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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.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
Johnny Depp has come up with some pretty iffy outfits in the past, and yet he’s always managed to do so with a certain panache that saved the day, sartorially. Nonetheless, we far prefer it when he takes a more classic approach, as he did with brilliant results as the premiere of his new movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street this week.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
We’ve been keeping an eye on the dapper Derrick Miller and his brother Kirk since they started their very sharp shoe line Barker Black back in 2005. Derrick, a veteran of Ralph Lauren’s design studio, describes his personal style as “sophisticated, with a touch of fuck you.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. The Millers love to blend their own designs with tailor-tweaked thrift store finds—as Derrick puts it, “all the favorite things in my closet I paid less than 30 bucks for.”
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
We have always regarded idiosyncratic impresario Andre 3000 (née Andre Benjamin) as one of the most stylish men in modern music. A fitting heir to Jimi Hendrix in many ways, it’s felicitous that Benjamin (who has several acting credits to his name) has long had a Hendrix biopic in the works. Now he’s branching out into fashion with his own line called Benjamin Bixby, inspired by 1930s football players.
Leading Man: Sure, Daniel Day-Plainview may have drunk George Clooney’s milkshake last night, but with his shawl-collar tux and styled arm candy, Dr. Ross walked away with our award. [Observer]
Fit to Be Tied: Speaking of the Oscars, a few attendees, including Scientology’s unofficial co-pilot Ms. John Travolta, can’t manage a bow on their own. For shame. [Manolo for Men]
Sparkle, Sparkle: Dear Diablo Cody, remember that those snarky, insipid style critics have a job to do and tearing you apart is just part of it. It’s nothing personal. As far as we’re concerned, you’ll always be the second or third hottest former stripper to win for best script. [Beauty Fashion Life]
Hand Me Down: Adrian Grenier says vintage style is good for Mother Earth. Damned hippie. [Hoopla]
Watch out for Klingons: Ted Baker goes zoom! zap! bleep! bleep! in your underwear. [Retro to Go]
The White Pages: Social injustice, the class system and America’s yawning racial divide arrived bundled with P.C. Richards circulars this Sunday. [PSFK]
Precious Metals: Bask in the gleam of these new Kris Van Assche kicks. [High Snobiety]
Falling Hard: Racked cops to renewing their Middle-School crush. [ Racked]
Seoul Patrol: Hint has words with Korean futurist J. Juun. [Hint]
Precision Cuts: The Moment’s Hitler hairdo is making us feel ill. [The Moment]
International Rag Trade: Given the current exchange rate, vintage may be your best bet when shopping in London. [Time Out]
What a Difference a Year Makes: PSFK does some side-by-side comparison of Vice’s annual trend report. [PSFK]
Our friends at UrbanDaddy just turned us on to Assembly New York, a new vintage-plus boutique on the Lower East Side. Like their neighbors Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons, Assembly stocks a healthy selection of random objects to back up their more than formidable rack fodder. Our favorites include a ram-shaped bolo tie, four-eyed Chinese masks (an artifact of an earlier time, we’re sure), and enormous (but surprisingly sturdy) vintage corkscrews.
Today, our friends at UrbanDaddy take a look at Stock, one of New York’s best vintage stores. It’s equally beloved as a source for designers, a reference point for devotees of Early American Menswear, and a secret weapon for aspiring MOTHs throughout the city. And naturally, there were more than a few items that caught our eye.
Speaking of workwear, we’re drawing perilously close to cold weather, along with seasonal appropriateness for our favorite piece of lumberjackwear, the flannel shirt.
This one’s from Penfield—also a solid spot for your coldest-day-of-the-year winter coat—but if you don’t feel like checking online, we recommend a trip to your local vintage outfit. Vintage stores do flannel better than anything else, and you’ll end up with something more offbeat than anything you could find firsthand…as long as you don’t mind sewing up a hole or two.
Breaking in your own jeans is a bit too personal for some, but it never occurred to us to let someone else do the work…
A.P.C. has come up with a novel solution: Buy back broken-in jeans at half-price, then resell them to folks who prefer their denim a little softer. We wouldn’t want to be on the broken-in end, but we suppose it’s a matter of taste, and it’s still better than a trip to Diesel. No one has to suffer through mass washes and the indigo-stained masses get a little financial relief.
Then again, New York’s hipsters may have more money in denim than stock at this point. If A.P.C. isn’t careful, there’ll be a run on the bank.
Our friends at UrbanDaddy turned us on to an activity we were dangerously close to forgetting: Halloween vintage runs. For our money, the best costumes are the ones that take usual sartorial choices a few steps further—zoot suit, anyone?—and the best place to find the goods is usually in a vintage store.
These snaps come from Brooklyn’s own Houndstooth, but non-New Yorkers should be able to find a suitable place nearby. And if nothing else, these snaps should give you a touch of inspiration.
If you’re thinking of Mr. Draper, though, be warned: you may not be the only Don at the party.
Now that we’ve set you up with a moped, you may need a tougher jacket to get you through the occasional wipeout. After all, even the briefest brush with the pavement will leave your peacoat well and truly tattered.
Our friends at UrbanDaddy tipped us off Smith & Butler, a biker-inspired shop in Brooklyn that happens to have some of the best gear in the borough. Old favorites like Barbour and Belstaff should keep you protected while you’re riding, but there’s plenty else to check out while you’re here.
Brands like Filson, Pendleton and Pointer make up one of the best workwear collections you’ll find anywhere, alongside nautical sweaters from Saint James and some choice photography books from Rin Tanaka. Add in a few well-chosen vintage items, and you’ve got one of our favorite new stores.
Hopefully your moped makes it to Brooklyn.
There’s something magical about cars made before the advent of anti-lock brakes, power steering, and rudimentary safety equipment. It may not get you to Ferrari speeds, but the first actor to pull up to the red carpet in a Model A deserves all the attention he can get. At least you know he was clever enough to find one.
Oddly enough, eBay has become the go-to spot for vintage cars, so if you’ve got an empty spot in your garage and ten thousand dollars to blow through, you might want to take a look. This 1931 Model A wouldn’t be a bad place to start for some depression-chic…but we imagine you’ll find an even better place to finish.
We focus on big-name designers so much that it’s easy to forget how many different pieces go into making a clothing line. For instance, if you’ve ever bought a shirt from Thom Browne, it actually came from the shirtmakers at Gitman Brothers, an American List-approved firm out of Ashland, P.A..
They’ve gotten where they are through impeccable craftsmanship—extra touches like handmade plackets, tight stitching and hand turned, stitchless pockets—but they haven’t flexed their design muscles more than they needed to…until now.
They recently made a splash reintroducing old fabrics under the name Gitman Original Vintage. We haven’t seen the shirts yet—they’re debuting at the AW09 capsule shows—but judging by their reputation, we’re in for quite a collection.
Vodka: is there any problem it can’t solve?
Well, we can add vintage-clothes smell to the list at least. Valet Magazine tracked down the costume designer for Mad Men to see how they keep the vintage-heavy set from smelling like the back of your grandmother’s closet and the answer was a whole lot simpler than we thought. The secret? One part vodka in two parts water, sprayed on and left to air. Apparently astringent spirits do a lot to suck up whatever’s hovering in those threads, and vodka’s pure enough to not leave any smells behind.
Sounds like we’d better stock up.
Vintage Point: Vintage ads shake us to our very core. [NotCot]
Candy Coating: Coats are back in…just like pants. [International Herald Tribune]
Nice Gammes: Thom Browne’s stuffy clerk meets Moncler’s puffy coat. We can’t wait. [Men.Style]
Paint the Town: Amateur portraiters are one of the many downsides to taking the office of the President. [Reference Library]
Well-Undressed: Dissecting the on-stage style of Ms. Dita Von Teese…but we always thought of the clothes as beside the point. [International Herald Tribune]
The Other Hard Times: ACL calls our attention to the staggering beauty of depression-era New York. But we bet it looked a bit bleaker in person. [A Continuous Lean]
Ads Gone Wrong: It’s official: Madonna is a vampire. [Trendhunter]
The Shirt of Ages: Paul Smith’s guide to customizing vintage shirts. Now we just need to learn to sew… [Men.Style]
via Street PeeperThis gentleman brings us a very simple lesson: it’s all in the details. His shirt and shoes are both Levi’s (at least according to Street Peeper), but the vintage jacket and more importantly the leather boots give him enough cred to pull it off.
In fact, the drab background just makes the look seem that much more effortless. And, naturally, the shades don’t hurt.
Oh, Rose: Rosario Dawson continues to be one of our favorite things about New York. [T Magazine]
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Our nation’s finest monthly prepares you with a set of St. Patrick’s Day cocktails. [Esquire]
The Good Old Days: ACL unearths a treasure trove of WWII-era military vintage. [A Continuous Lean]
Get the Led Out: The zeppelin threat is real. [Boing Boing]
If the shades on the top look familiar, they should. But they just got a whole lot less vintage.
As a response to the popularity of their vintage gear, Carrera dug into their archive for a set of their best old styles, and brought the resulting models back into production. Naturally, it’s still better to get the Real McCoy, but for a couple hundred dollars less, the revival isn’t too bad either.
Carrera’s newer styles haven’t done too much to catch our eye, but this reboot might be just what the brand needs to get its legs back. If they can jump back to 1986 and start over from there, they may start digging up a lot more than just nostalgia.
The duffel bag has a long way to go if it’s going to come back into style. But this isn’t a bad start…
These particular items come from our friends at Norsea Industries, and we’re ready to call them the beginning of the duffel revival. Trading industrial performance cloth for warm, vintage-looking fabrics and a healthily grungy approach to color, they end up with what the duffel bag always should have been: a casual approach to luggage.
The economy isn’t all bad news; it looks like the craft sector is taking off in spite of everything.
Online craft shop Etsy cleared $12 million in sales last month (up 18% from February), and they’re poised to become the go-to source for trinkets of all kinds. We wouldn’t want to build a wardrobe from it, but it definitely has its charms.
Back in the heyday of the wristwatch—which we’d place somewhere between the 30s and the 80s—it was common for a team to receive watches as a corporate gift. It wasn’t exactly the coolest way to stockpile gear…but it makes for a hell of a vintage market.
Hodinkee just dug up this 1940s Hamilton Canteen made to commemorate the short-lived bureau of ships. It’s more of a document of military bureaucracy than a timeless source of style, but it still wouldn’t look half bad on a well-dressed wrist.
And what would vintage gear be without a story or two?
Old tech is usually left to the limbo of the semi-vintage market—VHS tapes for a quarter, anyone?—but the nice thing about limbo is that there’s usually a way out.
Case in point: Best Buy may be getting back into the vinyl game. The vinyl resurgence isn’t news, but no one expected it to get this far into the mainstream. Of course, that’s what happens when the only positive parts of the music industry’s balance sheet are digital downloads and 33s. Best Buy has to justify shelf space just like anyone else, and they certainly can’t fill it with mp3s.
Does this mean they’ll be stocking turntables too?
The Lebow Clothing Factory has been abandoned for upwards of 20 years, but apparently nobody thought to remove the stock. It’s a shame. From what we can tell, they’re not bad…but we’re guessing they’ve seen better days.
While it’s usually best not to think of exactly where that vintage trench has been, it may have looked something like this.
There’s something to be said for taking a couple months to break in a pair of work boots and earning a few blisters along the way. But on the off-chance you don’t feel like putting in the hours, you may want to explore the vintage option.
Seattle’s Blackbird just reloaded their stock of vintage Red Wings, and New York’s Stock has been dealing in second-hand stompers for some time. We aren’t usually fans of the vintage shoe market, but when it’s something as durable as work boots, we’ll make an exception. No matter how beat up they look, it’s a safe bet they’ve got at least another decade in them.
You can also try digging through grandpa’s closet…assuming he’s your size.
Now that they’re competing with iPhones for the timepiece market, watch styles have been trending towards the vintage. But since they still need to keep the watch mills running, that can lead to the occasional awkward moment…
For instance, this beautiful Longines Silver Arrow is a tribute to the classic ‘50s version, and it’ll set you back a steep-but-not-unheard-of $1500. The good news? As Hodinkee demonstrates, you can get an original version without cracking $500 provided you’re willing to dig around a bit. It’s bad news for watchmakers, but right now eBay and its brick-and-mortar counterparts are teeming with classic mid-century items that pack more character than anything you can find on an assembly line. The gears might be a bit creaky, but it’s not like you’ll be using them to check the time.
In our all consuming quest to keep you looking your nattiest, it’s once again time for our monthly look at your face. Or at least the glasses sitting on it. With the help of our good friends Jordan and Erik from Silver Lining Opticians—our vote for the best specs shop in all the land—we’re going to bring you the vintage shades you should be wearing, one category at a time. And if something catches your eye, just shoot Silver Lining an email and they’ll set you up.
Whether they were skiing in the Alps with a pack of wild bunnies or playing a few sets of tennis with unthinkably small rackets, the athletes of the 70s lived it up pretty thoroughly, and they looked damn good doing it. Their gear can be hard to come by nowadays, but not if you’ve got a few friends in the business…
As the economists say, it’s a recession when your neighbor loses his favorite vintage store and a depression when you lose yours. Well, we’ve got some bad news for you…
Houndstooth Vintage, one of Brooklyn’s best men’s vintage shops and our own personal Halloween costumer of choice, has closed up shop as of last week. You’ll still be able to get your hands on their goods by appointment through their blog—at the moment, they’re pushing a batch of vintage belts—but the days of stopping by in search of a vintage tux are over. Fare thee well…
Japanese workwear is one of our most rewarding obsessions, so we’re always interested in the latest crop.
Luckily, we just got a peek at a few Spring/Summer 2010 items from the folks at Post Overalls, and it’s enough to get our depression-era nostalgia going one more time. There’s a Suzuki-esque vest, an unstructured white jacket and a full complement of busy vintage patterns. Our favorite is the leafy green button-up…but it’s a crowded field.
This shirt comes from What Comes Around Goes Around, which was best known as the most selective, semi-secret vintage shop in New York until this year, when they started putting out clothes of their own. Not surprisingly, it’s got a bit of a retro feel…
It’s called the Iggy Shirt, and while they say the inspiration is 80s punk, it strikes us as closer to early 60s mod. We wouldn’t be surprised to find a shirt like this on Mick Jagger or an ex-mod like Pete Townshend.
Or on the shelves at Paul Smith, for that matter.
Score one for the vintage crowd. These Florsheim brogues are currently on the block courtesy of Blackbird’s vintage division (10E, anyone?), and while you can see a few decades of wear on them, they still look better than most of the models on the shelves. The lesson: Apparently Florsheim builds them to last.
Young, Dutch and Famous: The young woman behind Fashion Fillers takes a turn in the spotlight. [Fashion Copious]
The Next Big, Flat Thing: All those Apple Tablet rumors are true. More on that tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, the winner here is Roisin Murphy, who somehow got her album cover to show up on all the renderings. [Gizmodo]
The Wages of Thrift: The international secondhand clothing economy is much, much larger than you thought. [Daily Herald]
The Streets of Baltimore: A patient, comprehensive explanation of why you should watch The Wire. Seriously, folks. [A.V. Club]
Although we have neither tobogganing nor whisky-drinking in our immediate future, we couldn’t help but admire the style on display in this vintage Seagram’s spot, dug up thanks to Vintage Ad Browser.
You can make all the fondue jokes you want—and yes, we’ve thought of a couple—but that cableknit turtleneck is one of the reasons we’re hoping 1972 makes a comeback. Not all of it (the belt, for instance), but there’s plenty of awesome stuff to be dug up.
That headband, for instance, is probably a pretty big hit on the Williamsburg vintage circuit by by now.
It’s been a pretty good couple years for archival labels—yes, we’re looking at you, Gitman—so it was only natural a few bigger names would get in on the action.
This shirt, for instance, came from the “50s cowboy” section of Levi’s impressively rigorous archive. It’s a whole lot more adventurous than we would have expected (especially the asymmetrical buttoning), but unsurprisingly, it goes pretty well with a pair of jeans.
Which, for a company that’s still in the denim business, may have been the whole point.
After the advent of Zippos and more elaborate devices, matches are already a bit anachronistic—so we were thrilled to find a few packs with some genuine vintage to them. These were designed by none other than Saul Bass—you might know him for making Hollywood’s most famous title sequences, or designing the only AT&T logo you remember—and they’ve got us considering a whole new lease on light-giving. As it turns out, old school matchbooks aren’t that hard to find, and there’s plenty of inspiration at the Matchbook Registry. We may never handle butane again.
