13/03/2016
It’s been a while now since I last got down to some serious sewing. I did the tweed jacket upcycle in the Autumn, but that was only a little hand-stitching. Since then I bought a new sewing machine, and to be honest it’s been sitting there, silent, taunting me, willing me to just get down to it. So, with a…
08/01/2016
It was suggested to me that after another year of looking at, writing about, and, almost as an afterthought, actually wearing clothes, maybe I should give a mention to some of my favourite pieces of the year? Which garments are the ones I liked best, at the end of the day? Did the initial crush turn into a lasting appreciation?…
13/11/2015
I’m not quite sure why, but lately I appear to have been veering off the straight and narrow menswear track and more into the undergrowth of vintage and army gear. Thinking back it might have been finding the vintage Harris tweed jacket in Liverpool (the one that became the acclaimed first tweed project), or maybe it was falling for the…
25/10/2015
Old army jackets have always been a style icon unto themselves. Through students, anarchists, hobos, de Niro in “Taxi Driver”, through to todays hipsters. The style, the utility and the value for money is quite remarkable. That is, if you like your jacket green, a bit crumpled and of unknown history. Because, let’s face it, that old surplus Army jacket…
17/10/2015
Last week I posted part four of my Harris Tweed jacket upcycling project. If you’re only just coming to find it, you’ll want to read back to the original idea outlined here, and part one here , part two here and part three here. I’ll wait patiently until you’re up to speed on what is going on here at the Laboratory of Total Tweedism. The previous part saw…
27/09/2015
Last week I posted the question: What can I do with an old vintage Harris Tweed jacket.After a surprising amount of input on which of the three projects I should select to put an old Harris Tweed jacket though, I have decided that the first project will be to go slouchy on this one. Or try to “unconstruct” it, in…
10/03/2015
Norway is not the first country you think of when it comes to rare denim. It’s fair to say that it probably struggle to make any list of most likely countries to even have much of an interest in the less common denim variants. Yet there are in fact two jeans companies of note, Livid Jeans and Steel Feather. I…
21/02/2015
A couple of weeks ago I was press-ganged into attending a company dinner with WDG, aka she who must be obeyed. Now, anyone that has followed me for a while knows that I don’t do suits, as in the only suit I own is from 1945 and of a decidedly vintage style. My job requires me to be fully clothed…
03/02/2015
Welcome to part four of the 4-part mini-series presenting different takes on tweed trousers. So far we’ve had a look at a good pair from Toast, a reasonably priced pair from H&M and a rather special pair from SEH Kelly. What could todays instalment possibly be? What possible angle could I find to justify the inclusion of another pair of wool trousers? Apart from boldly…
20/01/2015
As promised last week, part two of 4-part series of tweed trouser reviews. This has been a long time coming and I know thousands of eager readers have waited for this series with bated breath and raptor-like suspense. Yes, indeed, tweed trousers are really all that and a bag of chips, as some would say. Others would say “a pair of…