Kempt

You Have Just Been Flashed by Paula Patton

via GQ

Neckwear Returns: A whole crop of handsome Hill-Side gear just went on sale at Smith & Butler. Heads up, gentlemen. [Well Spent]

William Faulkner’s Mint Julep Cup: Drinking and writing stories from William Faulkner. (He was pretty great at both.) As a bonus, you’ll see his personal julep cup. [Open Culture]

The Book Life: … and speaking of Faulkner, here’s an essay on the sudden influx of books at menswear shops. (Good news, by our lights.) [Paris Review]

Law & Order: A photoset of New York City cops in the ’70s—some of whom are snappy dressers. [Daily Mail]

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12/21/11

Candice Swanepoel Is Patiently Waiting for You to Finish with Your Tie

via The Fashion Spot

Bringing Back the Old Drake: A long interview with Michael Hill of Drake’s. It turns out the grenadine and shantung ties are their best sellers—and, coincidentally, also our favorites. [StyleForum]

Ad Rock: Creative Review’s best ads of the year include both Ice Cube’s Eames mash note and that little Vader kid. A great way to spend five minutes. [Creative Review]

At the Caff: The cafeterias of ’50s London were pretty stylish places. [Archival Clothing]

It Is Joined: A walking tour of Brooklyn’s newest boutique, complete with Hill Side ties and Left Field jeans. [Secret Forts]

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12/13/11

Our final five gifts and a thrilling conclusion»

The Kempt Gift Guide, Part Three: Stuff You Can Wear

For the third and final installment in our gift guide, we’re going straight to the heart of the matter. The good stuff. The clothes. The trick is knowing your giftee’s style, and finding an item they’ll still be wearing next year. It’s tricky stuff, but we’ve got a plan for you…

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11/17/11

Big Picture

Welcoming the Fall/Winter Tie

You may have noticed a certain shift in neckwear over the past few weeks, with shantung and linen ties giving way to herringbone wools and rough flannels. It’s one of our favorite seasonal shifts, and the source of some of the best stuff in our closet. So we thought we’d take a moment to recognize the bucolic charm of the fall/winter tie… and highlight a few of our favorite specimens below.

Eight of our favorite cold-weather ties…»

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11/07/11

The one thing that makes a good scarf…»

What Matters (and Doesn’t) About Scarves

via Men’s Club

We love a good scarf. It’s the grace note of a well-dressed man—a sliver of color in a gray season. And since we’ll be wearing one every day once winter ramps up, it’s easy to get emotional about things.

But for all the wisdom and hype in our corner of the blogosphere, there’s really only one thing that matters in finding a good scarf. And it’s definitely not how you tie it…

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11/03/11

The Biz

The Five Kinds of Camo That Matter

There’s a lot of camo out there—and if recent events are any indication, we’re adding new patterns as fast as we can. It can be a little daunting, so we’ve stripped things down to the bare minimum: the five patterns that matter circa 2011—from digital to duck hunter. So before you buy that elegantly military pocket square, you may have a little research to do.

The world of camo, in five easy pieces…»

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10/05/11

Ming Xi Is Following Her Hair

via Newslicious

In the Shade: Picking the right sunglasses for your face, courtesy of Derek Guy. [Put This On]

The Bandana Crowd: A look behind the scenes of the Americana machine that is The Hill-Side. Sooo many handsome ties. [Well Spent]

The Rules of Tailoring: A quick primer on tailoring from Mistah Wong. Apparently he’s not a fan of the short jacket. [Most Exerent]

Turning British: A tour of Drakes’ new Savile Row shop, including some extremely handsome grenadine ties. [Selectism]

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09/30/11

Rothko’s Bandana

Between biker style and the reappearance of the neckerchief, bandanas are having a pretty good year. And while Hill-Side is still the go-to, we may have found a slightly more ambitious option.

The brand’s called Grei, and they specialize in taking US-made chambray and running it through smart dye routines until it resembles the kind of thing you’d see on the wall at MoMA. SF’s Unionmade just put up a dozen pieces in their e-commerce shop, so you can start perusing now. Now if they only made pocket squares…

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09/02/11

But what in God’s name is an emergency scarf?»

The Emergency Scarf

Emergency Scarf

Consider this a corrective to yesterday’s farewell to spring/summer arms: as you’re stowing away shorts and chambray, you should also be bringing out a few items to help you weather any unexpected briskness that might pop up in the next few weeks.

Specifically, an emergency scarf.

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08/10/11

Labeled

The Next Side

The Hill-Side

The Hill-Side’s latest lookbook arrived this afternoon, sketching out their plans for Fall and Winter, and it’s handsome stuff.

The lookbook shows off the same rugged scarves and ties you’d expect with a few new accents for fall. This time around, they’ve also recruited house favorites like David Coggins and Schott Perfecto’s Greg Chapman to model the goods. We’re especially taken by this chap’s floral tie, especially when worn under a faded denim jacket, but there’s plenty more to like after the jump.

A tour of Hill-Side’s latest goods»

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03/02/11

Frolicking is Back in Season

via LikeCool

The Great Divide: Esky splits up the menswear world into the heritage stuff and the disposable stuff. [Esquire]

The Holy Grail of Sneakers: An Oregon couple unearths the waffle iron that minted the soles of the very first Nikes. The Oregonian]

The New Ties: Hill-Side S/S ’11 is looking pretty good. [Secret Forts]

The Pitch: Inside the cricket season so far. Naturally, you’ll want to stay up to date. [Reuters]

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12/03/10

See a few snaps of the dyeing process after the jump»

Once Upon a Time in Japan

Scarves tend to hew to the traditional—whether it’s trad plaid or college stripes—but Hill Side’s latest entry reaches out to a different kind of tradition entirely: the Meiji kind.

It’s made out of Shijira, a summerweight kimono fabric that caught on in Southern Japan in the late 19th century. It breathes like seersucker, but it’s a lot less delicate—making it a pretty good candidate for the early-spring scarf that might end up stuffed in your briefcase if the weather warms up. And if you get a touch of the Seven Samurai look in the bargain, we doubt you’ll complain.

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11/15/10

Storefront

The Ties of Yore

An Affordable Wardrobe launched their online shop over the weekend, and we couldn’t resist a quick dip into the world of pennywise vintage. As with all thrifting, good judgment is key (the useful-seeming junk in someone else’s closet can easily become the useful-seeming junk in your closet), but there are plenty of gems to be found—especially if you’ve got room in your closet for a few more unorthodox ties.

We’d start with this one, a densely patterned relic of the LBJ-era neckwear. The style might be familiar from some of Hill Side’s recent projects, but this one’s a full three inches wide, and the colors are a good deal darker than the Corsillo Brothers’ Hawaiian variations. The rules for pulling it off are mostly the same—a button-down oxford and the simplest odd-jacket you’ve got—but if you’ve got a velvet smoking jacket handy, now might be the time.

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07/27/10

Labeled

Blue Note

Heritage can mean a lot of different things, but leave it to the chaps at Hill-Side to work Medieval England into the equation. Starting this Friday, they’ll be offering their classic stable of goods—that’s square-end tie, pocket square, handkerchief and scarf—in dip-dyed woad blue, with the help of the British artisan dyers at Tender Co..

About that heritage: Woad is one of the oldest dyes in the world, a staple of English clothing dating back to the Viking era, so it’s got a good millennium on most of what passes for heritage stateside. And as it turns out, the result is a pretty handsome shade of blue. It’s not that different from the chambray-assisted hues Hill-Side started out with—just with a new color and a richer dye pattern, and a whole lot more history to it.

Albion, here we come.

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06/09/10

Pater Familias

One of the perks of Americana is that you never run short of Father’s Day gifts. This linen handkerchief from Hill Side, for instance, isn’t too different from any other piece of industrial nostalgia they’ve set loose in the past year. Nevertheless, they’re pitching it as the perfect Father’s Day gift, and we’re hard pressed to disagree.

It might be the simple universality of a handkerchief, or the fact that everyone starts longing for a scrap of linen once the thermometer tops 80, but this is the kind of handsome, all-purpose item we usually recommend for gifts. And since you’re jumping generations, it probably doesn’t hurt that it came off the assembly line a few decades back.

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06/01/10

The Other Summer Tie

The gents at Hill Side just dropped this throwback graphic tie into their Hickoree’s shop, and it might be the non-plaid summer tie we’ve been waiting for.

The pattern might look familiar from 60s-era souvenir shirts, but taken in small quantities it can add a bit of nostalgic charm to just about anything. (We suggest a plain white shirt sans jacket, or a cotton suit if the heat lets up.) Because of the large-print graphic, it’s perfect for all manner of GQ-style pattern-mixing if you feel like going the extra mile.

And if you’re really committed, an actual trip to Jamaica wouldn’t hurt.

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05/03/10

Richard Kern Goes to the Beach

Kerning: Richard Kern’s new photo book is one more reason to be glad it’s getting warm out there. [Coolhunting]

Two Gentlemen of Chambray: Secret Forts sits down with the pair behind Hickoree’s Hard Goods and the Hill Side. Interesting stuff. [Secret Forts]

The New Crop: Fourteen directors behind the latest music video renaissance. [Vulture]

We’ve Been Waiting: Our new favorite beer commercial stars Will Oldham and a notably unconvincing fake robot. It’s eleven minutes long, but it’s worth it. [The Awl]

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03/30/10

Going Boutique

Hill-Side is best known for their square-end chambray ties, but lately this canvas version has been popping up in quite a few boutiques. Naturally, we’re a little curious…

It’s the deep end of workwear, not for dabblers, and while we’re not sure we prefer it to the usual chambray (for ties, we usually prefer fabrics you can’t light a match on), the canvas itself has quite a pedigree. It’s shipped in from Japan, alongside all that boutique denim you keep hearing about. It’s quite a move for a material they could have just as easily brought in from across the Hudson, but canvas has its selvage partisans too.

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11/10/09