Musings on niche clothing retail

[cupcake_goth]

And for once, not goth clothing!

I have been a big fan of the J. Peterman catalog since I first discovered it sometime in the early 90s. (And no, not from Seinfield, because I never watched the show and have never wanted to.) Anyway, the catalog is still enchantingly whackaloon. Illustrations of the clothing, not photos, and ridiculously florid sell text, which are (fictional, I assume) snippets about glamorous, globe-trotting adventures that are very tenuously connected to the clothing.

But the main reason I'm a fan is that some of the clothes they offer (usually in the holiday catalog) are a wonderful. Silk-rayon velvet for miles. Gorgeous coats and jackets patterned off of Victorian and Edwardian styles. Last year I pined after this coat, but couldn't justify $400+ for it, even when it went on sale. (Mostly because of the yellow lining, which was a poly blend. I don't understand the point of making a beautiful velvet coat and lining it in polyester.)

(Did I mention their prices are ridiculous?)

I constantly search ebay and poshmark in the hopes that this velvet coat will appear, because that is pretty much the velvet coat of my dreams. It hasn't so far, and I will probably end up plunking down the money to buy silk velvet and lightweight silk satin, and then bribe the Infamous BlueJay to reproduce it for me.

Back in late 90s, thanks to some amazing sales when their ill-advised attempt at brick & mortar stores were going out of business, I snagged a bunch of their items. I still have most of them, including a black silk frock coat that you will pry out of my cold undead hands after someone drives a stake through my heart and not before, and a black wool riding jacket that I wore so often that the cuffs and collars frayed and I had to cover them in black lace to hide the damage.

Over the past few months, they've been having constant sales. It seems like I get an email from them at least once a week announcing a new sale. I'd take advantage of this, but they don't have anything I want right now, and probably won't until the holiday catalog. But it makes me wonder if they're long for this world. I'd hate to see them go out of business, but I can't imagine anyone paying $148 for a plaid cotton dress.

Comments

[fufaraw]

My dream job was writing item copy for J. Peterman, oh, a long time ago.

How coincidental, J. Peterman copy came up in response to a post on Fb this morning.

Not quite your sartorial niche, but...

[full_metal_ox]

J. Peterman strikes me as a successor to old-school Banana Republic, back when the latter specialized in such living-the-adventure attire as safari vests, Indiana Jones fedoras, bomber jackets, and foreign military surplus; they were a steam/dieselpunk Mecca before the term "cyberpunk" (which begat the subsequent elaborate taxonomy of retropunk) was even conceived.

(I learned about Banana Republic belatedly, via a hardcover compilation of their catalogs; it was only after a long hike to the new branch in a local shopping center that I discovered that they'd been bought out by the Gap, with the inventory reflecting as much.)

Re: Not quite your sartorial niche, but...

[gatheringrivers]

I was thinking that myself! My parents used to get the old catalogs from those days.

[solstice_lilac]

Is that second velvet coat you linked, with the many buttons and red lining, a Peterman coat too? That coat is GAF. :D But yeah, $400 and up would be quite a splurge.

I love that J. Peterman has not changed their catalog style in all these years, particularly the copy!

[gwyn]

And remember the old Banan Republic catalogs that were also illustrated in the same way, and had all these travelogue like descriptions? I miss that.

[staxxy]

a quick glance through the catalog and I spotted this - http://www.jpeterman.com/item/wsw-2460/101200310402/black-bowtie-cape

which seems like a sort of jackety cape thing