End-of-season sales can be a great time to nab something nice, but there are so many good stores nowadays that it can feel overwhelming to sort through everyone’s inventory. Since there are dozens of winter sales going on right now, I thought I’d round up some of my favorites. Most notable are megastores such as Mr. Porter and End, both of which start their promotions today, but there are also tons of great deals at smaller boutiques. 

Mr. Porter: Mr. Porter is always the highlight of every sale season. Discounts tend to start around 30% to 50% off, and then go deeper over the next few weeks. The problem is that things tend to move fast, and very little is left after a few days. On the upside, the selection is amazing. 

To get through the inventory quickly, make use of the site’s navigation filters, where you can hone-in on things by brand and size. If you need suggestions, I think Nigel Cabourn, Engineered Garments, and Chimala are particularly good for workwear; Eidos and Margaret Howell for contemporary casualwear (those Howell duffle coats and fishtail parkas look amazing); and William Lockie for cashmere knits. 

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There are a lot of things I love about living in the Bay Area – the food and bar scene, the relatively diverse community, and the summer/ fall festivals. The only thing I hate is the real estate. Housing is expensive, gentrification is rampant, and for the kind of buildings I like to live in, home insulation isn’t that great. Unless you’re in a new building or can afford some multi-million dollar house, old buildings, especially Craftsman ones, are kind of drafty. 

I used to waste a lot a money in the winter on heating bills, but a couple of years ago, found that I could cut that back with some good cashmere sweaters. Cashmere knits may be the only things that can be rightly called investment pieces. They’re expensive, but depending on where you live, you’ll make up the cost in what you’ll save on heating. 

In some early-20th century trade journals, you’ll find rumors that the finest cashmere used to come from Russia, but for at least the last hundred years, China and Central Asia have been the main sources. From the mountains up Tibet and away across the back of the Himalayas to Bokhara, cashmere travels much like the way it did before Marco Polo explored the Great Silk Roads. It comes down from the mountains in countless little loads on the backs of yaks and horses – sometimes buoyed down interminable waterways on rafts and boats – before reaching a major hub, where it’s put on modern transport and swiftly whisked away to Europe. If you’re wondering why cashmere should have to travel so far across Asia, just remember the stories of the still unconquered Everest. Across the vast barrier of the Himalayas, there are few routes. 

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This might be one of the best Brooks Brothers sales I’ve seen in years. First, select items have been discounted between 25% and 40%, which on face value isn’t that unusual. Except until the end of Saturday, you can knock another 25% off with the checkout code DECBC16. That brings the total discount as low as 55% off retail.

The discounts get even lower if you pay with a gift card. At the moment, they’re offering a free $25 eGift card for every $150 eGift card you purchase. To get the bonuses, you have to purchase each of the $150 eGift cards separately. The credits will be immediately emailed to you and you can apply them to any purchase, which makes all the discounts above stackable. 

Note: customers are limited to five $150 eGift card purchases, and apparently you can only apply three of the $175 eGift card credits to any one online order. But shipping is just $1, so you use all five in separate multi-item orders. 

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I love this photo of Glenn O’Brien strolling down some NYC street in a dressing gown and leather huaraches. Designers have been trying to turn pajamas into glamorous streetwear for the last two or three years, and while I agree with Robin Givhan that you should resist, wearing something like this in the morning while walking your dog just sounds fun. 

I bought my first dressing gown last year. It was a bespoke commission from Ascot Chang, with the gown itself made from a length of mid-weight, grey windowpane Fox flannel. It’s great for chilly winter mornings, but a little too heavy for spring and summer. So I’ve since picked up two more – one made from an indigo-dyed Khadi (a kind of handspun, handwoven Indian cotton fabric) and another in a dotted navy silk. 

One of the nice things about working with a shirtmaker is that you can often get things made bespoke for not much more than what you’d pay for high-end ready-to-wear. That not only includes dress shirts, but also things with similar constructions – shirt jackets, pajamas, and dressing gowns. The only exception might be silk gowns, which are apparently better off-the-rack. 

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Fabrics are my favorite part of fall/ winter wardrobes. Heavy tweeds, corduroys, and flannels for tailored clothing. Then sturdy wools and leathers for casualwear, as well as spongy alpacas and Shetlands for knits. Everything just looks and feels so cozy. 

The same goes for ties. Although few men need more than a handful of ties nowadays – some striped rep silks, solid-colored grenadines, and basic knits – seasonal neckwear is a great way to add joy to a wardrobe. Alan Cornett put it well recently when he said: “some purchases flavor a wardrobe, though their proportions are small.” A well-chosen tie, pocket square, or scarf is a great way to give a nod to a certain season or occasion, “changing the tenor of an ensemble.” A wool tie can complement the cold-weather feel of a tweed jacket, or add an autumnal touch to a navy worsted suit. 

There are thousands of fall/ winter ties out there, but broadly speaking, you’re looking at five categories:

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One of the things you notice when you start paying attention to leather goods is that some of the world’s best makers come from countries with long saddlery traditions (that is, the art of making leather goods for horse riding). Hermes, for example, started as a harness and bridle rein workshop in the Grands Boulevards quarter of Paris. And today, many former saddlers – as well as people trained by former saddlers – work in the French city to produce leather accessories for men. 

Similarly, most of the top-end English makers specialize in working with bridle leather. Bridle, for those unfamiliar, is one of the three main materials in saddlery – saddle and harness leather being the other two. The difference between them is in the finishing. Saddle leather is left “raw,” which means it has little oil or wax content. That makes it relatively dry and stiff, as well as susceptible to water stains. Harness leather has a bit more oil and wax, as well as a smoother grain. The dressiest of the three, however, is bridle. It’s the smoothest and most polished, with a high oil and wax content that blooms to the surface, giving the leather a beautiful luster. Of all the dress leathers out there, it’s also the most durable. Figure it this way: if bridle leather was originally created to secure a horse rider’s life, it’s probably good enough to hold your laptop. 

One of my favorite companies for bridle leather goods is Simpson, which might be the youngest label to have a 150+ year old history. As the story goes, it was started in 1997 by Robert Simpson, a member of the Krolle family. The Krolles were behind Tanner Krolle, one of England’s oldest and most famous leather goods companies, having been around since 1856. When Chanel bought Tanner Krolle in the ‘90s, however, Robert left and took a few TK employees with him. Together, they started a new leather goods manufacturing house called RBJ Simpson (otherwise known as Simpson London).

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Ralph Lauren will always have a special place in my heart. It’s the one company I really admired growing up – more in terms of how it was appropriated by streetwear culture, rather than the preppy Americana crowd it was originally intended for. I also think few companies have been as consistent and as great for so long. There isn’t much from their archive that I don’t think looks good today (just slim up some of the ‘90s stuff, Ralph!). 

About ten years ago, the now defunct Japanese menswear magazine Free & Easy published a special issue on Ralph Lauren (I put up a few pages from it here). Most of the clothes featured are long gone, of course. They were made sometime between the 1970s and ‘90s, although styles like them can still be found on Ralph Lauren’s site. For obsessives, vintage pieces come with a bit of provenance, but since some have become collectors’ items, prices can sky rocket into the thousands. Assuming you can even find them in the first place. 

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Despite that old line attributed to Mark Twain – “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” – it actually doesn’t get that cold here. In the dead of winter, temperatures can drop into the low 40s, but that’s basically springtime in Moscow, when street performers come out to Stary Arbat to busk for tourists. 

Still, that doesn’t make me want dress coats any less. And by dress coats I mean the kind of topcoats and overcoats that have mostly disappeared from modern wardrobes. With fewer men wearing suits and sport coats nowadays, fewer still need the kind of outerwear that traditionally accompanied them. So, today, we have hundreds of casual outerwear styles, but only a handful of options for something dressier than a parka. 

My own wardrobe has two dress coats, and despite the weather being less-than-frigid, I find them surprisingly useful. They’re too warm for the afternoon, but great for keeping out that biting chill in the morning and night – which are basically the only times I’m outside of work.

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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. 
  

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I don’t know if anyone actually does Black Friday anymore. It seems like all the sales drop a few days before. Last night, five new sales popped up in my inbox – the best of which is probably Mr. Porter, although Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, and LL Bean are also great if you’re looking for something more traditional (more info below). Some notable things I found last night while going through the sites:

Mr. Porter: The obvious favorite for most people. In the last few years, Mr. Porter has become one of the largest online shops for high-end men’s clothing. The problem is getting through that inventory – especially during sale season when things move quickly. My usual strategy is to comb through their designer list; then browse through the broader categories (e.g. shirts, outerwear, shoes, etc) and filter by size. The first lets me hone in on things I like, while the second allows for more serendipitous finds. 

Interestingly, Mr. Porter has discounted a lot of stuff this season that’s normally excluded from promotions, including shoes from John Lobb, J.M. Weston, Edward Green, George Cleverley, and Viberg. I was really tempted by some of those Edward Greens last night. Other lines I like:

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