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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.
After a close shave with obsolescence, things are looking up for Savile Row. Ozwald Boateng’s new 6,800-sq.ft. store opening there next month heralds the beginning of what many hope will be a new era for the beleaguered “bespoke couturiers,” who have banded together with local government and landlords to keep the spiritual home of British tailoring alive, Time magazine reports.
Photography: Patrick McMullan
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan
This marks the first, but by no means the last, MOTH appearance for Hamish Bowles, the dashing Brit writer, editor and style guru who’s one of the best dressed men in the world. His impeccable bespoke suits—some day we hope to wrest from him the name of his tailor—are always accompanied by eye-popping shirt and tie combinations, offset by the ever-present insouciant forelock and bold tortoiseshell eyeglasses.
We’ve often wondered where impeccably-tailored restaurateur Jack Lamb gets his togs; naturally we assumed he zips over to London to patronize one of the hipper Savile Row offshoots. The extra flair in his ensembles should have tipped us off however to the hand of New York’s own Duncan Quinn, whose clothes are “constructed to celebrate days of glory and nights of excess.”
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
We were first drawn to the turn of the century Texas oil flick There Will Be Blood by the tweedy wardrobe of its star Daniel Day-Lewis. Very Freeman’s Sporting Club, we thought.
And how apropos for the Times to subsequently declare the return of tweed—yet another of those things that never really went anywhere to begin with, as far as we’re concerned.
It appears that the “brutal” new James Bond is something of a prima donna. At the cover shoot for GQ’s December Men of the Year issue, deconstructed 007 Daniel Craig refused to wear any of the designer duds the magazine’s fashion mavens picked out for him, insisting instead on a suit of his own. Having caught wind of the clothing contretemps, we asked GQ’s Adam Rapoport, who wrote the Craig cover story, what went down.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
We would never have guessed it, but quirky actor Daniel Day-Lewis has garnered the much-coveted distinction of becoming the first fellow ever to be named MOTH more than once. At the New York Film Critics Circle Awards the other night where he picked up Best Actor honors for There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis was dashing in a custom-made charcoal grey double-breasted chalkstripe suit, worn with a tattersall shirt, subtly spotted silver silk tie, and brown suede shoes, Duke of Windsor-style.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
So far Fashion Week has been pretty much of a disappointment sartorially; blame it on the morons who decided to hold the thing in the middle of February, when inclement weather dictates that one must choose comfort over style, like it or not. Still, we’ve seen a couple of standouts at the various shows and parties; first up, natty Nigel Barker, the London-born photographer and America’s Next Top Model judge, pictured here at the Betsey Johnson show with fashion maven Mary Alice Stephenson.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
Waris Ahluwalia is much more than just the cool Indian guy in the Wes Anderson movies; he’s also a jewelry designer and one of the best-dressed men in town, though people tend to focus on the turban and not his threads.
The other night a Purple magazine Fashion Week party at Paul Sevigny’s crypto-swank Beatrice Inn, his favorite haunt, Waris bowled us over in a bespoke brown, green and burgundy flecked herringbone wool tweed suit with a forest green wool waistcoat and a crimson knitted wool tie: a perfectly balanced and seasonal palette that’s as warming to look upon as it must be to wear.
MonogramTop 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]
It’s The Perfect Time For… April77’s Spring/Summer collection. [Hypebeast]
Dress to Suppress: Amidst what appears to be a total collapse of democracy, journalistic independence and human rights, some intrepid fashion writer actually managed to file this story on style and the derailed Zimbabwean presidential campaign. Who needs freedom of the press anyway? [All Africa]
Bulletproof Bonnet: Perhaps a more useful mode of dress for scared Zimbabweans, this cutting-edge, street-thug tech hoodie can stop a 9mm round. [BBC]
Ships Ahoy: A naval salute to Chambray. [A Continuous Lean]
Get Fit: A little primer on silhouette theory. [Permanent Style]
Go Green:Take a peek at Timo Weiland’s bio-friendly billfolds. [Refinery29]
Off The Cuff: Pop quiz, hotshot. Your brand-new slacks haven’t been to the tailor yet and you’ve got 15 minutes to meet your people at the bar. What do you do? What do you do? [Esquire]
Scarlett Johansson Engaged: [Hands over ears] Nah nah nah—We can’t hear you—nah nah nah. [Radar]
Dirty Sanchez: Blue-eyed, honey-blond men’s fashion reporter Amanda Brooks digs the ‘stache. [ Men’s Vogue]
Zips or Laces?: Why choose? [Refiney29]
Not So Fast: Okay, so maybe Hedi Silmane isn’t teaming up with Diesel - but you can’t blame us for being excited. [WWD, 2nd item]
At Home With The Style Guy: This is how Glenn O’Brien rolls. [NYTimes]
Power Hour: Seems ACL has a “Woman of the Hour” to complement our “Man of the Hour”—personally, we think Chan Marshall goes with anything. [A Continuous Lean]
Stripes on Demand: Inside the bespoke team visit to Paul Smith’s Soho store. [NYMag]
Babystrangles: In this video, hipster model Irina Lazareanu chokes and stomps walking heroin depot (and sometime singer) Pete Doherty to death with her high heels, fulfilling several of our darkest, unspoken fantasies. [NYMag]
As we’ve noted before, cobbling’s a tough racket. And while we’ve seen a lot of good stuff come out of the UK, domestic shoe men are usually more interested in basketball than brogues.
With ties trending British, it’s a good time to have an overseas source.
A Suitable Wardrobe turned us on to Drakes London, a bespoke tiemaker that specializes in Albion-inspired patterns and skinny-but-not-too-skinny cuts. In other words, the genuine English article.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
Manolo Blahnik’s name is of course familiar to shoe fetishists and Sex & the City slatterns. Quite apart from that however he is also one of the world’s best-dressed men. The dapper designer has both the panache and gravitas to pull off the old school double-breasted suit and bowtie look in a way that few men really can. Note that he does not look remotely silly even when clutching a satin stiletto (he’s about to sign it for some Bergdorf Blondes, not try it on).
Note also the ticket pocket and turned-back cuffs on the jacket which fairly shout “bespoke”; the jacquard bowtie of perfect proportion, disheveled just enough so that there can be no question of its being one of those horrific pre-tied affairs; the natty tortoiseshell specs; and the bodacious boutonniere, a nice Wildean touch. Whether he chose the suit to match the shoe we wouldn’t venture to say.
The latest F/W line from Craig Robinson confirms what we’ve long suspected: a good tailor always wins out.
Robinson comes out of the bespoke world, so he’s got an appreciation for clean lines and the occasional pair of suspenders, but it doesn’t stop him from throwing in some intricate paneling when the mood strikes him. Shuffling between through British sophistication and military precision, this line isn’t exactly on-trend, but it’s so well done that it doesn’t matter.
Good design is still good design, and good timing is no substitute.
It’s hard to find a good cobbler this side of Florence…but maybe we just haven’t been looking hard enough.
Our old friends at Michael Andrews Bespoke are starting up an eponymous cobbling line, with 30 styles, 50 leathers and a fit molded to the unique shape of your hoof. It’s the kind of service that’s a lot easier to find in Savile Row and Hong Kong, but surprisingly thin on the ground in the states. It’s also a lot easier to find if you’re willing to drop a few thousand dollars, but this time around the damage is limited to six to eight hundred dollars, especially useful if you’re a banker with a new budget.
In general, the world of custom tailoring is small enough that there isn’t room for big ticket items. But if you come across the right materials, it can be hard to resist…
Luckily, Vicuna wool may well be the most valuable fabric on earth, and the Savile Row firm Holland & Sherry is feeling inspired. A vicuna can only be shorn every three years, so harvesting a usable amount of wool took a solid five years, combined with a year and a half to develop the cloth into a usable worsted pattern. So far, they’re charging $50,000 a piece, and they should have enough cloth for 18 suits—provided there aren’t any sumo wrestlers out there with a taste for bespokery.
We’ve seen a lot of cardigans but this one from L.A.’s Kzo stood out by virtue of those two lines running down either side.
For the unfamiliar, they’re tailoring seams, and they go a long way to explaining why the cut is so trim, and why the item looks as much like a lapel-less blazer as a cardigan.
Ever since the new bespoke movement took off, we’ve been seeing tailoring toucheslike this sneak into casual clothes. This is as good an example as we’ve seen so far—but we’re hoping to see far better before the year is out.
Is anyone out there brave enough to put a set of buttonholes on the cuffs of their hoodie?
