Don't wait to buy your grails

The Offcuts #004: why does everything cost 1 million dollars, why buying your grail is better now than later, what's in my cart, and a couple of sales you should know about.

Jul 21, 2026

∙ Paid

Welcome back to The Offcuts, a series of random fashion thoughts and topics that happened this week. Read past issues here.

There’s no easy way to say this: clothes are expensive and they will probably never go down in price again.

There’s this false idea going around that prices of pretty much everything is going to have to go down at some point, and sure, maybe prices of gas will be slightly lower and we’ll see the supply chain ease up, which should make products cheaper. But let’s be honest, that’s just not a reality that we’ll get to live in anytime soon.

Industries all over are feeling the squeeze, and fashion is one of the first that got hit. Tariffs and manufacturing costs are changing by the minute — I’ve seen a $120 shirt go up to $300 in a matter of days after the new tariffs came to life.

As many fashion enthusiasts, I love A.Presse, but $1,700 for a cotton striped shirt is… insane? That’s more than my rent.

The smaller brands are struggling the most with covering costs while maintaining honest margins, but unfortunately, they simply have no choice but to raise prices just to keep the lights on.

But then we have brands that are pricing things that aren’t even meant for the average consumer. Brands like A.Presse have crazy fabric development that costs a premium, but even in the last year it feels as though their prices started to make no sense. It doesn’t seem to matter because they’re still selling stuff out — there’s money all around us, it’s hiding, but it’s there. So, don’t be fooled by someone larping that they are broke while being “between jobs” in a major city.

Not all is bad though because we have lots of brands that still offer modest pricing while keeping that quality in check. Most of the time, these are the brands I write about in this letter.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that it’s still ok to splurge and buy something expensive because you deserve it, even if it’s out of your budget. Having really nice stuff brings a certain level of joy and experience that the cheaper options will never be able to reproduce. The point I’m trying to make is, if you have a grail you’ve always wanted, vintage or new, you should do your best by trying to secure it sooner than later, because yesterday’s price is not today’s price.

Speaking to the people in the industry and seeing what fashion might look like in the near future tells an interesting story, but it doesn’t end with clothes magically becoming affordable again.

WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK

Action Bronson is dropping his debut New Balance 2811 this Friday. The BAKLAVA x NB 2811 is awesome and I’m really liking how this partnership is evolving with time. The New Balance 2811 will release July 24th at 10am EST via Specializing in Life website.
For whatever reason OpenAI is making merch now, and it’s absolutely horrible. Nobody asked for this.
JJJJound is putting out a banger after banger lately. The upcoming New Balance 740N is a need — these will be dropping July 30th. The new denim program is also a banger.
Hiroki Nakamura of Visvim has been documenting his development trip on the Visvim Instagram. The imagery has nothing to do with clothes, just shots of him driving his Porsche in beautiful places across Europe. While your favorite brand is putting a Porsche inside of a store in Bushwick, the real heads are putting those cars to the test. Now that’s good #content.
Street Night Live@StreetNightLive
Visvim development trip content is awesome. Not even about the clothes, just travelling across beautiful places in Europe in a Porsche. It’s everything Buck Mason wishes it could be but can’t. What a serve.
11:28 PM · Jul 13, 2026 · 13.4K Views
6 Replies · 7 Reposts · 171 Likes
This might be old news, but Diemme + Rayon Vert SS27 preview is looking really good. We’re not going to get these till next year probably, so for now let’s just enjoy the imagery.
A part of me wants to replace my entire closet with clothes from Jake Bert. New drop isn’t available online and you can only purchase these at Jake’s store in London at 63 Vyner Street — this is a level of gatekeeping that’s interesting to me. Still available to buy, but in a very limited way. I’m not against it.