Shopping in style... Oxford Street

I love her white sunglasses and the whole look is perfect. The lovely top is from Miss Selfridges.

David James, Superman

Doing the daily internet rounds (daily? Who am I kidding here? At least hourly) I was very pleased to see Brandish reporting about the lovely David James promoting Debenham's Everyman promotion. Between now and 15 June (that's fathers' day folks! Don't forget like I inevitably will) Debenhams will donate 10p towards men's cancer charity Everyman for every item sold in men’s clothing, accessories and fragrance, having pledged to raise at least £100,000. Ok, so 10p does sound like much, but every amount counts.


All this was a bit psychically spooky, however, as just the day before I had been pondering David James and, in particular, his hair.



Even more specifically, I was thinking of the hair style above. Described by press at the time as being akin to Superman's, I just think it's great that a sportsman smartened himself up so much with a classic 30s 'do for a match. This photo may be fairly ancient, but top marks Mr James!

Home again cross the sea

My local beach

I have packed my bag and am off home to Kent for the weekend (although I consider London my home, the mostly depressing and sometimes lovely coastal town in Kent still has a special place in my heart). Going home to me means the sea. I am fortunate to live within a stones throw of the sea. Unfortunately though I'm not really into water sports but I do enjoy sitting on the shore and watching the waves. Being a landlubber by the sea I've grown to like certain aspects of the sea...most recently Boat/Deck shoes. On previous years I used to look at deck shoes with mild disdain, I have no idea why...possibly because they were frequently worn by overweight middle aged men and teamed with some truly awful attire. Away from these men I have grown to love this form of Shoe. Boat shoes/deck shoes you either love them or you hate them (even the name of the them can cause debate)...or so I thought...it seems I'm beginning to get the taste of them.

We are the Market via Getkempt turned me on to this line of deck shoes from Journal Standard - you have got to love the colours!

Getkempt recently ran a piece on this somewhat underrated footwear featuring designs from Journal Standard. These shoes offer a perfect example of a good summer shoe. Best worn sock less, they are the ideal summer shoe, so much better than the sandal (which is think are just plain wrong!). I am on the search for the perfect pair, I posted about the BBC Ice creams in March but they weren't quite right for me...I saw an awesome pair of hi top deck shoes but forgot to take note of the make (possibly Visvim) and have even forgot the shop in which I saw them in (damn my memory and shopping too much...if only I had been carrying a bag like this housing my notepad and pen!). Anyhow, I never thought I would be putting deck shoes onto my shopping list but my pencil is my hand ready...

As I'm away for the weekend I will leave you with a bizaare link for wuchess - the first online community which mixes hip hop with the game of chess brought to you by members of Wu Tang.

UPDATE - After further exploration, the hi top deck shoes were by Maharishi and the store where they can be found in store at dpmhi or even better, they are on sale online at maharishi

Picture postcard: Laid way back

Dear Steve,

While you are off at your trendy party, some of us are watching the launch of series 15,000 of Big Brother (2 of the boys had silver shoes, hmm) and slouching about the house in ridiculously oversized and out of date 'Stop the War' hoodies. Some of us being me. Slobbing about with vague thoughts of summer whirling around my head is probably what drew me to this picture of someone called Karl on Stockholm Street Style. Those darn Swedes! So trendy!

While I'm sure that quite a few people won't like this pic, I do. It reminds me of a scene from An American in Paris where Gene Kelly is dancing around and annoying his piano-playing friend by singing about his new found love for the extremely toothy Leslie Caron... all loose and laid back trousers with a tight fitting vest. While I desperately want to reach into this picture and either roll his trousers up properly or unroll them fully and while I'm not so enamoured of his hair, I love his belt, watch and sunglasses so much that I'll forgive him. Oh, and I really love how his trainers and trousers match and I don't know why!

Anyhows, hope you don't have a bad head in the morning.

EJ
x

Chelsea Rebelle and a nautical look

Sarah, owner and creator of the great fashion label Chelsea Rebelle.



Hello Sailor! love the dress (from Asos) and the red shoes.

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

For the first time in well over week the sun has finally peeped through the seemingly all covering mass of grey. To celebrate this marvellous development and continue the sunglasses theme (as per EJ's scrapbook excerpt below) here are the Raf Simons and Linda Farrow shades. Yes we featured them way back in January...but as the model here is EJ's cousin we had to feature them all over again. This shoot was featured recently on London Kicks (EJ sent me the link; it was my first time on the site and I was pretty impressed) and includes a video of the shades and an undressed Harry looking very bored - see below.

Ok, back to work where I will continue to hum my favourite George Harrison's contribution to songwriting and drive the rest of the people in my office mad.

Fresh love for forgotten magazines

Image courtesy of La Coquette as I forgot to take a shot of my own pile - plus it wasn't as neat as this.

I found myself with nothing to do last Sunday night (without the internet) and rather than twiddle my thumbs I decided to go through the mountain of magazines that sit in a pile on one corner of my room and cast a shadow over the rest. I wanted to begin a scrapbook and clear some space in my room at the same time (oh my Nan would be proud of me).

The pile consisted of copies of Fantastic Man, Monocle, GQ, Esquire, Nylon Guys, Dazed&Confused, Vogue Hommes International, 10 Man and a few copies of music magazines for good measure including Artrocker and Dummy. I decided that there were some magazines that should be left intact, including 08 Monocle's (I thought I'd start a proper collection). Using my trusty Craft Knife (I am totally inept at tearing out pages neatly with my just my bare hands) I analysed page after page of adverts, editorials and articles and carefully selected the pages to spare - putting them in two neat piles - reference articles and pretty pictures.

I have to admit, I absolutely loved thumbing these pages again. When I get a new magazine I turn the pages far too quickly, accelerating even as I go (pretending that I'm Rainman but alas I lack the brain capacity). I'm a product of the modern age, used to dealing with a wealth of information but not really appreciating it. Therefore it was nice to take some time and look through a magazine with a different mindset. Now, I was looking for inspiration and pretty artwork and I found a fair bit. I will visit Paperchase during the week and start my Scrapbook which I will share with you. In the meantime I suggest you pick up those old magazines (if you keep them like I do) and look through them once again with a different eye and be inspired.

I should warn you in advance that you might be seeing a few old articles from your favourites magazines reborn over the pages of the blog.

Like many of his better ideas, Steve has ripped this one shamelessly off of me. Aside from helping to fill my spare time and get some good use out of my Pritt Stick I've all this cutting and sticking rather useful for working out what I do and don't like about magazines, editorials and clothes. A real life Polyvore! Behold my rather lacklustre first attempt (and apols for the poor quality of the photo)... Still, the only way is up, eh?

South Molton Street... Green Shoes

Legend passes

One of the industries most talented designers sadly passed away this morning, aged 71. I was well and truly sucked into his world and designs after recently reading 'The Beautiful Fall' (which I highly recommend reading if you have not done so already...if you have re-read it!). He was one of the true masters and despite his passing his vision and influence will most certainly live on and on. He changed the face of the fashion industry when he became chief designer of the House of Dior at the age of 21 and his shows continued to amaze and push fashion forward throughout his career.

On a menswear note I loved his personal style..those glasses, the way he combined textures and patterns but unfortunately there just aren't enough images of him. I will continue my search and will do a follow up post.

Turning up (in) the heat

There was a time when I would only contemplate wearing boot cut jeans...thankfully those adolescent 90s days are well and truly behind me. That said I've only recently started experimenting with trouser length, possibly inspired by the shrunken suits of Thom Browne. As the days are getting warmer (but alas currently no sunshine in London at least) I decided to break that old Victorian taboo of showing off my ankles. (as a Google search addict I naturally googled 'Victorian ankles' and I came across this site - man the Internet is a wonderfully weird place)

My experimentation was not merely in the laboratory (my girlfriend's room) but I also took it to the streets of London town. I teamed up my sexy ankles with battered Swear shoes, Unconditional Bibbed T shirt under a Made in England sheer short sleeve shirt completed with Prada glasses and American Apparel black vinyl duffel bag. Please see exhibit A below

When the weather cools down I might even take this further and appease any remaining Taboo holders by wearing colourful socks, in a similar way to this chap featured some time ago on the Sartorialist and the thrifty Elliot Sainsbury featured on the fashion156 blog.