Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe is a pristine men’s store. Nicely organised and cared-​for by enthusiastic staff, it stocks lots of brands such as Bench and Only. Just as in a women’s retailer, the clothing is arranged into logical sections, which makes the whole shopping experience a lot more simplistic.
There were some very All Saints-​esque t-​shirts in here which my boyfriend was disgusted at! As a huge A. S fan he proclaimed ”ugh, what a rip-​off.”
The fashion on offer wasn’t enough to rival the likes of River Island or even independent men’s boutique Ran.
Not a huge fan but still a nice store.

Tom Wolfe sounds like the name of a distinguished store for well dressed and well read gentlemen.
In reality, it’s a small chain that stocks casual and smart casual menswear for men in their twenties upwards. A large percentage of the shop is devoted to their own label but there’s also other well known brands like Bench, Only and Ucla. There’s some quite nice jeans, tees, polo shirts and trainers but the stock pales in comparison to independent boutiques like Ran and Aspecto. It also lacks the scale and choice of bigger chains like Cult and Republic.

Your last chance to buy stuff that was so unpopular it meant that the place selling it had to close down. You used to be able to buy Tom Wolfe stuff at Envy (remember Envy? Where everyone used to get their gladrags when Eminem was still relevant and Big Brother was still an exciting and well watched televisual event) but I guess they got too big for their boots, decided they could go it alone. It must have seemed like a good idea, Envy ended up crumbling under the weight of its own obsession with acid wash bootcut jeans and people still wanted a piece of Tom Wolfe.
Now like a brokedown prizefighter Tom Wolfe sells off its championship gloves and its gold teeth and bemoans its rotten damn luck. I coulda been a contender.
The truth is global financial crisis or no global financial crisis Tom Wolfe wouldn’t have competed well. The clothes are too tame for the River Island crowd, too messy for the H&M gang and not hip or edgy enough for the Topmen or Topshoppers. They stocked other peoples gear too UCLA, FCUK but it wasn’t enough; besides if you want FCUK you would just go to FCUK.
It’s sad in a way but thems the breaks kids.