Bricklane from the archive

We just found this pic in our archive, it was shot for The Coolhunter last year but he never posted it. I love the way he wears the blue track jacket under the great coat!

The joy of lists

Daniel Craig was voted Best Dressed Man in Britain for the second year running by GQ magazine. The pic of Craig in his short shorts was for EJ's benefit...reports from other other people in the cinema showing of Casino Royale say she was actually salivating at this point in the film.

Eliza is passionate about lists, she writes lists for everything and through her passion I am a big fan of writing all kinds of lists. My favourite list is my 'Clothes of the Month' list which details any items that I need to complement my wardrobe. Of course there are times when I'm out shopping and the tempting shade of a shoe, or the cut of a shirt will catch my attention and make me forget the list, but I always have the list in the back of my mind and it helps me...list are great. However, when it comes to other peoples lists, I'm not so keen. I pick up GQ from time to time now, for me it has been surpassed by Esquire and Arena in the everymans (allbeit slightly wealthy and middle aged) market, it has become the male equivalent of everything that is wrong with Vogue, far too many adverts, lazy styling and leaning far too far to the right (I'm getting political this morning!) This little rant is after GQ has published their '50 Best Dressed Men in Britain in 2008', for a great run down of the list go here.

With regards to their number one, I have little to complain about, I've talked about Daniel Craig recently - Craig dresses in Savile Row, he is always sharp and crisp, not very adventurous but he knows how to wear clothes well. Noel Fielding (for anyone who doesn't know he is the chap above) at number 2? GQ isn't meant to be picking someone like Noel Fielding; he certainly is an interesting dresser (a man who's never been afraid to wear silver space shoes down the local cafe) but one of the best dressed men in Britain he is not. Apparently he got the female vote. Which is surprising to me because I thought they might be angry with him for stealing their jeans in Topshop.

Now onto James McAvoy, I like the Atonement actor a great deal but he should not be anywhere near the top 50 best dressed men solely because of the cover he did for W. I could go on and on in this fashion but I will try and keep this short...

4th best dressed man in Britain...I'm packing my bag and heading anywhere else...

The Royal Family also find themselves surprisingly well represented, with Princes Philip, Charles, Harry and Michael of Kent all making the list, which was voted for by a panel of international judges including Tom Ford, Giorgio Armani and Naomi Campbell. Conservative leader David Cameron made the top ten, while Gordon Brown fell (or climbed, depending on how you look at it) to third worst-dressed. Can the Conservativeness of this publication being any more subtle?

I will stick to writing my own lists and will be miffed by other peoples....so let's start our own list...recommendations welcome...this is a democratic blog after all.

Is it bad that I've not actually heard of a lot of people on their list? I can't understand how David Beckham can be one of the best dressed men in Britain largely because he doesn't really live here any more. It seems odd that at number one they have someone who dresses so classically, while at number two they have someone who dresses out of a manic 8 year old girl's dressing up box (sorry, in the past year for some reason I've grown to really dislike Noel Fielding).

It's funny though, as much as I love lists, I don't really have a list of stylish men in my head, just particular outfits, films, photographs and moods in a gigantic collage in my memory. I guess for me that's a large part of what this blog's about, trying to pin it all down. Still, I'd love to know who's our readers' number one, or if indeed they have anyone specifically in mind.

Picture postcard: keeping it simple

Why hello there Steve,

A lovely looking gent courtesy of Stylesightings for you today. My obsession with wardrobe_remix has been upped the past couple of days since your post on the subject. Something I've noticed though is that more quietly stylish outfits (no bright colours or outlandish shapes) such as the one above don't get commented on as much as others. I suppose this is why I felt like lauding this picture today. I very much hope that this sort of outfit is this chap's standard attire: not showy, not over the top and with an excellent bag. Of course I don't want everyone to dress like this all the time, but if more people did, you wouldn't hear me complaining.

Note to self: bright white trainers aren't always the enemy.

EJ

Well, I have to agree with you that more men should dress like this. It is simple which should attract the attention of most and the look is pretty universal yet stylish. The bag is the perfect 'busy day' bag.

Blue Cardigan on Portobello

I love the colours on this girl...

Shoes like Opal Fruits

These shoes by Jaime Hayon have got me salivating. The beautiful, slightly unsual shades have got me dreaming of one-colour outfits: men in crayon colours with a grown up twist. That shade of blue is particularly appealing and would look amazing with the right grey suit. It's days like that I'm glad that I have freakishly large feet to match my freakishly large hands... with a bit of luck I might be able to get myself a pair.

More info here.

Couples in Portobello Road

Couples in Portobello Road.

wardrobe_remix needs you!

I recently signed up to the wonderful world of wardrobe remix, well I couldn't leave Thom Wong by himself now could I? I wanted to accompany this post with a Lord Kitchener inspired poster but alas I am writing this feeling poorly and in an Internet cafe so hopefully you can forgive my lack of creativity.

There is a lack of men within the group so I urge you to start sending in your pics. If you are worried about the comments don't be, everyone is so nice...in fact they might be a little too nice, lulling me into a false sense of security and then bam, they become so bitchy I run away from my laptop one day in tears, never to venture online again. If you aren't aware of wardrobe remix - briefly it is an online 'DIY fashion community' created by Tricia in 2005, if you are aware of it, why aren't you on it?

I personally like trawling the pool of images (there are currently over 34,000) because I'm a aesthete and enjoy the variety on there, a nice mix of handmade/modified, vintage buys, high street and designer...I just wish that there were more men on there and then it would be become a great resource for inspiration for the blog. The community is so much more interesting than the exactitudes project (an ongoing exploration of the so called striking dress codes of various social groups, and the way clothing and fashion can be used to both fit into and stand-out from the crowd) which I recently saw at Selfridges but I will soon be amassing a favourites portfolio containing a similar volume of images!

Channeling his inner 1950's dad/1960's French assassin Mr Wong above is an inspiration. I seriously need to smarten up my act and most importantly invest in a few hats...I do not possess a single smart hat and this is a fact I will change very soon. In fact I think I've found the perfect one at Hurwendeki but decided against buying it just yet because I now have a clothes budget in place and I'm actually sticking to it pretty well...Anyway, enough of my consumer habit...as I said, this is a serious post, I want to see more guys sign up to wardrobe remix, so start taking lots of pics. I have to admit that I'm not the most regular of contributors to the w_r community because...well I can be a little lazy and uninspired but I am beginning to get the desire to attack my wardrobe and drawers with gusto and start taking more photos to post and I urge you to do the same.

Portobello, Amazing Hair!

He has the most amazing hair and is also very tall. Great style!

Dunks Boogie Woogie

I just saw the news on getkempt and sneakerfiles that Nike SB are releasing a pair of dunks inpsired by the man known as the 'father of geometric abstraction' (I often wonder what I'll be the father of) - Piet Mondrian.

To me these are perfect for Summer...I normally shy away from trainers with more than two colourways but the use of multiple colors here does not detract from the overall cohesive simplicity of the dunk design (that we all know and love) in fact I think the primary colours enhance the simplicity of the shoe.

I will leave you with a quote from Hannah Hoch on Mondrian "Everything in his life was reasoned or calculated. He was a compulsive neurotic and could never bear to see anything disordered or untidy. He seemed to suffer acutely, for instance, if a table had not been laid with perfect symmetry" (I sometimes wish I was like this....)

Portobello Road

Even though Spring has officially arrived, it is still chilly here in London. We loved this girl's makeup and head-scarf, really cool.