You'll know what we know.
Our comrades in style over at UrbanDaddy Perks recently teamed up with Maine’s most sought-after cobblers, Rancourt & Co., to offer a few exclusive styles of their boat shoe and ranger mocs—each of which comes in a chili pebble-grain upper or a suede that looks a lot like our favorite malbec. And we had the opportunity to catch up with Kyle Rancourt, third-generation cobbler and all-round stand-up guy, to talk footwear.
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Our brothers in arms over at UrbanDaddy Chicago recently caught up with Illinois’s native son Nick Offerman, best known for his mustachioed brawniness (and playing a guy named Ron Swanson on TV). Below, we’ve got the full interview, including a few additional nuggets of wisdom that didn’t make it into the article.
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via Sandy KimMichael Ian Black is an important man. Most recently, he’s the new face of Expedia—if perhaps better known for Wet Hot American Summer, Stella, and The State—and as of today, he’s got a new book to his name, dubbed You’re Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death and Other Humiliations, a comic look at the insecurities of adult life.
He’s also a prolific tweeter, particularly on the topic of House Hunters, which is how he landed an invite to HGTV’s Mardi Gras party last week. That’s where we ran into him, for a conversation about poker, Ambien and this great land of ours.
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At age 20, George Lois dropped out of school to join the ad world. Over the next 60 years, he was behind some of the world’s most iconic images and slogans, including Muhammad Ali’s 1968 Esquire cover, the campaign to free Ruben “Hurricane” Carter and “I Want My MTV.” More recently, he wrote a book called Damn Good Advice, and we were able to sit down with him for a few hours to unpack the wisdom of a life in the creative world. (Not coincidentally, our friends at UD Perks have tickets to a lunch with the man, if you’d like to see the show in person.)
Michael Bastian knows menswear. Between his years at Bergdorf and Ralph Lauren and his current post overseeing two of the best-loved lines in menswear, he feels the ebbs and flows of style better than nearly anyone—which makes him the perfect guide for the whirlwind of Fashion Week. We caught up with him a few hours before his Gant show yesterday to talk about his favorite icons, going gray and the genius of American style.
You’ve heard this one before, but it bears repeating: treat your leather gear right, and it’ll last forever. (The same goes for waxed cotton, while we’re at it.) And since you’ve already got your boots and Barbour, it’s time to learn about keeping them fresh.
As it turns out, it’s not too different from your skin care regimen—a little goop and a little diligence. For the details, we sat down with Chris Chase of Portland’s Otter Wax, maker of some of our favorite leather and waxed cotton revitalizers. (If you were wondering where to pick some up, it’s available from our brothers at UD Perks.) Here’s what he had to say.
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Easily one of the most stylish movies of 2011, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has been in our sights for a while. It’s got nearly all of our favorite things—British tweeds, outlandish glasses, a few well-placed Steve McQueen references, just for starters. So we sat down with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to find out where she dug it all up. If you’ve ever wanted to dress like a 1970s intelligence man, start here.
California’s Unionmade just unveiled a serious gift to the world’s denim-heads—an 18-piece collection assembled with some of menswear’s best brands (Unis, Farm Tactics and Raleigh Denim for starters) and a lustworthy quantity of 10.5 oz Cone Mills selvedge canvas.
It’s called Unionmade Indigo–and in the interest of getting behind the denim, we sat down with manager Spencer Lemon for a tour of the goods.
A Q&A on indigo, pea coats and the secrets of Japanese denim…»
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Any time a man’s pulling off a bootlegger suit on a weekly basis, we figure there’s a lot we can learn. We caught up with Michael Pitt at Wednesday night’s Tonight We Tanqueray event in Brooklyn, where he weighed in on his history with grunge, 20s haircuts and the curative effects of the three-piece suit.
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One of the perks of the blogging life is that we occasionally get to sit down with brilliant designers. Now is one of those times.
The gentleman in question is Tim Little, the Creative Director at Grenson, a mastermind of broguing who happens to have a few exclusive vibram-soled items available exclusively from our friends at UrbanDaddy Perks. We sat down with Mr. Little to talk boots, heritage, and the intersection of British and American workwear.
What’s your philosophy for designing these boots?
We try to take the essence of what the company is—the heritage, the history, everything we’re good at—and make that relevant for today. Everything comes from a very long line of what weÂąve done over the years. We use all the same styling from the past 100 years of Grenson, but we updated it, changed the materials slightly, to bring it up to date.
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Around this time of year, a two-wheeled jaunt through the city starts to look pretty good—provided you can do it without looking like a bike messenger. To help you face down the considerable challenge of looking good on a bike, we sat down with Aldan Shank of Seattle’s Hub and Bespoke—a combination bike shop and boutique—for a primer on sophisticated bike style.
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On of the most reliable sources of style wisdom in the business, Glenn O’Brien has finally channeled his wit into an all-encompassing 300-page guide to life. The book is titled How to Be a Man, and it lives up to its name with chapters like “How to be Sexual,” “How to Exit” (on death), and “Immortality: What to Do Later.” We sat down with Mr. O’Brien for a conversation about manhood, manners and when New York was at its coolest.
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Much as we love spring, it’s a fair bet the season’s going to bring a few unexpected showers with it—and your poor wingtips are going to suffer the consequences. So as a preventative measure, we’ve brought in one of L.A.’s foremost cobblers for a little wisdom on protecting your shoes from the elements.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. George Esquivel.
How do you recommend we protect our shoes from rain over the next few months?
For a formal shoe, I would suggest polishing it up with a neutral color wax. It’s not a total waterproofing, but it acts as a water repellent and stain repellent while still letting the leather breathe. The brand I use is Angelus, made here in Southern California. I use neutral wax because I don’t like too much shine. Now, you can’t do that to suede because it creates this kind of oil effect that stains, but it should work for any leather.
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By now, you’ve probably got a pretty good plan for your summer wardrobe, so we’d like to throw something else into the mix: your summer haircut. And to give you a little guidance, we’ve brought in a professional stylist who lives and breathes men’s hair. (Not literally.)
Dear readers, meet Amy Komorowski.
In honor of the shiny ties and eye-popping suits of the NFL Draft, we were lucky enough to catch up with one LaDainian Tomlinson, both one of the better-dressed gentlemen in the game and a surefire winner for any fantasy football team lucky enough to have him. We found the new Jet at a recent Gatorade event in Tribeca to talk New York, California and musicals.
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We’ve got a soft spot for fashion-industry scrappers, so we couldn’t pass up a chance to talk with the sharp gentleman behind HBO’s How to Make it in America—one Ian Edelman, born-and-bred New Yorker. They just wrapped their first season, and you can catch up through On Demand if you aren’t already a fan.
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The occasionally cantankerous A.P.C. honcho Jean Touitou just sat down with Hypebeast’s Eugene Kan to expound on the state of modern clothiers. But when the conversation turns to America, he gets a little carried away and moves towards nationalist body snark. We’ll forgive him for choosing Serge Gainsbourg over the Ramones, but this requires an explanation»
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Wallpaper’s recent tour of Paul Smith’s favorite objects taught us a lot about the designer, but most importantly, we learn that Sir Paul is not a man who suffers boredom quietly. Describing his new train-set briefcase, he drops the following knowledge:
I used to take the train set to Japan on my many early trips. I’d produce it when I was bored stating that “I’m bored, I’m going to play with my train set.” As you can imagine this caused great shock and surprise but also a lot of fun and helped establish my personality with my colleagues in Japan.
Of course, we’ve felt the urge to break out a train set during an interminable meeting more than once…but something tells us it’s a bit different when you’ve got your own multi-national brand. It’s still whimsical, but there’s a touch of the terrifying boss in there too.
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James Toback’s documentary Tyson comes out today, but the director’s relationship with the iconic boxer actually goes back two decades, to when Iron Mike was just a 19-year-old up-and-comer. The movie has moments of humor and sadness—sometimes at the same time, as when he calls Don King a “wretched, slimy, reptilian motherfucker” who “would kill his mother for a dollar.” (But how does he really feel?) We sat down to talk with Toback to talk about whether he’s scared of the champ, Tyson’s curiously strong knowledge of 19th Century poetry, and the perils of the eight-day acid trip.
Kempt: So, Mike Tyson: Crazy or misunderstood?
JT: Certainly misunderstood. Crazy, only in the sense that he’s not a conventional, linear person, and is on his own channel, in a kind of uncompromising way.
K: So why do so many people think this guy is nuts?
JT: Primarily the ear-biting and the rape conviction. I think if you take away those two things, the perception would pretty much be gone.
K: You’ve known Mike for 20 years. Has it ever been scary working with him?
JT: No, [but] he said something interesting after seeing the movie: “You know, I always used to wonder why people said they were scared of me. [After] watching the film tonight, I’m scared of that guy.”
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The Dow may be surging, but it’s going to be quite some time before that money trickles down to the average man of style…much less the average shop-owner.
Hypebeast recently had the same idea as us, and approached some of the wiser boutique men and label owners with notebook in hand.
Streetwear isn’t exactly our scene, but the lessons are more or less the same: cut back on stock, streamline production, and try to ride the whole mess out. The most surprising takeaway is the longterm effect of all the sample sales you’ve been seeing. We aren’t usually inclined to speak ill of the occasional 80% discount, but labels and shops need high margins to keep afloat, which makes it hard to imagine what the sample sale scene will look like six months from now.
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It’s important for brands and retailers to stay agile these days, but good ideas have been in remarkable short supply. To that end, we’ve reached out to some of the brighter minds in the business for an impromptu thinktank. If you’ve got any ideas of your own, feel free to let us know.
Not all great minds are bloggers, so the latest in our ongoing series comes from the retail side of the equation.
Portland’s Winn Perry is one of the rare independent boutiques that manages to steer the mainstream from outside of New York or Los Angeles, and establishing a style stronghold in a small city takes a whole lot more than just a good eye for clothes. So naturally, proprieter Jordan Sayler has a few interesting things to say about keeping afloat in troubled times.
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Our friends at Style Salvage just joined the ongoing conversation about the luxury industry’s response to the recession with some wise words. The takeaway? “There is definitely a sense that the industry has lost its way.” There’s a new kind of customer out there, and firms need to figure out what the new customer wants.
But don’t get too nervous; it’s nothing a few bloggers can’t sort out.
We steer the good ship luxury through these treacherous economic waters»
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We’ve been shopping our musings on recession-chic around to a few other bloggers to see what ideas they came up with, and so far the response has been nothing short of intriguing. A Suitable Wardrobe has been one of our favorite trads since we started in the blogging game, so we thought we’d start things off with their response.
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If his ads are any indication, Tom Ford has seen a lot, so we figure he’s picked up a considerable amount of wisdom along the way.
So we’re glad Details managed to keep him in one place for long enough to dish out some life lessons. The results vary from his morning routine (ice cubes over the eyes) to his unvarying commitment to tuxedos.
The big design revelation is Ford’s distaste for the high-cropped suit jacket…but it makes sense that he wouldn’t much go for the waiter look. As for the sexual revelations at the end, let’s just say he takes swinging very seriously.
Tim Hamilton does Uniqlo
In the tight circle of New York designers and the rising tide of young, American menswear creators, indie comer Tim Hamilton is a clear standout. As well, his limited collaboration with Uniqlo, the Japanese superstore that has also recently worked with Loden Dager, is a far cry from the designer-stamped wears one might find at Target. In anticipation of the line’s retail debut on Friday (show up early, guys) Hamilton gave us a handful of his precious minutes to explain the origin of the line, how it differs from his signature collection and his favorite Japanese dishes.
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