First up is: 1) A Linjer Watch – “The Minimalist” in Gunmetal/Navy Until yesterday, I’d never heard of this brand. I saw an ad on my Facebook feed for The Hustle magazine and this awesome article: This Startup is Successfully Disrupting The $19 Billion Watch Industry From the Hustle article by Sam Parr: When it came to buying watches and leather goods, they were tired of choosing between disposable fast fashion and overpriced luxury products. They couldn’t find well-made, well-designed products at a fair price point – that didn’t sport an obnoxious logo. Look at this beauty from the Linjer website: I love the idea behind this watch and the company that makes it. I mean who doesn’t want to own a beautiful, minimal watch that doesn’t have a logo on it? And that isn’t that expensive for a good watch? $249 isn’t that bad for a decent watch. And look …[Read More]
Men's Style
My honest review of Grenson shoes
I’m a big fan of Grenson shoes. I own three pairs and I think that they’re the best shoes that you can buy in England in terms of looks and beauty. (I’ve written before about resoling a pair of my Grensons in this post) There are better known English shoes such as Churches and Crockett & Jones, but Grenson are designed for aesthetics. Check out the site here. Look at these Grensons that I own: Beautiful aren’t they. The pros We’ve said it above: they’re beautiful. People do look at them and compliment you on them. You also catch yourself looking at these yourself when wearing them. They are classic English shoes from Northampton – in other words they have pedigree. They aren’t as expensive as other fine English shoes. They retail in the £200s, whilst Churches and Crocketts are in the £300s. The cons They definitely aren’t as robust …[Read More]
3 ways to get great fit WITHOUT getting your clothes tailored or altered
It’s common fashion/style blog advice that fit is king. And it’s true: great fit is 90% of great style. However, achieving great fit is bloody hard because (i) everyone’s shape and size is different and (2) the clothes you find in shops off the rack are in pre-defined sizes (small, medium, large, x-large etc). The difference between small and medium in a top is about 2-3 inches in the chest. So someone whose chest size is in the middle of this range has to wear a slightly baggy top. The problems I have are that I’m short by western standards (I’m 5ft 6in) and I’m stocky (my chest is 40in). I also have a long torso relative to my legs. This makes buying off the rack difficult in terms of getting great fit. Shops that don’t work for me fit-wise include Zara, which is a shame because I like a …[Read More]
Stepping outside your comfort zone: try this pink linen jacket for summer
I’ve written before about pushing through your comfort zone and trying something new. This applies to me too. I’ve longed after a pastel linen jacket for a while now. I know that Moss Bros jackets fit me well off the rack so I went back to their website and I was torn between a light blue linen jacket and a pink linen jacket. I thought the pink one looked great but I was unsure as whether I could pull it off. How versatile is a pink jacket? Well it works with white shirts for sure. And also with light blue shirts. Maybe not with pink shirts because there’d be little difference or contrast between the shirt colour and the jacket colour. This then is less versatile than my light green tweed jacket (also from Moss Bros) which would work with all of the above shirt colours. Trousers-wise, navy chinos or …[Read More]
Is resoling quality English shoes worth it?
I’ve got three pairs of Grenson shoes. One pair got completely ruined on my first date with my now wife. I was wearing a blue blazer, red trousers and these brown, half-brogues and the date was going swimmingly. We were in Soho, London, when suddenly there was torrential rain. The narrow streets of Soho were flooded and in our walk to Tottenham Court Road Underground Station, my shoes got literally soaked. They were underwater. I was careful when drying them not to let them near heat sources like radiators because that could crack the leather (something I learned from schoolboy football). Nevertheless, they were totally buggered. I’ve had them in my wardrobe ever since then, with the intention to get them restored. Last month, I took them to my local Timpsons. Timpsons is a shop for shoe repairs, leatherwork and watch repairs. Here’s what they looked like beforehand. Totally buggered right? …[Read More]