the summer cut

summer seems to have finally come to the northwest corner of yankistan, and so it's time once again for the summer cut, which is about 1/2 inch all around with a wahl electric hair trimmer. and what goes right with a summer cut? let's see...


That's right folks. It's the venerable all-cotton Munsingwear Golf Pro short sleeved button-down stripey. Worn with a pair of Donna Karan fitted gray slacks and some vintage Sears black brogues, plus my prescription green glass James Bond specs with the chrome frames, I feel fit for showing myself in public once again. And with weather like this, who knows, I just might.

your daily shoe porn

yikes! keds brand nod to the desert or "chukka" boot! WANT WANT WANT

lots of good pics

Google image search for "suedehead"

Google image search for "lock stock and two smoking barrels"

Google image search for "munsingwear penguin"

Cheap Monday 2008 Parka

Two years is an eternity in the fashion world. So if y'all have any seconds/leftovers of this line....SENDEMEEEERE.

Want One: The Ben Sherman "Mastermind" Cotton Gingham Blazer

Screen-grabbed from our friends at BenSherman.com

Wait a sec -- mix/match with shorts??!!?? No f?!king way...

Quote for the day

"Never trust a man in a blue trench coat" -- Tom Waits, 'Telephone Call From Istanbul'

today

Spotted tie (white on red), med. width, rayon - Yves Saint Laurent: new, appr. $150 USD; purchased for appr. $5
Tonic blue/violet dress shirt, cotton - Material of London: new, appr. $80 USD; purchased for appr. $8
Brown/blue pinstriped blazer, polyester - 7 Diamonds: new, appr. $150 USD; purchased for $7
Silver trim fit men's dress pants, polyester/wool blend - Donna Karan; new, appr. $80 USD; purchased for appr. $10 USD
Matte brown chisel toe dress oxfords - Sketchers Collection; new, appr. $70 USD; purchased for appr. $9
Total cost of outfit new: appr. $530 USD -- Actual price paid: appr. $39

street sightings

A large grain herringbone tweed wool coat in the current military style with some exaggerated details such as longer collar points, etc. Impossible to find on Google so far.

Dark charcoal gray coat with marching band uniform details on the cuffs, button plackets, collar etc.

I should just start taking people's picture from now on. Of course then there's always release forms etc.

This picture isn't what I was looking for, but it is kind of cool.

Claudio Morelli gray wool blazer (3B)

Today's shoe porn

The Bradley Boot, in tobacco kudu suede. (Apparently the kudu is a type of African antelope - hopefully its end was quick and painless.)

Via Harry's of London; the brand first spotted at 6pm.com.

you need a lot of pretty green to buy a Pretty Green ™

Liam Gallagher of Oasis/"friend of Paul Weller" fame has started his own line of clothing, among which is the Pretty Green Parka, pictured here.



Now, I've been complaining for years about how hard it is to find a decent, well fitted men's parka at trenchcoat length; I've seen plenty of them for women at stores like REI, and they only get nicer every year. However, when it comes to men's outerwear, people think that men are content looking like idiots in waist-length ski parkas. I have said that any designer who comes out with a trenchcoat length parka for men is going to make a killing.

Unfortunately, it seems Liam wants to do more than make a killing, he wants to commit price tag genocide. Do you want to pay $800-$1000 for a parka? The one thing you can say about going to the Army Surplus and getting a fishtail like you wore to the Jam concert in 1983 is that it's affordable, even if it does look rather juvenile for those of us older chaps trying to lean more "ace"-wards.

It exactly fits what I was visualizing though, so if Liam wants to (a) personally apologize for how expensive they are or (b) send me a prototype, a second, or even an off-the-rack piece, I'll take it. Whoever manages Pretty Green should comment or email and I'll give them my postal address. Thanks in advance.

[Thanks to Mod Culture UK for the picture.]

dream vs. reality

The dream:
The reality:

Your Daily Shoe Porn

From our friends at Zappos.com - here's the Kenneth Cole Whipstitch.

Tonic Shirts

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Moss Brothers of London, we have this very nice hidden button long sleeve dress-casual tonic shirt. Thank you, Moss. Now please send me five. My neck size is approximately 18.]


I've found a few of these via Geoffrey Beene, Donna Karan/DKNY, Liz Claiborne, Kenneth Cole, Structure, and a few other obscure and/or nondescript department store labels. Generally the two tones brought to bear are the standard (copper + slate blue = a sort of shimmery, almost metallic violet) - although one of them comes together as rose and tourquoise to offer a sort of dark magenta - at the moment I have, I don't know, two or three long sleeve dress shirts and one polo.

It used to be you had to scour thrift stores like a lunatic in order to score the occasional ill-fitting, threadbare tonic blazer with missing buttons etc. The advent of the tonic dress shirt is, at least to me, somewhat revelatory. The goddamned things go with any damn thing you please. They sort of are a diabolical secret weapon - you can have the most prosaic gray outfit and throw in one of these, WHA-AM! All of a sudden, you have style.

I'd like some tonic dress socks now, please......

details: the double button collar

i have a very nice 2-button collared dress shirt (black with gold diagonal pinstripe, in a stretch blended fabric) that is very unusual, which inspired me to go a-googling....apparently these are considered a (what else?) peculiarly italian conceit of clothing. and of course! who else but claudio seems to be on the ball. it's like the bloke reads my mind. if i win the big lottery he's going to dress me from now on, head to toe.



hawes and curtis have one similar to mine in cut - the lining is also interesting.

dickies black lined eisenhower jacket

My partner insisted I ditch the rather worn-looking black military-styled field jacket I wrote about earlier, and suggested I put on this instead. Almost perfect condition, yard sale price: $3.

Apparently, this is now "regulation" punk rock gear, so there is that.

better late than never!

Okay, we're already almost halfway into 2009 and the posts have been mighty sparse. Let's ramp things up then and get opinionating!

I was interested to see the announcement about the Fred Perry 100th Anniversary line, particularly the collaborative/co-branding angles which were all very cool: Raf Simons, Vespa, Paul Weller, Terry Hall and The Specials to name a few. Everyone knows that the classic Fred Perry tennis jersey is right up near the top of my "please give me free stuff for writing about it" wishlist next to the classic Baracuta jacket, Italy's own DNA Groove [link to men's shoes, but man oh man could I ever spend money on their other stuff!], Munsingwear's "Original Penguin", Ben Sherman, and the only jeans that matter - in other words, stuff I'd wear if I could afford it, and until then have to be content with thrift store castoffs. I've found all of the above in thrift stores EXCEPT anything by FP - for that I'd have to brave the waters of eBay, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying clothing over the internet if I can help it.

[And if you're sending me free stuff - i'll take L to XL please. Shoe size 10 1/2 American. Pants size, well, that's rather personal.....I'd have to get to know you better.]

FP Granddad Collar Dress, D3762

Good Lord, you can practically see her.........

Edie Sedgewick would be proud.

The Fred Perry E-Store. Go buy something.

take the suedeheads bowling

after taking my daughter to her very first bowling alley, i was immediately taken by the snappy new bowling shoes they happened to offer for hire, which were in a color palette not far off from the rastafarian flag.

the old school type of bowling shoe you and i would likely find in a thrift shop are hard to find, new or new-ish, online. these come fairly close. whoops, i see one of those pesky little RAF target symbols.....something tells me there's a bit of the secret handshake going on here, nudge nudge.

what's good for the goose

already having come across the pearson from canada goose (look at it - you want one, don't you?), which i might be able to afford oh, when hell freezes over (or when i win the lottery, whichever comes first), i was pleased to also discover the constable parka. now, there's a bit of outerwear a little bit less, shall we say, pedestrian than the standard - which may be a fourth of the price, but sadly i must say looks about a fourth as nice. (i think that the draw is, it's more appropriate for wearing over a suit. a goose down parka isn't going to afford that much breathing room, unless i'm mistaken. of course i won't know until i try one - hint hint!!)

i also am rather fond of the herringbone shirt jacket. it reminds me of something one used to get from pendleton back in the day. those ones were red, i believe.

in any case, for the price of a couple of these of these i could very nearly pay my mortgage.......and at my current rate of pay it would take me nearly a month to make the money to buy either one.

so i am hoping somehow to weasel a comp in exchange for writing a favorable review. hear that designers/retailers? i will write reviews of your products in exchange for freebies!

hello? anyone out there listening?