Brown’s Big Sized Menswear Design

Glenn at Brown’s sold me a suit and I came away very pleased. PLUS, he steered me to Five Star Alterations in Regent’s Arcade, where Josef did a magnificent job altering the pants, which in my case, and because of my girth, is essentially a re-​engineering job befitting what they are doing to the Rundle Mall.

I try my best not to suffer any delusions. My father is a large man. This is where I come to buy him clothes for Christmas and birthdays (’cause if my parents can get away with buying me crappy clothes for a present, so can I!).
But this isn’t about my father. This is about planning ahead. I exercise and eat well, but there’s a very good chance I might fill the silhouette of my father, and his father before him.
Okay, that’s defeatist. I dunno how to put it. Here, we’ll try this: IF I grow a little and a lot rounder as I march on past my twenties, this is the store I’ll come to. It’s not as cheap as the warehouse, but if I’ve grown a little (or a lot) heftier, I’d like to think I have some sort of career to show for it.
So, if I’m tubby and I’m rich (I’m exaggerating, the prices aren’t THAT bad), I’ll come here. If I’m tubby and I’m poor… well, I might consider just letting other people dress me if it comes to that. I may well have lost the inclination. Or I’ll just go to the warehouse. Depends on how melodramatic I’m feeling.

I’m a big bloke. I’m not terrible fashion conscious, either. As long as I’m not reduced to wearing a mu mu or whatever those fat men’s dresses are, then I’ll wear pretty much anything, much to the dismay of all the women in my life.
So my lovely better half (she’s much, much better) dragged me in here recently. There are some real bargains. I ended up with a couple of shirts that apparently look significantly better than my customary 3XL polo shirts.
I thought the service was excellent, helpful but not obtrusive at all, and to me, being annoyed by sales staff is enough for me to walk out and not buy anything, even if there was something I had my heart set on.
Good place.

Don’t get mixed up, Twin Street in Adelaide has two Brown’s Big Sized Menswear Stores. In one you find the bargains; it’s a clearance house for stock that is last season basically and in the other (this one) you find all the latest designs. Now are you wondering what I am wondering? How many big sized men are concerned about which season they are wearing? Well not all that many to be honest, but their wives and girlfriends and boyfriends are concerned about it! Fascinating fact — while I was chatting with Terry Brown about the business of dressing up super sized men one fellow came in to get himself a black shirt, «Like the one what I’ve got on,» says he. Terry went about pointing the gentleman to the right spot and the man found his shirt, but as he did so he told us about his friend who had gone to the ‘other’ shop and not been able to find one. «Ah,» says Terry, «That must be the clearance shop down the road. Hard to find a black shirt in there,» he says. When I ask why he explains that «Black is slimming,» and often the big sized black items will go first.
Well I was a little amazed. Evidently the tricks of fashion are at the forefront of everyone’s mind at some stage; and if you weigh a couple of hundred kilos they’re just as meaningful to you as the next guy if not more.
The styles are all very fresh and crisp and I guess the major difference is the price, there’s not so much obviously marked down in the ‘Design’ store. Otherwise it’s more or less the same — even though there are probably subtle differences I simply didn’t pick up. So if you are a bear sized fellow, big and beautiful like the song says… and you are seeking out decent clobber to wear around town put Twin Street on your list of destinations! Inevitably you will be glad you did.