With its ludicrous posturing, and outlandish designs far removed from anything the average person in the street would even recognize as clothing, fashion is perhaps the creative industry most easily subjected to parody and ridicule. But if brands such as Comme des Garçons, Rick Owens, and even current “edgy” fashion darling Craig Green often send…
As the season kicks off once again, we were back down at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, Italy, to check out the latest street style looks from everyone’s favorite fashion-trade fair, Pitti Uomo. Accustomed as we are to seeing Pitti-goers dressed in medium-weight suits, with slip-on shoes, and no socks, it can be easy…
We’ve recently taken consignment of a pristine one-off example of the Ralph Lauren Purple Label Randall Jacket. This is a fine modern specimen of the “cafe racer” style of leather moto jacket that became iconic through association with the British Rocker motorcycle gangs of the early 1960s. Following the Teddy Boys of the ’50s, Cafe…
I’ll admit it, I get slightly nervous in most places where men in sharp suits are paid to open the door for me. But a visit to the Stefano Ricci boutique is on a whole new level: here I was a shifty and conspicuous interloper. Grabbing myself a furtive grope of the knitwear, caressing its sumptuous…
There are many reasons why eBay often sucks. From a vintage fashion shopper’s point of view, the main objection is just the quantity of ugly trash you need to trawl through before uncovering a stylish gem. And even if you are looking for a specific product or brand on the site, this can still prove…
You’ve heard the statistics: the fashion industry is the world’s second greatest polluter after petroleum. While this much-repeated soundbite is in actual fact a little vague, and may or may not be based on hard science, there are certainly enough legitimate studies and reports consistently placing clothing production very high up on the list of world…
Shopping for clothes on London’s Carnaby Street today is undoubtedly a more listless and pedestrian affair than in its modish 1960s heyday. Yet off the main thoroughfare a handful of side lanes have long held out as an enclave for less mainstream independent stores and designers. One of these is Year Zero London. Hello Kitty,…
At first glance, the designs of Frenchman Lucien Pellat-Finet might appear to be little more than an unabashed celebration of vulgarity. To be sure, kitsch is undoubtedly one of Monsieur Pellat-Finet’s raisons d’être. But as with so many things in this world, run far enough with the “bad”, and you’ll likely come back round the…
In the northern English city of Salford there exists an anachronistic relic of the Victorian age: the redbrick factory of Cooper & Stollbrand. Birthplace of the industrial revolution, the Greater Manchester area was once entirely filled with similar enterprises. Here were mills for the spinning of silk, cotton, and wool; industrial cathedrals echoing with the…
There are many “heritage” brands around today who market themselves as maintaining an unbroken manufacturing tradition since the birth of the company way back in the mists of antiquity. Of these, some are undeniably the real thing. Yet sadly many others are merely opportunists spinning a good story for greater credibility and profit – the…
