Style Files
Summer Lovin
Loved this board by Rifle Paper Co. Makes you want to take a camping/road trip, no?
Style Files
True Statement >> Save Khaki
I can’t resist the awesome styling for the Save Khaki SS’10 lookbook by Unabashedly Prep. I hope the West Coast boys will catch on soon to the American trad-with-a-twist look being promoted by the likes of Save Khaki, Billy Reid, A Continuous Lean, Brooklyn Circus, The Sartorialist, Michael Bastian, Sid Mashburn, etc etc etc.
Please someone open a great men’s store in LA or SF and get this thing started… Sid, want to open a West Coast branch and literally “save khaki”? We need it! We’re drowning in a sea of graphic tees over here.
Click through for the rest of the looks…
Style Files
Kate Spade’s Vintage Book Clutches
Sometimes I come across things that just make my nerdy-designy heart race. Like these Kate Spade clutches, printed with their own re-imagined vintage book cover designs on silk twill. Would I actually carry one of these around? I’m not sure, it could be a little kitschy in real life. Do I love the concept? YES.
Love the back cover for Great Expectations…
Available here.
Style Files
Classics >> Summer Uniform
Chance, a new line by Julia Leach, former creative director of Kate Spade, is all centered around the striped French fisherman’s/navy t-shirt. And, not surprisingly, that makes for a collection of perfect summer essentials. I’ll take one of everything, please.
They also have a great timeline of the history of the striped shirt, including Matisse’s self-portrait wearing one!
Of course I would find this right after purchasing a child-sized St. James tee because I couldn’t find an adult-sized one I thought was as legit (and the St. James is def legit). And let me tell you, a child’s size 14 has a pretty strange overall shape when worn by a non-kid. Clearly, I was desparate. I also bought that exact tank on the right from Target, which also has a weird fit, obviously, because it’s from Target. If only I had held out.
My super-cool niece Mini (age 14) last week, after spending a week straight together was like, “you wear a lot of stripes.” So, I guess I can’t justify another stripe purchase after a comment like that.
However, one of my other super-cool nieces, Sadie (15), (yes I’m obsessed with my neices/nephews) told me that she had been considering buying the exact same kids’ St. James tee!! Without knowing I had it! So that made me feel a little better. And now I feel like I have good karma for directing her to this Chance one instead.
And now I’ve directed you there too. Enjoy!
Style Files
CXXVI
See, I said it was going to be a music-themed day, but I get bored really easily and I’m already really over the idea of posting three music themed things in a row. I did it, and it’s making me feel really anxious, so I’m taking one down, putting it back in the drafts folder, and will post it later. So now you have something to look forward to! Aren’t you dying to know what it was now?
Moving on, I discovered CXXVI Clothing Co. via the cool hand-lettered collateral materials by Jon Contino shown below (I’m not really sure what they’re for, neither are their logo).
Upon seeing these materials, I decided I had to check out whatever company would commission these to be made, and that’s when I found this framed print of a seltzer bottle that I’m dying for.
I’m still charmed by this article about the seltzer man in Brooklyn who had been delivering seltzer to homes for almost 40 years (accompanying photo below), and I think the print would happily remind me of the article every time I looked at it. But I digress…
I love brands that have a really defined look, so I like how all of their stuff seems to have this Moby Dick-inspired nautical/Americana thing going on, even if the nautical theme is getting a lot of air time right now.
A pocket knife etched and inked with black India ink by a company in Maine. (I might need this too.)
More lettering by Jon Contino, I presume?
Now wondering how I’d never heard of this company??
CXXVI here.
Style Files
Classic >> Milla Jovovich shot by Carter Smith
PERFECTION?
Dear St. Nick, I’m putting in my wishlist early this year. In addition to the pre-war apartment with working fireplace, casement windows, and herringbone patterned wood floors, I’d also just like to BE Milla Jovovich in this shoot, with these clothes and locations included. I hope that’s not asking too much. Thaaaannxxx!
xoxo,
E
Style Files
Let’s Bring Back: Styling of the Mad Men Era
In advance of Mad Men’s return on Sunday, Huffington Post writer Lesley Blume has an excellent column today on what she wishes would be brought back from the Mad Men Era, including: supper clubs with tiny lamps and animal print walls (agree! so chic! so glam!), coifs (such a better word than “up-dos”– I think I could get into something called a “coif”), hats for women, and hats for men.
Here, an excerpt from the article. I was just going to summarize and share a link to it, but it’s so well-written I just had to post part of it here.
“Time-wise, the Mad Men era is so close to our own, and yet so far away culturally. Elaborate social ritual is of paramount importance in the Mad Men realm; details are to be fussed over, not shunted aside in favor of soulless efficiency. The Mad Men world makes a fetish of ornamentation and deifies mysterious artifice; our culture, on the other hand, prizes an almost apathetic informality and rewards the tackiest forms of extroversion.
I once saw Mad Men brilliantly described as an exercise in “loathing nostalgia;” indeed, the epoch’s glamor co-mingles uneasily with many of its deplorable practices and attitudes. The sexism, the homophobia, the racism: those things can stay done and dusted.
Yet there are other things from that decade that are acutely missed, perhaps especially by style-minded people who didn’t get to experience them the first time around. For those of us who grew up in the subsequent era of Gap-sponsored khaki casualness and fast food, the Mad Men world represents a glamor lacking in our lives today.”
You can find the rest of the effects she wishes would be brought back here, including horn-rimmed glasses for men, foxy flight attendant uniforms, and three martini lunches. So worth checking out– the captions for the images are as articulate as the above excerpt and very entertaining.
Style Files
Don Q Lady Data
How can guys look better at the office?
I couldn’t resist posting these survey results– I so agree with them! Valet partnered with Don Q Lady Data to ask women how they felt about men’s clothing.
Above, my #1 pet peeve when it comes to men’s clothing! Why oh why do so many men buy those boxy suits that are about three sizes too big and not tailored at all to fit them? Maybe they wish they were bigger and think the clothes will have the effect of making them look larger than they are? But actually, pro athletes are some of the worst offenders in this category, so I don’t know. But I’m relieved to know that other women have noticed this as well. So men, please, find a tailor or take a well-dressed woman with you to pick out your clothes.
The trend of going sockless … pro or con?
In general, do you think the average man dresses well?
This means if you thought that #1 above was talking about you and your too-large clothes, it probably was.
But lest you think this is a huge downer, I feel strongly that menswear in America is really having a moment (in fact, such a moment that I think menswear is more interesting than womenswear right now) and that this could all turn around. Also, this only means that the guys out there who do dress well have a serious leg up!
You can check out the results to the other 7 questions, including more insight into why 61% of women think the average man dresses poorly, here.
Style Files
Sid Mashburn
As I mentioned, I’m in Atlanta right now, and I just learned that the wife of Sid Mashburn, who owns the men’s shop by the same name, is opening a storefront of her own! Named, fittingly, eponomously, Ann Mashburn.
Sid Mashburn has quickly become an Atlanta staple, but for those of y’all who are further afield, a quick introduction…
After putting in time at brands such as Ralph Lauren and J. Crew, Mr. Mashburn brought his wife and their five daughters to Atlanta and opened his self-titled shop.
With a focus on, and championing of, crisp tailoring and quality craftsmanship, the store stocks a well-edited stable of brands such as APC, Persol, Filson, Levi’s, Jack Spade, Globe Trotter, his own house line, and more.
But the selection is only half the draw– Mr. Mashburn and his irresistibly charming crew are not only welcoming, but also offer up easygoing guidance to their clients on everything from fit to cuff lengths. And, lest I forget, they also have tailors on site, working right there in the store to alter customize whatever your heart desires. Could this store get any cooler?
Despite the obviously masculine bent, (it is a men’s store after all), I walk out every time coveting a whole host of manly products, wondering if I could re-appropriate them for my own use. Can’t wait to see what Ann Mashburn has in store…
Images from:
and this article by Stylite
Style Files
Saturdays Surf
I think I should tell you from the start, this guy doesn’t find big surf in NYC… I watched with anticipation thinking he was going to go tear it up at the end, but not so. But, totally worth watching for the film itself! It’s nicely shot, the colors are great, and it feels very evocative, watching this guy head out of the city for some solo time in the water.
By the cool new surf shop Saturdays Surf NYC.
Um, I really want that guy’s sweatshirt… wonder if they make any women’s sizes??
PS- if you were wondering about the lack of posts so far this week- my sister had a baby on Monday so I’ve been all consumed with baby William in my free time!
[Thanks Colin!!]
[top collage from Valet.]
[top collage from Valet.]
