Hunting season is quickly approaching and I spent part of this afternoon reading up on upland hunting. I naturally got distracted by reading up on bird dogs instead, which then led me to a series of books by the author William Bruce Leffingwell. The books which are available to read online, were written in the late 1800’s and covered a wide range of topics in hunting, fishing, and sportsmanship. It’s interesting to see that basic field techniques and tricks that we learned as kids from our fathers seem to be mostly the same as they were for our great great grandfathers. Included in the books were also a number of great illustrations.
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I have decent sized list of custom shoes that I’d like Alden to make for me, should I ever get the opportunity. Three in my list would include: navy suede chukka boots, navy suede wingtips, and navy suede bluchers, all on the Plaza last with flex welts. The Japanese store Silver & Gold ordered up something similar to what I had in mind, but alas they were made on the Modified last and not even in my size.
A short one anyways. Last week I received the special Filson x Apolis Activism briefcase that I had ordered several months ago. I ended up not keeping it, which I’ll explain in a moment. Except for the fabric, it’s the same in every aspect as the regular Filson 256 model, and it even comes with several nice pencils. The fabric itself though was not as heavy as I was hoping it would be and it didn’t feel as strong, nor did it seem like it was treated. Overall it’s definitely a nice bag and would serve fine for daily needs, but if you need something heavy duty I would recommend getting the regular models instead.
If you’re still hunting for one, it looks like the Apolis guys are taking more preorders for another delivery in November: http://www.apolisactivism.com/?event=startPreorder
Update – Crane’s Country Store in Missouri has a few for sale on their website: Link. They’re great folks to deal with and they’re whom I order most of my Filson gear from.
Men’s Ex was able to visit with a number of prominent men in the European clothing industry in order to learn a little bit about their own personal styles. In Italy, particularly in the Naples area, the term Maestro is sometimes used as an honorable title for the head of a tailoring house or company. From the September 09 issue.
Now up on men.style.com: http://men.style.com/fashion/collections/S2010MEN/complete/thumb/RLMEN
It’s mostly the standard Ralph Lauren fare, but I like the return to the wider lapels on some of the jackets (probably from the Purple Label line I think). The styling they did for the photo shoots are weird though, in that they took normal outfits and added in a single piece of brightly colored clothing or accessory in order to accentuate it. I don’t recommend trying that at home.
Many of the ties are also awful. Consider yourself warned.
Brooks Brothers just updated their website today with a new redesign. It’s much easier to navigate through now, and I think it’s the first time I’ve seen them update the site like this since as long as I’ve been visiting it. Good job to the folks on their site team!
I was recently able to track down a pair of the older USA made Filson upland chukkas from a small store out in New England (I’m still working on a pair of the Highlanders). The upland boots to the right in the pictures below are my pair of choice to wear out in the field or in foul weather, and the chukka’s will be a good alternative for when the full boots would be out of place. The best thing about these is that the leather is very water resistant right out of the box.
J.Crew just added a number of new items for fall to their online store. Most notable are the sweaters and outerwear pieces, including this Mister Freedom denim peacoat.
Buddy Holly on the cover of Rolling Stone.
If you’ve ever driven through the Pacific Northwest, you might have noticed the ubiquitous coffee stands that dot the highways and towns. These are usually pretty popular in their respective areas (some for particular reasons), and we even have a book on it. Images from flickr.