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Welcome to Put This On. I'm Jesse Thorn.
This season on this show we're visiting some of
the world's great style cities as chosen by our viewers.
And as you can see, I'm in New York City on the High Line.
New York is where everything crashes together --
the high, the low, style, fashion --
and we figured what better way
to investigate that than to go thrifting.
So, we're going to be joined
by some of our favorite bloggers from Street Etiquette
to do some serious thrift store shopping.
Then we're going to visit a tailor, Leonard Logsdail,
to find out what's inside that suit jacket.
That's all coming up on this episode of Put This On.
My name is Jay Kos,
and this is my clothing shop on Mott Street in New York City.
I've always been a creative junkie, and
the only way to fulfill that habit is by creating.
I don't consider it as much a shop as I do a home.
And a home is an extension of someone.
So, people come here to have an espresso.
There are guys that come here every week
to have an espresso or a scotch
that have never bought anything from us.
We don't care.
I tend to stick to a classic shape, classic design.
I don't think men's clothing needs to be
overdesigned as much as it needs to be edited.
But color is something that, um, I'm fond of.
I think it's important, and
it's something that lacks a lot in men's clothing.
I get excited when I see
anyone on the street dressed in something they own.
And that can be in any category
from punk to hipster
to classically dressed, um,
preppy... Anything.
But if they own it, if they really own it...
It doesn't look like they're trying.
Then, for me, that excites me.
I get excited when I see that.
One of my favorite menswear blogs is Street Etiquette.
One of the things that I love about it is
the way that they combine influences
from all over everywhere, a lot of times combining
secondhand pieces to create great outfits.
So, I thought that while we were here
in New York City we could meet up with
Josh and Trav, the creators of the blog,
and do some thrift shopping. Let's go meet 'em.
-Hey, guys. Jesse. -Hey, how's it going? Josh. -Travis.
Hi, Josh. Hey, Travis. Nice to meet you guys in real life.
-I know, it's cool. -So, let me ask you this:
Are you guys prepared for a thrifting contest?
We've got about
two hours to get all the thrifting done
that we possibly can here
within a two-block radius of where we are.
You guys ready for some tips and tricks and
see who can come out with the best stuff in 120 minutes?
-Yeah, man. Let's do it. -This is where we live, yeah.
This is your home turf
and there's two of you and one of me.
So, you guys kind of have an advantage, but, let's go.
Shake on it, yeah.
♪ ♪
I kind of like this.
One thing is that when you're buying something made of wool
you always have to check for holes.
And when you're checking for holes,
a good thing to do is
hold it up to the light
because you will see the thin spots better.
This actually looks pretty clean.
Too small. Little too small.
This color's pretty cool.
And the fit doesn't look too bad, so I'll try it on.
I can tell that once it's tailored,
if I get it taken in, it will give me,
like, a sculptured look, like a blue blazer. So...
Jackets like this, I normally just button the middle button
the same way I would wear a blazer.
You can kind of see that, you know, that will look great.
But the shoulders are pretty good, and
I think it will be, like, a pretty cool jacket.
If there's anything
that you can depend on finding at a vintage store,
it is peacoats and varsity jackets.
I actually really like this one.
I like this varsity thing that says, "CHAMPS," on it.
I kind of feel like if you're gonna buy
a secondhand varsity jacket, it should be for something
that it is really obvious
you did not actually earn a varsity letter in.
So, for me, I think hockey is a pretty suitable one.
Sometimes you're just looking for
the craziest, like, fabrics you can find.
Maybe something like this.
This tapestry vest. Pretty crazy.
It kinda has that Aladdin vibe to it.
All the fans of Aladdin at Disney, like, you know...
I'm a fan of eBay.
I'm always on eBay.
Like, you could rarely find something like this.
Just because the labels...
There is no label on this.
So, trying to find something like this would
take you pretty much a long time.
Or you'd never find it on eBay.
So, that's kind of the perks of coming into a vintage store.
When you're looking at secondhand shoes,
watch out for shoes that are really shiny like these.
This is corrected-grain leather.
That means that they essentially take lousy leather,
buff off the upper layer,
and then replace it with shiny plastic.
You can see that's not a shined shoe,
but it's still really shiny.
It's a piece of crap.
[beep]
♪ ♪
All set?
Yes, sir. One sweater, please.
♪ ♪
Pretty good shirts here.
Ascot Chang, Paul Stuart, T.M.Lewin.
Nothing quite worth taking home.
Except for this.
Turnbull & Asser.
I'll take that home with me.
You guys ever do the pinch test on a jacket?
This is how you can tell if a jacket is canvassed inside.
This is actually a pretty good jacket.
So, if you grab the outside here, you can feel--
if you grab the lining with one hand
and the outside with another hand--
you can feel that there's three layers here.
See how you can feel that?
Outside pulls right away.
Yes. Yeah.
Whereas if you grab this -- this is a cheaper jacket --
it's only two layers. See?
Feel the middle doesn't come apart from the outside?
That's because this
outside fabric is only attached to the canvassing
at a few strategic points
so that it floats more easily.
Got you.
It's a sign of a good-quality jacket.
♪ ♪
This is a pretty much, uh, traditional pinstripe trouser,
but it has a cargo pocket.
I just thought that was cool, you know.
I'm gonna slim it down a bit,
just because that's how I wear my pants.
But the waist is good.
For $12, it's a pretty good deal.
Okay, so, I have to say that I'm not actually
buying anything in this store.
But I think it might be the nicest one we've been in,
and I really like the stock in here.
If I lived in New York City, I would definitely come back.
And one of the most important lessons
that I think that you can learn as a thrifter
is that sometimes the most successful trip
is the one where you don't buy anything.
You have to expect that most of the time
you're gonna come home with nothing.
Thank you.
-Well, guys... -Yeah.
Dusk is falling.
I think that means the end of our thrifting adventure.
Shall we see what we got?
-Sure. -Let's check it out.
You want to start?
I got these, the cargo trousers we were talking about earlier.
-Excellent. -Pretty cool.
Very good. And what did you get, Josh?
I got this nice Aladdin-looking vest.
It seems to me you've got something else in there.
Yeah, man. I mean, I got off to an early start, you know?
So, I popped in, and I got myself these heavy,
wool camel-hair trousers, you know?
Wait, so, by "Got off to an early start,"
you mean got off to an early start of cheating.
I mean, it's all fair, man.
Okay, I got the, um, Brooks Brothers cardigan...
Okay.
...the, uh, Turnbull & Asser shirt...
Right.
I got these Filson trousers.
Nice.
And, the pièce de résistance, the Bruce McCulloch CD.
-Nice. -Classic.
I think this thing might be out of print.
That's true.
So, who's the winner here?
Us, basically, right?
You're right.
[laughter]
Thank you guys so much for joining me on Put This On.
Thank you, Jesse.
It was really a pleasure.
I'm Louis Lapham, the editor of Lapham's Quarterly,
formerly the editor of Harper's Magazine.
When I was a freelance wandering journalist in the '60s,
I had various different costumes depending on where I was going.
Kind of "when in Rome."
But my natural inclination is to dress formally.
I just feel that if you wear a suit you can talk to anybody.
It's a matter of manners, it's a matter of being polite.
It's part of the conversation.
And, uh, my writing tends to be formal
as well as the way I dress.
Also, the way I approach people.
If you can form your sentences with a certain style,
in my view, so much the better.
It gives you a certain degree of confidence.
Flaubert, the writer, he used to always carry
at least two gold pieces in his pocket.
And it gave him a sense of weight.
It gave him a sense that he was something in the world.
I enjoy dressing well.
I take pleasure in a good suit, and I feel, uh,
I'm equal to whatever task is likely to present itself.
I'm prepared, at least in my own mind.
♪ ♪
A suit should look good off the rack.
Then you should have it altered to look great.
Budget a hundred dollars and about two weeks,
because the transformation isn't free or instantaneous.
I'm Jesse Thorn.
This is Put This On.
We're at Leonard Logsdail in New York City with Leonard Logsdail.
And we're gonna find out what's inside your suit jacket.
Leonard, what are the essential pieces
on the inside of the chest of a jacket?
Well, the chest of the jacket... there is...
there could be a fused chest, or there can be a floating chest,
or it could be a completely canvassed garment.
Well, the three examples we have here...
one is completely fused from top to bottom.
The other one, which is a more expensive garment,
has a fused front, but also with a floating chest piece.
And the one I'm making is completely canvassed.
And the idea is, as you go up the scale, that you get...
the body of a garment is built into it
so that when somebody's wearing it a few years' time,
you still retain the shape.
You can't get that with the fused.
Let's tear this thing open and see what's inside.
Let's have a look, let's have a look.
This is the fused one, and it's a new garment.
And you can see, if we turn this inside out...
...it's stuck completely to the fabric.
And I may even be able to...
Well, I probably can't even pull it off through here.
Sometimes these can break down when you send them to
a cleaner's, or if you get caught in the rain.
Something like that.
But, for a hundred bucks, or, probably what this is,
this actually is not a bad garment.
Okay. Let's take a look at a more mid-range piece.
This is something you might buy at Saks
or a mid-range department store, uh,
for fifteen hundred bucks as part of a suit.
We can see this one has a fusing,
but a much softer fusing,
and it's gonna make the jacket flow a little bit more.
And it also has a floating chest piece in here,
which also really doesn't do much.
It's just there.
It's... There's no shape to it.
The idea is it will give it a little bit more body.
But when you look at the front...
I know this is an old coat, but as it lays there,
-it's pretty flat. -Yeah.
There's not a lot of life in it.
Let's take a look at a piece
that you're working on right now.
This is a velvet... a velvet jacket.
Nice, rich blue velvet jacket.
And the canvas is all stitched by hand.
And, uh, you can see that
there's a lot of care and attention to this.
It's much like building a building.
I mean, if you build a building,
but you don't put the guts inside,
the thing's just gonna break apart after a period of time.
There's nothing different from that for the suit.
It's what goes on the inside
that makes the garment expensive,
that makes it... makes it last.
And the shape that we put in there is built so that
it goes 'round and cuts into the waist
and puts some shaping in there.
But, you know, we're talking several thousand dollars here,
as opposed to, you know, a few hundred there.
But there's a big difference.
And if you can afford it, it's worth it, because it then
becomes something that you can...
you can wear for the next ten, 15 years, and still look good.
So here's the question:
if you're not going to a custom tailor,
what can you do to determine whether you're buying
something that at least has some of the qualities
that are going into this piece?
I think the bottom line is you've got to go with your gut.
If you put a jacket on, and you look in the mirror,
and you think, "Gee, I look really good in this,"
go with it.
Well, Leonard, thank you so much for taking the time.
It's been my pleasure.
♪ ♪
[ding]
♪ ♪
You can find more good tips on our blog at PutThisOn.com.