When asked who his style icons were, the always wonderfully turned out Kwannum responded with Sebastien Flyte from Brideshead Revisited and Anthony Baekland from Savage Grace. The character played by Eddie Redmayne is one of the most stylish men I have seen on the silver screen for as long as I can remember. Comparisons can certainly be drawn with The Talented Mr Ripley but I believe this film has more style substance. I will leave you with the best style related one liner I have ever heard which was uttered by Anthony whilst declaring his suit was Anderson & Sheppard..."One can walk in to Gieves but one has to be walked into Anderson & Sheppard."
Picture Postcard: Savage Grace
When asked who his style icons were, the always wonderfully turned out Kwannum responded with Sebastien Flyte from Brideshead Revisited and Anthony Baekland from Savage Grace. The character played by Eddie Redmayne is one of the most stylish men I have seen on the silver screen for as long as I can remember. Comparisons can certainly be drawn with The Talented Mr Ripley but I believe this film has more style substance. I will leave you with the best style related one liner I have ever heard which was uttered by Anthony whilst declaring his suit was Anderson & Sheppard..."One can walk in to Gieves but one has to be walked into Anderson & Sheppard."
Silver Spoon Attired
The blue denim chambray button down polo shirt with patchwork paneled pocket fits in nicely in my softly tailored Spring/Summer wardrobe. The latest issue of h(r)r collective (fast becoming one of my favourite online reads) take material interest in chambray and rightfully so. Did you know that it is now most common in shirts but was first designed for sunbonnets in Northern France? The natural soft tone of the fabric is what got me hooked and I can vouch that this button down polo feels damn good to the touch and feels even better on. Whilst wearing it I feel I should be strolling down the promenade with a fast melting 99 in hand, oh I do like to be beside the seaside...
RCA Class of 2009
The show takes place at the College in the Henry Moore Gallery on 10 June 2009 (more info here) but DD exclusively got a sneak preview of some of the newest and freshest menswear and womenswear talent that will be unleashed this year. Having only seen a few images I don't think it is fair to pass any judgement just yet (other than to say, I can't wait to see more) so here are a selection of designs alongside the graduates own words on their collections...
Alex Mattson: "This collection is my fantastical vision and of a gang called ‘The Sixth Sun’. The Sixth Sun gang is a Mexican biker gang that has reverted to ancient Mayan/Aztec beliefs and rituals after realizing that their ancestors had predicted the future."
Charlie Ross: "This collection embodies the rebirth of a destroyed civilisation - playing on the moral - 'to continue living the way we do will ultimately lead to our undoing'." All the fabrics and materials used in the collection are recycled, reclaimed, by-products or are eco-friendly.
Mason Jung: "Sartorial Burden - My inspiration is based on the antipathy towards formal wear for its fossilised forms and attributes of restricting individuality."
Jasper Sinchai Chaprajong: "This is the journey of my past-present-future of love. Ideas come from relationships, the first feeling of love and the colours associated with it, blue for man, yellow for woman, mix the two you get purple, but then what happens after love when a relationship breaks down? Is loving really that simple?"
Mathew Miller: "The collection 'Masculinity and his jovial approach to the macabre', was born, laser cut polka dot bombs, dancing skeleton pique bibs, cute cable knitted skulls, unexploded pom poms, and engineered army boy digital prints, aesthetically cute with dark undertones."
Kimchoong Wilkins: "Referencing both the anatomical drawings of Vesalius and the eroticism of Hokusai, the collection revolves around skin, sinew, muscle, and bone. It pumps sex back into a craft that has become lust-less, prompting arousal and addiction for men's knitwear by examining the relationship between seduction and repulsion."
Bronwen Marshall: "I was inspired by the horrific facial injuries of World War I, where recognisable features were distorted and made abstract. I have taken other beautiful and natural forms like horses and birds and combined their organic shapes with geometric futuristic patterning. I wanted to create a collection that captured the aggression and sadness felt by these men."
The RCA’s MA show is always packed with spectacular, individual work and the above images suggest that this trend is sure to continue this. I just cannot wait to see the complete collections in June and am a little annoyed that I can't take the afternoon off...oh well, in the meantime I will just keep re-reading the feature on DD.
Engineered Winter
Inside the Duke of Windsor's wardrobe
”Not since his forebear King George IV in the 1820’s had a monarch lavished so much care and expense on his own personal appearance,” Ms. Taylor, the Sotheby’s specialist who spent seven years preparing for this sale. ” He bought clothes of the finest quality and expected them to last a lifetime, which in fairness, many of them did.” The Duke used the same tailor, Scholte of Savile Row in London, to make his jackets from 1919 to 1959.
The Duke’s wardrobe spans 60 years, because he never lost his trim figure (his waist went from 29 inches to 31 inches over a half century) and he certainly championed the art of wardrobe building. A 1960 inventory of the Duke of Windsor’s closet recorded fifteen evening suits, fifty five lounge suits and three formal suits (with two pairs of trousers for each), along with more than one hundred pairs of shoes including a superb collection of velvet slippers by Peal & Co.
Diana Vreeland, the former editor of Vogue, had strong views about the Duke. ''Did he have style?'' Vreeland once asked rhetorically. ''The Duke of Windsor had style in every buckle on his kilt, every check of his country suits.''
The well worn Prince
On Friday morning as I was hurrying my late ass to work I received a text message from Dan Jenkins to check out the Daily Mail for an interesting style piece on Prince Charles. Now, the Mail is a paper which I freqently catch a glimpse of in newsagents and even the shortest of looks forces me to walk away shaking my head in bemused disbelief. Ultimately, I tend to avoid handling it at all costs but thanks to the wonders of the Internet I do not have to taint my fingers with this publication for the far right of centre and can share its contents with you. The article One's antique clothes show: How Prince Charles has always been the King of recycling is well worth reading and to discuss further.
His suits are unmodishly double-breasted. His dinner jacket is cut like a slouchy cardigan. His ties are almost comically narrow and tightly knotted. His morning suit is a slightly gauche, grey-on-grey, called a 'pick and pick' fabric; the lapels of his waistcoat are accessorised with dandy-ish, white 'slips' or 'demis', which attach to the inside of the garment with buttons.
In light of the above (unfair) sartorial criticism throughout his adult life it is somewhat remarkable that Prince Charles could be considered as the most stylish man on the planet. You might recall that the April issue of Esquire declared Prince Charles as the worlds best dressed man. Esquire described him as "perfectly turned out", adding that "admirably, the prince keeps his wardrobe in appropriate style and we're told he has a room laid out like a tailor's shop. Of course, the prince comes from a significant family line of royal clothes horses, but where his great uncle, the dapper Duke of Windsor, played with bright colour, flirted with fashion, and even started the odd trend, the current heir to the throne is a dab hand at solid yet fully accessorized classic English style. His image riffs on a quintessentially perky British look, which is essentially based around smart tailoring with dapper touches.
His classic English style which has not always had its plaudits has been custom made for him by a mouth watering list of fine British craftsmen including Anderson and Sheppard, Gieves and Hawkes on Savile Row, and veteran custom shirt-makers Budd and Turnbull and Asser on Jermyn Street. The Prince certainly has good taste and is not afraid to invest in quality.
When we spoke to Patrick Grant during the launch of E. Tautz we discussed the art of wardrobe building and Charles (Can I even call him that? I can't keep writing the Prince...) is certainly a practitioner of this idea. There is something very charming about building a collection of clothes, where every piece has a position in your wardrobe. If any item requires attention and repairs then these alterations are made, the item is not thrown to the bottom of the wardrobe and forgotten about. The below paragraph demonstrates that the prince believes in the art of wardrobe building:
Clothes that never went out of fashion because they were never in fashion. Clothes that are over and above fashion - and which he is thus happy to wear for decades on end, repairing them as and when necessary.
Charles embarked on his art of wardrobe building in his early 20s. The collection of clothes and accessories has aged with him and he has continued to buy well throughout his adult life. As he has bought well made, crafted pieces then he can still wear them at sixty years old. I have no interest in a royal biography because his wardrobe will almost tell the story of his life. Just look at his shoes.
Falling forward with Yves (despite the sunshine)
Pilati's vision for the cold months contained clothing that was uncompromised and advanced in its thinking. What pleased me most about this collection was that it was made with with same spirit in which he does his womenswear shows. Pilati experimented with the male silhouette, not to the extremes of the Raf Simons for Jil Sander collections but undoubtedly more successfully - cropped jackets were paired with wide trousers, settling the boxy shape of jackets. I will continue to enjoy the sunshine but my day dreams might just return to this YSL collection from to time, the cold months looks less bleak with this YSL collection.
RCA's Class of 2008 at the V&A
Fifty five outfits and accessories from twenty seven designers are displayed in four sections - Concept, Form, Technique and Detail. Each section will explore the design stages the students go through to create their final collection from their inspiration to the finished garment, and will include preparatory drawings, design boards and photographs. It is worth repeating that this is a free exhibition and will be run in the Fashion Room right through to January 31st 2010.
Not just a shop
During my morning slot of procrastination at work I stumbled across a new breed of online store over on Fashion156's Daily Blog. The Shop is a new online platform launched by Not Just A Label. This fashion forward designer platform brings together emerging graduates and design talent from over forty countries and gives us an opportunity to stumble across exciting design talent whilst of course offering an opportunity to buy their designs. The online initiative launches next week (28th May) and will feature one-off pieces from designers like Ute Ploier, Anna Aichinger, Husam El Odeh and many others.
The Shop is a fresh online concept providing access to unobtainable designer pieces from a wide selection of fashion brands. What excites me most about Not Just A Label is that it is a global business directory which showcases designers of the moment but at the same time nurtures new talent. Through a global showroom, the company offers a tool that can be used by designers to present themselves along with their collections. Competitive hurdles and barriers of expense impede many but this online store provides an outlet for budding design talent to blossom.
The first to host The Shop is Robin Schulié, head-buyer of Maria Luisa store in Paris and Unit F, the Austrian Association for Contemporary fashion. Diane Pernet (A Shaded View On Fashion) has been announced as the host in July. Each month thereafter the store will be headed by another leading industry figure. This is certainly one store to keep an eye on...online window shopping just got that bit more interesting!
Picture Postcard: Men at Sea
Float away with Fashion156
Style Stalking... Daniel Jenkins (Part Two)
Day Five: Visit to Satyen Patel to look at aw09 Satyenkumar.
Satyenkumar Aw08 t-shirt,
YMC Trousers,
Raf Simons X Fred Perry trainers.
Day Six: back in Wales
Stansfield Jacket,
Stansfield Shirt,
and-i T-shirt,
and-i Trousers
Day Seven: Hard at work back at the shop
Raf Simons X Fred Perry trousers,
Saviour T-shirt,
YMC Shoes
Day Seven: Shot from a night out.
Stansfield Jacket,
Peter Jensen reflective t-shirt,
YMC trousers,
Raf Simons X Fred Perry trainers (not visible... you'll have to trust us with this one)
The Casual Tailor pops up in London
With echoes of the ‘Casual Tailor’ store nestled in a quiet side street of Nottingham’s lace market, the quiet community of Lambs Conduit Street seems like the perfect destination for the gentleman’s outfitter styled store. The street (as profiled by Monocle last year) symbolises what can be achieved in retail areas as it champions a real community spirit and this pop up store fits in nicely.
VMAN and Leyendecker's vision of manhood
Day Lewis is dancing, here's to the weekend
The film is described as a vibrant musical which follows the life of famous film director Guido Contini (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) as he reaches a creative and personal crisis whilst balancing the numerous women in his life. As EJ will tell you, I am a little hesitant when it comes to musicals but I would watch Mr. Day-Lewis in anything. The abundance of beautiful women including Penelope Cruz, Sofia Loren, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson and (even) Nicole Kidman (I won't mention 'Fergie' here) all add to the equation and I'll certainly sit back and watch all of the beautiful people. Here's to the weekend!
Style Stalking...Daniel Jenkins (Part One)
Stansfield Shirt
and i trousers
Raf Simons T-shirt (non vis)
Wellies (not sure... just generic ones from Millets)
Hair by the grace of god (and not yet booked hair cut).
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Day Two: Out with the dogs again.
Siv Stodal hat
Stansfield Waxed Jacket
Griffin Tokyo x Baracuta colab (from first season they did them)
Lou Dalton t-shirt non vis
and i trousers
Wellies.
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Siv Stodal hat,
Griffin Tokyo Baracuta. (Same as before)
Stansfield Shirt
and-i t-shirt
and-i Trousers
YMC Shoes
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Day Four: Just realised I have a very finite uniform. I've not really included the slightly more mad pieces like Satyenkumar Harlequin jacket as didn't go out that week in evening.
Stansfield Regular Shirt
Passarella Death Squad T-shirt
YMC Trousers
YMC Mock Croc boat shoes. Stops people at twenty paces.
We hope you enjoyed the first batch of sartorial stalking as much as we did. Keep an eye out for the final three looks along with a selection of his address book recommendations later on in the week!
Mapping Out
There is nothing wrong with being a Hentsch Man
Hentsch Man is aimed at young men with a refined aesthetic sense and I'm sure most of you will fit in to that category. The products are aimed at people know a good thing when they see it, but don’t necessarily have the time or the patience to scour the earth to furnish their wardrobe. The store aims to be a one-stop-shop for basic staples – from a classic white shirt, to well-tailored trousers and the occasional accessory. You might just be a Hentsch Man this Spring/Summer and in my mind there really is nothing wrong with that.