Recently browsing a collection of vintage sartorial illustrations, I was caught by an interesting and attractive ‘suggestion’; the scene (pictured above) is the deck of some vacation steamer or private yacht, two gentlemen in evening clothes are about to settle down to a pre or post-prandial beverage. One gentleman has already placed himself in a wicker armchair by a laid table, a hound at his side. The other stands in wait as the crew ready … [Read more...]
Warby Parker, an upstart eyewear company started by four students who met at the Wharton School of Business, has come up with an interesting new concept in eyewear sales. They have cut out the middleman and offer vintage-inspired acetate eyeglasses directly to consumers for only $95. Warby Parker offers twenty-seven classic frame styles in black, tortoise, amber, crystal and a variety of other brighter colors. They even offer one monocle, … [Read more...]
Preppyism, that smart, collegiate and usually colourful attire, is one of the most enduring and yet one of the most vilified forms of dress. For though it finds back slaps, handshakes and approving bonhomie in the boardrooms of the bankers, the bars of the elite and the gin-palaces of the mighty, it is scorned and spited by the proles. Avril Lavigne, that kohl eyed poker-haired teen ‘rocker’, exemplified the ‘popular’ approach to … [Read more...]
A few weeks ago I shared with you a design of shoe I was considering having made up and offered under my own label. I thought this week I would share another design I’m considering. As explained before, I have broad tastes and while the last offering came from the early 1960s for this one my eye has wonder further back in time to the 1950s. The 1940’s had utilitarianism and military styling born out of mobilisation for total war, danger … [Read more...]
In a little wooded valley in Derbyshire, a neglected building looms over a pond. It’s regimented spacing of small windows, uneventful façade and perfunctory annexes convey the unremarkable; another forgotten mill. However this old mill is located in one of the most famous valleys of the county, the Via Gellia. A somewhat grandiloquent name for so ordinary a valley, this Latinesque pomposity was nevertheless an inspiration for the name of … [Read more...]
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