Kempt Man of the Hour: Ruben Toledo
*Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.*
Cuban painter, sculptor, illustrator, chronicler and critic Ruben Toledo is in an enviable position for a well-dressed man about town: his wife Isabel is a fashion designer who frequently whips up bespoke threads in their sprawling loft-cum-atelier hidden atop a turn-of-the-century building.
For Nordstrom’s new Spring ad campaign, Toledo not only painted massive surrealistic sets, but the models’ bodies as well. Nice work if you can get it.
At a party to celebrate the campaign’s debut the other night, Toledo sported an artistic studio-style jacket and black cotton tie designed by his wife (pictured), along with a classic white Brooks Brothers button-down and a pair of monk strap shoes by old-school New England cobbler Alden. Isabel wore her own designs as well, and as usual they made a picture perfect couple.
Perhaps a little too perfect—they matched the backdrops to a T—but as perfection isn’t exactly a crowded field we say run with it.
-J.P.S.
