February 9, 2012 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS
“Europe”
05/27/11
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Scene

Kempt Goes to Cannes

Cannes Red Carpet

After disappearing late last week without a peep, our intrepid editorial director Randy Goldberg finally resurfaced—telling stories of the Riviera and a close encounter with Sir Robert DeNiro. Of what really went on there, we have only this record…

When our friends at Stella Artois asked if I had a couple of days to drop by Cannes, bunk down at Chez Jacques at the near-perfect Carlton Hotel, help close out the Festival and generally use the word Riviera as a verb, I obliged. I brought a tuxedo, a pair of trunks and an appetite for le destruction.

As for what I found there, all the rumors are true: yachts made of solid gold, an endless fountain of truly mesmerizing creatures, gala-side dealmaking, Chanel breezes, 30-euro cocktails, le Palm D’Or, flashbulb sunburns, method acting during hotel lobby brawls (that would be Mr. Gosling), enough rose to drown a desperate housewife, and, of course, the gracious hospitality of Jacques D’Azur.

Below, a few passing shots of how I saw things…»

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05/24/11
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Labeled

The Circular Loom

Circular Loom

Fair warning: this is one for the fabric nerds.

Tenue de Nimes dug up a century-old German cotton company called Merz B. Schwanen, and it’s lured us back into the world of intensely intricate fabric details. The clothes are all staples—sweatshirts, henleys, the occasional smock—but the real prize is how they stitch it together. Instead of the standard back-and-forth flat looms, these stitch together fabric around enormous circular molds.

That means no side seams under the arms, since the fabric comes off in circular sheets—a pretty neat trick if you manage to pull it off without a tailor. The shirts will be arriving at TdN next season, but in the meantime…there’s always factory pics.

Take a look at the legendary circular loom firsthand»

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04/18/11
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Conversation

A Gentleman’s Guide to Bike Style

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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.

Wool shirts, slim jeans and the secrets of bike style…»

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01/11/11
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Shelf Life

The Wild Swiss

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We’ve found a new subculture of the week: Swiss greasers. Through the late 50s and 60s, they were terrorizing the country with greased pompadours, biker jackets and oversized belt buckles with pictures of Elvis on them—almost all of which looks pretty awesome in retrospect. Rebel Youth, a new book from Rizzoli New York (out February 8), takes a look at what the rockabillies of Switzerland were up to during those years. It turns out to have a lot more in common with punk than you might think. And being European, they naturally knew how to pull off a neckerchief.

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11/30/10
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Sound & Vision

Fabricated

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You’re about to learn everything you ever wanted to know about French linen. This 15-minute film from Benoit Millot follows a single crop of flax from the fields of Normandy, through harvest, spinning, knitting and tailoring. The finished product is as good as the European luxury industry gets—and food for thought the next time you’re wondering where the fabric in your suit comes from.

Follow the linen here»

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11/17/10
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Icon

The Icon: Serge Gainsbourg

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Some people were born for the biopic treatment. In particular, we’re thinking of Serge Gainsbourg, the dirty old man of French pop. He spent most of the 60s and 70s creating the French pop star clichĂ©: a sentimental crooner with impeccable suits, a heart-breakingly beautiful woman on his arm (Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin among others) and a protective cloud of cigarette smoke surrounding him at all times.

Unsurprisingly, he’s getting the lavish biopic treatment with the European flick Gainsbourg, but on the off chance you can’t make it to a Parisian movie theater any time soon, we thought we’d fill you in on some of the juicier details.

See the man in full»

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11/10/10
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Object

The Alpine Boot

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At this point, there may be more classic American boot brands than there are American feet. We can’t help but wonder what they’re wearing in the Alps, if only for variety’s sake.

What they’re wearing is pretty handsome, if these Seil Marschall “Mont Blanc” boots are any indication. They’re hiking boots not work boots, so you’ll skip the steel toe and make do with a lighter rubber sole, but they should hold up against wintry mix just fine.

And if you need a lingering touch of Americana, look at the grain on the upper—that’s bison leather, collected and tanned stateside.

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11/08/10
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Across the Sea

The Milkmaid

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Usually we share items because they’re handsome and useful, but this is flat out one of the strangest things we’ve ever seen.

Based on Vermeer’s “Het Melkmeisje,” this ceramic… item is, well… exactly what it looks like. It was commissioned by the Dutch Souvenier Project to capture the Low Countries’ unique mix of high culture and carnal pleasures.

If you were wondering about the cork at the bottom (we certainly were), you’re supposed to fill it with either hot water of ice water, depending on your tastes.

Also of journalistic note: it curves slightly to the left. That is all.

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10/21/10
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The Biz

Logo Week: Brooks Brothers and the Order of the Golden Fleece

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For the thrilling conclusion of logo week, we’re tackling one of the strangest branding phenomenons we’ve ever encountered.

Somehow one of America’s foremost preppy outfitter ended up lifting their logo from an medieval chivalric order. The icon in question is the Brooks Brothers sheep. It turns out, noblemen have been wearing that lamb around their necks for upwards of half a millennium—and it sounds like the Duke of Burgundy has a pretty legitimate beef…

The story starts in Bruges in 1430»

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09/01/10
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Filmic

Naked Women and Existential Dread

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The first crop of reviews for The American are coming in, and early signs indicate three of our favorite things: half-empty Italian villages, pervasive dread, and artfully framed European women unencumbered by clothing. (A recipe for success, if we ever heard one.) For the non film-majors, “Antonioni” is code for “long beautiful shots in which nothing happens”—but we don’t mind a little extra time to admire the scenery.

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03/01/10
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Big Picture

The Umbrellas of Rotterdam

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This umbrella dome popped up in Rotterdam Friday night—a cross between Jacques Demy and Buckminster Fuller—with a DJ and bar in tow to liven up the night. The cops shut it down some time around 2am. It’s part of a guerilla civic planning project dreamed up by local architects, but it looks like they might have a future in event planning.

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09/15/09
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Labeled

The New Soft Shoe

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European shoes usually vary between boxy British brogues and the slimmer Italian dress shoes favored by Mr. Ford. But it looks like Spain has a few tricks of their own…

Magnanni may be operating under an Italian name, but they’ve been using Spanish designs and cobbling knowhow for upwards of 50 years, including a trick called the Bologna Construction that uses a glovelike layer of leather in place of an insole—a pretty good idea, as far as we’re concerned. If you’re curious to see it yourself, they’ll be taking designs for custom models at Bergdorf Goodman on October 2nd and 3rd.

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05/12/09
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Scandals

A Very Bad Man

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Ladies and Gentlemen, this man is an asshole.

Our old friend Jared Paul Stern just filed this dispatch from the world of unimaginable wealth. He’s tasked with the world’s richest asshole, and we have to hand it to him: he made a pretty good choice. Introducing Mr. Marcus von Anhalt…

We detail the crimes of Mr. von Anhalt»

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05/11/09
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Icon

Always On Time

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Steve McQueen’s gotten a lot of cred as a style icon in the past few years, but memorabilia has been pretty hard to come by.

But a few of his more iconic items are going on the block, specifically a pair of his prized racing watches. This HEUER Monaco might be our favorite watch in the world. It’s a relic of the European racing culture McQueen loved, and they genuinely don’t make them like this anymore.

Of course, a $10,000 starting price will give anyone second thoughts, but it’ll be interesting to see who comes away with it.

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05/04/09
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Art Threat

Abstract Theft

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As any number of trend pieces will tell you, times is hard, and any number of previously whimsical professions are becoming all to real. Apparently art thieves are next in line.

This past Friday, a group of armed robbers made off with two paintings from a Dutch museum, including a DalĂ­ work called “Adolescence.” Of course, we’ve seen our share of glamorous heist movies—in fact, we’ve probably seen more about thieves than pirates—but knocking off an undefended museum is hardly what Hollywood led us to expect. And we feel safe in saying Cary Grant would disapprove.

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04/20/09
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Object

Going Dutch

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With bikes are well on their way to becoming status symbols, it might be time to consider upgrading to something a bit more European…

This Opa from Dutch Workcycles sports a sprung leather saddle and powder-coated frame for an old world look, but the touch that sets it apart from the Schwinns of the world is the covering on the back half, including the encased chain, that lets you hang saddlebags over the back—or an adventurous companion, if you’ve got company.

Just watch out for thieves.

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03/13/09
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Good Idea

Dropping Math

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In case you were puzzled by the French sizing of the F-Troupe lace-ups, we thought we’d lend a hand.

This chart should help you make sense of a fairly confusing system. There are a lot of different systems out there, but it’s probably simpler than you think. British sizes are more or less the same, European sizes don’t vary too much from country to country, and we doubt your sartorial travels will take you much farther than that. When in doubt, round up.

And avoid Chinese sizes at all costs.

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03/05/09
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The Past

The Ghost of Colas Past

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As Pepsi recently discovered, the world of soda bottle design can get pretty contentious, so it’s worth remembering what it looks like when it’s done right.

Afri Cola was a German, Jolt-style caffeine bomb popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s—and briefly, Seattle in the ‘90s—and while the taste didn’t catch on quite the way you’d expect, the design may be the best we’ve ever seen. As far as vintage colas go, this one seems ripe for a revival—and the more caffeine the better.

Ladies and gentlemen, the soda of the past»

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03/02/09
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The Biz

Mr. Fantastic

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After Monocle used their brand to launch a shop, a newsstand and a half-dozen brilliant collabs, it was only a matter of time before more pubs got in on the action.

The first to catch on is Fantastic Man, a boutique European biannual best known for favoring designers over models for their cover shot. But apparently two issues a year leaves them a little free time for other pursuits like perfumery, because they’re debuting the magazine’s signature cologne next Monday. They’ll follow it up with a candle collaboration with Acne, but we’re still waiting for a bit of apparel to creep into the mix.

Get our take on the impromptu scent»

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02/26/09
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Art Threat

Gentleman’s Tour

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Travel is one of the finest uses of leisure…but leisure’s pretty hard to come by these days. Luckily there are always a few photographers on the case.

Max Wanger has taken what used to be called a Gentleman’s Tour of Europe, skipping between Paris, Rome and Florence (and Tokyo for good measure) and coming back with a set of pictures that use the location to the greatest effect.

If you were wondering what the Parisian kids are up to these days, this would be the easiest way to find out.

See more of the tour»

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02/18/09
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Art Threat

Walking Spanish

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At this point, Google is less a tech company than an enormous mass of information, absorbing museums, libraries, laboratories, phone companies and whole species, until eventually it contains everything in the world. (Akira, anyone? Anyone?) At this point, its only competitors are Apple and religion. It’s going to be a brave new world…especially if you’ve got a smart phone.

The latest acquisition»

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11/12/08
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Art Threat

The Wild Side

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Whether it’s Africa or flight attendant training school, the subject often makes the photographer. And as subjects go, brothels are a pretty good one…as long as you keep the kids away from the coffee table.

Prostitution has been legal since 2001 in Germany, and lensman Patric Fouad recently made a tour of the small-scale dens of iniquity that have popped up in the seven years since, resulting in his monograph, *Brothels in Germany*. They alternate between sterile hotel rooms and fantastical holdovers from old-world courtesanship, managing to be both exotic and bleak. It might be a place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

A few more interiors»

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10/27/08
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Across the Sea

Nation of Scrappers

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It looks like the grand tradition of the schoolyard brawl is slipping away. A recent survey by The Economist ranked the U.S. 17 out of 18 in terms of the battle-readiness pre-teens. French-speaking Belgians are the roughest kids on the block, with almost half of eleven-year-olds in at least three fights over the past year, with the Czechs only slightly behind. The U.S. comes in at 14%, second only to the famously peace-loving Germans.

This just confirms what talk radio hosts have been saying for years: kids these days are soft! Isn’t there some sort of national anti-effeteness program we can institute?

We also noticed that Spanish women are particularly violent, a potentially invaluable nugget of information.

See the data here

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10/24/08
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LinkOut

Canadians, Sheep, and Don Draper’s Dark Side

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A Ram Market: Esquire tries its hand at objectifying sheep. Hilarity ensues. [Esquire]

Making Waves: Portugal turns to wave power, making them more vulnerable to the whims of Aquaman. [Inhabitat]

The Northern Lights: Canada isn’t quite as sartorially challenged as you’d think. After all, they’re trendsetters on some fronts… [Complex]

The Don: Every man has a little Nixon and a little Kennedy on his shoulders, tempting him towards good or evil. Apparently Don Draper is no different. [Vulture]

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10/15/08
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LinkOut

Don Draper, Continental Flair, and the Preppiest Movie of All Time

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The Camera Man: A web-based photo retrospective of Marc Jacob’s favorite photographer. [FashionIndie]

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Men: Apparently casual misogyny and the occasional angry crotch grab go over pretty well with the Park Slope housewife set. [New York Observer]

A Gaping Void: Documentary proof that Europeans love the Gap. When we said continental flair, this isn’t what we had in mind.
[IHT]

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Whale: Ladies and Gentlemen, the preppiest movie of all time. [A Continuous Lean]

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