Porterhouse Clothing & Supply — Local services in Eugene

It's not often in the course of visiting clothing shops for men that a shop earns the title "Gentlemen's outfitter". This vestigial artifact of a phrase from a bygone era is testament to the movement of fashion over the past two hundred years. Department stores having swept the United States clean of them, in favor of a more family oriented approach.

In the years gone by a gentleman's outfitter was a store meant to outfit not only men's clothing, but to provide an experience and variety of other useful trinkets and "sundries" that a man should need in his personal life, hobbies and entertainment. It goes without saying that such stores in the United States disappeared around the 1950's with the long coat, and fedora hats, with trench coats, and gloves. The movement persevered however in Europe and to this day several outfitters still exist, primarily in Britain, but with some presence on the mainland countries.

America however has a dearth of these and as such they've disappeared almost entirely from American consciousness with the exception of those who've traveled to them, or look at them from the lens of older history accounts/fashions. They are a mystical land of higher end men's tailoring, large selection, and a variety of other useful bits and bobs to the everyday joe. Sometimes going as far as to outfit expeditions to Africa, Antarctica, and the further reaches of the planet, as most importantly, all outfitters by their very nature are practical implements, with forays into quality and sometimes superfluous clothing for the evening out.

Porterhouse Clothing is a Gentlemen's outfitters. Not just mimicking one, it simply is one; from the experience walking into the small building that it shares with a book store, to the variety of smaller trinkets available and "sundries" as they call them. There is no equivalent on the West coast of the United States, and its closest competition could safely be found in Manhattan.

I myself had the pleasure of visiting the store the 21st of July 2024, and was met by Omar who immediately began to discuss with me, (after a short compliment on my dress that day) the origins of Porterhouse. I confirmed with him that no such equivalent store had been on my radar since I'd visiting "Kormakur & Skjoldur" in Reykjavik, Iceland; safely half-way across the planet.

He showed me around the store, and we spoke about the quality of tailoring and how they work hard to ensure that the clothing in store is of high quality. There was no debating that on my end, I was impressed. Having purchased a sweater and matching beanie cap in Loden color from Dehen 1920 a local clothing producer in Portland.

At all stages Omar was wonderful, walking me through the store, making suggestions, and demonstrating an impressive knowledge that is nearly impossible to find in the United States for this sort of clothing. I only wish we could have spoken for an additional several hours, but he had a business to run, and I had a place to be. Eugene, Oregon can only be shown to be spoiled with even the small square footage allotted to this merchant.

If someone wants quality (the price will reflect that) male clothing that will last a lifetime, you can't do better on this side of the United States. There is no doubt that should my travels once again take me to Eugene, I will stop in to chat with Omar about the latest and greatest in store....

Thought I was going to do some early holiday shopping but the return policy is terrible. So it's a no go all the way around.

Update: The response (posted by the owner below) about celebrating Halloween in October is an irrelivant deflection to the concern at hand. I'm not shopping at the other shops in their space, nor am I concerned about the return policy of other shops in their space, such as the bookstore?! There are PLENTY of clothing shops out there that don't have such a shortsighted return policy, making the owner's points moot. The 30 day return policy is seemingly arbitrary, unnecessary, and is definitely cumbersom to the customer. If the owner believes otherwise, it should have been described in the response. Instead I got some meaningless, condescending, "look over there" reply about how they don't have their act together because they are too busy celebrating Halloween. So absurd....

Good selection of products with reasonable price points.

What most impressed me was the service level of the staff. I came in for a new pair of raw denim, as I had lost a pant size or two over spring. I own a couple pairs of raws that I bought online, so my previous buying expressive has been a bit of a guessing game when it comes to sizing. I chatted with the guy working about the cut and price point I was looking at, and after trying on a few pairs I found the best fitting pairs of jeans I've ever had.

Glad to FINALLY have a locally owned store selling quality menswear in town! I will...