NYTimes: Club Monaco "Vexing"

The price is usually right at Club Monaco, but -- from a quality and fit perspective -- the brand often leaves much to be desired. In its suiting department, where the brand was supposed to shine this year, Times 'Critical Shopper' Jon Caramanica just stumbled into a sartorial minefield.

On one model, "the collar was distractingly thin, as if it had been pulled tight with a drawstring, and the rest of the jacket felt overlong ... The basic gray blazer had an uncomfortable sharkskin glow to it ... Most models had crimped perforations at the rim of the lapel and collar, and these warm-weather suits had absolutely no give in the cotton, which was stiff like oak tag ... Even when I found my size, I still felt as if I was wearing my father's suit."

A few promising pieces aside, Caramanica then basically writes off the brand as a source for "unambitious basics for the shopper who finds Banana Republic too risky." Rough.