Mr. Porter’s massive selection puts them in everyone’s orbit. Whether you favor classic tailored clothing, Japanese workwear, or oversized, minimalist contemporary garb, Mr. Porter likely carries more than a handful of brands for you.
Today, Mr. Porter started their Black Friday promotion, where you can take up to 30% off select items. Inis Meain’s sweaters are expensive, even with the discount, but absolutely exquisite and a joy to wear. Engineered Garments, Blue Blue Japan, and Kapital are personal favorites for workwear; SNS Herning is great textured knitwear you can layer under heavy coats (be sure to size up). I’m also pleasantly surprised to see how many footwear brands are included in the promotion – RM Williams, Common Projects, John Lobb, George Cleverley, Yuketen, and Visvim among them.
Given the scope and size of their inventory, your best bet is to filter by sizing and brands to see what you like. That said, here are ten items that I think are worth highlighting.
De Bonne Facture Boiled Wool Sweater
Like solid colored grenadines, textured sweaters add interest to plainer ensembles, while being simple enough to wear with patterns. De Bonne Facture is a French company that specializes in tasteful, almost minimalist designs – the kind of “elevated basics” that would fit well into contemporary styled wardrobes. This navy boiled wool sweater reminds me of something I have from Our Legacy, but in black. I wear it all the time because it makes for such an easy pairing with topcoats and leather jackets – the kind of practical, grab-and-go clothing that you’ll actually reach for in the morning. The company’s pique rollneck also looks pretty good.
Visvim offers their Skagway every season in slightly different materials and patterns, and these bamboo prints are the best I’ve seen from their collections. They’re made with a Japanese hand-stenciling technique called katazurizome. A paper stencil is fixed on top of a piece of material, here being suede, and then a worker applies paint using a short, rounded, deer-hair brush. Since they use short and quick brush strokes, the prints end up having a lot of variation.
I bought a pair over the summer after seeing them on Kiya from Self Edge. I can’t say enough about how much I like them. The EVA Phylon midsoles and vulcanized outsoles are exceptionally comfortable; the soft leather lining allows your feet to slip out a bit more easily than other Chuck Taylor remakes. And there’s a ton of great detailing – a uniquely designed tongue, double needle sewn toe cap, and of course the hand-stenciled bamboo print. They’re a great way to wear a more interesting shoe, even if you have conservative tastes like me, and work well with brands such as Chimala, Kapital, and Orslow. Try these if you like workwear wardrobes that have a slightly more contemporary streetwear vibe, rather than things that are strictly traditional or repro.
Note about sizing: I went true to size, although some recommend going down a half size. I think I could have gone down, although TTS is still comfortable for me.
Have I mentioned how much I like oversized topcoats? They’re great for both classic and contemporary wardrobes. They go with slim jeans and wider, more directional wool trousers. They’re loose, but flattering, and have a general sense of ease and cool that I think make for the cornerstones of good style. I also think they’re a nice way to dress in a slightly more directional manner without needing to break out coordination charts in the morning. This is the kind of minimalism I find most inspirational right now – a look that arguably started with Jil Sander, but was perfected by Phoebe Philo when she was at Celine. And while both are really more womenswear designers, the silhouette translates well into menswear (the designs borrow from menswear in the first place anyway). AMI’s version here has a nice, chunky herringbone weave and oversized fit, which looks like it would work just as well with blue jeans as tonal black-and-white ensembles.
It’s hard to find a quality leather jacket for under four figures. Golden Bear is one of the rare exceptions. Some of their mainline offerings are a bit fuddy duddy, but their collaborations with fashion boutiques and brands are often excellent. This brown leather bomber, for example, has a removable, shearling trimmed collar and wool-tweed lining through the body. The cut looks slimmish without being skinny, with the jacket still retaining that rounded silhouette that makes the style feel true to its history. For $700, you could do a lot worse.
If you’ve been following menswear accounts on Instagram, you may have seen Orslow’s jeans pop up a few times over the last year. They have two cuts – a slim-straight model they call their 105, then a slim-tapered design they call their 107. They’re both contemporary fits with a slimmer leg line than what you’ll get out of a pair of Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1947 501s, but the rise is mercifully much higher than jeans aimed at younger customers. George Wang of BRIO wears the 105 with Italian sport coats. Gerry Nelson of Melbourne uses the 107 with casualwear.
I personally wear the 107 with contemporary casualwear, classic casualwear, and Americana/ workwear. Mr. Porter has both cuts in a few different colors and washes, but I mostly like the black 107s pictured above. Black jeans work well with white t-shirts and light blue chambray shirts, as well as outerwear in either black or tan. I often wear mine with a light blue Chimala chore coat, all-black Margiela five-zip leather jacket, or a tan RRL ranch jacket.
RRL has two types of chunky, shawl collar cardigans: hand-knits and machine-knits. The first, as you’d guess, comes in a lower gauge – which means the knit is chunkier and heavier, with looser packed stitching than their machine-made counterparts. I think the handknits are the nicer of the two, although they’re also a bit more expensive. On the upside, they wear more like outerwear than knitwear, allowing you to substitute these for a light coat in the fall.
Mr. Porter has a few of them this season, including a stunning alpaca-blend exclusive. But of the ones that are on sale, the above with a hunting motif is my favorite. I have a few RRL cardigans with similar yarn compositions, and if they’re any indication, this one is a lot heavier than photos let on. The wool-silk-linen blend has a dry hand and the cardigan has the heft of a warm, double breasted overcoat. Is the design a little campy? Yes, but in that classic Ralph Lauren way that has proved to be forever charming. I’ll never own a hunting lodge, but at least I can imagine myself in one with this knit.
I bought these sunglasses over the summer and absolutely love them. They’re inspired by Dennis Hopper’s role in Easy Rider, where he sported a Southwestern cowboy look. It’s a close cousin of a California workwear style I find really inspirational these days.
These sunglasses look like the kind of thing you’d wear if you had a big, burly mustache, and either wore trucker jackets or Aloha-style shirts while moving coke between states. But they’re a lot easier to wear than they let on. In fact, the oversized, square frames are kind of forgiving, as they help add angles to your face. If you do a search on Instagram for #hoppergoods you’ll find all sorts of people wearing the same model – and they all look great. These are a nice way to incorporate a bit of bold ‘70s style into your wardrobe, as well as break out of what may be a safe Ray Ban and Persol routine. Jacques Marie Mage, the actual brand for these frames, has some other terrific styles as well.
Men who have a classic sense of style sometimes struggle with weekend clothes. Classic casualwear is often a bit too boring – sometimes even business casual – while more directional lines can be too avant-garde for certain lifestyles. For guys who find themselves in this conundrum, Valstar’s citified A-1 bomber jacket (what they call their Valstarino) is the perfect solution. It goes well with classic jeans or tailored trousers, smooth merino knits and button-ups, plain white sneakers or pebble grained chukkas. Simon at Permanent Style has a nice post showing three ways this can be worn. The jacket is classic without being vanilla; interesting without being weird. The stand up collar is a nice way to frame your face, and the jacket serves as a good substitute for tailored sport coats.
Speaking of alternatives to tailoring, Drake’s shawl collar cardigans can be a nice way to dress down a button-up shirt and wool trousers when entertaining guests at home. Chunky shawl collar knits like this are cozy and unpretentious. Drake’s differs from Scott & Charters’ version in that it has a slightly trimmer, rounder silhouette. Scott & Charters’ has a somewhat elongated body with a thick collar that hangs like a roll of dough. The general line of the garment is orientated vertically.
Drake’s cardigan, on the other hand, is a little slimmer and less slouchy. The collar is a little wider and sits closer to the chest. And the overall body shape is relatively more cropped and rounded. It’s closer to what most people imagine a chunky shawl collar cardigan should look like, although Scott & Charters feels more like a piece of outerwear. I have both and like them equally – neither is better nor worse, they’re both just solid models on the market.
Studio Nicholson Donegal Style Sweater
Studio Nicholson is a womenswear label that has recently made forays into men’s clothing. Their small, but well designed, line centers around the sort of wide pants and oversized topcoat ensemble that’s trendy right now. This season, they’re have this wonderfully speckled sweater in a chunky, low gauge knit. The flecks, which you can see in the close up photos, come from wool that’s been washed and felted before it’s spun into yarn. Since the bits of wool are felted and don’t stretch out, they just glob onto the yarn like bubble gum on a piano string. Like the De Bonne Facture sweater mentioned above, this is the kind of thing that will add interest to plainer ensembles, while being simple enough to coordinate with patterns. Again, that kind of grab-and-go attire that actually makes getting dressed easy in the morning, which is what guides many of my purchases these days. For example, I’m deeply intrigued by Massimo Alba’s cotton-velvet five-pocket pants, but I haven’t the faintest idea what I would wear with them. And I suspect I never will.