Menswear In the Middle: What Accessible Brands Teach Guys About Getting Dressed

Snobs may scoff at brands like J.Crew, but these "middle fashion" brands are necessary for stylish guys.

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Complex Original

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While high fashion labels set trends on the runway, and fast fashion retailers seek to to emulate those trends at the lowest possible price and quickest possible turnaround, more and more brands have attempted to meld the best of both worlds, ending up somewhere in the middle. These companies, including J. Crew, Club Monaco, and COS, offer reasonably-priced pieces that acknowledge a trend while living up to an established standard of quality. Like-minded labels take cues from the runway and translate it for the masses, and sometimes, the only thing lost in translation is the designer cachet and exorbitant price tag, which is great for guys who pledge no allegiance to certain designers, or are just getting started in the men's style word. 

Men’s clothing is ultimately all about staples, and these "middle fashion" names provide strong options without going beyond what is necessary. For example, a major garment in men’s clothing is the chambray shirt; almost every man concerned with style has a chambray shirt in their repertoire. While J.Crew certainly didn’t bring chambray into the fashion foreground, it certainly created a version that emulates the nerd-revered renditions from Japanese companies like Engineered Garments and Neighborhood, while coming in at a cost that most guys can afford. Middle fashion is a guy's gateway drug into caring about fashion.

Think of it like this. In basketball, the player who checks in off the bench and consistently performs night in and night out eventually earns rings. He’s not going to be as notorious as the guy who nailed the last second three-pointer, or as well-paid as the player who posterizes the hell out of a scrubs with crazy dunks, but his consistency is a serious contribution to the team becoming a championship squad. Brands who sit between the high-profile designers and the low-cost retailers may not look as immediately cool or be the trendiest, but you’ll be going back to them time and time again when you want to strengthen your wardrobe's line-up.

Club Monaco, J.Crew, and COS embody fashion’s middle ground. All of these retailers combine trending material with a level of quality that isn't matched by the fast-fashion heavies like H&M, Zara, or Topman. The business plan of these middle ground names is simple: Find an appealing item, break down the variables that increase the price, edit out the unnecessary details, and maintain the quality across the board. Specifically in the case of J.Crew’s chambray shirt, the selvedge fabric comes from Japanese mills, and it’s finished with gussets and mother-of-pearl buttons, but the shirt itself is made in a Chinese factory at higher volumes, which drives down the cost, but not the quality.

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Another recent example is Gap's version of the Villain Side Zip hoodie from John Elliott + Co. It’s a 100 percent cotton sweater with a quilted French terry back yoke and zippers on both sides. After being selected as one of “GQ’s Best New American Menswear Designers,” John Elliott put out a capsule collection made in collaboration with the Gap as part of the reward for the distinction. The main difference between the original pieces and the lesser-priced versions? A slightly thinner-gauge fleece, smaller cuffs, a lower quality zipper tab, and the fact that it’s co-branded with Gap. Are they fundamentally the same garment? Absolutely. Is one essentially a copy of the other? Obviously. Is one also much, much cheaper? Most definitely. The collab version retails for $70, while the main line version costs $198.

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Generally speaking, the middle retailer’s labels are “inspired” by a trend, but don’t seek the “get the look” hanger appeal of fast-fashion retailers that are looking to superficially re-create higher-end models. When examining the fast-fashion model, look no further than Zara. As the New York Times discussed, fashion insiders are embracing the retailer for its ability to actually rush near-facsimiles of collection pieces to Zara stores long before the designer version that inspired it—sometimes mere days after the original item’s runway debut.

As the Times noted in an article focusing on the rise of Zara, “Céline this year took a radical step, pre-empting retailers’ efforts to “adapt” or “interpret” its much-copied collection by showing images not six months in advance of the season, but just as it is reaching stores.”

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If guys want to go all out on a trend, then fast-fashion retailers are key. The price makes picking up on the trend easy and affordable, and you never really have to sweat the quality because by the time the piece wears out (which is likely to be sooner, rather than later) the trend will have passed, and you’ll be on to the next.

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Another significant factor for middle brands to separate themselves from fast-fashion is a consistent stream of quality and logical partnerships. Stores like J.Crew’s “In Good Company Store” stocks everything from Comme des Garçons sweatshirts to Alden shoes. In this way, the middle fashion brands “curate” the higher end of the spectrum and present it to the consumer. It’s a way to say, “This is the level and aesthetic we align with and represent—with our product or otherwise.” If you can’t afford the good stuff, settle for ours, essentially.

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J.Crew’s New Balance collaborations are a consistently hot item, with the recent Independence Day and Concrete Jungle sneakers flying off shelves. Gap’s connection to GQ-endorsed labels and the accompanying collaboration sell quickly. This most recent year makes a strong example, including contemporary menswear favorites John Elliot + Co. and En Noir.

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In this way, niche brands become more accessible to the public, and have the opportunity to become household names. This gives the designer more widespread notoriety, but also bolsters the fashion cred of the middle brand, and by connection, its customer. Everyone wins.

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For fast-fashion collabs with a big name designer (think Phillip Lim for Target, Jil Sander’s +J line for Uniqlo, or the soon to be released Alexander Wang x H&M collaborations) the focus is on branding and marketing. For those who can’t (or simply aren’t willing) to plunk down the cash for the designer’s main line, these fast-fashion offerings are perfectly acceptable and important. The quality isn’t a selling point as much as the designer name, which at that particular price range, makes the collaboration worth it for buyers. But for most guys, buying clothes isn’t actually about being fashionable, it’s more about getting by in gear you can deal with.

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This is exactly where middle fashion brands’ brief shortcomings lie. Fast fashion pumps out a standard button up at roughly $20. You get what you pay for. J.Crew and Club Monaco pump out a button up somewhere between $80-$90. The cotton is likely thicker, and won’t shrink like crazy in the wash, but it’s nothing impressive. A basics-centered designer label, like A.P.C. makes an everyday button up for around $150-$200. Going the economic distance provides a slight bump in quality, and designer cachet to go with the price tag.

Inevitably, style is about how you wear something, and while any good outfit is accented with high-fashion trends or big name gear, the entire look is built from a foundation of quality basics. Generally men buy one of something and then wear it until it’s absolutely unwearable, and there are infinitely more guys who “just want to look good in their clothes” than guys with a genuine interest in the fashion world.

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If you think your wardrobe is—as Kanye would put it—a “societal requirement,” middle fashion brands are not only great, but necessary. They offer reasonable clothes at a reasonable price. But if you want to take your personal style to the next level, why not put down the extra money on something that feels a little more special?

More often than not, middle fashion brands are the gateway into the higher-end. They offer simple yet well-constructed, good-looking clothes, and guys can go either one of two ways: stay with well-made yet basic clothing or dive deeper into fashion brands like A.P.C., Saint Laurent, and niche designers like Engineered Garments and Junya Watanabe to complement an already existing wardrobe of strong necessities. Instead of having the mindset of buying clothes to try and get laid, or put together a sensible 9 to 5 wardrobe, look at getting dressed as an opportunity to tell the world who you are without having to say anything.

If you’re looking to pioneer your fashion sense, it’s easy to evolve beyond the middle fashion brands, while still acknowledging certain pieces like jeans, button downs, and T-shirts will always stay in your rotation. But if you just want to look good in your clothes, could care less about branding, and are searching for gear that you can wear for the next year or two—the mid-level menswear that often gets scoffed at by elitists and snobs is the ideal starting point to build your wardrobe.

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