I was never really a proper mod, but have worn mod gear for most of my life. Even more so as I have got older. Maybe the assertion that mod clobber is something that is perfect for the elder gentlemen has a grain of truth in it.
Personally I have never really got on with so called ‘mod parkas.’ Actually let’s call them ‘classic parkas’ to differentiate them from the man-made fur trimmed zip up variety so beloved of 70s school kids and birdwatchers. While most mod gear from button down shirts to three button jackets seem to perfectly encapsulate the mod creed of ‘clean living in difficult circumstances’ and look sharp, parkas seemed to be a bit of an anachronism for me. What is the point in investing in that perfect mohair suit if you are going to stick a large shapeless and rather scruffy looking coat over the top? Also the original fishtail parkas back in the 50s came from Army Surplus stores and were often the worse for wear.
Fishtail parkas remind me of the part time mods from the 80s who couldn’t be bothered with the trappings but just flung on parkas adorned with Who badges to keep in with their tribe. A few weeks later they morphed into casuals. In fact you could argue that their popularity largely stemmed from the association with Quadrophenia. Maybe Phil Daniels is the only person who ever looked cool in one.
Sure if you are scooting round town on your Vespa parkas make more sense, but for me parkas especially of the classic fishtail variety are a bit of a retro revival too far. Surely the ultimate mod coat is a very smart three/four button crombie style in mohair.
It is interesting though that the classic parka seems to be making a real comeback this year. Part of this is being fueled by stirrings of a mini mod revival – you really ought to see this - but I guess the re-emergence of the parka is largely due to the fact that prominent retro brands from Ben Sherman through to Merc and Pretty Green, are all exercising a very serious pull over style conscious 30 and 40 something blokes. And they all have parkas in their range.
What is also interesting are the various ways in which the parka is being reinvented. The North Face, and other decidedly non-mod leisure brands have their own take on the parka. Then there is this bizarre coat from Ben Sherman which adds leather (!?) trimmings. Very odd.
Anyhow, if you do fancy a parka here are few to look at.
Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig; six James Bonds, but which is best? At least three of them are too old to fist-fight for the title, so who do we turn to for a definitive answer?
Why, Bond himself, that’s who! Roger Moore, the third James Bond, has once again given Daniel Craig his blessing, calling the Skyfall star the best 007 at the ”An Evening With Roger Moore” event at the Rose Theater in Kingston-Upon-Thames.
Speaking at the event, Moore said:
“I was invited on Saturday morning to a private screening of Skyfall. Now, I have always said that the best Bond was obviously Sean [Connery], but I’m happy to say when Skyfall is released on October 26, it is going to be the biggest [Bond film] there has ever been in the cinema, and he [Daniel Craig] will go down as the best Bond in history. It is fantastic.”
Speaking on his 85th birthday to promote his new book, Bond on Bond, Moore added:
“Before I saw Skyfall, I felt very angry about the way that the English press treated Daniel Craig. Before he’d started [Casino Royale] they predicted doom and gloom and they criticized him.
“I used to write letters of support to him, and I was so pleased when I saw Casino Royale because he was truly excellent in it. He’s a wonderful actor, if you’ve seen Munich or In Cold Blood, you know he’s a terrific actor.”
So, the debate will almost certainly rage eternal, but you can’t get a better judge of Bond than a former Double-O himself really, can you?
Skyfall hits cinemas on November 9th, while Moore’s book is out now.
We love our British brands here at Brandish, and there’s no wristwatch house here in Blighty we love more than Storm. Revealing their 2012 range, we wen’t down to see their AW2012 collection at a preview event in London today. Combining retro mechanical aesthetics alongside items with a more futuristic feel, there’s something for everyone this year. We’ve picked out our favourites from the bunch below, but scroll to the bottom of the post for a gallery taking in the entire range.
Top of the line (and top of the price range) is the Storm Black Aquatec. Pictured above, it’s made using sapphire glass with a rotating ceramic bezel, sitting on the chunkier side of this year’s slim-wrist trend. Water resistant to up to 200M, it’s a toughie too, letting you take a dive without having to lose track of time. You’re looking at £239.99 for the white version, or £259.99 for the black edition.
If you like a traditional clockwork design, the special edition Storm Dualtec will catch your eye. Using a multi-layerd cog and gear face, it too is water resistant, this time up to 50m. The Dualtec comes in two colours, black or brown, and will set you back £159.99 or £179.99 respectively.
Moving from the classic styles to more modern designs, the Storm Remex is probably our favourite from the whole line. Using two numeric dials with a harsh squared-off font to display the time, it’s a lightwieght design for the techy gent. £89.99 will grab you the white version, £99.99 for the Tron-like Slate and Lazer Blue.
Another sci-fi inspired slice of timekeeping design comes courtesy of the Mini Lazer watches. They pull together a silver and enamel strap with a pastel-coloured glass front, and is again water resistant to 50M. With the colourful faces suitable for either sex, each blue, ice or pink Mini Lazer watch costs £119.99.
Dotted around the showcase was also Storm’s jewelery collection. their Quin line takes in leather, plaid and stainless steel necklaces and bracelets, ranging from £39.99 to £54.99.
Check out the complete range from every angle in the gallery below.
Here at Brandish we’re always debating ‘what makes the man’. Of course we don’t expect the men of Britain to be dressed like James Bond all day every day (OK we do a little…), but we’re great believers that accessories is a great way to stay stylish even on the odd off day.
One of our favourite new additions to the world of accessories comes from British heritage label Burberry which has just released its new watch collection: The Britain. Offering ‘a powerful balance of modernity and tradition, mixing strong attitude and innovative design with elegant craftsmanship’ The Britain has been designed in (you guessed it!) Britain and hand-finished by master artisans in Biel, Switzerland. This collection truly captures the spirit of Burberry, celebrating its heritage and culture – it takes inspiration from the iconic trench coat – yet fitting perfectly in with the lifestyle of the modern man. We think even Bond would like to get his hands on one of these…
Take a look at the complete collection here and below are images that gives us a glimpse into how The Britain was made.
Nine Two Five have revealed their Debut cufflink collection, pulling together a range of nine pairs based on the famous 925 hallmark.
Starting at £160 and going up to £200 for the most expensive cufflinks in the range, the sterling silver sets strive to “produce classic designs with a modern twist, manufactured with true craftsmanship.”
In the same way you can’t wear a pair of trousers without a good belt, cufflinks really finish off a formal shirt, and also give the opportunity to add a little personal flair to what may otherwise be a stuffy outfit.
Of the entire range, our favourite set is easily the Lapis blue Jelly Bean pair, which are finished with a semi-precious stone inset into the sterling silver link. Call us cheap, but they’re also among the most affordable of the range, priced at £160.
For more info on the Debut collection, and to grab a pair, visit the Nine Two Five website.
We’ve already lost the ability to promote our reading habits on the bust thanks to coverless-Kindles (maybe for the best if you’re a Fifty Shades fan…), and there’s nothing more obnoxious than blasting out your favourite tunes through a smartphone loudspeaker.
The true gent flaunts his impeccable taste in more subtle ways. When it comes to music, how about these classic album themed Oyster Card/credit card wallets from TravelTunes.
There are nine up for grabs; Kasabian’s “Kasabian“, Leftfield’s “Leftism“, Manic Street Preachers’ “Everything Must Go“, Mark Ronson’s “Version“, My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless“, Oasis’s “Definitely Maybe“, Primal Scream’s “Screamadelica“, Teenage Fanclub’s “Bandwagonesque” and the first self-titled album from The Stone Roses.
Not only do you get the wallet, but for £5.99 you get a digital download of the associated album to go with it.
To give the collection a look, check out our gallery above, and then click here to order.
Amazon’s Kindle eReader; a great device but, when compared to the luscious artwork that goes into the front cover of ye olde paperback tome, it’s a bit fugly.
Enter Red5′s Run for Cover eReader case range. Seriously stylish re-imaginings of classic novel covers, you can wrap your Kindle up in a protective folio for keyboard-packing Amazon devices.
There are six different designs to chose from, including Frankenstein, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Dracula and Wuthering Heights. But our favourite has to be the sleeve based on H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Tapping into the retro feel of Penguin’s classics collection, it’s a sweet mix of menace and sci-fi chic.
And, if you’re one of the gazillion people currently blushing their way through 50 Shades of Grey, you can hide your Kindle vices behind the covers of a classic. You’ll look like a literary whizz, when in reality you’re getting your wordy porn kicks.
They’re cheap as chips at £9.95, and if you’re rocking a Kobo Keyboard eReader, they’ll fit that too. Click here to grab one.
If style is a big driver in your choice of IT hardware then the smartphone – or perhaps it’s over-grown sibling the tablet – might well be the kind of tech that you need to be focussing on. If however you actually need to use the device for anything as mundane as working – and you are not are not a TV reporter or wedding photographer (I mean, what do you actually use a tablet for, anyway) – the critical criteria for best laptop might well focus on spec rather than style. In broad aesthetic terms, the same rules that apply to people in high fashion circles generally dictate what constitutes the best laptop: in other words, the thinner, the better. A secondary – and perhaps less concrete – rule of fashion then comes into play: you get what you pay for. Perhaps the most sensible way, then, to begin the quest for the best laptop for the fashion conscious man is to get an idea of price ranges at pcworld.co.uk. Once you know what your budget can buy you can start to narrow the field of choice.
Working out the spec you need for the software that you’ll be running is not such an issue as it used to be just a few years ago, with the power and capacity of the average laptop now more than adequate for the vast majority of applications. If you feel that you would still like to find some objective advice on laptops form a source that is not primarily interested in selling you anything, try looking here: http://www.which.co.uk/technology/computing/guides/how-to-buy-the-best-laptop/choosing-your-perfect-laptop/
Right at the top of the price range you’ll find the sleekest laptops under the banners of ultrabook and ultraportable. The ultrabook category describes light and portable – and therefore thin – laptops that still deliver top end performance. The lightest example of these serious machines is currently Toshiba’s Satellite Z830, which weighs in at just over a kilo, and has a 128GB memory which is solid state, allowing super fast data transfer. Intel’s new Hyper threading technology allows the dual core i3-2367M processor to behave like a quad core – for those of you yet to embrace tech geek that means: fast enough!
The Dell XPS 14z claims to be the thinnest laptop to incorporate a DVD drive – something that they simply did not have space to accommodate in the Toshiba Satellite Z830 – and has a larger 14inch screen, compared to the Satellite Z830’s 13.3 inch display. At just 25mm thick the XPS 14z certainly doesn’t look flabby, but at a weight of just over 2 kilos it is too heavy to officially be included in the ultrabook category – although this distinction may be a little irrelevant to the manly men out there who can manage to heft an extra kilo around town.
For those that want to go for extreme anorexic chic, the Acer Aspire S3 is just 17mm thick (or thin). This ultra slim profile comes at the cost of wired connectivity, as the Aspire S3 is too thin to incorporate an Ethernet cable port, and internet access is Wi-Fi only.
As a man, you may feel a bit reluctant to look to the catwalk for fashion inspiration, and with the weird and not-so-wonderful pieces that often make their sorry way down it, you’d be forgiven for your hesitance. However, one feature of the most high-profile catwalks should be allowed to infringe upon your wardrobe choices, no questions asked.
That special feature is model David Gandy. With his dark hair and tall stature, he could so easily be just another male model, but his masculine face and well-built body mean he’s a man real men can aspire to.
If you too have the stature to tower over most men, you could do much worse than to take a few tips from the model’s repertoire when building your own style. Online store High and Mighty caters specifically for tall and large men, so could help you find the clothes that fit for your own spin on David’s winning look.
In recent photos posted to his Vogue blog, David is seen with a goose of all things, wearing dark denim jeans with turn-ups, work boots, a brown leather belt, plain t-shirt and cream scarf. He finishes the look with a chocolate brown jacket for farmer-meets-history teacher cool. His facial hair rounds off a perfect casual style for the masculine man. Oh, and the goose isn’t a requirement. In fact I’d advise against it; hissing isn’t sexy in anyone’s book.
So now you’ve got the idea; simple styles worn to emphasise masculinity, yet not shying away from “softer”, more fashionable accessories that show an awareness of what’s on trend – it’s time to build the look.
Go for earthy shades like browns, olives and tans when choosing boots and belts. You can introduce brighter shades with your scarf or t-shirt, but don’t go for cartoon-worthy colours. If you are tall with very long legs and a short torso, choose longer-length jackets to elongate your upper body.
If your torso is long, wear your jeans as high as possible and expose your belt buckle by half-heartedly tucking your t-shirt in, a look perfected by David in the goose shots.
I like a good belt, me. From a thin braided offering to a chunky biker buckle, they’re my proffered gravity-defying trouser accessory. But as the years pile up, and the pounds pile on, my paunch is finding itself more and more at odds with my waistline adornments.
So what are my other options? I’d rather walk about in my underpants than wear elasticated trousers. They make me think of the super-sized people who have to hire a golf-cart to get around Disney World without keeling over. And losing weight just isn’t going to happen when Subway have just launched a £3 lunch time meal deal.
As an upstanding citizen (and one happy not to get an ASBO for flashing my tighty whities) the job falls to braces (or suspenders if you’re a US reader), the shoulder-strapping saviours of trouser hems since being popularised in 1822 by Albert Thurston.
But they’ve had a bit of a chequered history, have the humble old braces. While they’re currently on the rise thanks to the popularity of the suited-booted Mad Men look, in the UK at least they’re still closely associated with the skinhead style championed by the National Front right-wing movement of the 1980s.
Also, this image of former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, caught recently taking out the rubbish wearing little else OTHER THAN BRACES makes a little bit of sick rise to the back of my throat. Sorry Ken, I’d pick you over Boris any day of the week, but this look’s more Albert Steptoe than Albert Camus.
So, have braces weathered the unsavoury associated storm of the Eighties to shine through in 2012 as an on-trend “boardroom-chic” accessory? Or are they still just a way of keeping the thumbs of shaven-headed yobs occupied instead of forming fists?
Take our poll below and let me know what you think! My dignity depends on it!
I was recently introduced to Sharp & Dapper. Based in London, the company has revived a classic gentleman’s accessory and brought it into the 21st century.
The Shirt Companion, is designed to help any self-respecting gentleman to keep his shirt tucked in and his socks pulled up. The unique ‘suspenders for men’ eliminate the hassle of continuously having to tuck in a shirt, by simply attaching the four individual braces between your shirt & socks.
Established and handmade in London’s Notting Hill and with art direction from Aneel Kalsi of Wallpaper magazine, The Shirt Companion is also worn by barmen in top class London venues such as Milk & Honey. An accessory they can rely on for the right image and impression.
Tom Soden, (Group Bar Manager of Diageo) is amongst the many who have become strong advocates of the Shirt Companion, stating:
“I bought a pair of Shirt Companions just over four months ago and I can honestly say that I haven’t worked a day without them since. It seems funny but they have become as essential to my working day as a pair of cuff links or my watch. S&D lives up to their name, it makes you look sharp & dapper. In addition to me feeling confident and fresh, customers immediately see I am a professional, experienced bartender working for a world-class company.”
The Shirt Companion is available now from Sharp & Dapper and comes beautifully packaged in a set of four braces.
One of our favourite online retailers, MRPORTER.COM, is turning One years old, and to celebrate they have teamed up with a number of designers to produce exclusive pocket squares for the site.
Brands involved include:
Alexander Olch
Band of Outsiders
Drakes
The Elder Statesman
Jean Shop
Oliver Spencer
Our Legacy
Richard James
YMC
This limited edition project is sure to turn the pocket square into a collector’s item, with only 50 of each square available.
The pocket square project is just one of a series of initiatives celebrating MR PORTER’s first birthday. From tomorrow a special MR PORTER birthday microsite will bring together a menu of anniversary content, including the launch of an interactive global treasure hunt.
Satchels have been big this year and we don’t expect this trend to disapear anytime soon. While there are a lot of companies making satchels, we highly recommend The Leather Satchel Company.
The Leather Satchel Company make custom satchels for the same cost as many off the shelf competitors, meaning you get a one of a kind bag for a great price. On their website you can pick from an impressive array of colours and style combinations.
After placing my order for a classic chocolate brown leather satchel, I received an email from their workshop to discuss in depth what I was going to use the satchel for and to make sure it would suit my needs. In the end I opted for the 14″ with briefcase handle and strap for a degree of flexibility.
Among some of the many other options to customize your bag include adding deeper gussets to allow you to slide in ‘more books’ in your satchel and Backpack Straps, perfect for cyclists.
All satchels are hand-crafted in Britain from top quality, natural heavy leather by artisan leather-smiths. This standard design features a long adjustable shoulder strap and is stitched using a colour matched blend of cotton and nylon for extra durability. The straps and fasteners are then finished with silver buckles and finally the satchel is riveted for completeness. All satchels come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 5-year craftsmanship guarantee.
Classic British shoe maker, Herring recently extended their brand by branching into Luggage. The new luggage range includes everything from wash bags to large weekend holdalls, all finished in a super soft dark brown waxed leather.
In keeping with their heritage, Herring has named each bag after a London landmark. Our favourite is the Dorchester, a weekend-sized holdall with two external zip pockets, sturdy webbing strap handles and a large internal zip pocket. The base is stiffened with brass stud detailing to help preserve the leather. A close second is the Ritz wash bag.
J. Panther Luggage Co. launched just over a year ago after 2 years of intensive development. Now they are well established in the luggage market and have quite a loyal following. Their products are designed and tested in NYC then handcrafted and finished by New England artisans who’ve been making upscale luggage for generations.
The Courier Ruc Case is their first new product since launching, and we love it! Drawing upon the versatility of their Ruc Tote and the more sporty features of the deluxe Perfect Weekender, this is the perfect work-oriented bag. What stuck us most is that its been designed to withstand the roughest treatment en route to the office, yet it is still bound to leave a good impression once there, unlike the many more sporty cycle bags available.
The Courier Ruc Case has been hand-built from water-resistant Horween leather and has a unique highly functional three-way carry system. The leather handles of the classic briefcase are augmented by two further options. Twin straps to the rear provide simple yet efficient ruck-style carry, with the third option of a shoulder strap. The bag opens up fully in a book-like style and will fit most laptops. In addition it has a variety of compartments and pockets that will accommodate tools ranging from iPads and tablets down to pens and business cards.
The Courier Ruc Case retails for $990 USD and is available here.
I was never really a proper mod, but have worn mod gear for most of my life. Even more so as I have got older. Maybe the assertion that mod clobber is something that is perfect for the elder gentlemen has a grain of truth in it.
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