I’ve been busy with work deadlines, but I finally had a chance yesterday to pack up some old lengths of fabric that have been sitting in my closet and send them off to my tailor Steed. One is a dark brown Donegal with orange flecks; the other a large-scale glen plaid tweed that was designed by Michael over at The London Lounge, and modeled after something Gianni Agnelli was sometimes seen wearing. 

One of the joys of bespoke is being able to pick your own details, and even for a conservative dresser such as myself, there are a ton of options. The cut of the lapels (bellied or straight), shape of the fronts (cutaway or closed), and stitching techniques (swelled or picked) can mean everything in a jacket. 

For these two coats, I’m going off my usual order and getting a bit cheeky with the sleeve buttons. Roughly speaking, most English tailors, if left alone, would put four buttons on everything, while Neapolitans prefer four on business suits and three on anything casual. Sometimes those buttons touch (which would be called kissing); sometimes they overlap (which would be called waterfall). 

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The great thing about Black Friday these days is that you don’t have to push through crowds in order to score deals. Everything is online. Over at Put This On, I’ll have a roundup of about 150 sales today (I’ll also do a separate list for Cyber Monday). If you’re looking for a more condensed version, however, here are eight of my favorites, along with some notable items at each store. 

Mr. Porter: The sale that’s always on top of everyone’s list. Select items have been discounted by 30%, although sometimes the savings only show up on the last page of the checkout process (right before you submit your credit card information). The Cleverley chukkas and Rubinacci pocket square pictured above, for example, show up as full-price on the product page, but they get discounted once you take them to checkout. 

Pictured above: Rocky Mountain Featherbed jacket; Ralph Lauren Fair Isle sweater; George Cleverley chukkas; Rubinacci pocket square

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Backpacks have come a long way in the last hundred years. Granted, people have been carrying things on their backs forever, but it wasn’t until the arrival of companies such as Gerry Outdoors and Jansport did backpacks take the form they do today. Those early designs were made for the great outdoors – constructed from nylon shells and built with zippered compartments, they were later turned into everyday carries by hippies and students in the 1970s. Today, much like sneakers and jeans, backpacks have become fashion items. No longer just canvas school bags or techy outdoor gear, you can find a backpack style for almost any kind of causalwear that might be in your closet. 

Of course, none of these are usable with tailored clothing. Besides possibly ruining your jacket’s shoulder line, backpacks are much too informal – no matter how sleek the design. Still, for running errands or spending a few hours at a cafe in a pair of jeans and a bomber jacket? Backpacks can be just the thing. Here are five that I rely on. 

 

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I’m always amazed by how many French producers there are for high-end leather goods. There must be dozens of small firms and independent makers – plus the giant that is Hermes – for things such as bags, belts, and wallets. Of course, what exists today is just a fraction of what used to exist generations ago. For example, the small, sleepy town of Millau, located in the southwest of France, used to be considered the nation’s glove-making capital. At one point, the town has more than fifty glove-making firms, with hundreds of sewing machines rattling away. Today, there are about five. 

Still, the ones that remain are the best at what they do. Lavabre Cadet, for example, is a small workshop that was founded in 1946, just shortly after the war, by Pierre Lavabre (a young man at the time, and the son of a glove-making family). His company’s work was so good that, in the 1960s and ‘70s, Lavabre Cadet produced for the top-end lines of Chanel, Givenchy, and Dior. Yves Saint Laurent (the man, not the firm) also once called the company his glover of choice.

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Along with his lessons on how we can become better people, Fred Rogers taught us something about clothing. Each of his “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” episodes started the same way: he’d come home from some unseen outside world, hang his sport coat up in a closet, and then reach for one of his trademark cardigans. The message was subtle, but there: changing into simple, comfortable clothes can be a way to hit the refresh button. By trading stiffer jackets for softer knitwear, we shrug off the day’s stress. 

My own at-home uniform is similar, although not nearly as charming as Mr. Rogers’. I wear either a white t-shirt or light-blue button-down with 3sixteen jeans, Town View moccasins, and a chunky, shawl collar cardigan. The cardigans are plush, multi-ply lambswool pieces, which make them feel like comfy blankets. Slip one on and you instantly feel more relaxed at home – not to mention save on heating bills. 

They’re also great for hosting guests during holiday parties. Layer your knitwear by pairing a chunky, shawl collar cardigan with a thin, merino turtleneck, or wear one in lieu of a jacket with grey flannel trousers and a button-up. Doing so allows you to look casual, but still dressed. The next day, you can use that same sweater for grabbing coffee in the morning. Nothing is better for beating that early morning chill than throwing on something that’s both easy-to-wear and warm. 

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What happened to internet’s love for chunky shoes? It seems like it was only five years ago when people couldn’t get enough of Aldens, and now everything is about sleek, city designs from Europe. Granted, I like a tight-waisted, shapely shoe as much as the next person, but there’s something appealing about an unapologetic chunky design. 

The best chunky shoes come out of Central and Eastern Europe. In the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, shoemakers along the banks of the Danube in Budapest and Vienna used to make footwear for country gentlemen and Army officers. For hard wear in tough conditions, they made shoes that could take a hit from a round-nosed bullet – and perhaps looked like one too. 

That kind of shape doesn’t photograph as well as the kind of tight-waisted, sleek shoes that come out of Italy and Japan, but they look tremendous with the right clothes. Think: cavalry twills with ribbed corduroys, or warm flannels with heavy tweeds. These are basically country shoes you can wear with country clothes (or in more modern terms, the kind of stuff you want to wear in the fall). 

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I love a good, simple idea. Cohérence is a new Japanese label that’s reintroducing classic outerwear worn by previous generations’ style icons, artists, and intellectuals. Think: less Steve McQueen and Cary Grant; more Marcel Duchamp and Albert Camus. 

The designer behind the company, Kentaro Nakagomi, draws a lot of inspiration from the kind of things that got me into tailored clothing in the first place. He’s less about regions – say, American vs. British style – and more about cultural movements. “I love Dada and Surrealism, jazz music, writers connected to the Lost Generation, and New Wave cinema. Along with the art and culture, there were also the clothes – the heavier fabrics and fuller silhouettes. They were classic, but also modern at the same time.” 

Cohérence isn’t about strictly reproducing the past, but it’s more than just vaguely inspired by it. The coat designed after Le Corbusier, for example, features the same lapel and raglan sleeve details seen in an old photo of the Swiss-French architect. Similarly, a photo of Jean-Paul Sartre inspired the shearling-trimmed, shawl-collar coat seen below (except, whereas Sartre wore a single-breasted model, Nakagomi designed his to be double-breasted – an improvement, I think). 

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A lot of men’s fashion today can be broken into two camps. On the one end, you have heritage (and heritage-inspired) brands that rely on the classics. On the other end, there are avant garde labels creating conceptually interesting – even if hard to wear – designs that break from the past. Ten C is a relatively new Italian outerwear company that sits between these two worlds – perfectly blending techwear with heritage, innovative fabrics with classic military design. Think of them as: Stone Island meets Nigel Cabourn. 

Which makes sense, I suppose, given that the two founders, Paul Harvey and Alessandro Pungetti, are Stone Island and CP Company designers. The two are known for making very innovative, but also highly-wearable, contemporary Italian sportswear. Ten C is similar, but is a bit more approachable for the kind of guy who buys his casualwear from shops such as Unionmade and The Bureau Belfast. 

The original concept for Ten C was simple: create a “forever collection,” which would be comprised of seven fall/ winter outerwear designs, made from the same fabric, but offered in four colors. And never do anything else – don’t change the collection, don’t introduce anything new. Just make things that will last and people can keep forever. In that collection was a belted snow smock, an M-65 jacket, and a fishtail parka (among some other things). You can hear Paul Harvey describe them here.

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Ralph Lauren’s mid-season sale started yesterday. Apparently they’ve skipped their usual private invitations and gone straight to public. This time, select items have been discounted by as much as 50%, and starting tomorrow, you can get another 15% off if you use the checkout code RLFALL15. Possibly a good time to pick up a jacket, some shoes, or a bit of knitwear. Some of my favorites while browsing the site last night:

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Even with a closet full of neckties, I’m always drawn to picking up a thing or two from Drake’s every season. It’s said that the company offers English taste in the way the Italians or French might imagine it – classic English designs reinterpreted with a bit more verve. Not too unlike how an Italian or French man might wear his British clothes. It might just be a marketing line, but it’s not a bad way to describe the company. In a world where everyone offers of the same Macclesfield prints and silk foulards, Drake’s successfully walks the line between classic and novel, which is why guys like me keep coming back.

This season, they have their regular stable of wools, madders, and rep striped silks, but also some new and interesting things – such as Shetland yarns woven on grenadine looms, and wool-alpaca blends that offer unique textures. In addition, there are some new re-colorings of old, archive pocket square designs, such as those birds of paradise and unicorn prints that were originally made for Holland & Holland, as well as a colorful Navajo-inspired square taken from a scarf they used to sell in the 1970s. The growing line of knitwear, shirts, and sport coats also make the brand into more than just an accessories label. (Fun fact: the sport coats are made by Belvest, which is something of a return-to-history, as Michael Drake used to travel the world selling Belvest before he started his own company). 

Drake’s website is worth a browse if you want to be inspired by some new things to wear this fall, but here are also some selections from a few of my favorite stores.

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