Kempt

Remembering Pablo Picasso, in his own words…»

The Big Picture: Pablo Picasso

On the day that would’ve marked Pablo Picasso’s 131st birthday (as legend has it, he was thought to have been born still, until a visitor’s cigar smoke blew onto the newborn’s face and he cried out to everyone’s surprise), we’d like to take a moment to salute the legendary artist, Under 5′7″ All-Star and boat shirt aficionado with a few iconic photos and noteworthy words of wisdom.

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10/23/12

Icon

Icon: William Jefferson Clinton

Regardless of who you believe won last night’s third and final presidential debate, there’s one talking point we can all get behind: Bill Clinton has never looked better.

If you had told us in the mid-’90s that we would one day be lauding Bubba as a style icon, we would likely have directed you to photos like this and asked you to note the lumpy dad jeans, the Casio stopwatch, the white-on-off-white New Balances, the peanut butter and banana sandwich, and so on.

Indeed, the 42nd President of the United States is one of the only men we know whose style has reached iconic status thanks in very little part to his clothing. When it comes to Clintonian style, it’s all about the swagger.

And Bill Clinton was born with it…»

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10/22/12

In no particular awesome order…»

Constance Jablonski Is a Nosy Neighbor

via Fashion Copious

The Hill Side: GQ hits Capitol Hill to upgrade the style of a bunch of political-minded twentysomethings. [GQ]

Separating the Bonds: Tallying up the Bonds through the years in number of kills, martinis and conquests. [Economist]

Days Gone By: Now you can turn your favorite 365 Instagram photos into a calendar. [Highsnobiety]

Big Blimpin’: A Romney-sponsored blimp crash-lands in Florida. Everyone inside survives. (No word on Romney.) [Washington Post]

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10/15/12

What's What

10 Photos to Complement Last Night’s 60 Minutes Bond Segment

60 Minutes hopped on the James Bond 50th anniversary bandwagon with an extremely watchable segment on 007 last night. (Side note: Anderson Cooper, first gay Bond?)

So we thought we’d kick the week off by hopping on that bandwagon with 10 randomly awesome pics from the longest-running movie franchise in history.

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10/11/12

Essentially, they’re the Instagram photos you wish you could take…»

23 Random Stones Photos Found at a Flea Market

This sort of shit never happens to us: 23 candid photos of the Rolling Stones on their 1965 American tour were recently discovered in an unmarked box at a Southern California estate sale.

As for our favorite of the bunch, it’s a toss-up between the above and this photo featuring a pensive 22-year-old Mick drinking a Bud Heavy in the foreground with a pensive, cummerbunded waiter reconsidering his career choice in the background. (Though it’s always a trip to see a youthful Keith still enveloped in unpunctured skin.)

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10/01/12

Sheridyn Fisher Is Staring into the Sun

via Fashionising

More Bond News: Another leak from the Skyfall empire: this time Vulture has gotten a hold of the theme—voiced by Adele. [Vulture]

Peddling Smut: Some handsome Italian bicyclery, courtesy of Cinelli’s glossy new book. [Cool Hunting]

Water Gun: You’ve always wanted to see what it would actually look like if someone fired a handgun underwater? We thought so. [Notcot]

Fall for It: Esquire claims to have found every last shirt and tie you might need this fall. (We’ll see about that.) [Esquire]

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09/25/12

This is the least heterosexual depiction of American servicemen we’ve seen since Rent opened during Fleet Week in ’96…»

And You Thought the Military Was Gay Now…

In the process of researching various stories over the summer, we’ve stumbled upon a handful of vintage photographs that, at best, defy logic: Babe Ruth regifting a poodle to a wounded veteran on a stretcher, for example. A sinister “police officer” glaring at a splayed-out, tank-suited swinger, with a ghostly goddess in the distance patiently sashaying down the beach in an evening gown, for another example.

Jury’s still out on whether our readers are yearning for the latest in this head-scratchingly bizarre series, but one thing is certain:

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09/04/12

Candice Swanepoel Cannot Let Go of the Beach

via Fashion Copious

MCD, RIP: Michael Bay and Tom Hanks, among others, share their memories of the larger-than-life Michael Clarke Duncan on his passing. [CNN]

Filtered: Three Instagram-famous photogs were given all-access to shoot the US Open on their phones. Here are the results. [Mashable]

Looking Underworked: The blokes over at Esky UK have some tips on not looking so damn tired all the time. [Esquire]

Dandy Tanner: Hypebeast catches up with Tanner Goods’ Sam Huff to talk leather and this whole heritage trend thing. [Hypebeast]

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08/21/12

Cosby: Before the Sweater—A Kempt Pictorial»

Cosby: Before the Sweater

The Cosby Sweater. Never before have a man and an article of clothing been more intimately linked. But it’s also important to remember that Cliff Huxtable’s Fruity Pebble patterns were confined to the 1980s—and a fictional character. Sartorially, young Coz (the standup comedian, the jazz drummer, the track-and-field star) made some strong (to quite strong) style choices, combining Malcolm X’s formality, Barack Obama’s collegiate ’fro and Johnny Carson’s panache. The result was (and remains) a very good thing.

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08/15/12

But that’s no reason to ditch the concept altogether…»

Dusting Off: The Stylish Fallout Shelter

On October 6, 1961, President Kennedy directed American families to begin building bomb shelters to protect them from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. We now know that digging a 10-foot hole in your backyard and stocking it with two weeks’ worth of Spam will not, in fact, save a family of four in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

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07/25/12

The Olympics of Yore

This snap comes from a collection of action shots The New Yorker has dug up from the early days of the Olympics circa 1908-1924. It was a much simpler time back then, when the referees wore three-piece suits, athletes had day jobs and someone could win the marathon even after falling repeatedly, running in the wrong direction and being helped across the finish line by “a megaphone-toting man in a boater.” Friday can’t come soon enough.

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07/19/12

Object

The T-Shirt Goes Americana

There was no greater boon to the Americana-enamored blogosphere than when Life magazine digitized their decades’ worth of photo archives for all to scour.

Suddenly, family fishing trips on the Cape, grizzled coal miners in Virginia and fedora’d men flying for business were all there for the taking/uploading/menswear-nostalgia-evoking. And now, you can wear them on your chest—thanks to a T-shirt company by the name of Altru, which has officially licensed some iconic archival photos. The first batch features dogs, motorcycles and JFK. Which is about as Americana as it gets.

For when your Carhartt overalls are in the wash.

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07/18/12

Today Was a Good Day (for the Internet)

If you could just look away from the steady stream of Tumblr, Instagram and blog photos scrolling across your screen for a moment, we’d like to direct your attention to this poorly photoshopped album cover for a nerdy parody pop band. (Stick with us.) Twenty years ago to the day (July 18, 1992), the first picture ever was uploaded to the World Wide Web—by the guy who actually invented the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. And you’re looking at it. Thanks to the intrepid aesthetics crusaders at Design Taxi, who recently brought the photo to light along with its backstory (as you can imagine, it’s filled with happenstance). All right, now you can get back to uploading that rose-tinted cameraphone snap of your workwear-inspired crotch.

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06/29/12

More on the unlikely style of Watts in the ’60s.»

The Disenfranchised Youth, Circa 1966

In 1966, Life magazine checked in on the street youth of Watts in the wake of riots and another dubious police shooting, and what they found was a surprisingly dapper lot. On first mention, South Central Los Angeles might not immediately conjure images of preppy shawl-cardigans, Wayfarers, rolled jeans and Thom Browne–esque pant hems—but as it turns out, these kids were pioneering the Black Ivy look well before Street Etiquette was on the scene (and doing it in the most unexpected place). A few snaps have been kicking around the blogosphere since appearing on a Brazilian blog, but in the event you don’t read Portuguese, we’ve compiled the entire spread of well-dressed rebels going about their day: admiring the Watts Towers, listening to tunes and preparing a few Molotov cocktails (just in case). One street tough in particular arrives on the scene in Clubmasters, a corduroy shacket and a pinky ring, and it’s got us looking forward to an unseasonably cool day.

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06/28/12

Herewith, all the pants, sweaters and shoes fit to twitpic…»

When Drug Paraphernalia Had Class

Allow us for a moment to set aside the horrors of drug addiction and bask in the illusory splendor of 19th-century opium pipes. We were first turned on to the nice side of heroin by Alessandro, Principe Ruspoli, Ninth Prince of Cerveteri, last summer while researching our series on the 12 original playboys of the jetset sixties. If you missed Dado the first time around, you’ll want to take a few minutes to watch his delightfully infectious endorsement of the practice.

Today, though, we’re only concerning ourselves with the pipes. As historian Stephen Martin explains, “In no other addictive substance did man’s quest for mood-enhancement reach such artistic heights.” The pipe pictured here is of the ceramic/red-copper variety, made in Southern China in the early 1800s. While it is technically a water pipe, it is decidedly not the bong you bought from your friend’s older brother in 10th grade. In fact, it’s technically not even an opium pipe.

Here’s why…»

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06/22/12

Current Affairs

Tweetti Uomo

Pitti Uomo. Surely you’ve heard the commotion—half a world away, buyers and editors swathed in a spectrum of Italian linen and ceruleans wading through the pools of street style photogs snapping away—but the real action wasn’t in Florence, or the blogs. It was all happening in real time, on Twitter. So we culled the list of fashion folk who made the transatlantic voyage, and compiled their various twitpics and Instagrams to get a good look at what to expect for spring 2013.

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06/22/12

Let’s begin our curious dissection of this scene in order of absurdity.»

This Could Be the Most Elaborate Re-Gifting of All Time…

We’ve been agonizing over this photo ever since it popped up on the interwebs a couple days ago. It’s equal parts mesmerizing and perplexing. Just take a moment to drink it all in… So, this much we know: Babe Ruth is receiving a French poodle from a wounded veteran. This much we don’t know: everything else. And since we can’t travel back in time to ask any of the fellows in this picture “What the hell is going on here?” we’re going to have to settle for some wild speculation.

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06/19/12

Here are a couple of our favorites…»

When the Paparazzi Had Grace

Brigitte Bardot and constable, Saint-Tropez, 1975

If you happen to be in Paris this month, drop by the Galerie Art District du Royal Monceau at the Royal Monceau–Raffles hotel, where you’ll find an exceptionally tasteful collection of celebrity photos from the ’60s and ’70s taken by Daniel Angeli, “father of the paparazzi.”

There’s a cerebral tone to Angeli’s shots, particularly when compared to the shit show of “gotcha” pics and videos littering newsstands and gossip sites these days. A code of sorts seems to be at play here—an invitation, rather than an interruption. Simply put, these are beautiful photographs of beautiful people in beautiful settings.

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06/12/12

Long Live the Chino

This snap of James Dean strolling New York City in a pair of khaki chinos comes from a 1993 Gap campaign unearthed by How to Talk to Girls at Parties. The series of photos features some of the greatest men’s style icons—from Ali to Dalí—going about their daily lives, wearing the simple summer pant. It’s a nice reminder of how style is timeless.

You’ll want to brush up on your summer pant game by harnessing your chino.

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06/07/12

Women Can Be Handsome, Too

via Refinery29

Trap Wear: Randolph Engineering is best known for their Draper-worthy aviators, but Cool Hunting recently discovered the shades also have some serious trap-shooting chops. [Cool Hunting]

Postcards from Italy: Mr. Lean gives us the lowdown on where to stay on the Italian island of Ischia. But mostly this is for the gorgeous photos. [ACL]

Airing It Out: Neil Young and Crazy Horse returned to the studio after a nine-year hiatus. The good-humored, silken-voiced Terry Gross gets the deets. (She always does.) [NPR]

F Why? I: We heard rumblings of Channing Tatum’s art-imitating-life “male stripper epic” Magic Mike but didn’t believe it till Vulture got a hold of 50 preproduction stills. (They spare you 44 of them.) [Vulture]

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05/25/12

About

America the Beautiful

We’ve already got our weekender bag packed, but before we hit the road, we wanted to leave you with a few gorgeously patriotic images to hold you over till Tuesday (when we’ll be resuming our regularly scheduled handsomeness).

Here’s to three days of unadulterated sunning, funning, barbecuing, adult beveraging and reflecting on freedom (and the sacrifices that’ve been made to protect it). Enjoy the long weekend, everyone.

Ladies, take it away.»

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05/23/12

So extraordinaire, in fact, that they were gracious enough to send over a dozen exclusive snaps from the book to share with you here. Enjoy.»

What I Drove Today

The gents over at Driven have taken street style photography to a whole new level with this shot. They managed to wave down a passing motorist while in Maine this weekend to get a photo of her entire “on the street” look, which included a vintage roadster, aviators and a pooch riding shotgun. It looks like fun. And it’s the same reason bloggers started roaming SoHo with giant cameras—to capture regular-yet-impossibly-cool folks in a fleeting moment of utopian stylishness—but this takes it to an even larger scale of “lifestyle.” (We’ll have to come up with a better word than “accessorizing” when referring to a ’70s MGB.) And we wouldn’t mind seeing more of it. We’d also like to point out that it looks like Ms. Rioux has already checked off items #1 and #3 on our newly updated summer must-haves. (No worry, there’s still time to catch up.)

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05/17/12

Shelf Life

A Dozen Photos of the Beatles You’ve Never Seen

The Beatles’ meteoric rise really happened between 1964 and 1966—spanning from the birth of Beatle Mania in continental Europe to the “bigger than Jesus Christ” tour through America. And during that time, Harry Benson spent nearly every waking hour with the band as their officially unofficial photographer. He was like the fifth Beatle—with a camera strapped around his neck instead of a guitar—even tagging along on George’s honeymoon in Barbados. It gave him unique access to (and perspective on) the young lads in an exciting time—all documented through his lens. Some photos instantly became iconic (the pillow fight at the George V Hotel, the impromptu boxing session with a young fighter named Cassius Clay), but the rest were tucked away, never seen by the public… until now, in this oversized, 272-glossy-paged collector’s-edition book, The Beatles: On the Road, to be released soon from publishers extraordinaire Taschen.

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05/16/12