The day after Christmas, all those holiday decorations go from being celebratory decor to an impending task: “Take me down,” they whisper. “Pack me away until next year.” There’s no hurry (it’s still “the holiday season,” and the Epiphany isn’t until January 6), but they’re still there, like so many festive empty cups and bottles after a party. The recycling truck hasn’t even taken yesterday’s wrapping paper away yet. Carols are still ringing in your ears. It’s the holiday hangover.
And yet. You can’t ignore that it’s one of the best shopping days of the year, rivaled only by Black Friday. Many shops start their sales on fall/winter clothing before Christmas, but post-Christmas is when they really start clearing out cold weather clothing, and when you can often find the best deals of the year on more year-round wear, especially at big retailers that rely a lot on holiday shoppers. Almost every store you like is offering some sort of deal today — here are five I think are most worth your while.
Brooks Brothers
The Bros are offering 15% on top of their sale prices, including multi-buy values, which brings some of the items we often recommend down considerably. Their OCBDs, which we like a lot but don’t think are a great value at the standard price of $140, are about $70 (when you buy four). Sure, it’s still a price jump from their OCBDs before they updated them in 2016, but a good value for what’s still a workhorse shirt with a great, improved collar (if you like soft-roll button down collars). And while the Brooks footwear offerings have fallen off a lot in the last few years, the made-in-England Peal & Co. sub-label remains a bright spot. I like these Dainite soled pebble loafers ($330 after discount) and these cordovan brogues (about $500). (They were a little cheaper on Christmas, but this is still pretty good.)
Mr. Porter
There’s really no other single store that covers the ground Mr Porter does, from directional/fashion lines to luxe-dad-wear to tailoring (except maybe Barneys — RIP) and similarly there’s no other sale that really does have something for everyone like Porter’s, which started late Christmas night. Check out Derek’s picks. There’s a lot there; like Derek, I find it easiest to navigate by brand. I like these cashmere Lockie sweaters at 50% off, Timex’s military and diver style watches (they’re not collector’s items, but I think they look great), bold sunglasses from Sun Buddies for <$100, Ivy-ish gear for winter and summer from Beams Plus, Nike’s retro running shoes, New Balance’s latest Engineered Garments collaboration for $130, wool coats from Piombo, sweaters and winter accessories from Inis Meain, and handsome clothes for handsome dudes from Camoshita.
J. Crew
J. Crew has an extra 50% off sale styles–always worth browsing, at least for Wallace and Barnes’ CPO shirts, flannels, and pleated corduroys; together, these are some of J. Crew’s best values and most reliable items season to season as the Crew tries to find its footing again. I also dig these cargos. These items are mostly nominally on sale — like, 9% off — but the extra 50 is the real discount.
Spier and Mackay
One of our favorite picks for suits under $1,000 is offering 25% off sitewide (excluding custom tailoring and shoes), bringing their new full-canvas suits in their Neapolitan cut to about $450, tuxes to about $350, and their $350 price point suits to about $260. S+M has sales often, but haven’t seen a blanket 25% since at least last spring.
Ralph Lauren
RL has 30% off sale items. This doesn’t seem to apply to everything — like RRL — but a lot of stuff is on pretty deep sale already. RRL denim < $100, westerns for $70, chambray work shirt (a true essential, but only in XS) for $79, some (admittedly still expensive) accessories at more than 50% off. Polo Italian-made suits are under $1,000. It’s no employee discount code, but it’s not bad!
