Review of Cloak NYC Store and Other High-casual boutiques in NYC

[Guest]

Today, after seeing Mouko flossing the Cloak trench coat on what are you wearing thread, I decided to head out to the new 10 Mercer st. Cloak store, which recently opened last Thursday. Its a bit funny considering the location is very near Chinatown's layfayette street with all the boot-leg goods and clueless white southerns coming in to get a "bargin". I overheard a couple staking a strategy to play hardball with some sellers thinking that they were getting a good deal on some Chanel bags; little do they know the boot-leggers are getting their goods for dirt cheap on wholesale and are still making a killing. Chinatown is great. Anyways, back to Cloak. The store is f&cking bomb. It's got a victorian library/gothic motif and the fitting rooms are hidden in back of the library shelves like trap doors. Very nice. Everything about the clothing screams punk/Dior homme/rocker/gothic cool and I ended up buying the trench coat:

http://men.style.com/slideshows/mens/fashionshows/F2005MEN/CLOAK/RUNWAY/00030m.jpg

The price points of Cloak's clothing is amazing considering the quality of the material and in retrospect to its contemporaries like Dior, they could easily be charing 2-3 times more for their designs. I was wholy suprised and relieved that they weren't higher.

Next, went to Opening Ceremony and found this place also progessive and tight. The store has a lot of cut and sew garments as well as Cloak. What really suprised me about the selection was how well thick/well made the garments were. Many cardigans and long-sleeve tees has several layers, were very thick, and had interesting linings. In particular, one cardigan/jacket had a hentley/waffle lining. Very dope. Lots of trench coats/riders jackets in interesting fabrics like sweat-shirt cotten and rough coudaroy. The girls that worked there were also hot. Highly recommended.

Next, hit up Zakka on 147 grand st. Basically a lot of AA Appearl shirts in interesting designs, but mostly had a techno/pre-millenium Ray-gun "internet is cool" vibe which just felt dated. Decided to look at some architecture books and several of my favorite japanese mags. Two japanese guys were working the store and one gave me a hard time because I kept taking mags and moving to a more comfortable place to read them and he took them and mistakenly thought I was gonna buy them and then got mad that I wasn't. He even cursed at me in Japanese even though I could understand him and later I asked for his card in Japanese just to spite him. Heh.

Lastly, hit up Atelier on Crosby St. They also sell Cloak as well as Raf Simons, Number (N)ine , and Undercover. Other than that brand, I didn't find anything interesting. The entire collection is in Blacks, Grays, and Browns, which didn't appeal to me, but I feel the style is gonna pick up for fall. No one was at the store except for me and I found the avant garde clothing a little off-putting. Number (N)ine and Undercover's clothing was interesting, but not something I would wear, nor something I think others (including myself) could appreciate given the price points. Basically, is 150+ dollars for a jersey cotten t-shirt really worth it? For me, no. In all, a slight disappointment.

Peace!

[djrajio]

Fuck. My thread died. Anyways, after seeing mouku in the Cloak trench on the earlier what are we wearing thread, I decided to head to the 10 Mercer st. store which opened just last thursday. Let me tell you that the store is bomb. Its got a old victorian library gothic motif and the dressing rooms are hidden behind trap doors in the library shelves! Very hot. The garments are all high quality and first rate and the prices aren't Dior-excessive either! I was very surprised that the price points weren't 2-3 times higher. The store clercs were also very approachable and we ended up talking about good vintage stores in London and Japan. At any rate, I ended up getting the trench coat:

After hitting up Cloak, I decided to hit up Opening Ceremony. I really like the concept of the store and found it to have the best cut and sew garments in all of NYC. Lots of cardigans and layering pieces on display which were all really thick and had many layers to them. In particular, I spotted a nice Cardigan jacket with a hentley/waffle lining. Very cool. Also found Cloak here too as well as Rag & Bone, but no selvege. I also found some nice pieces by May Ping (I think that's her name), very slim cuts ala Dior/Cloak but with more color. Also found the girls working there to be very hot.

Next, decided to hit up Zakka on 147 Grand St. Lots of t-shirts with techno inspired Ray-gun pre-millenial "internet graphic" prints. Not my thing really. Two Japanese guys work the store. I decided to hit up the architecture books and then the Jap mags. Made the owner pissed off us I kept taking the mags from the racks and walking over to my shit to read em. He took em thinking I was gonna buy them but told him I just wanted to read the articles. This sort of made him pissed and he cursed to his friend in japanese about me. I later asked for his business card in Japanese just to spite him. Heh.

Next, decided to go to Seven New York, but it was closed for re-construction.

Finally, hit up Atelier on Crosby St. Everything in the store is high-end casual/designer collection only in Black, Gray, and Brown. They sell Cloak here as well, plus Number (N)ine and Undercover. I particularly was disappointed with this store. I was the only on there when I visited and most of the clothing seemed too avant garde and unapproachable to wear. In particular, the prices for Number (N)ine and Undercover were just outrageous given the materials used and the looks conceived. Honestly, is 150+ dollars for a jersey cotten t-shirt really worth it? Perhaps, I'm just not progressive enough? *Shrug* Fuck that.

In my opinion, hit up Cloak and Opening Ceremony when you're in Chinatown. Peace!

Edited by djrajio on Aug 27, 2005 at 10:14 PM

[sonja]

Are you talking about Seven on Orchard or the new location? You have to excuse the Zakka dude and his dreadlocked friend...he's trying to make a living from Gloomy Bear keychains.

[mouko]

I'm really having a hard time deciding whether to get a dior homme basic peaked lapel or the new Cloak dinner coat. I'm really wanting to dress more cloak gothic like, I just love the whole military thing. Although there are a lot of pieces I didn't really like (just because a lot of the pieces were cropped) I find Cloaks designs to be pretty fresh and prices to be really reasonable.

As for Altelier, Its one of those stores that are so customer specific. The owner, Karlo (the black guy) is very much into monochromatics and only buys specific pieces to fit his taste and its apparent in the whole store. It's hard to justify a lot of the prices and choices they make, but a lot of the garments are very wellmade. The magazine I work for worked with them and did a story on the brand Carpe diem, which is a fine leather label (which has asub brands that do knitwear) You should go back and ask to see the Carpe diem motocyle boots, those shits are amazing.

Edited by mouko on Aug 28, 2005 at 12:15 AM

[djrajio]

I believe the new location? 110 Mercer St.? Its near the APC store. Didn't know they had an older location...

Mouko, didn't get a chance to check out the Carpe Diem boots, might head back again when time permits. But that Cloak dinner jacket is awesome! I actually was debating between the jacket and the trench but in the end, since I'm working in Tokyo and its approaching winter, I wanted something I could rock when the weather gets mad cold. But the material on the dinner jacket is bananas, its a nice piped-like coudaroy blend in a steel-grey/black with an amazing cut. Soo soo nice, might cop one too later next month....

Edited by djrajio on Aug 28, 2005 at 07:23 AM

[mouko]

yeah check out the carpe diem stuff. They're the first set of clothes on the meat hangers on the left side. Talk about crazy prices but they have some amazing shit.

The dinner coat is very nice, but I'm really thinking of whats more vesatile and a basic black dior blazer would be way more vesatile than the dinner coat. And just speaking solely about resale value, Dior homme is the only high end designer label that can get retail or more than retail for if I ever do plan on selling it on ebay. To me the cloak coat would be nice but as a long term investment the dior one is just ahead.

I really liked that trench too but I liked the one with the fur trim much more. I also liked the aviator like quilted bomber jackets, except for the "cloak" patch on the arm. I like my pieces to be brand free for the most part :T ah decisions decisions.

[woejozney]

mouko, how much is basic dior blazer?

p.s. i remember seeing you on livejournal forever ago...theraphysessions, right?

Oh Gawd!

[djrajio]

Good looking out with those comments. Reason I didn't feel the fur trim coat is that it felt too "hood" for my tastes, particularly considering that I my style is more lean/punk/rock/simple, I felt that the coat might not work with my style. On the dinner jacket, true with Dior having more resale value, I've never have put any of my clothing on resale; I guess its cuz I never make purchase decisions in clothing based on what it'll fetch on ebay later on, solely cuz I never intend on selling any of my gear. I also am more into lesser-known designers rather than high-profile designers. Fashion tends to be tremendously fickle on what's hot/what's not, how much things will fetch later on. For example, mid-late 90s, Gucci and Prada were seen as the creme d'la creme and their garments had high-mark up/resale value. Now, Gucci and Prada have been struggling and actually have lowered their price points to match lower demand. You can particularly see this with Gucci after Tom Ford's departure. But I degress that's the falacy of fashion. If you're into Cloak/gothic stuff too, you should definitely check out the brand Lad Musician; they do amazing garments as well and I have an awesome blazer from them. Peace!

[mouko]

whoops double post

Edited by mouko on Aug 28, 2005 at 09:05 AM

[mouko]

Quote:

mouko, how much is basic dior blazer?

p.s. i remember seeing you on livejournal forever ago...theraphysessions, right?

--- Original message by woejozney on Aug 28, 2005 08:22 AM

yeah i'm therapysessions

The dior basic blazer is $1400.00. It has peaked lapels, very slim cut. Very nice. Doesn't seem to have ben on the runway. It's only available at Barneys and Jefferys, but Jefferys has a price hike of 1900.00. The Dior Boutique didn't stock the basic, but they have a very nice similar one with half satin peaked lapels for 1900.00, but the satin is totally not worth the extra 500.00.

The cloak dinner coat (above) is gray/black in the store in case you're curious. Very nice as well, and 200.00 less (1200) than the Dior coat.

Djrajio

The thing is I usually sell my old stuff to get new stuff. I like to keep my wardrobe small and go through a lot of different phases. My income is not really steady enough for crazy clothing spending habits, so I'm always thinking of what I can get incase I do sell it. It sounds a bit lame, but I'm not really into haveing a crazy stocked closet of shit I haven't worn in years.

I know what you mean about the fur one beeing a bit hood, but the slim cut and fine fur kind of helps.

I know Lad Musician very well but from what I understand, they're not sold in the states am I correct? I wanted those Fender shirts for the longest time. Any idea where I can get any in the states?

[hahnstch]

mouko, word, carpe diem stuff are sick!! too bad they are a bit out of my price range

[djrajio]

"It sounds a bit lame, but I'm not really into haveing a crazy stocked closet of shit I haven't worn in years."

I totally agree with your philosophy. I'm actually quite the same. I tend to buy very few items but of very high quality and items that are very versatile and can go with many outfits. I actually don't have closets worth of clothing myself. I think this was also one of the reasons I decided on the trench coat because trench coats never go out of style; very timeless.

As for Lad Musician. No they don't sell any of it in the US. But I live in Tokyo and would be happy to swing by and pick a shirt up or allow you to order from their online store and have it shipped to my address. I also part-time as a buyer for japanese brands for new york / LA boutiques and will also be starting a re-selling online store soon, so if I'm lucky with my connections, you might be seeing labels like Lad Musician in New York boutiques by next year or on my online store. *Keeps fingers crossed*

[xcoldricex]

moved this to superjetset