Clothing Review: RAG New York linen blazer/pants/Henley shirts


LegendaryE34

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Well, this ends about a month of ordering, waiting, and speculation on where to find some budget-minded Vice-styled clothes, and about another month of actually wearing everything and testing out the quality. To begin: In the thread linked to below, BlueAir found a clothing site called RAG New York that seemed to carry Vice-styled linen blazers and pants for pretty good prices: http://www.miamiviceonline.com/showthread.php?17157-Need-Backup! Link to the blazer: http://www.ragnewyork.com/mens-clothing/mens-blazers/linen-blazers/2115/#cr The blazers are $26, and are 55/45 linen/cotton blend; colors available are Natural, White, Taupe, Black, Navy, and Olive Drab(ish). The pants are of the same material and are $16. Colors available are Natural, White, Taupe, Black, and Navy. I ordered a number of white blazers and linen pants. Three-button Henleys are available and there are a couple of Vice colors as well, mainly the sky blue and orange ones. Those are $10. I got one of each as well as a black one. Ordering Experience(Rating: 6/10): The website was easy to navigate and the sizing charts are easy to understand. There are a wide variety of sizes available. I'm a Large as far as the blazer goes and a 36/32 as far as pants. Just know your sizes and you should be good. The actual ordering was easy and secure, no issues or problems there. I received a confirmation email pretty much instantly and that was that. The problems didn't start occurring until about a week later. I was expecting a tracking number or a "Sorry, we don't have your items in stock, please wait until such and such date for delivery" email. I decided to call and see if things had been shipped yet. Despite my calling during the listed business hours I reached voicemail. I left one, and followed up with an email a couple of days after my call went unreturned. The next week I decided to try again. Calling the customer service line yielded a full voice mail box. I decided to call RAG's retail stores to see if I could get a hold of a live person. I did, and they directed me to a very nice guy(who I wasn't sure was a manager or not) who told me that everything I had ordered was in stock and he would get a hold of the guy in charge of the Internet side of the business to give me a call. A few hours later he did with a tracking number, showing that my order was to arrive that day. It never did, and the next few days were a major flurry of emails and phone calls trying to figure out what was going on and trying to get a hold of the guy who was in charge of the Internet side of the business. Basically, my problem was due to a major UPS goof that sent my order back to New York, increasing the transit time by over a week. They were sent out on the 14th of April and finally arrived today(29th of April). However, the owner of the business was kind enough to refund everything so I essentially got everything for free. I would like to stress that while I had severe problems in getting my order they did take care of me. If things were going smoothly it would have been just fine, but just be aware that you might have to go through some hoops in order to contact anyone there. If you can't get a hold of anyone via the Web site's customer service number or email, contact their retail stores. However, they're not a scam business offering decent Vice clothes for too good to be true prices. I did get everything in and I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten my money back if they were being shady. Linen Blazer: (Rating: 6/10). Like I mentioned before, this isn't a completely screen-accurate blazer. This is a 3-button blazer with lining, versus the unconstructed(no lining) ones with two buttons that DJ wore in the series. There are two hand pockets on the outside of the blazer and two inner pockets in the lining, with loop and button closures for security(nice touch). The weave is pretty coarse and just about see through(even through the lining), but the fabric is pretty lightweight. I'm writing this after wandering around town in about 80-85F(26.5-29.5C) temperatures and had no issues(update: after a while it can get a little toasty; I've found myself using the AC in my car a bit more than I used to, although it's been quite hot recently). The lining is polyester and pretty thin. Some people may or may not like this, but these blazers seem to have thin shoulder pads. Not too noticeable unless you're looking for it, but something to be aware of. While these aren't going to cut it for someone who's serious about getting the total accurate Crockett style, for only $26 these are great. While I can see myself 'graduating' to more accurate clothing in the future(if you can find it), these knock-offs have a great price to style ratio. I know I'd be a little hesitant to run around constantly in $200 blazers; I bought three sets of blazers, pants, and shirts for $160. That's enough for a casual Vicer to get a good Crockett look for parties and conventions for not much money, or a more dedicated fan to build up a decent wardrobe pretty quickly. The fabric is a bit coarse and stiff when you first get it, something easily taken care of with a wash and iron. The care instructions are pretty easy, too... wash in cold water and line dry(I typically use the delicates setting on my dryer as the climate here isn't really suitable for line drying half the time), and warm iron if needed. Unfortunately, I've started to have problems with the build quality. The linen is holding up quite well after several washings and a regular rotation of wear. However, the lining is having a bit of a problem. The stitching on the center back seam on two of the blazers are coming apart; I should be able to easily repair the seams myself(and that's with virtually no sewing experience). Caveat emptor to a point, but as before my personal opinion is that the price is enough to put up with some alterations. I'd likely go a size larger next time, but all in all it's decent. Linen Pants: (Rating: 7/10). Like the blazers, the pants are the same 55/45 linen/cotton blend and are made from identical material as the blazer. There are no pleats and you have two front pockets and two back pockets with button closures. Like the blazer they are still slightly see-through, so make sure to wear white underclothing... darker colors will show through a little bit. Not really noticeable to others unless they're -really- looking for it, but you will notice it. Otherwise they're comfortable, lightweight, and match the blazer perfectly. Once again, the style to price ratio is excellent.As an aside, this is white clothing and will definitely stain easily. I must stress that everything should be washed in cold water. A trick I picked up in a pinch is you can pretreat stains before washing by rubbing in some of your laundry detergent(I use liquid for this purpose), and something like baking soda or Oxy-clean to help draw it out. I was riding in the back of a car and got jostled, spilling bright red Gatorade on my pants a couple of days ago... I feared they would be completely ruined. After two washings with the pretreatment, the stains were completely gone. Same with some dirt I had issues with. Henleys: (Rating: 7/10). These are actually pretty good shirts. The material is comfortable and they are four-button Henleys, which are pretty accurate. The blue one I ordered is a little bit darker than what you see DJ wearing in the series; I have a T-shirt that's about an exact match and this one is maybe 1-2 shades darker. The major reason why the rating on these took a hit is because of the contrast stitching... definitely not Vice style, but I'll use them in my clothing rotation. The orange one's a pretty good pastel orange, though; I do like the look. Overall quality and durability of the Henleys are great. For $9.99 a shirt, these are pretty good. And, a few observations on going around dressed like Crockett: Expect to be pretty self-conscious at first. That's a fact of life but as you go out and do things, you start to adopt the style and get comfortable in your own skin. I'd say overall 90% of the comments I've gotten were pretty positive, 3% were negative(and not even that strongly), and 7% were people who referenced Vice... I've gotten a "Wow, that takes me back. Used to watch the show all the time" and a "Hey, when's Tubbs showing up?" Was also told I needed to sell my BMW and get a Porsche to complete the look, which was pretty entertaining. I did get a few 'what the heck?' stares, but was actually quite pleasantly surprised at the amount of ladies that actually complimented my appearance. That's never really happened with my previous 'style.' I get more comments/compliments if I stick pretty strictly to the Vice colors. The light blue will jog people's memories and it's guaranteed some people will know you're dressing like Crockett. More conservative colors(I like to use darker blue and black shirts) tend to not get noticed as much. Accessories help, too. While Wayfarers are accurate I feel they're a bit too common; I managed to find a pair of cheapo knockoff glasses that look somewhat like Carreras(I'll eventually get a couple of vintage pairs for special occasions) that really give off that '80s look, and I also have a set of more modern-looking tortoiseshell knockoff glasses that give off a good look. I also made sure to get a decent(albeit on the inexpensive side) watch to round everything off.Since I've been doing this for about a month I need to say I really enjoy it. Even if it's just for a convention you can't go wrong with the price. For all of you waiting to take the plunge, jump in. The water's fine. :DUnfortunately I don't have many pictures due to the fact I really have nowhere to take them(everything's packed away for my upcoming move), but I do have at least one snapshot of me in the RAG blazer(the shirt is my own T-shirt and not the RAG henley). I have a couple others a friend took more recently; I'll be sure to get them from her. I'll also post more comprehensive photos once I get settled in and have space to really get up and close detailed shots.Eingefügtes Bild

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That was a great read, thanks! You definitely need to be self conscious and look like you're proud of the way you look. If you're skirmish then it's gonna get noticed and you won't feel good.I always make a big deal of the fact that MV was groundbreaking show blah blah blah... people then tend not to argue with me heheMost either can't remember it anymore or just don't care anyway. Which is good, it makes you go on about your daily life as intended, and in touch with the 80s :cool:I like to prefer the 80s over 21st century, "unfortunately".

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