My favorite dress shoes are Goodyear welted shoes. I love the way they look, I love the way they wear, I love the way they last. Aside from their superlative construction, they have a classic, masculine look that works with suits, casual pants or jeans. Sturdy and elegant.
Generally speaking, the world of bicycle helmets is a world of ugly. If you looked to your typical bike shop, you’d think that the only option is that ubiquitous racer/alien-brain design, forcing bicyclists to just accept that this is as good as it gets with helmets.
There are a couple of other bike helmet brands that make reasonably attractive alternatives, but they can’t seem to resist playing the “we’re the fun company with kooky designs and a nutty logo” card, which leaves me searching high and low for the grownups table. I certainly appreciate a dose of whimsy, but since we’re all adults here, let’s maybe embrace and demand some elegance and sophistication.
People ask: What jeans are you wearing this fall? My answer is always the same: I’m wearing the same jeans I wore last fall, which are the same ones I wore the fall before that.
In this episode, I respond to some readers’ reactions to an article about a new affordable automatic tool watch that resembles similar watches on the luxury spectrum. I also share a few anecdotes about how dressing with a sense of occasion served me very well. The last segment is about what Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka meant to me as a young boy.
“The Get Down” was a warm breeze of late summer fun on Netflix. Against the backdrop of a broke (and broken) Bronx in the summer of 1977, “The Get Down” tells a story at the crossroads of disco and hip-hop. This was a time when New York City was severely in debt and was denied federal assistance to avoid bankruptcy under President Gerald Ford, yielding the famous New York Daily News 1975 headline: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” The Bronx and its residents were really suffering.
The show was created by Baz Luhrmann, who also directed the pilot. I’ve heard from a few friends who had lukewarm feelings after watching the very densely packed first episode, which I completely understand, since watching a Baz Luhrmann project is like eating a really rich, over-sweetened layer cake with frosting made of ecstasy and sprinkled with cocaine, then washing it down with Red Bull. You almost need to chase a Luhrmann movie with an Ingmar Bergman film just to come down. He starts off his new Netflix series, “The Get Down,” with a similar three-ring circus fervor, though it’s not his usual boisterous pageant of bells and whistles. Fortunately for “The Get Down,” the remaining five episodes are helmed by other directors who allow the story to breathe with more finesse and nuance. And it’s a pretty fabulous story.
One of the best best features of the 8-episode show was the music. Wow. Like, fuck me wow. It’s an early-to-mid ’70s aural orgy of soul, R&B, disco and even some rock in a beautiful blend of the popular and the more esoteric. My September 2016 playlist is a curated selection of some of my favorites that appeared in the series.
Over the past decade, the internet and social media have enabled many entrepreneurs to start new businesses very quickly and relatively cheaply. Ventures like this used to require much more time and money than they do now, where we have a saturated market of young clothing, grooming and accessory brands. These young companies, however, often sell a product with a very shallow breadth of understanding, knowledge and appreciation of history and how/why things work the way they work.
I’ve raved about the exquisite ties and pocket linen from General Knot & Co. here and on social media, but I’ve never mentioned their travel kits. As with everything from General Knot, the dopp kits are all limited edition with the shells made from vintage fabrics. Once a particular pattern/fabric is sold out, it’s gone, making these kits (and their neckwear and hankies) truly unique.
It’s a good bet that a lot of American men get their cues about wearing suits from television. Unfortunately, most TV personalities wear their suits poorly, spreading bad information to the masses.
Left to their own devices, male on-camera personalities would likely make even bigger sartorial mistakes than they already do. It’s not totally their fault. Their main job is to be informed, intelligent, engaging and entertaining, which is a genuinely difficult full-time job. Other than a few hosts who actually have a sense of style and a knowledge of what to wear and how to wear it, these men need help. To get dressed appropriately and look right, they retain the services of a stylist, designer or dresser whose job can range from advising and consulting to an all-out dictation of what otherwise clueless talent should wear. This is where the problem lives.
A couple of years ago, I published a post about my favorite five bicycles. In the wake of a discontinued design and a couple of new discoveries, I figured it was time for an update.
These bikes I love are not racing bikes, daredevil bikes, fixed-gear bikes, mountain bikes or any other specialized configuration. These are basic bicycles anyone can jump on and ride, no matter what one is wearing, enabling the rider to pleasurably, effectively and stylishly get from A to B. However, safety when riding a bicycle is just as important as the bike it itself. Accidents involving cyclists could leave the cyclist unable to work, or under financial stress due to hospital bills. If you find yourself in an accident, although many may not want to, it is worth getting in touch with someone similar to these Bike Accident attorneys in North Myrtle Beach or a law firm local to you, as they might be able to help you with your case.
I don’t know what you call it. I tried Googling things like “reinforcement fabric pants hem,” but no dice. All I know is that there is an extra strip of “reinforcement” fabric inside the rear hem of the pants of one of my custom suits. It’s obviously designed to prevent any destructive scuffing and chafing that can occur from the back of my shoes rubbing up against the inside of my pants. It’s subtle and completely invisible from the outside. Whatever this feature is called, I like it.