August 21, 2008 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS

KEMPT

A blog dedicated to the interesting, scandalous, useful and cutting edge in the world of men’s style, fashion and grooming.

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“Banana Republic”
01/04/08 ·

LinkOut

Lagerfeld Shoots Homme, Harvey Shoots Halston and More

Dior

Dior Homme

Name Game: Glam-obsessed Roberto Cavalli hires French rock and roll band… um… Rock & Roll to star in his ad campaigns. “Rock & Roll”? Really inventive there, garçons. [FWD]

Join the Hunt: Field and Stream magazine expands its licensing hoping to tap into that juicy casual game hunter/rampaging Vice President market. [DNRNews]

The Oracle of Omaha: Is master capitalist Warren Buffett giving Ralph Lauren his Midas touch? [Seeking Alpha, #11]

New Republic: Simon Kneen, one of the many creative directors and designers responsible for Brooks Brothers recent renaissance, takes over the helm at Gap’s Banana Republic. [AP via Fox Business]

Inside Hollywood: Jude Law, who has starred in several Miramax films, will star in the Weinstein-produced biopic of Halston—a line now owned by… yes, Harvey Weinstein. [Men.Style]

Homme Coming: New ad campaign, shot by Monsieur Lagerfeld, gives us a closer look at Kris Van Assche’s Spring Dior Homme line. [Eye4style]

Box Set: Addicted to Polos? This $5,000 commemorative collector’s trunk should cure that—forever. [Rock Box]

02/20/08 ·

LinkOut

Dianetics, Men on Film, Horyn Banned and Stepping Up To The Bar

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Block Party: Alife continues to take over anything south and east of Union Square. [Racked]

Cult Favorites: When it comes to Scientologist style, this overview only scratches the surface of a vast, tacky conspiracy. [Styledash]

Celluloid Heroes: 50 films that influenced men’s fashion. [Men’s Vogue]

A Face Only Page Six Could Love: Feeling down? Suffering from a low self image? Peek at the Post’s idea of a “babe magnet” and feel better? Or much, much worse. [NYPost]

Save Ferris!: These shoes go by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss them. [Hype Beast]

Times Out: Yikes. We’ll be sure to watch what we say about Giorgio Armani from now on. Observer

Bar Refaeli Photos: Do you actually require more explanation? [Arena]

Chinos To Go: Deep discounts at Banana Republic. [StyleDash]

03/10/08 ·

LinkOut

Posh Denim, Prep Rockers and Monogram Lands in The Village

monogram_crop.jpgMonogram

Top Banana: Monogram, Banana Republic’s high-end branch line, will open its first stand-alone store on Bleecker Street next month. [DNRNews]

The Candy Man: Like so many celebrities, Willy Wonka has a fashion line. [LA Times]

Cut to Fit: A blogger’s first foray into Hong-Kong bespoke sends him into revery. [Men’s Flair]

The Source: A long hard look at the fabrics that separate the name brands from the knockoffs. [IHT]

Hats Off: The dizzying heights and heartbreaking lows of the newsboy cap. [Magnificent Bastard]

New York Noise: T charts the dress codes of your favorite local bands… and Vampire Weekend. Taste the backlash. [T Online]

Spice World: Unsatisfied with her successful campaign against feminine style and grace, Victoria Beckham attacks men’s clothing. [DNRNews]

03/20/08 ·

LinkOut

Vandals, Liars, Jokers and Dividers

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Easy Marc: Fake Marc Jacobs ads come from real jokers. [Forbes]

The Great Divide: H+M line Divided opens it’s first standalone store in the English-speaking world. No news yet on a US location. [Vogue UK]

Monarchist Republic: In other Brit boutique news, The Banana Republic opens it’s first store in England. No news yet on a US location. [Telegraph UK]

Vandalism: We might just have to break some windows and steal these new Raf Simons boots. [Hypebeast]

“From Caped Crusaders to Hoodies”: Sounds like Middle School to us. No, seriously, read on. [WSJ]

Board Liar: Some clever jasper was fronting like he was a board member of the Gucci Group. Why didn’t we think of that? Might have had something to do with 20 years of hard time. [DNRNews]

Fred’s Flair: Are you properly dressed for Fred Rogers Sweater Day? [Huffington Post]

Fashion Police: India has banned “Fashion Television” (which, frankly, we thought had been cancelled years ago). Next time you’re watching models traipsing down a runway on the tube, just remember how lucky you are to be an American. [MeriNews]

03/21/08 ·

LinkOut

Cons, Sweatshops, DJs and Muskoxes

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Chuck Rock: The collision of Converse and gabba-gabba-hey. [The Guardian]

Labor Pains: That BR sweater you’re wearing for casual Friday might have blood on it. [One World]

Along Came a Spider: We knew a kid in High School who drove an Alfa Romeo, which was so cool because it was as sexy as a Porsche but cost less than our used Saab SE. We don’t know what to think about this new one. [Luxist]

Deal Alert: Suit up for your next expedition at Freeman’s Sporting Club and then stop in for a cut and shave. Tell Van we sent you. [Racked]

Hairy Beast: Arctic Muskox is the new hotness, dontcha know. [A Suitable Wardrobe]

Outside The Lines: Martin Greenfield shares his craft with Band of Outsiders. [Men.Style]

Screen Shots: DJ/Designer Matt Creed professes his love for Gawker - meaning it’s only mere moments before they sully his good name. [VanityFair.com]

04/07/08 ·

LinkOut

Geishas, Ties and Monograms

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Mr. & Mrs. Z: Jay-Z once rapped,”Y’all be frontin’, me give my heart to a woman? Not for nothin’, never happen’, I’ll be forever mackin.” He lied. [US Magazine]

“Why does anyone in New York buy ties fully priced?”: Good question, mate. [Permanent Style]

Team Polo: While the Olympic Torch is struggling to stay lit, Ralph is busy outfitting American athletes. [Reuters]

Party Politics: Pro war. Anti war. Conservative. Liberal. The only thing that really matters is where the candidates stand on beer issues. [Huffington Post]

Fresh Fruit: BR Monogram opens today in the Village. [WWD]

Kempt Kept Men: Thanks to the changing face of Japanese sexual politics you can finally be a geisha. [CNN]

05/08/08 ·

The Past

Well Pressed

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Ah, 1962. Drink it in.

A Continuous Lean has posted a handful of J. Press catalogs from back in the day, offering a firsthand peek into a style more than a few designers are currently chasing. Apparently the early 60s preppy look didn’t play out quite the way you imagined. For instance, cable-knit sweaters were much, much bigger than you think»