One of the joys of the world of online menswear is its ability to connect people. This has certainly been the case with my friend Loïc, who you might know as Bienluienapris on Instagram and elsewhere. In a different life, we would have been separated by cultures, continents, careers, and countless other seemingly unbridgeable factors. […]
Barbour has pulled off the unusual and impressive coup of being an aspirational brand which has its roots in workingmen’s clothing. There may be no better shirt for autumn than the trusty chamois. Salomon is a heritage outdoor brand that has been around for three-quarters of a century, but somehow in the last few years […]
To the bafflement of everyone I know, I’ve been doubling down on double front jeans during the pandemic and I think you should do the same. From Welsh sheep farms to American assembly lines and beyond, the plaid flannel shirt is your wardrobe’s hardest worker. Born in France, refined in America, and destined for your […]
The history of boxer shorts makes for a compelling read, even if you happen to be a briefs man When Paul Sperry invented the Top-Sider, he took a penknife to a rubber sole, resulting in a design he would eventually patent. But did he get there first? The iconic Sperry Top-Sider came about all thanks […]
Image credit: Matthew Feeney on Unsplash Unless you’re a r/malefashionadvice regular or stalk the halls of Styleforum, the details of shoe construction might be somewhat amorphous, if not downright puzzling. One of the principal problems in cobbling is this: How exactly do you get a shoe’s upper to stick to its sole? People have addressed […]
Image credit: Alina Blumberg on Pexels Loungewear is more central to everyday life than ever before. With the pandemic confining most of us to our homes, sweatpants and slippers have become the order of the day, all day. And while I’ve taken to wearing sweats myself, I continue to think of them as something best […]
It’s hard to think of a more iconic, ubiquitous, and enduring sneaker. This is the story of the Converse All Star. Ever wondered about the origins of the those red and paisley bandanas you see everywhere? Here’s how the design came together. Bandanas have a long and storied history involving, inter alia, George Washington, Californian […]
The Jordan 1 is a sneaker for the ages whose origin story has a Hollywood ending. The best-selling Cortez, which dates back to the late 1960s before it was even made by Nike, would turn out to be the shoe that determined Nike’s future. Blue Ribbon Sports started with one guy selling shoes out of […]
From dad jeans and tan-gate to Stan Smiths and bomber jackets, Mr Cool keeps working out his style game. Despite historical upheavals, Timex has always been the byword for affordable watches. This is the watchmaker’s story from 1854 to the present day. The Madiba shirt, the top hat, and nearly anything worn by Churchill — […]
Image credit: Booksworm / CC BY-SA 3.0 Earlier this year I wrote about the havoc wreaked among traditional watch-makers by the advent of quartz. It was a radical new technology that launched Japanese watchmakers to global dominance in the 1970s and ‘80s and decimated their Swiss mechanical counterparts. But not for long. The world’s most […]