Fix me up.

As a questionable looking child , branded with a monobrow and rainbow steel, jarred to my rutted teeth (11 years of metallic torture) I was an acquired taste, palatable only to my mother who saw perfection in an awkward looking son. I feared attention and sought to recoil my self-conscious frame to a world of one, where me, myself and I could play in my lands of make believe, thus popular (gross... what a nonsense word) I was not. - WOW, who knew I was such a drip. Violins not necessary, as I blossomed.... Swan Like - Nope! More average... like Joe Bloggs. Anywho, Before I bore you with my self-deprecation - the word "Popular" is a word that I meet with much distain matched with a sour looking face. Bitter maybe... Yet imagine the gurned disfigured look when I came across a brand called "SOPOPULAR"... Lame - the very word I uttered. I judged! I hold my head in shame, as I was met with pictorial delights showcasing their latest collection of slim silhouettes coupled with exquisite cuts and lashings of superior fabrics all treated with love and care from the three responsible Berliners. This will teach me not to judge a book by its cover, eh.

Pics Courtesy of SOPOPULAR

Tsar Philip.

The paternal Tsar of fast fashion Sir Philip and his privy council have stood and delivered yet another LTD collection to keep us the faithful disciples, the sartorial hungry hoi polloi and the demanders of aesthetic brilliance from revolt + protest against the hand that feeds us affordable goodness. The new equestrian livery comes in the form of tweeds, quilted textiles and just a measly helping of elbow patch's (Sir Philip you tease). I daren't have any favourites, for the fear I may upset the big man, but hey ho you cant please everyone. The horse print tie is a beaut and as for the quilted sweatshirt with cord elbow patch detail - well lets just say I quivered with excitement (I'm simple). BUT, there's always a but. I cant say I'm too keen on the detailing of the chinos Philip, nor the quilted Barbour-like outerwear (Eh, So Autumn/Winter 09/10... Yikes). Lets have a little gander....

Navy Quilted Sweatshirt + Cord Patch Detail - £36

Horse Print Slim Tie - £10

Black Silk Neckerchief - £10

Stone Contrast Cord Trim Shirt - £36

Stone cord Chino - £40

Grey Wool Mix Quilted Jacket - £80

Burgundy Leather Boots - £85

Shop online at Topman LTD

Pics Courtesy of Topman

Fleet Street-Esque

With the tip of my index finger, an adjustment is made to the bridge of my spectacles, which leads my simplistic mind on a journey of make believe in which I play a Fleet street Journalist with ink stained fingers and tortoise shell specs to hand   indulging in liquid lunches with Paul Callan and chums. All is bliss in my "Anything goes" daydream utopia, that is until the spectacles are laid to rest and reality proves to be far from fantasy. There's no harm in dreaming right? For those who are kind enough to take an interest in my questionable tastes and daydreams, you will remember that I purchased a new pair of spectacles a month or so ago. My child like excitement  was met with bitter grief when the beauties at SEEN gently broke the news that Oliver Peoples had discontinued the very choice of acetate I had so longed for. Anywho, After many a desperate email sent to the lovelies at Oliver Peoples, pleading them to take pity on my despair. The search for the illusive Dark Tortoise Black frames proved unsuccessful and so I settled for the equally dreamy El Mirage Tortoise. What do we think?

Oliver People's - Riley - El Mirage Tortoise

Oliver People's - Wylie  

Shop Online at Oliver People's

To prove my desperation- Promise you wont laugh....

"Hello, Hope all is well!

I recently made my third, yes third purchase of Oliver Peoples Specs. However, to my great dismay (I was almost in tears – HA!) the great team at SEEN – Manchester, England – Informed me that the specs I had chosen were no longer available. I was hoping that maybe you – the talented and o so great people at Oliver Peoples could do some investigating and help put the twinkle back in my eyes and track down a pair of Riley’s (the smaller size) in Dark Tortoise Black.

I would be ever so grateful – as without this third pair of Oliver Peoples Specs, Im afraid I might just contemplate that very option that we proud short sighted individuals never say - Lasik!!

P.S. love the Brand!!!!"    

SAD.

Be British Buy British

Patriotism - Is a funny old thing. While I may wince at the very sound of "G-D save the Queen" and cringe at the sight of bunting, I do take pride in all things quintessentially British.... A luke warm (I have a delicate pallet) mug of good ole tea, a toasted crumpet partnered with the questionable acid yellow and sheen of a dairylea slice - hydrogenated fats + E-numbers, delicious. Stereotypes aside and without alienating our flag bearing, star and stripe wearing nationalistic cousins from across the pond (what would Fidel and Stalin think). Blighty and its fair craftsmen and women are leaders in fabric innovation, garment technology and the bespoke (forget the fancy thrills of haute couture - think Savile Row). Thus, the question is, why do British talent line up two by two to manufacture their goodies in far away lands? Simples... Monies. In Top Trump terms Cheap labour seems to have a higher numerical value than that of craftsmanship. Yes, I embrace the cheap and cheerful, however, delight comes in the form of quality and not the disposable. My journey to find a true British label in every sense of the word, that turns it's back on the lure of a Chinese promise of least cost in favour of love and care brings me to Chris Gove and Luke Stenzhorn of Percival. The London based duo, frustrated with their choice between the ill-fitting and the average, bore a debut collection that took advantage of the best that Britain has to offer - beeswax cotton from Scotland, Harris tweed from the Outer Hebrides and heavy weight Melton from Yorkshire all manufactured in London. i WE SPY, says with pride - G-D save Percival.

Scottish Beeswax Cotton Mac / Mustard Yellow & Pinstripe

Cant wait to get my mitts on this bad boy.

Harris Tweed Blazer

Angora + Cashmere Slim Trousers

Blood Red Melange Short Placket Shirt

Melange Charcoal Cream Stitch Shirt

Scottish Beeswax Cotton Mac /  Dark Blue & Polka Dot Lining

Shop Online Percival

Pics courtesy of Percival

Peddle.

We the all consuming, are bombarded with the relentless shpiel of global warming and its destructive effect on our fair land.... Green house gasses, fossil fuels, Kyoto, glaciers, aerosols - Blah Blah Blah. Yet the folks behind the statistics, models and computer generated simulations fail to agree on whether or not the increase in temperatures (Eh - A degree or two would be much appreciated to us porcelain northerners) are the repercussions for our menacing ways... tut tut tut. With good intentions (no guilt involved... Pfff!) I try and be that bit more of an Eco friendly type of guy and yet I fail miserably, lights are left on to scare away ghostly figures (Yup - Im still afraid of the dark) and should I be vilified for wanting my fruit to be as snug as a bug in infinite amounts of unnecessary packaging (there's nothing more disappointing that a bruised peach - right?). Guilty? without question - how do I sleep at night? Easy, My theory that the brains behind the polls and the stats are tied to the existence of a problem for no other reason than that of monetary means - Ignorant , I agree. 

Due to grave peer pressure, I do plan to decrease my carbon footprint by peddling from A to B and there is no finer way to do so than to invest in a paint by number bicycle brought to us by the team at JellyBean bikes. Inspired by their Australian counterpart Marc Newson, the colour crazed team enables its band of merry followers to decide on the colour of the varying parts... There's one condition, colours of the primary kind or not an option, instead choose from very cherry to plum. Delicious. 

Pics courtesy of JellyBean Bikes

x marks the spot.

Ooh la la - The very words that I find myself uttering when my senses are tickled and the very words that make me question my sanity... Since when did I become a pretentious French artisan whose expressive vocabulary stretched as far as meaningless nonsense. Yet I find myself repeating these 3 words like a broken record intent on expressing my daily cheap thrills with four letters o-h-l-a. Ooh la la (I cant help myself) - the very words I muttered when I caught eyes on the PVC litter of Kolor + Porter. Man bags, fedoras and vests (waistcoats) are usually met with a quiver of fear and repulsion. However, these man totes (shiver) don't come with such a bitter aftertaste my taste buds are accustomed to whilst browsing the look-books of the benign. The reasoning behind my acceptance? PVC in sage green & cream with a good measure of cowhide is far from ordinary. Ooh la la - does X mark your spot??

Pics courtesy of slamxhype

i see you.

I, WE SPY WITH MY LITTLE i, is easily excitable by the simple things in life - a bag of penny sweets and I might just be persuaded to get into a strangers car - mehh, what's the worst that could happen. Sweets + strangers aside, my recent sluggish (damn you internet provider and your false promises) journey into the world wide web, saw me stumble upon the tastiest of spectacle brands known as GRAZ. It was lust at first sight as I peered at the optical brilliance shaped by the veteran Graz Mulcahy. Having developed and designed for brands such as AM and Ksubi eyewear, this optical messiah grimaces at the very thought of mass consumption. With no yellow brick road to guide the way to such a rare splendor, I along with his band of merry worshipers have but a few clues to lead us to one of only ten stockists worldwide. I guess the search is on.

Nick - $265

Gloss Yellow / Grey Gradient Lens

Bennett - $265

Blood Red / Grey Gradient Lens

Obstacle - $305

Charcoal / Grey Gradient Lens

Bula - $265

Gloss Black / Grey Gradient Lens

Pics courtesy of Graz Mulcahy

Look what you've made me do!

3 years have passed since my questionable vision laid a glared focus on the pictorial genius of Jonathan Owen Black, to which I found myself captured in a complete rapture of stimulation... No no no - not of the rudies kind but of the creative kind! I promised my mundane self that I would invest what little monies I had in one of those "Hi-tech camera thingy-ma-jigs with a long lens". However, the daydream remained one of countless unfulfilled dreams and I was to graduate as an Economics student whose creativity stretched to the odd diagram representing the relation between inflation and interest rates... Yawn! With time, I began to loath this very lack of urgency I had to express my creative side. All was to change (pfff!) I was a crazed man with pennies in hand, whom got his mitts on what I now know of as a digital SLR - in the naive hope that I too would be able to capture pictorial delights equal to that of Mr Black. How foolish could one be? Worryingly, I fear this photographic apparatus with all its technological pretense and varying settings. My fear? simples - the confirmation that I may, or am simply not as creative as I so desperately wish to be. 

Anywho.... To enlighten you as to reasoning behind these photos by Mr Black, would simply slaughter (no pun intended) the very reason why these pictorials are thought provoking. Embrace your imagination.

Pics courtesy of Jonathan Owen Black