Restoration Hardware is now selling a small set of tables styled after older ones found in European cafes. The table with the brass covered top is tempting.
My second favorite, slightly larger than the brass one above.
Page 8 of 97
I’ve spent a good part of the past 4-5 weeks slowly moving into another apartment (it turns out that moving gets harder as you get older) and I’ve been shopping around for needed furniture pieces. Compared to other large metro areas, the vintage market here in Seattle is surprisingly weak when it comes to things like this and it’s been a challenge to find particular items in good quality – one great resource we do have though, is a large antique mall down in SODO called Pacific Galleries, which houses stalls for numerous vendors selling styles of all types. It is a favorite among the local interior designers, along with the owners of vintage furniture stores who often come here to find things to resell.
Some combination ideas from Men’s Precious.
With help from Criterion I’ve been on a Belmondo kick lately, even watching Pierrot le Fou, a seemingly bizarre art film that I still have not figured out. Classe Tous Risques was much more approachable however, and is a nice bridge between film noir and old gang films. Common for stories of this type, it portrays themes of friendship and loyalty among criminals and unlike many film noir movies, it is fairly gritty.
Plate scans from British Military Uniforms by James Laver, published in 1948.
Commissioned by former Brioni executive Umberto Angeloni for his own company, the Uman essays are a newly released collection of commentaries from established authors covering the cultural influences and history of modern menswear. Information on the books are sparse and having no idea on what to expect out of these quality wise, I ordered just two of them: Cuba Libre, about the traditional guayabera by Nick Foulkes and the other, Franz Ferdinand by Joachim Bessing, which is all about the tracht.
Other books include one on golf jackets, another on gardening fashion, and the fifth one called Telemark, which I’m guessing is a reference to a region of Norway and could possibly cover the country’s bunad. The sixth essay, After Dark, is another one by Nick Foulkes and will be published later this year.
Back to the two books I ordered – while very short, both were very well written and informative and I’d recommend them to anyone interested in obscure clothing topics. A few photo examples are also included, and the Duke of Windsor makes several appearances (his extensive wardrobe included both a Tryolean suit and several guayaberas). My only complaint that should be noted – the page layouts are terrible as the publisher chose a large 20 point font for the text. The costs of the books individually are a bit steep as well for what you get and I do not think I will order anymore until they hit the bargain book sections or until a single smaller volume is released.
Photographer and author Lara Platman recently posted an interesting gallery of pictures showing Marek Reichman being fitted for a vintage inspired driving suit made by Henry Poole & Co. The jacket and matching plus fours are definitely unusual, as are the details you can see built into the jacket, but they will not be out of place when he is wearing them at the Goodwood Revival where it is custom to dress up in period clothing (no modern cars allowed). More information is available in a post on her blog and on the design of the jacket:
The pockets contain leather dividers for spark plugs, tyre pressure gauge and spanners along with a pocket for the oily rag have all been specially placed within the suit…
Very appropriate for the Director of Design at Aston Martin. Also noteworthy – Lara Platman has a new book out on Harris Tweed which I first learned about through James at 10engines. I have a copy on the way from Amazon and hope to do a short review on it later this week.
Goodwood Revival, 2010. Photo by Peter Barwick.
A 14 minute video for your Saturday afternoon.
Ralph Lauren is now apparently selling RRL online (a great lookbook is available too) – the website is difficult to navigate, but I found that searching for ‘RRL’ on the regular site brings up an easier interface. While some signature pieces are missing, this is great news for fans and maybe the company will lessen restrictions on stockists who in the past were not allowed to post pictures online.
Based out of Edwards AFB, the Dryden Flight Test Center has been the home of some of the world’s top aircraft since the 1940’s. Along with the history of the planes hosted there, NASA has a great collection of pictures capturing the personalities of the test pilots who flew them.
More reading: Wikipedia, Great Images in NASA
