Image credit: CBS Radio / Public domain Bing Crosby carried a lot of feathers in his cap. As one of the first stars to straddle the music and movie business with equal success, Crosby was a preeminent force in American pop culture in the first half of the twentieth century, from Prohibition and the Great […]
The brilliant Bienluienapris tells me all about tailoring, watches, travel, music, and more. Boating jackets aren’t the easiest garment to wear around town, but they do make for a heck of a good time. I recently had a Q&A with menswear aficionado Carlo van den Broeck during which he shared some style advice, clothing anecdotes, […]
There may be no better shirt for autumn than the trusty chamois. L.L.Bean’s iconic cotton carrier invented the idea of the tote bag as we know it and, all these years later, you still can’t beat it. Even more than a century after its founding, Leon Leonwood Bean’s titular brand continues to set the standard […]
The first watch I ever bought as a teenager was a Casio Databank. Now, as a grown man, I have fallen back in love with it. Casio has been making watches for four decades, during which they have amassed a following that is as loyal as it is eclectic. The cult-favourite Casio G-SHOCK is one […]
Image credit: Tomasz Sienicki / CC BY 3.0 In the 1970s, a new technology took hold in a big way. It was powerful enough to unseat Switzerland’s long-standing watchmaking monopoly, establish an entirely new way of timekeeping, and irrevocably change the economics of the watch world. The tech in question was quartz. If you’ve seen […]
Image credit: Pikist One year ago this week I launched Habilitate. The site’s first posts went up in early January of 2021 but, in fact, things kicked off a few months prior when the groundwork was being laid. Really, like so many Covid-era cottage industries, it was born in 2020 out of months of homebound […]
Throughout his career, Miles Davis’s style perfectly matched his music. He evolved from mellow to ultra-modern, but always remained a consummate dresser. Last year’s NBA ‘bubble’ spelt the end of coaches wearing suits to basketball games. Here’s a look at how the courtside suit died out. Orson Welles is one of the most acclaimed directors […]
Whether you know it as a beanie, watch cap, toque, or similar, a woollen knit hat is a cold-weather essential. Panama hats may regularly get short shrift — despite the name, they aren’t actually from Panama, for example — but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more stylish bit of summer headgear. I recently had […]
Image credit: Niklas Sagrén on Unsplash It’s been a month since the U.S. presidential inauguration, which means that we’ve had four weeks of Joe Biden as America’s president and a full month of Bernie Sanders mitten memes. Sanders’ viral inauguration look, which included a pair of hand-knit mittens, has set the internet alight. Sanders’ frigid […]
In a world of intricate and opaque supply chains, Harris Tweeds offers a refreshingly straightforward product that also happens to be among the best money can buy. Regardless of the time of year, do yourself a favour and put on some herringbone tweed when it’s cold out.