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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.
Usually when someone uses the phrase “old school,” they don’t have a specific place in mind, but when it comes to tailoring you can pin it down to a single street. Savile Row in London has been the go-to spot for bespokery since the days of the empire, and anywhere you happen to be fitted—even in Hong Kong or Dubai—it’s likely that most of your suit’s flourishes started out in the West End.
Of course, just like the empire, the Row has had some hard times lately»
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
We were admittedly more than a little wary of the idea of a remake of one of our favorite films of all time, the BBCs 1981 adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, and frankly surprised that anyone would have the brass to undertake it in the first place (Do you fuck with Jeremy Irons? No you do not).
We’ll suspend further critical judgments until we’re able to screen the new one in its entirety, but in any case we fully approve of any cinematic endeavor featuring so many fine examples of 1920s British gentleman’s kit. And we’re already predisposed to approve of the convincingly toff-y Matthew Goode, who was one of the few redeeming features of Match Point and has the daunting task of filling Irons’ brogues.
Sketch comedy has been kicking around since the vaudeville days, but it may have found its perfect medium in YouTube. From Dick in a Box to Wainy Days, viral video lets sketches cut out filler and find as large an audience as they need, giving us a peek at some great material that would be unairable on network TV and would probably have been booed out of the music halls a hundred years ago.
Monty Python was too early for the boom times, but they’re catching up with their very own YouTube channel, loaded with excellent rips of a handful of classic sketches…and a few well-placed suggestions as to where you might find their DVDs. So far there’s only twenty sketches up, taken equally from long-running BBC series and their four films, but we expect more as time goes on.
Mostly, it’s refreshing to know that they’re just as good as we remembered. The ADD-absurdism of Andy Samberg and The State started here, and it still hasn’t been topped.
The britmag Monocle has been churning through media pretty quickly, but they’ve finally gotten around to radio. Well, podcasts to be specific, but there’s definitely a BBC/NPR sheen to the latest product.
The first week’s topics include Norwegian finance and the philosophy of happiness, but it’s all more or less what you’d expect from an issue of Monocle, audio or otherwise. Of course, they’re coming a little late to the party, and we can’t help but feel like the public-radio ambition (right down to the piano jazz!) is inspired by a bit of friendly competition between Monocle’s Tyler Brûlé and Wired’s Kurt Andersen, currently working on NPR’s Radiolab.
Hear the first broadcast here.
Streetwear’s usually an all-or-nothing proposition, but if you’ve got a taste for flashy side items, it’s easy to cherrypick a wallet or a t-shirt without delving into the world of fitted caps and spaceman sneakers.
Or, in this case, a pair of sunglasses.
These come from BBC, apparently designed to match these jeans, but they should do all right on their own. The silver lenses give it an even spacier feeling—supposedly inspired by NASA—putting them worlds away from the more understated clubmasters of the world. But if you’re looking for a few edgier accents, a little astronaut flavoring might be just what you need.
