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A blog dedicated to the interesting, scandalous, useful and cutting edge in the world of men’s style, fashion and grooming.
Seen Your Video: Bar Refaeli produces a nude video, presumably in the service of art. [Egotastic]
Around the Horn: A 60s tribute to Mr. Miles Davis. [Ivy Style]
Going Social: And lo! a new gadget blog was born. [Engadget]
Breaking the Bank: Esquire on Michael Mann on the myth of John Dillinger. [Esquire]
We tend to prefer an old school board short, but a few tweaks here and there are enough to change our mind. Make it a little shorter and a little slimmer, and suddenly you’re back in the realm of gentlemanly beach attire.
Quiksilver’s “Limited Collection” (which should be hitting their site any day now) makes both those tweaks, and drops a bit of science in the bargain. They’ve developed a new fabric—inexplicably named Diamond Dobby—which should dry twice as fast as the shorts you’re used to. They’ve got plenty of the classic 80s patterns if you’re feeling retro, but there’s a few more muted versions in there as well, like this plain green pair.
Interior Décor: Refinery29 continues to dig up the very best in Korean glossies. [Refinery29]
Tweet Surrender: The fastest twitter app on the books…if you’re into that sort of thing. [Gizmodo]
House of Mirrors: Kanye’s stage design for his latest tour looks incredible, dystopian, terrifying. Now if he’d just lay off the vocoder. [Kanye West’s Blog]
Wolff at the Door: Michael Wolff muses through the Madoff verdict. [Vanity Fair]
The coffee cup is as close to a design standard as you’ll find, but there’s always room for improvement.
A group of Tel Aviv design students took a crack at it, and the results are intriguing. This model, called the cubis, is designed for easy stacking—the corners fit together, naturally—and a thick layer of ceramic insulation to provide a cool place to grip. We don’t expect to see it in diners any time soon…but maybe there are a few boutique hotels in need of a restock?
Street art takes all kinds, but the nightmare-inducing type isn’t to be discounted. This id-fueled visage was planted on the unsuspecting streets of Sydney by a Mr. Anthony Lister, who is apparently too adult for a pseudonym. It’s amazing…but we’re hoping he stays in Australia. His work might be a bit too intense in person.
In the wake of the Iranian Election turmoil, YouTube and Twitter have gotten a lot of press as something more than idle entertainments. And while Twitter hasn’t changed up their game plan too much, YouTube is getting a little full of itself.
In order to assist the new generation of webcam-equipped witnesses, YouTube has launched The Reporters’ Center, a feed devoted to guiding and publishing the work of aspiring citizen journalists. They’ve got brief tutorials from Bob Woodward, Nicholas Kristof and (for some reason) Arianna Huffington on getting to the bottom of the story, but we’re not sure if the world is quite ready for the stories that they’re about to get. It’s one thing to publicize raw feeds from an event everyone already agrees is important, but it’s quite another to sift through a few thousand clips looking for something that approaches newsworthiness.
Either way, we’re guessing the cat-in-fan story is about to get a lot more play.
It’s one of the great ironies of modern fashion that many of the great homegrown brands like Porter release all their best gear in Japan. And, despite their move to Mexico, Converse is no exception.
Hypebeast just rounded up Converse’s ’09 collection, and we’re already considering expatriation. Except for Mr. Varvatos, the stateside models have been downright drab lately…but apparently it’s a very different story across the Pacific.
Shalom: Shalom Harlow blips onto our radar via Vogue Nippon. [Refinery29]
Being Blunt: The ten finer points of cigar etiquette. We’d suggest, as an addendum, “Don’t ash on her cat.” [Luxist]
Mill Work: Woolrich Woolen Mills collections are always worth a look. [Selectism]
Going Quantum: Scientists build the world’s first quantum computer, potentially unleashing infinite processor power and breaking the codes that protect internet finance. But it still won’t run Vista. [Gizmodo]
Now that car shapes are tending towards a single aerodynamic ideal, it’s nice to see a wacky concept car with no hope of ever reaching the assembly line. This one, called the Type 57 Atlantic, comes from Bugatti, which seems to be showing a fondness for Art Deco curves lately.
Paul Smith’s fashion empire just got a little more diverse, with a new line of Moleskine competitors bearing a few proprietary doodles from Sir Smith. The lucky brand is a French marque called Rhodia, which has been making notebooks for just over 75 years. The cover’s a little less satisfying to touch…but we’re hoping it makes up for it in artistic cred.
The phrase “style icon” gets thrown around quite a bit, but it’s important to make sure you really mean it. Otherwise you run the risk of leaving the house dressed like this.
So we were a little troubled to see Lenny Kravitz getting the style icon treatment from AskMen. We’re sure he’d make a great male model and we admire his mother’s stage work, but can’t we all agree that this is no way for a grown man to dress? Like the flying V guitar, Lenny’s look is way too flashy to be trusted. Even when he isn’t sporting something as embarrassing as this, he exudes a level of lounge-lizard sleaze that should be enough to scare off any self-respecting gentleman of style. It’s gear like this that gives L. A. a bad name.
It looks like Yoko Devereaux has fallen prey to shaky financiers, so they’re closing up shop starting today. That means a liquidation sale with $10 polos (like this one), $20 dress shirts and a Baracuta-esque striped jacket for just $40 at their online shop…and you’d better get it while you can.
Yoko Devereaux never made the most wearable items on the shelf, but they were one of the best sources for low-slung cardigans and high-cropped pants—both of which can be extremely potent in the right hands. Now, we’ll have to get them somewhere else. This should be a reminder: It’s hard out there for a boutique label.
Glamor Shots: Vogue Italia introduces us to Ms. Viktoriya Sasonkina. [Cyana Trendland]
The Man in the Mirror: MJ gets an appreciation from the gray lady. [NYTimes]
Public Enemy #1: The style wisdom of Mr. John Dillinger. [WSJ]
The Urge to Merge: The owner of Uniqlo may take over the Gap, resulting in a resurgence of avant-garde crew necks. [The Cut]
For anyone who was worried (500) Days of Summer was going to be a soufflé of hipster melancholy…here’s a Smiths cover! For the soundtrack of the upcoming flick, Zooey & M. turn in a retro version of the maudlin Mancunian waltz, about what you’d expect given their track record. And based on what we’ve seen of the film, we’d guess it captures the mood almost exactly.
