There is a great video on youtube showing parts of the work involved in making a pair of Julian Boots.
Related post: Julian Boots in Free & Easy
Category: Men’s Clothing (page 6 of 74)
Cool things at the Field House garage sale that I wish I bought…
RRL mud stained hats.
Totem pole decorations.
Bronze art deco eagle bookends… I’ve been eying these for what seems like years. Still too pricey for an impulse buy though.
Getting into the spirit of summer with one my favorite issues of Free & Easy published back in 2009.
Industry of All Nations strikes me as an interesting company – still a bit under the radar, it is putting out goods that have been influenced or sourced from communities around the world, building on the idea that the new luxury is in knowing who made your items. The colorful jeans are from India, the belts were sourced from Argentina, the espadrilles were made in Uruguay, and for fall it will be shipping out bit tassel loafers that are made in Buenos Aires and alpaca sweaters that are hand knit in Bolivia.
The Panamericana chairs are also noteworthy, and would fit in well with the interiors of many homes.
The faja belt and espadrilles – fun, in good taste, and affordable (the way it should be).
Two online stockists for IOAN: Mohawk General Store (where I ordered the items above) and Prime 135
The Trad on GTH pants:
A word of warning, though. While you can, and should, wear these trousers with a sport coat, they are not to be worn to work. These are occasion trousers and with that comes the responsibility of time and place. The time is summer. The place is near water and within arm’s reach of a G&T. Going sockless helps, and a half lined navy blazer in linen keeps you respectable, while the dash of Ray-Ban aviators kicks you into the classic GTH look. True devil-may-care attire always requires forethought.
The same advice could be said for GTH shorts, though you have more leeway in what to pair them up with – in my case I often go with a white linen button-down or polo shirt sans sport coat.
Where to find: Ralph Lauren, Rugby, and Gant (Rugger or Bastian) are good places to check. Engineered Garments will also usually have a few in its spring/summer collections as well, and from this current season I just received an exceptionally great pair in a red/white/blue floral print.
Mohawk General Store has a few pairs left on sale – the same fabric was also used to make a matching camp shirt, though I suggest not wearing them together.
Now I just have to wait for Seattle to break past its sweltering 68°F summer days before I can start wearing them (line borrowed from a Redhook ad).
Now available online – there are several new designs this season to complement the mainstays and the reversible Brookline quilted jacket (with polka dots), the snowflake shawl knit jacket, and down body vest will be ones to look out for.
Update: Nepenthes.co.jp now has a higher-res version.
A few items can be previewed over on the Nepenthes Osaka store blog as well as on flickr in sets from Très Bien Shop and End Clothing.
Jeremy Hackett offers some suggestions on what to wear if you find yourself in Henley this week for the famous rowing event:
Even if you are not in the stewards’ enclosure, it’s fun to enter into the spirit of the day, so leave the T-shirt and jeans at home. First off, I suggest that a navy blazer is a good start. This can be single or double-breasted, and can be made from cotton, linen or wool, with the most traditional being made from flannel. For the more adventurous among us, a striped or taped edge blazer should do the trick. Continued…
For the hat, most now wear a straw Panama blocked in the shape of trilby or fedora, though boaters are still seen.
During its long history, the Regatta has gone through a number of course changes on the Thames (the current version has been in place for many decades now, and can be easily seen on maps).
The Regatta in 1893.
Prince Michael of Kent during last year’s Regatta wearing a double breasted navy blazer and a striped tie in one of his large signature knots. The tie’s pattern looks to be the colors of the Thames Rowing Club, and the socks that he is oddly holding are from Smart Turnout, a British company which sells a large selection of accessories in a number of different school and regimental patterns.
Edit: Thanks to C D Moorby for pointing out that I mixed up Princes in the previous version of this post. The man above is Prince Michael of Kent, not William – that’s what I get for writing in the middle of the night without a martini or glass of scotch.
The Strand Magazine, published in 1902, reporting on the newest fad of the time – the Panama hat:
One hundred pounds for a straw hat! Enough with which to take a three months’ holiday, enough to keep your son a year at college, enough to buy a small farm. And yet so astute a financier as Mr. Lyman Gage, ex-Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, recently paid that sum for an extra-fine Panama hat, and reckoned, moreover, that he had made a good bargain. King Edward VII also is reported to have paid a Bond Street hatter £90 to secure “the best Panama in London”; while Jean de Reszke, the noted tenor, has paid the topmost price—something under £120 — to procure a similar object in America. Ex – Mayor Van Wyck, of New York, is chuckling over his success in securing a Panama which dealers have told him is superior in quality to either King Edward’s or the one owned by Jean de Reszke. He paid only £50.
These instances of extravagance are not mentioned as a reflection upon the perpetrators, but merely to illustrate the extent of “the Panama hat craze,” one of the most expensive fashions ever adopted by men. Expensive, because a Panama of even medium quality cannot be had for less than £5, and if you aim at having one that maybe tucked away in a vest pocket like a lead pencil, or slipped through a finger-ring, the price is, to most persons, prohibitive. In spite of this costliness, however, Panama hats are being dispatched from South America absolutely in ship-loads, and about half the population of Ecuador are engaged in supplying hat luxuries for the men of Europe and America.
My Superior Labor engineer bag is just shy of two years of age now – it’s still going strong with regular use and the leather has continued to develop a great patina (compare to how it started out).
Related Post: My Engineer Bag at 1 Year
New pieces in at J.Crew.
