+ Charles Tyrwhitt, - Thomas Pink

My recent trip to NYC (a city I love and detest in equal portions) hardly gave me any time for shopping, but the friendly maître d' at a well-known French restaurant tipped me off to a men's clothier with whom I was previously unfamiliar. Charles Tyrwhitt is a Jermyn Street shirt seller a la Thomas Pink. It differs in that CT is a bit more conservative (read: They don't sell socks with pink, winged skulls or hideous orange anything.) and a lot less pricey (read: They don't try to charge you $30 for socks with pink, winged skulls.).


I've been a longtime fan of Pink. Some of their fabrics do an excellent job of blending classic with trendy. That said, in the past couple of years they've become increasingly bizarre. Their staples are still staples, but most of those staples can be custom made for less money. My trip to their NYC store on 6th at 44th was simply bizarre. In an economy spiralling downward (and in a city loaded with sales), Pink's sales reps insisted that everything was going well. The prices reflected the reality of the middle of the decade, not now. Where their style then had been to focus on a sort of flashy Britishness, now they were hawking garish oddities. The winged skull pattern was on everything. I purchased what must have been the most conservative red tie in the store (a replacement for a staple tie). While browsing briefly at socks the shopgirl insisted that the perfect accent to my red and burgundy striped tie would be a pair of pink socks with the flying monstrosity logoed on the sides. It was just a pathetic attempt to sell anything. I felt as though I was in some sort of ultra-luxe Hot Topic. That's two bad Pink experiences in as many months.

By contrast Charles Tyrwhitt (which only has stores in London and NYC, but does a brisk mail order business) was fabulous. They were having an end-of-season sale that made my eyes bulge. I rarely buy non-custom shirts anymore, but for $29 (down from $100+) I bothered to grab a couple. They don't do custom in-store tailoring on shirts, but for the price I didn't mind. The place was filled with outstanding ties, quality shoes, suits, topcoats, formal attire, etc. Genuinely, it would be an excellent place to put together a "my first wardrobe" from white-tie to casual. It was like Jos. A. Bank's clever English cousin. The women's section was small, but nice. Mrs. SG was rather pleased with her prizes, which I wouldn't have been able to manage except for the phenomenal staff. A wonderful sales rep helped me pick out sizes and styles for her. The staff took lots of time and made sure everything was perfect, and I really appreciated that when everything turned out to fit Mrs. SG perfectly.

So, Charles Tyrwhitt replaces Thomas Pink for anything basic, and I won't be wanting anything unique from Pink until those little skulls fly away forever.