Die, Workwear!

Many of my favorite menswear writers, such as Bernhard Roetzel and Bruce Boyer, have said they commission bespoke trousers, but purchase their chinos ready-to-wear. I, for some reason, can’t seem to find the right ones. I’ve been looking for a pair with a higher rise, as I like to have my waistbands sit cleanly above my hipbones. I find this gives a more sophisticated and masculine look, and yields better proportions between the torso and legs.

I’ve found good higher-waisted trousers at Ralph Lauren. They make a cut called the Preston, which I buy and taper to an 8” leg opening. Only the made-in-Italy version is any good, however. The downside is that they rarely make them as chinos, and when they’re available, they’re something around $350 and $450. That’s a lot to pay for ready-to-wear.

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So last year, I adopted a pet - a young, six year-old tuxedo cat with the personality of a Labrador. She follows me around the house, doesn’t like to be alone, and routinely insists on being petted and played with. Whatever reputation cats have for being independent and aloof, this one has none of it. I find her very charming.

The only downside to having her around is that she sheds. Not a lot, but enough to require a bit more cleaning. The most annoying aspect of this chore is cleaning off the shoe bags that sit on my bedroom floor. They seem to act like cat hair magnets, and even a good vacuuming won’t clean them off entirely. Thus, I’ve been thinking about getting some new bags – ones that won’t hold on to cat hair more dearly than my cat herself seems to. One design I really like is by John Lobb of Saint James’s, London (the original one, not the one owned by Hermes), which I learned about through this article by my friend Réginald-Jérôme de Mans.

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I was knocking around on Ghurka’s website over the weekend and saw that they had an impressive collection of vintage bags. All stuff from the early years, when Marley Hodgson was still running the company.

For those unfamiliar, Ghurka is an American bag company that started in the 1970s after a Connecticut man named Marley Hodgson attended an antiques auction. Hodgson had a particular fondness for history and leather goods, and on that day, he had his eyes set on some campaign gear made for Ghurka regimental officers stationed in India during the early-1900s. He lost the auction, unfortunately, but later came upon a bigger prize: an idea to start a line of American-made bags inspired by those Ghurka designs. 

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It’s still a bit chilly in San Francisco, but in anticipation of summer, I went ahead and picked up a raw silk grenadine by Drake’s last week. Michael Hill and his design team seem to be getting more adventurous these days, but I still think they achieve great success. This new design, for example, has a bit more texture than their regular raw silks – adding the slubbiness of raw silk to the textured weave of grenadine. This makes it look something like a summer version of boucle, which I really like. 

Alexander, that reader who kindly introduced me to the New York cloth merchant, explained to me last year that raw silk is simply silk that has not been chemically processed. You see, every silkworm extrudes two filaments when making its cocoon, and these fibers typically undergo a chemical processing to strip them of their bonding sericin. As a result of having their sericin left on, raw silk lacks the full luster and richness associated with the kinds of processed silk used for neckties. There also tends to be an unevenness in the yarns, as the two strands of filament are left bonded together, rather than being stripped and separated, which would yield an ultra-fine filament yarn that can be densely woven.

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Brooks Brothers’ Friends and Family sale started today. Discounts of 25% can be had with the checkout code FNFBB6. 

Some of my favorite items include these shell cordovan boots, chukkas in pebble grain calf and suede, and SWIMS galoshes. I actually own a pair of the shell boots and they’ve been a favorite in my closet for years. You can see them here in that post I wrote about Aspesi’s Loden coat. They can be successfully paired with everything from jeans to heavy woolen flannel trousers, so long as what you’re wearing carries a generally rustic or rugged sensibility.  

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The rather talented Gianluca Migliarotti - who many know as the director behind O’Mast - recently completed a short film on the largest mill Italy: Vitale Barberis Canonico. The family who owns the mill has been producing cloth since at least 1663, from which there are documents reporting the delivery of a “sala grisa” (grey wool) to the Duke of Savoy by Ajmo Barbero. Today, they make cloth for merchants such as Holland & Sherry, Smiths, Wain Shiell, and Dormeuil.   

The trailer for this film was released about five months ago, but this is the full 15-minute feature. As to be expected from Gianluca, it’s shot beautifully. You can see it here on Vimeo or watch the embedded version below. Enjoy.

Ralph Lauren’s private sale just started for this season. By private sale, I assume they mean it’s private to anyone who can click on a hyperlink, as the sale is pretty much public to anyone with a computer (you do have to click on their special URL, however). As silly as the name is, the sale is pretty good. Discounts are up to 40% off with an extra 15% if you shop before May 1st.

My favorite items include Ralph Lauren’s Singleton loafers and Sanderson wingtips, both of which are discounted to about $300 at checkout. There are also colorful summer shirts for $60, and my favorite ready-to-wear trousers, Ralph Lauren’s Preston model, in a solid brown and houndstooth linen at $260. The Preston is a genuine classic cut with a high rise. I taper mine to about an 8” opening, and have yet to find better pair of ready-to-wear pants (just make sure you’re choosing from the made in Italy line, as Preston is just the cut, and the Asian made Prestons aren’t terribly worth buying). 

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As some readers may know, Linkson Jack recently asked me to be a style advisor at his store’s new “private shopping” service. The service allows customers to pay a monthly subscription fee, which gets deposited into their Linkson Jack accounts as store credit. It’s a way, in Linkson’s words, “to make it affordable for men, whatever their financial position, to own really nice, bigger ticket items that they would not ordinarily buy.” Being a subscriber also means getting access to exclusive goods, special sales (beyond what he puts public, such as these $80 E.G. Cappelli ties), and style advice from either Simon Crompton or me.

I admit I find my being a style advisor there a bit strange, if only because I know a good number of people who are infinitely more qualified. On the other hand, I think I know more about style than I did ten years ago, when I first got interested in tailored clothing, so perhaps if you’re just starting out, I can help you flesh out some thoughts or tell you what the general orthodoxy is on things.

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As much as I enjoy classic brogues, I only own two pairs of wingtips: Edward Green’s Inverness, made from a lightly antiqued chestnut calf, and Ralph Lauren’s Marlows, made from a dark brown shell cordovan. The first is only wearable with lightweight clothes in the spring and summer months, while the second is better with heavier, country clothes in the fall and winter. I own none in dark brown calf, which, being a more versatile color and material, would allow me to have at least two wingtip options throughout the year.

So I’ve been wanting to get a new pair, but feel a bit ambivalent about most models. My eyes are more drawn towards the elegant, curved “v-shape” designs from Saint Crispin’s, Edward Green, and Vass.

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