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| - In my own experience with men's clothing in this city, I would have to say that Calgary sucks. Boxy clothes bought at boxy big-brand stores. It's really tough to break out of this trend because at the other end you've got the wanna-be Gucci kids spending their parent's money at Holt Renfrew on ridiculously bad-looking clothing. What happened to tradition?
I guess there are three decent places in Calgary to rediscover a semblance of men's style: Brooks Brothers, Harry Rosen, and O'Connors. The first (BB) is ok, they've got decent ties, and shirts that often go on sale, but it's a bit too big-brand for me, the salespeople are, for the most part, very high pressure. Often I go in and get the feeling they would sell me anything, as long as they could sell me something.
Harry Rosen is nice, although a tad on the expensive side, and in my opinion, just sells the brands to the younger crowd (see Hugo Boss).
O'Connors is pretty good. Maybe the best place in the city for a younger guy looking to get into decent clothing. Not that it's cheap, but then, you didn't really think you could get a quality garment, like a sports coat, for under $700, did you?
I found the salespeople at O'Connors to be very helpful, and just interested. Interested in how I wanted to look, interested in my means, all that. I was never up-sold, when I said I was considering Made to Measure, the salespeople made me try on about a dozen different coats to satisfy my concerns regarding fit. I ended up getting a stock single sports coat from Samuelsohns made for what I was looking to spend. As I said, this place isn't cheap. You will not find a cheap fashion fix here, items have to be picked out with care and consideration. After my first consultation, I walked away for a week before deciding to go ahead with my purchase.
Special Note: There are season-end sales. For example, every quarter, they put season's fabric on sale for about 25% off. So not bad, and worth waiting for.
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