You'll know what we know.
via LIFEThread Count: See how your madras gets made. Required reading. [Ivy Style]
The Decline of the $40 Khaki: See how low-end retailers are cutting back in the face of rising cotton prices. [Businessweek]
It’s a Nice Bowtie: Breaking: a midwestern gentleman wears a bowtie. [The Midwest Style]
Blue Jean: APC’s Jean Touitou shows up for a video interview with Cool Hunting. Still hilariously blunt. [Cool Hunting]
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First, the good news: it’s almost warm again.
And to aid the monumental wardrobe shift you’ll be undertaking over the next few weeks, we’d like to reintroduce you to an old acquaintance: the short-sleeved button down.
It’s the nerdy younger brother of the polo shirt, and a surprisingly difficult piece to pull off right. In theory, it’s your office-appropriate answer to summer’s unforgiving heat, but since too many gentlemen end up resembling Dwight Schrute, we thought we’d put together a modern guide to the S/S/B/D.
As the downpours of the last few weeks suggest, it’s raincoat season.
So, in the interests of keeping you one step ahead of the torrential downpours of the next few months, we’ve rounded up our favorites of the year, from traddish classics to monsoon-ready ponchos. In out book, it’s the best 2011 has to offer. Choose wisely.
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In keeping with the late-August crop of Fall/Winter merch, we just got word that APC’s fall winter line has arrived at the British shop End Clothing.
Our favorite so far is this professorial elbow-patch crewneck, if only because we’ve been waiting years for the return of the elbow patch, but there’s plenty more where that came from. Happy digging.
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A beach can tempt even the most stylish gents into questionable outfits, but it’s not all bad. For instance, this beach hat from APC might be handsome enough to warrant a vacation on its own. Walking the line between native artisanship and cowboy colonialism, it’s our new favorite alternative to SPF. Watch for it arriving in APC shops on Thursday, along with the rest of APC’s new capsule collection, dubbed The Tunisian List.
APC’s new Spring/Summer lookbook just landed on the web, and while most of it is the same minimalist twee we know and love, one item stuck out at us: a bleach-white incarnation of their classic standard jean. It’s a dicey move, but this picture just about sells us on it.
It can be tough to rock summer whites without coming off as either a deckhand or a matador, but a powdery blue mack is a pretty good fix. Better yet, it means you’ll only have to try out the all-white look when you’ve got the proper sunlight for it. If a few clouds interfere, on goes the jacket.
Of course, we’d recommend doing it in a shirt that doesn’t say “disco rules”…but there’s no accounting for taste.
A Good Pour: We’re guessing this counts as a low-budget shoot [AnOther Magazine]
The Man Himself: Michael Williams sits down with Jean Touitou of A.P.C. [A Continuous Lean]
Left Breathless: An examination into the style of Jean-Paul Belmondo, quite possibly the coolest Frenchman ever. [The Selvedge Yard]
Happiness is Easy: The secret to lifelong happiness is contained beyond this humble link. (Bourbon is involved.) [The Awl]
Lost among the recent shuffle of APC gear, we dug up this gray suede derby that might be our favorite item of the lot. Our favorite part? The soft gum-crepe sole last seen on our beloved Clarks desert boots. Well played, Jean.
You Know, Metaphorically: That jacket probably crinkles a lot. [Fashion Gone Rogue]
The Style Guy of Style Guys: Glenn O’Brien is scouring eBay for a Citroen. Sometimes the only appropriate response is awe. [A Continuous Lean]
Bags, Hats and Belts: The latest crop of APC accessories just landed, and no matter what you think, they refuse to make their belts any thicker or their ties any wider. Shine on… [Selectism]
Little Gold Men: Ranking “For Your Consideration” ads on a scale from Spielberg to Seagal. [Vulture]
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It’s been a while, but we’re ready to call trend on a new item: the flecked sweater.
The look’s been building steam for a while, most notably in the marled sweater resurgence that popped up last fall, but between this autumn-hued jumper in APC’s latest shipment, and this Utility Coop crew neck, along with earlier entries from Our Legacy and Paul Smith, pushes it over the threshold into trendhood. Four’s a trend, right?
Naturally, we’re in favor. Sweaters can always use a bit of texture, and giving a contrast color just means more to look at. The APC jumper is the most extreme of the lot but we’d more conservative versions to keep their sheen long after they’ve stopped being hip. And in the meantime, a static-dappled crew neck should be the right kind of eye-catching.
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The latest crop of APC gear is landing in stores this week, which means the usual assortment of close-cropped flannel, some intensely speckled sweaters…and this hat.
We’re not quite ready to call it a trend just yet, but we’ve been waiting quite a while for a faux-fur earflap hat that didn’t make us look like a Cossack or a duck hunter—and we suspect we’re not alone. This one doesn’t ditch the woodsy vibe entirely, but adds enough rough plaid grunginess to give urban dwellers a little cover. And since it’s a good deal warmer than all the equally handsome alternatives, the cold should do the rest.
ROFL: Blush Lingerie scores a few well-earned points. The heels are sold separately. [SwipeLife]
Simon Says: Simon Spurr throws us some exceedingly kind words. [Forbes]
La Vie en Rose: APC’s Jean Touitou continues to be crotchety, declinist. [Selectism]
We’ll Always Have Thursday Afternoon: Past the 72-hour mark, Balloon Boy has veered off into kitsch. Luckily, NYMag is there to source the five best ironic anthems to bring this episode to a close. Play him off, metaphorical keyboard cat. [Daily Intel]
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We’ve been seeing a lot of railroad stripe, both on the racks at the (capsule) show and among Penfield’s recent gear, but our favorite so far is this APC jacket from a season past that just landed at their sale annex in Brooklyn. The nautical peacoat shape might be a bit unwieldy, but it makes the most of the thickness of the cloth and the result is the kind of offbeat stateliness APC does best. And if it’s a season or two ahead of the curve, all the better.
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APC’s Fall/Winter gear arrived in their shops last week, and along with it, the latest entry in their ongoing collaboration with K-Way, the Quebecois windbreaker brand.
The design corps spiced things up with a tricolor stripe this time around, but more importantly, they opted for the pullover parka rather than the usual zip-up. That means a bit less convenience on your way out the door, but a more impermeable feeling once you get outdoors.
And the way New York weather’s been lately, you may not have to take it off all day.
New in Town: Edita Vilkeviciute is the Next Big Thing. You heard it here first (well, second). [Luxist]
The Wisdom of Crowds: Gawker chronicles the rise and fall of the Zivity. For some reason, they just couldn’t make porn work on the internet. [Gawker]
You’re the Flannel Man: A.P.C. continues to impress. [Hypebeast]
Don’t, Bro: You can only work at a taser company for so long before someone decides to “demonstrate” on you. [Gizmodo]
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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For chiefly functional items like raincoats, the styles haven’t changed much in 70 years. So absent a bit of new technology (i.e. the Nau crowd), your best bet is a brand that’s been building up cred for a few decades…or one of their more recent collabs.
Someone else got to Mackintosh first, so the folks at A.P.C. turned to a Canadian slicker marque called K-Way, resulting in this puffy anorak. Not a bad idea for summer rains…especially if you run across a storm that makes you lose your faith in waxed cotton.
A.P.C.’s 2009 accessories just hit the market and these belts were the item that caught our eye.
The usual rule is to match your belt to your shoes—brown to brown, black to black, and so on—but in this case, there’s a stronger affinity between the belt and the tie. We’ve already seen A.P.C.’s waist-bound response to the skinny tie, and this latest belt seems built to match its less trendy cousin, the knit tie. It’s a good idea, and it might even be a new style law in the making.
Provoked: Agent Provocateur has basically never let us down. [FashionIndie]
The Surge: Menswear leads the economic charge. Does that mean we can start declaring short-lived trends again? [FT]
Hitting the Bottle: Evian brings in Jean-Paul Gaultier to revamp their classic bottle design. Hopefully, Coke is paying attention. [Selectism]
Can We Have Our Ball Back?: Jean Touitou of A.P.C. continues to be surprisingly crotchety about music. [Dazed Digital]
Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club label is usually too firmly on the streetwear side of things to catch our eye, but this striped shirt caught our eye as a potential crossover piece.
It looks like something we’d pick up at A.P.C.…so much so that we scoured their back catalog looking for this exact item. But the issue isn’t sartorial plagiarism so much as a healthy exchange of ideas. This item made its way from pasty Parisians to hip-hop futurists in just a few seasons.
Does that mean streetwear is going French?
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Count on A.P.C. to make even the band t-shirt seem like the result of a struggle.
They just put out a series of clever t-shirts for the bands Housse de Racket, Koko Von Napoo and The Teenagers, but what’s usually a quirky opportunity for brands to stretch their design legs has become downright cranky.
Instead of basking in the rock star’s reflected glow, A.P.C.’s Jean Touitou has apparently taken this opportunity to explain exactly what’s wrong with kids today. In the release, he writes, “It all started in the nineties, when a Clash clad in Prada was sometimes encountered, and now baby clashes are all posing for Prada. Poseurs have taken the place of heroes. I do hate rock ‘n’ roll.”
Them’s fightin’ words…
A man goes through a lot of denim over the years, but it’s hard to pick a favorite.
Men.Style is putting the matter to a vote, with A.P.C.’s New Standard, the Jean Shop Rocker, and Levi’s 501 leading the ballot at the moment. Of course, we’re on record preferring the RRL Slim Fit, which is currently ranked at #5, but we suppose everyone has their own horse in this particular race.
But if you’re rooting for Helmut Lang, you might want to reconsider things.
For some reason, A.P.C. seems to be on vacation.
Their latest summer collection is practically a handbook for the young and tweedy Ibiza crowd. It’s quite a thing to nail down a particular age and moment—Ralph Lauren started out in much the same way—but it’s interesting that this is where the francophone label has found themselves.
The fall lines always seemed more reserved than their stateside counterparts. These were clothes for schoolkids, but mostly the ones in the library, which makes this beachbound hedonistic turn more than a little surprising.
Then again, that’s what summer vacation is for.
The lightweight jacket usually gets passed over, but a good one can get more wear than a suit. And, as usual with outerwear, the trick is finding the right texture.
This houndstooth jacket from A.P.C. gets it just about perfect, offering a zig-zag of patterns that averages out to a neutral gray from far enough back. This being A.P.C., the collar is just about perfect, and the cut is every bit as narrow as you’d want.
It’s waterproofed too, but we’d still recommend keeping an umbrella handy.
APC’s spring collection just went up online, and this belt was what caught our eye. It’s not exactly preppy, and it’s certainly not the kind of thing you’d see on a pair of suit pants, but it’s one of the cheekier accessories we’ve seen lately, which counts for a lot. Now that we’re done with the skinny tie, maybe it’s time for the skinny belt?
