Scotch and Soda bomber jacket from Asos

Autumn’s round the corner, or at least it feels that way and it’s time to stock up on autumnal threads. Scotch and Soda’s bomber jacket is in a marvellous retro check and has a cool toning khaki sleeves and waistband.
Team with jeans for a trip to the pub or with suit trousers and polo shirt for a smarter occasion. The medium colour also makes it wearable with some shorts and canvas
pumps should the sun crack out at any point in the next few months. The colours and slim, fitted cut make it a step above your average bomber jacket and for £70 it’s bound to be good quality.

Thom Browne for Brooks Brothers Black Fleece collection

Thom Browne’s ad campaign for his Black Fleece line for Brooks Brothers is underway featuring a line-up of his trademark ‘tight and high’ fit suits. Thom was drafted in to give some subversive chic to the Brooks Brothers label, renowned for being the preppiest of the preps.
Brooks Brothers plans to sell the Black Fleece collection in 30 of its 100 stores worldwide and on the website. Its New York flagship will feature a full floor dedicated to the merchandise.

[via FashionWeekDaily]

Shoreditch House brings member’s clubs into the 21st Century

Last week, for the first time in my miserable little life, I
considered joining a private member’s club. It didn’t last long – a
look at my bank balance soon brought me back down to earth. But the
reason I even considered such an extravagant move was a friend telling
me he’d been the guest of one of his mates at Shoreditch House.

Shoreditch House sounds a bit like your really cool friend’s house
when you were a kid, except multiplied by a couple of hundred. And with
a swimming pool ON THE ROOF. Hell yeah. It also features a place called
the Biscuit Tin, which is far better than a barrel of Bourbons. In this
area there is a bar, TV and "DJ facilities". Then there’s the Biscuit
Pin, which is a two-lane bowling alley with its own bar, and which is
available for private hire. Chuck in the usual member’s club stuff like
gym, sauna, games room, sitting rooms, lounge and numerous bars, and
I’d imagine the only reason you’d have to go home would be to sleep.

Read the rest of this entry »

Threadless T-Shirts

Forgive the grainy image, but I didn’t design the internet. Anyway, enough of my gripes, believe me when I tell you that this t-shirt (pictured left) is a damned handsome item… and a rare thing… it’s funny without trying to be too brash.

It’s not available yet as it’s featured on Threadless (which lets you vote on tees that you want to buy).
Should this fail to make the grade (which would be criminal) there are loads of other fine t-shirts up for grabs in the shop (which you can access by clicking here).

Stevie Wonder T-Shirt

There’s so many retro t-shirts out there that it’s becoming hard to find real t-shirt treasure. Well, thankfully, that’s why Brandish exists… to sort out the fillets from the turkey twizzlers.

This Stevie Wonder tee is the most handsome tee this writer has seen in years and is brought to the world by the folks at No Mas. Retailing at $35, this Stevie tee shows off a great retro print and comes in Eggplant, white and brown… I advise you go for the brown one.

Top five: hats

Now we might not ever see hat wearing of the proportions seen in those photos in pubs of football fans from the ’20s but hats are definitely making a comeback. Choose your straw hats carefully, please don’t go for the faux-aged sprayed-brown straw stetsons, they will make you look like a runaway from a local theatre production of Oklahoma! Trucker caps are an equally bad idea especially the ironic variety as you will look like a student from 2001. Caps look good on the under 30s and should either be retro or be interestingly patterned and beanies are indispensable for hangovers and hiding dirty hair. See after the jump for full product links.

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Superdry polo

Superdry have been around for quite a while now and while they attained some notoriety amongst fashion plebs (they make the "Osaka" tees you sometimes see banging about) they’ve not really taken off as I would have expected.

I’d love this to change, simply because they make some really decent clothing, especially this Chest Stripe Polo (£34.99). This polo has been on the shelves for yonks, as has most of their range. But I’m anticipating a new range this coming Autumn, when their UK website launches.

Merkur Futur Razor

When it come’s to shaving we, as men, should have a full facial care and repair routine. Ideally we’d steam our stubble first, slap on a good lather with a badger-hair brush, then shave with a cuthroat razor. After, we’d cleanse, apply an expensive balm and continue to moisturise throughout the day.

Yeah right. Whilst I’m all for an extensive shaving schedule, who really has the time? We do, however, owe it to ourselves to at least use a decent razor, which helps reduce razor burn. Again, ideally we’d use a cutthroat, but I really don’t fancy going into A&E every morning just because I’ve "nicked" myself.

So that’s where the Merkur Futur Steel Razor (£34.95) comes in. A best seller worldwide, this razor uses traditional blades, and will ensure your face feels as smooth as the day you were born.

Oversized plastic sunglasses

Not since the 60s and 70s have men had the balls to sport a fine pair of oversized sunglasses. Well, you should make a change to that. Aviators are not cool – Fact. Why look like Top Gun when you can strut dandy-like, clicking your heels like Brian Jones with some dope frames on your head.

One catching pair can be found at UrbanOutfitters (pictured right) and are going for a paltry £15.00

You’d be mad to miss out on these, and at that price, you can always have a more sober back-up pair. Be bold. Be beautiful.

GFW Street Style: Andrew and Mo

Sometimes when you’re doing street style pics you have to break into a little sweat chasing after people, luckily for me these two guys were happy to pose for pictures. Both men are great examples of how to look well-dressed and understated, and it’s no wonder as Andrew Abi, (on the left) is Senior Menswear at Burlington and Mo Ali is Course Director at Kingston University.  I like Mo’s warm tan bag, which is a great colour to pair with his navy jacket, and white canvas pumps keep it looking fresh. Andrew’s look shows that you can play with proportion and still look classic by sticking to a fairly muted colour palette.

Portable BBQs

Barbecues: You’ve got two choices when you want to incinerate meat in the comfort of your own garden. Either purchase one from your local Homebase, or steal a load of bricks from the building site down the road and build one to your own spec.

But what do you do when you and a bunch of mates want a nicely seared steak on the beach or in the park? I guessing that you’re considering one of those crappy aluminium disposable grills, that take about an hour to heat up but then go out. Raw sausages anyone?

Thought not. That’s why, this Summer, every man should get one of these portable, folding Barbecues (From 19.99). Sturdy and truly portable, you’ll be able to load them up with as much charcoal as you want and have a steak sizzling away in no time at all. Then, when you’re finished, scoop up the ashes, fold up and pack into the convenient carry bag.

Tarantula Super Powerful Water Gun

Let’s face it fellas, Summer really is fantastic. It’s a season where women suddenly seem to come out of hibernation and shed their Winter skins, we get to drink copious amounts of beer in the sun and we’re actually encouraged to start huge fires in order to roast great slabs of meat for our friends and family.

Best of all, it’s the one time of the year where we can regress to our childhood and indulge in all out H2O-warfare. I’m talking water pistols, bwooooy! Thing is, when you were eight, did your 50p, clear plastic, cheapo water pistol have a motor jammed in it that allowed it to shoot a continuous stream of water 30ft for up to a minute at a time? Unless your name is Richie Rich, I doubt it. But now, with your youth behind you, the Tarantula Water Gun (£19.99 from Firebox) will rekindle the dreams of epic water battles where you were the Hydro King, and make them a reality!

I Love What You’re Wearing: Jack

As you can tell there were quite a few stylish men in Brighton for the Great Escape. Jack is student and does a great job of showing Johnny Borrell how to wear white jeans. They look great with the pale gingham  shirt which is an ancient H&M purchase, but the thing that tops the outfit off are the keys around his neck, the yellow adds a cool flash of colour.

Retro Mario Mouse

On Brandish, we love retro gaming stuff. Drooling over classic Nintendo images and dreaming of playing Jet Set Willy on the ZX Spectrum… well, if you’re like us, then you’ll probably love this Mario pixelated computer mouse, or if you prefer, the golden star mouse.

These are all fur coat and no knickers… as in… they don’t do anything fancy other than look great. Both connect to the US port of your
computer, have the standard two buttons and work with PCs and Macs.

If you want one, you can pick them up online, priced at a reasonable $24.99 (around £13). [Via RetroToGo]