25/12/2015
Another week and another book selected from the stack of menswear-related titles on the table next to the roaring fireplace here in the library at Well Dressed mansion. A steaming mug of strong tea, a pile of butter cookies and my reading monocle polished and ready. Todays offering is a recent publication from the productive Josh Sims, eminent author of “Icons of…
18/12/2015
Denim is a curious fabric. I can’t think of any fabric that is currently so torn with regards to which way it should develop. On the one hand the traditional denim companies are doing what they do, continually creating a better and more technical and high quality product. On the other hand you have the heritage-orientated companies taking development back to…
18/12/2015
The Vintage Showroom is a small vintage clothes dealer just by Seven Dials in London. The owners are Doug Gunn and Roy Luckett, and given the number of small vintage clothes shops around the world, or even London, the story could just as well have ended there. Except, Doug and Roy are finders and collectors extraordinaire, so the shop is…
08/11/2015
I’ve been a little lax in my book reviews of late, so I have a nice stack to be looked at over the coming weeks. To get started on the pile, I’ll be taking a look at the recently published “From tip to toe- the essential men’s wardrobe” from Gestalten in Germany. Fear not though, all 256 pages of this…
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…
10/10/2015
A word of warning: The next lines you read may provoke either a physical or mental reaction in you, or even both in extreme cases. Fear not though, keep reading and all will become clear. I will help you work through the trauma I about to induce in you. How often do you get both the poison and the cure…
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…
16/08/2015
Have you ever noticed how similar menswear shops are? Not the ones your father would go to, or the one you would take your young son into, but the sort of proper one the sorts like you and me would visit. The ones that tend to carry less suits and more timeless, quality pieces. You know the sort, right? I…
08/08/2015
Visiting London at this time of year can be an immensely stressful experience. It’s likely to be warm, and it’s absolutely certain to be totally full of people. For this visit I wanted to keep is simple and I had almost nothing planned apart from a very short list of places I wanted to stop by. One of these was the Army…
05/08/2015
So, that difficult third post about the garment that can only be shown in almost subliminal flashes, the sock. This one will not be hugely drawn out, fluffed up or saggy of elastic, and I will be keeping my focus well below the knee. The first matter that came to mind when playing with fun socks over the past week is that…