Nepenthes

Engineered Garments, Excellent customer service, Fast email responses, Super fast shipping.

Wonderful inventive clothing from one of my favorite designers, Daiki Suziki. His clothes are wearable and beautifully constructed.
I wish the sales were a little better, but the quality of clothing makes up for the prices.

I never write reviews and I especially hate the idea of writing a negative one, but unfortunately in this situation I must. A return policy that doesn’t allow for returns and only allows for an exchange within 7 days is archaic. I’ve worked in the apparel industry for nearly twenty years and I thought these consumer unfriendly policies were a thing of the past. In all fairness the policy was clearly stated on the receipt and furthermore I won’t be back.

Very unique and always something interesting. This is the HQ for Engineered Garments, Needles and others. My first stop whenever I’m in town!

If you’re at all into the Japanese deconstruction of heritage utilitarian clothing/​Americana: workwear, sportswear, military garb, and so on, this is the place to go. Carries all the highly exclusive EG stuff as well as other brands that are even harder to find: Needles, South2 West8, Sonic Lab. Always a good day when I pick up some clobber from the shop.

Oh, you carnivorous monkeycup: let me count the emmer-​effing ways.
I first entered «the know» about this spot via a Tumbl’d picture of a floral print bow tie that inspired within me a particular bloodlust. After some sniffing, I became aware not only of the unparalleled awesome that is Engineered Garments, but of this flagship-​of-​sorts that was conveniently located right around the corner from my then place of employ.
These were more monied times for me, and something of a low-​intensity monster was conceived the day Abdul (you’ve seen him in the blogosphere) led me to that very bow I’d been ogling. Daiki Suzuki has been designing meticulously expressive wearables under the EG name for something like 15 years, and this is the place where you’re like to see the best mix of basics and limited-​run OMGWTF statement pieces from his seasonal oeuvre.
The staff is the chillest of chill, the art exhibits routinely lovely, the music choices ritually luscious, but the clothes? Say what you will about the life or death of «workwear.» Feast your eyes on one of these impeccably styled mannequins and riff as I would, on some Flann O’Brien: this is very wholesome stuff, every stitch a sermon in itself.

One of the best clothing stores in the US. Stocks a lot of Engineered Garments stuff including the Workaday and Women lines which are difficult to find outside Japan. They also have other brands and collaborations. I bought a nice Faribault Woolen Mills scarf there.
Staff is cool and helpful. Plus it is one of the few interesting clothing stores located in the Garment District. Make sure you check it out when you are in New York!

I Believe the most well know brand carried here is Engineered Garments. If you are a fan of EG then you have to come here. Barneys and a few other boutiques may carry EG this is where you will probably find more of the extravagant patterns.
It’s a pretty small store however and they seem to sell out of EG pieces pretty quickly so if you see a piece you like I would recommend buying it immediately.

If you peruse fashion blogs or magazines that try to be kewl, you probably noticed that in the past couple of years the kids have gotten into something lazily labelled as workwear, or americana, or heritage, or whatever.
One of the most popular brands within the «genre» is Engineered Garments. Previously a boys line only, EG promotes that effortless edgy-​gentleman neo-​grandpa aesthetic that people are starting to pick up on. Nepenthes (an umbrella company that manages EG along with more obscure brands like Needles, South2West8 and FKW, aka EG for girls) has a store in Osaka, JP and has come to New York to teach the NY preppies to be a little bit more adventurous and silly in their discovery of the styles of the past. Here you’ll find the more playful Engineered Garments pieces (pretty much the only place on American soil to carry the ones you see on the Japanese blogs), hyper-​floral Needles shirts and cardigans, along with expensive –but pretty much one-​of-​a-​kind– shoes that came up by collaborating with Tricker’s, McNairy or Arrow Moc.
It’s always a pleasure to trek all the way to 38^th street to see what the SAs are rocking. I’d say they can teach most NY kids a lesson or two. I’m partial to new boutiques opening in NYC, but Nepenthes definitely fills a spot that neither Opening Ceremony or Odin had any intention to cover (they play safe). There’s always new stuff coming in, but it seems like they’re being careful with their stock, so sizes are limited and the sought-​after pieces go sold out really quick. Skip Soho one day and come here for something really fresh and fairly original. This is the coolest shop in NYC as of April 2011.
P. S.: They occasionally host art openings. Keep an eye on their blog to see when the next one is coming up.