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…
Author: John Bramaan
Year End Arrivals – Stefano Ricci
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…
15 Best Alternatives to eBay for Secondhand Fashion
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…
10 Ways Luxury Brands Could Be More Eco Friendly
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…
Shirts by Year Zero London
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,…
New Arrival: Lucien Pellat-Finet Graphic Tees
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…
Product Spotlight: the Drake’s x Private White V.C. Work Shirt
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…
Beyond Trends: Isaia Napoli Shirts Review
Neapolitan tailoring firm Isaia had been quietly producing elegant menswear for over half a century when a few years ago the brand suddenly found itself the height of fashion. While many other Italian fashion designers had enjoyed decades of international celebrity, Isaia Napoli had been steadily simmering away for three generations without previously capturing the…
Notes from Florence Part II: Best Brands of Pitti S/S 19
Pitti Uomo 94 may be long over, but in the meantime we’ve been busy condensing our notes to bring you more highlights from the SS19 Florence menswear collections. Following on from the first part in this series on the best brands of Pitti, we take a look at some quality British outerwear; elegant bags and…
Notes from Florence Part I: Best Brands of Pitti S/S 19
Away from the febrile posturing of social-media stars in the piazza, inside the halls of Florence’s Fortezza da Basso the real action of Pitti Uomo 94 was taking place. Here buyers with the purchasing-power to decide what many of us will be wearing 12 months from now perused the booths of the world’s leading menswear…