Another month has gone by, and with it, another thousand pages of glossy, gently perfumed menswear journalism has arrived on our doorstep.
Naturally, we’ve got a few opinions.
Here’s everything you need to know from this month’s magazine crop»
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“UniQlo”
If you haven’t checked your mailbox recently, we’ve got some good news. Another round of glossy style advice has arrived on the nation’s collective doorstep, and
In fact, this month’s haul was particularly interesting because of Esquire’s latest Big Black Book—a glossy tome filled with all the intricacies of style too involved for the general subscriber base. That means dark rum, exotic leathers and all manner of Italian suiting.
Of course, it’s not all good advice—so we’re stepping in to tell you what to read, what to try and what to avoid at all costs.
Here’s everything you need to know from this month’s glossy magazines…»
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via WBEA Healthy ’Qlo: The new Uniqlo flagship is looking pretty spectacular. Even the escalators look strangely futuristic. [GQ]
The Shirt from Hell: A well-deserved tirade against the evils of the non-iron shirt. [Slate]
Hustle Blood: Grant Bloodworth owns the linen DB. Take notes on that pocket square as well. [tucked]
Giving Up the Gun: The jackets in Kiton’s new line have a less-than-credible shoulder, and the Italophile tumblrs are giving them hell. Live by the camicia spalla, die by the camicia spalla. [Parisian Gentleman]
via So, I Told You: The social etiquette of being right. It’s a problem we have to deal with all the time. [MIEN]
Club Life: Justin Bridges’ guide to the club collar, with a little help from Uniqlo. [tucked]
The Real Wrestler: The tragic decline of Ric Flair, of the WWF. Be warned—it’s incredibly long and incredibly sad. [Grantland]
The Covered Wagon: A crop of screenprinted posters from pre-talkie westerns, and your retro fix of the day. [How to Be a Retronaut]
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via HypebeastEnd of an Era: Jil Sander drops the mic on Uniqlo and walks away from the +J collaboration. [The Telegraph]
Lana Turner’s Still Got It: Anne Helen Peterson tells the story of sex, murder and Lana Turner. A dame in full. [The Hairpin]
A Gentleman’s Guide to Brewing Beer: The Art of Manliness sits down with Martin Simion of Austria’s 1516 Brewing Company. [Art of Manliness]
Downer of the Week: Peter Falk, of Columbo and Wings of Desire, is dead at 83. Lame. [/Film]
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This week’s gent is a bit more outré than our usual tastes—that’s a wig, for starters—but it’s a great clinic in working more adventurous items into your routine.
Consider the outfit piece-by-piece. The jeans and the sweater are both mainline Uniqlo—roughly the cheapest good stuff you can buy. If you ditched the scarf, the bowtie and the overcoat, he’d look like a well-dressed temp. Those three accessories elevate him into fashion-show territory, and we’d guess he’ll be wearing at least one of them again tomorrow.
And while we’d normally find a short-sleeved, fur-lined coat to be a little over the top, when it’s over jeans and oxfords, somehow it’s not quite so intense.
As for the wig…you’ll want to work up to it slowly.
Street style blogs have been thick on the ground in the past few years, so it was only a matter of time before retailers got in on the game. Case in point: Uniqlo just launched their own mini-Sartorialist, called Uniqlooks. The subjects are a bit scrappier, but the sun-dappled lensing and Parisian and Manhattan street settings are unmistakably Schuman-esque.
The outfits aren’t quite as high-fashion as the Sartorialist, but the best ones have a certain international bohemianism to them. (Also, pretty French girls.)
There’s only one problem: Uniqlo’s bread-and-butter is cheap staples—your oxford shirt, your gray v-neck, your other pair of jeans, etc.—so they tend to be responsible for the less eye-catching items in the pics. But if that means reminding people how good their pants look under a budget-busting McNairy shirt, it might not be such a bad thing.
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via LikeCoolMan of the Hour: Chris Cooper has seen a lot in his life, and he doesn’t have time for your crap. [NYMag]
Fellas Who Are Good: The FBI pulled down the biggest mob bust in New York history today, with over 100 arrests from all five crime families, so the Voice helpfully rounds up the best nicknames involved. Highlights include “Tony Bagels,” “Lumpy” and “Baby Fat Larry.” [Village Voice]
Inauguration Day: The JFK Library follows up its lucrative data dump with a Twitter-friendly run through of Kennedy’s inauguration speech. Check it out here. [Creative Review]
Jil Sander Returns: Early pics of the new Uniqlo +J arrive on the webs. [Antenna]
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via The Persistence of Plaid: Ray Smith explains why plaid has stuck around. [WSJ]
Necks Will Be Protected: The $50 check wool tie. [Commerce with a Conscience]
Sander Strikes Back: The Beggar pegs the return of Uniqlo +J to next Wednesday. You’ve been warned. [The Choosy Beggar]
Lonely at the Top: An interview/factory tour with Top Shelf, one of the largest sellers of custom clothing in the U.S. [Secrets of the City]
via The Power of the Sun!: Because we care, here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about sunburn. [Lifehacker]
Portugal Wins Again: Apparently the Portuguese are winning the World Cup-Twitter trending game. Time to rally, kids. [Mashable]
Doing Donuts: Continuing our ?uestlove kick, here’s the man’s favorite albums at age 5, 10, 15 and so on. [Pitchfork]
In Print: An appreciation of Uniqlo tees as art. Especially the ones with rabbits on them. [The Moment]
Via Like CoolFree & Easy: The Dennis Hopper bonus reels are starting to come out of the woodwork. This Schnabel short biopic is our favorite so far. [Not Yellow, Chicken]
The Daily Meme: In case you missed it, feast your eyes on the wonder that is Sad Keanu. [Urlesque]
We Call Him “Papery”: Uniqlo gets a mascot, and it’s creepy as hell. [PSFK]
Back in the Day: McNairy for Pro-Keds is a time warp to the best part of 1981. [Sartorially Inclined]
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Italian Vogue Bats 1000: We believe she’s wearing a chandelier of some kind. [Fashion Copious]
So Many Cardigans: New York Magazine takes on the global dominance of Uniqlo. The money line: “They have chosen fabric, rather than fashion, as the area where they want to excel.” Sounds like a solid plan to us. [NYMag]
Hopefully It Won’t be Called the G-Pad: Google tablet. Act like you know. [TechCrunch]
The Egg Did it Last Season: A chicken fashion show, brought gloriously to life. [Whim Quarterly]
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Wild Horses: Gisele is officially the highest paid model in the world. The horse is a close second. [Fashion Copious]
Gallery Show: Rogues Gallery: Still pretty damn cool. [SwipeLife]
Shoot the J!: Preparing for the second coming of J+ at Uniqlo. It’s gonna be real. [Shophound]
Long Live the King: In honor of his 75th birthday, here’s a roundup of Elvis’ five best travel movies. [World Hum]
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Fellini’s Other Muse: In honor of Nine, Maya Singer guides a tour of Fellini’s favorite women. Next week: Nino Rota’s favorite trombones. [Style.com]
Also, Truman Peyote: The epic annual Year in Band Names roundup. Highlights this year include Damage Pants, God Johnson, and German Beef Initiative. [A.V. Club]
First Look: An early peek at the Spring/Summer crop of J+ by Jil Sander for Uniqlo. [Nitrolicious]
Think of the Children: It’s a long weekend, but see if you can get through it without buying $248 cashmere sweatpants. [The Cut]
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Most of our winter gear tends to be bulky outer layers, but it may be time to revisit one of the unsung heroes of the ski set: the long john.
And thanks to Uniqlo’s heat-tech gear, they may be a bit slimmer than you remember. The latest models use special weaves to stay dry, trap in heat, and generally protect your bottom half. We’d opt for a non-waffled pair to preserve the drape of your trousers, but don’t be surprised if these trunks are thinner than you remember. We always knew technology was good for something…
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Glamor Shots: Vogue Italia introduces us to Ms. Viktoriya Sasonkina. [Cyana Trendland]
The Man in the Mirror: MJ gets an appreciation from the gray lady. [NYTimes]
Public Enemy #1: The style wisdom of Mr. John Dillinger. [WSJ]
The Urge to Merge: The owner of Uniqlo may take over the Gap, resulting in a resurgence of avant-garde crew necks. [The Cut]
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via ShophoundStarting today, Gilded Age graces Uniqlo with a few downmarket gems, and the fine folks at Shophound managed to get a few early pics. We thought it was a good catch when the collab was announced, and it looks even better now, particularly the red henley-ed sweater on the right. On your marks, get set…
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The New Girl: French editrix and Wintour-to-be Carine Roitfeld is getting the bio treatment from CBS. Revelations include her youthful foxiness. [FashionIndie]
All in Knots: A new multimedia path to the perfect knot. [NotCouture]
Nice Corpus: Our friends at Corpus get the interview treatment via New York Magazine, and reveal their secret Ralph Lauren obsession. [The Cut]
High/Low: Uniqlo and Opening Ceremony deliver on the perfect cheap linen suit. [The Moment]
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Don’t Mess With Lohan: Lindsay Lohan does another set of topless snaps, courtesy of Hedi Slimane. Does this count as a step forward? [FashionIndie]
In Japan, Thermal Wrap Wears You: Tadai Yanashi, the owner of Uniqlo, is now officially Japan’s richest man. Suck on that, Shigeru Miyamoto! [Luxist]
It’s Fundamental: Esquire starts to read again…as we slowly stop reading Esquire. [Esquire]
Mickey Mouse Club: Vulture imagines the sublime trainwreck that could have been the Mickey Rourke acceptance speech. [Vulture]
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We’re trads at heart, so we’re always happy to see someone putting a new spin on the staples of tradwear. (That would be the suit and the tuxedo, in that order.)
Viktor & Rolf slipped underneath our radar when they skipped out on the major runway shows, but by the looks of these press pics, we were missing out on quite a lot. The high-cuffed pants are straight out of the Browne playbook, but between the wildly patterned blazers, shimmering socks and boldly mixed high-top sneakers, there’s a lot here that isn’t indebted to anyone.
None of this is quite ready for Barneys, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Uniqlo collaboration in their future.
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Opening CeremonyUniqlo has a remarkably catalog for a down-market brand, but even more impressive is how many upscale designers they’ve managed to tempt in for collaborations. Alexander Wang, Loden Dager, Tim Hamilton were all on last year’s list, but apparently the ‘qlo has a few more in the works.
Over the next few months, they’re rolling out two new men’s collections from Opening Ceremony and Gilded Age respectively. (Shipley & Halmos, sadly, stuck with womenswear.)
Gilded Age acquits themselves fairly with a set of baggy, nautical gear, but we’re more partial to Opening Ceremony, not least because of their electric blue suit that looks like it could have come right off Pete Campbell’s back.
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Having already enlisted Tim Hamilton, Loden Dager and creepy retail mimes, Uniqlo is setting their sights on one of New York’s finest: Opening Ceremony.
Opening Ceremony’s light kitch and occasional summer-in-Stockholm vibes should fit well with the Japanese megabrand, and it’ll be nice to see them get a little more recognition. For now we’ll just cross our fingers and hope it’s a men’s line.
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At Uniqlo, the T-Shirt Chooses You: The Japanese retailer finally goes completely off the rails. Mimes are involved. [The Shophound]
A Wing and a Prayer: A Continuous Lean visits the Red Wing factory and gets to smell the leather up close. [Vimeo]
The Rise of the Machines: Rudimentary computer art peacefully invades a Swedish gallery. [Cool Hunting]
Democracy in Action: Voting is open on the top five designers of all time. Our money’s on the Finns. [MakeFive]
The Rise of the Machines: Uniqlo’s upcoming Times Square promotion will involve thermograph scanners, silver body suits and human-sized vending machines which will contain mimes. Pray for the future. [PSFK]
Everybody Loves Helen: Esquire confirms that Helen Mirren is awesome. [Esquire]
Biters 2, The Return: The esteemed Paul Smith appears to have lifted a flickr image for his latest two-hundred-dollar t-shirt. Alas, the follies of biters. [BlackBook]
Mesh and Lace: A comprehensive guide to shoe lacings. Someday, this will be huge, we promise. [A New Morning]
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Bond Sells Out: Product placement? In a James Bond movie? Say it isn’t so, James! [NotCot]
Robot Love: Uniqlo’s Wakamaru comes in peace. Inarticulate, impractical peace. In other words, our precious retail jobs are safe. [PSFK]
Swimming with Sharks: Our friend Damien has his share of haters too. For some reason, they tend to be Australian. [ArtInfo]
A Checkered Past: The proper way to wear checkered pants is elusive. [A Suitable Wardrobe]
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