous Ism and Wig Wam for socks; Ebbets Field Flannels for baseball caps; Filson, Head Porter, Porter, Master Piece, and Mismo for bags; and Jason Markk for sneaker cleaning supplies (this stuff works like magic). Sneaker ER also looks interesting for sneaker care, although I don’t have any personal experience with the brand.
Club Monaco: I mentioned Club Monaco’s sale on Tuesday, but they just released a new code for full-priced items – and it applies to third party brands. Take up to 35% off, depending on how much you spend, with the checkout code THANKS.
You can browse here for all of their third-party labels, but some notables include Barbour (yes, they have the Bedale), Golden Bear, Levis Vintage Clothing (including the 1947 501s), Gitman, Trickers, Allen Edmonds (including shell cordovan shoes), Ten C, Crombie, Buttero, and Porter. There are also some Inis Meain sweaters in there, including some already discounted styles (the code stacks), but I unfortunately can’t sort them through a search. You’ll have to go to the knitwear section and sort by prices from high to low.
Skoaktiebolaget: An advertiser on this site, but also one of my favorite stores for classic footwear. For as long as I’ve known them, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them do a sale beyond a few pairs of odds-and-ends. Basically “last pair” sort of deals.
For Black Friday, however, they have a bunch of shoes on discount – everything from the already low-priced Carlos Santos to the more premium Saint Crispin’s. The selection of Enzo Bonafe seems especially good. Less than $500 for handwelted shoes, a better construction than Goodyear welting, is hard to beat. Even the Hestra gloves and Tarnsjo Garveri folios have been discounted.
Hanger Project: Another advertiser on this site, but also one of the best online shops for classic men’s accessories. At the moment, they have some things on sale for Black Friday, including heavily discounted A Suitable Wardrobe knitwear and Drake’s ties. This coming Monday, they’re also doing a tiered discount promotion (spend more, save more kind of thing). Might be a good time to pick up some shoe care items.
Pediwear: Pediwear usually has some of the most competitive prices for shoes, which they back with a price-matching guarantee (so long as you’re not comparing sale prices). This Black Friday, they’re offering an even sweeter deal – take 20% off almost everything with the checkout code BLACK20. Once you deduct for VAT, you’re looking at about 36% off listed UK prices.
Crockett & Jones and Cheaney are unfortunately excluded, but that still leaves brand such as RM Williams, Heschung, Carmina, Alfred Sargent, Sanders, Trickers, and Loake (stick to the better-made 1880 line). Those RM Williams Chelsea boots come down to $284 with the promotion, which is almost 50% less than what they retail for in the US.
Meyvn: A great new shop in Chicago started by a few guys who used to work in the NYC fashion industry. Meyvn can’t really be pegged to any one sub-genre. It’s not about workwear here, or dark minimalism – it’s just about great casualwear. A lot of the kind of stuff I’ve been into lately. See brands such as Eidos, Our Legacy, and Robert Geller; or harder to find labels such as Snow Peak, Blurhms, and Sempach.
For Black Friday, they’re offering 20% off anything in their shop with the checkout code BFS2016 (the code applies to sale items, such as these Victory Sportswear sneakers). They’re also donating 10% of their sale proceeds to the ACLU, which I can fully get behind.