About Styleforum Editors

The Styleforum editors are a group of gnomes that actually do all of the work running Styleforum. Ari, and Jasper play air hockey, drink artisanal iced teas, and debate whether it's harder to get bolognese or bechamel out of grenadine ties, and whether either can be used to polish shoes.

A Mountain-Friendly Outfit

outfit-grid-12

I spend a lot of time up in the mountains over the winter, in various ski towns. Some are glitzy, fur-covered; the kind where the wine list at your average restaurant is as long as the runs. Others are run-down, podunk spots – or literally gravel spots on the side of the road. I also live in a place where style tends to take a back-seat to comfort and utility, which means that I always keep one eye on versatility. Rubber soles are great to have, as are clothes that can go from walking the dogs to driving up to the mountains to going out to dinner when you get there – hence the denim and the handy scarf.

That’s where a mountain-friendly outfit such as this comes in – I don’t think an outfit in this vein would be out of place anywhere in the world, no matter where you’re skiing. And if you don’t ski, the combination of a comfortable knit with a quilted blazer means you’ll have some useful layers to fall back on as the weather turns. Chelsea boots are great for slipping on and off as you come in and out of the mudroom or car when you’re putting on your snowboots, and easy-wearing jeans are almost never out of place. Quilted blazers are their own beautiful thing, and although this example from Moncler is on the pricey side, some internet searching could very well land you with a new favorite jacket. So next time you’re planning a weekend getaway – or just a weekend outfit – give a do-anything ensemble such as this a shot. You’ll feel ready for all the fondue you can eat.

1. Moncler quilted blazer, from Mr. Porter

2. GRP roll-neck, from No Man Walks Alone

3. Shockoe Atelier “Standard Como” jean from Standard & Strange

4. Meermin Chelsea Boots

5. 19 Andreas’ 47 Chevron scarf, from Exquisite Trimmings

Join the $3,500 Modern Luxury Giveaway

modern luxury giveawayJoin the Modern Luxury Giveaway, and win $3,500 worth of prizes!

Styleforum has teamed up with some of our favorite online brands and communities to offer one lucky winner the following:

– $250 gift card for any affiliate shop hosted by Styleforum
– $500 gift card for Norwegian bag and watch brand Linjer
– $500 gift card for apparel company Grana
– $500 gift card for home essentials company Brooklinen
– $500 gift card for Italian shoemaker Velasca
– 1 bespoke suit from Italian suit-maker Lanieri ($760 value)
– 2 tickets to The Hustle‘s ConCon conference ($550 value)

TERMS: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Purchasing does not improve your chance of winning. Void where prohibited.

modern luxury giveaway

 

See the full list of Styleforum affiliates below

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RSVP for The Proper Kit!

 

We’re doing it again. On November 5th, 2016, The Proper Kit will return to Gary’s Loft in New York City, both the Penthouse and 11th floor (28 West 36th St, New York, NY 10018).

For those of you unfamiliar with the idea, this is the yearly trunk show co-hosted by Styleforum and A&H Magazine that unites world-class vendors with you; the friends, fans, and aficionados that make the world of menswear tick.

For those of you who attended last year, you’ll have an idea of what to expect: a group of world-class menswear brands and retailers, setting up shop in a beautiful space that’s devoted solely to you.

Styleforum’s motto has always been “Come for the clothes, stay for the company,” and that’s exactly why you should join us this November. Not only will we have fantastic garments, shoes, and accessories for you to browse, but the real reason you should come is to celebrate our shared passion for style. Some of the best-dressed men on the forum – and in the country – will be visiting; not just forumites, but writers, bloggers, photographers, thinkers, and hobbyists of all strokes. We’ll be discussing our loves (and hates, certainly) over I.W. Harper’s excellent bourbon, some great beer and wine, and tasty food.

 

As with last year, you’ll have to RSVP to reserve a spot. To do that, follow this link and sign up: https://theproperkit.splashthat.com/

Just to tempt you further, here are some of the vendors we’ll have on hand:

Carmina Shoemaker
No Man Walks Alone
Epaulet NY
Vanda Fine Clothing
Hickey Freeman
Kent Wang
Bespoke Dude Eyewear
Beckett & Robb
The ShoeHealer
L’Arte Nascosta
Lanieri
Yellowhook
Pierpont Leather
Founders Footwear

Be sure to follow The Proper Kit to stay on top of event updates:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theproperkit/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theproperkit/

Styleforum’s Favorite Brands, Pt. 2

Styleforum has a lot of “favorite” brands. Last week, we covered a small selection of standouts, and this week we’re taking a look at a few more of the most popular houses and designers on the forum. They wax and wane in popularity over the course of months or years, and because of the diversity of our members these brands range from the rigidly conservative to the breathtakingly avant garde. Although this isn’t a complete list, it does capture a snapshot of some up-and-comers alongside a number of old standbys. Let’s take a look at a second set of Styleforum’s favorite brands, and what they say about us – the people who love to wear them.


 

Blue Blue Japan

Styleforum's favorite brands: blue blue japan

The Dream: You live a simple but fulfilled life of meditative tranquility. You’re content with everything you own, and enjoy the simple pleasures of morning coffee and quiet walks in the woods. You don’t pay attention to what you wear, because to do so would be an unnecessary source of anxiety, and it all looks great anyway.

The Reality: You’ve completely lost all self-control, and you can’t keep yourself from buying yet another indigo-dyed bathrobe even though your closet is already full of identical items of blue clothing. Your friends are not pleased that you leave blue stains all over their walls, furniture, and pets.

 


 

Camoshita

styleforum's favorite brands: camoshita

Photo: No Man Walks Alone

The Dream: You’re a modern style icon; a living throwback to the halcyon days of movie-stardom and low-key Hollywood glamour. Your tastes are unique, your interests eclectic, and every time you post on Instagram a fashion subculture is born.

The Reality: You’ll never be Yasuto Kamoshita.


Drake’s

Photo: Drake's

Photo: Drake’s

The Dream: Everything you own is of the highest quality, including the meticulously-reconstructed Jaguar you drive as though it’s brand new. Everyone knows your name and smiles at you, and you often hold court at hotel bars. Your routine is such that your job gives you as much pleasure as your days off, which you spend shooting skeet, exploring dingy side-street markets, or restoring antique furniture.

The Reality: You collect interesting pocket squares because they are the only source of color, whimsy, and fantasy in the crushing grind that is your grim, quotidian existence.


Dries van Noten

Styleforum's Favorite Brands: Dries van Noten

Photo: Roden Gray

The Dream: You live on a fantastical, rambling estate that would make Tim Burton jealous, where you throw whimsical garden masquerades for your group of very close international friends, none of whom care about fashion but all of whom have innately good taste. Your house is decorated with art you personally purchased on every continent.

The Reality: Dries van Noten doesn’t fit you. It never fits you. Why doesn’t it fit you? If it fit you, you’d wear Dries van Noten exclusively. You think about wearing Dries van Noten so much that it’s as if you only wear Dries van Noten. Except you don’t, because Dries van Noten doesn’t fit you.


Edward Green

styleforum's favorite brands: edward green

Photo: @RogerP

The Dream: All of the exquisite leather goods found in your manor home are of matching shades; this was unintentional but the results are pleasant. Once yearly, you bring your collection of shoes and a bottle of fine scotch to an aged man in a dark, wooded basement room. He wears an apron and grunts approvingly, then cleans your shoes for you while you sip whiskey and talk about the old days when everything was made to impeccable standards. Not once has he remarked on the several newspaper articles that are written about you every year, which you appreciate.

The Reality: No one, not even once, has ever given your shoes so much as a second glance.


Isaia

styleforum's favorite brands: Isaia

Photo: Isaia

The Dream: You travel between your various vacation homes and yacht in a limousine full of half-naked men and women. You rarely wear a tie. Wherever you go, there is a glass of champagne waiting for you.

The Reality: Everyone you know is desperately sick of seeing your chest hair, but are still hoping it’s just a phase. Your doctor says you should drink less.


Maison Margiela

styleforum's favorite brands: maison margiela

Photo: Maison Martin Margiela S/S2010

The Dream: Your wardrobe is a fashion collector’s wet dream, and you own every archival piece worth owning. No one ever comments on your wardrobe, which you prefer – it lets you feel silently superior to everyone around you. Sometimes you’re stopped on the street by fashion photographers who are in the know, but you refuse to have your picture taken.

The Reality: You bought your first pair of sneakers after hearing “Margiela” in a rap lyric; now you talk about how Margiela was only good “When Margiela was there,” even though you have no idea when that was or how to pronounce Margiela.


Ring Jacket

Styleforum's favorite brands: ring jacket

Photo: Alex Scharf

The Dream: You spend your time jetting back and forth between New York and Tokyo, writing articles for men’s interest magazines in multiple languages the world over. Every coffee shop you go to knows your “usual,” even the ones you’ve never been to before. You still read newspapers that are made out of paper.

The Reality: You know, in your heart of hearts, that you are a size 40 – but the tailor at the dry-cleaner in the strip mall is getting really sick of sewing buttons back on your jackets.


Rick Owens

Styleforum's favorite brands: rick owens

Photo: Matthew Stone for Business of Fashion

The Dream: You live very simply in a very expensive flat in a cosmopolitan city, where you listen to experimental noise rock and melodic growling on speakers made of sculpted concrete. You wear one of a simple assortment of silk t-shirts every day, all of which are just sheer enough that unsuspecting bystanders are treated to a tasty view of your rock-hard abs. You collect rare architecture magazines and ultra-modern sex toys.

The Reality: “Working out is modern couture,” you say over and over under your breath as you ride your bicycle through your suburban neighborhood, hoping the over-long DRKSHDW tag in your shorts doesn’t get caught in the chain. Your dunks don’t fit on the pedals.

 


 

Saint Laurent Paris

Styleforum's favorite brands: saint Laurent Paris

Photo: Saint Laurent Paris

The Dream: Your industrial-chic studio apartment is full of collectable vinyl and artsy black-and-white photography, all of which has been signed by the artist. No one knows what you do for a living, and you’d be hard-pressed to explain it. Your famous musician friends regularly ask for your opinion on their beats, and every weekend you go to house parties played by bigger names than most festivals.

The Reality: You desperately wish Hedi had designed looser jeans, because you’re starting to lose feeling in your feet.

Sunday Styles: Sashiko Jacket

sashiko jacket

It’s only fitting that we showcase a sashiko jacket after this week’s feature. The deep blue of this heavy Luxire jacket looks great with earth tones – say, a chambray work shirt from Taylor Stitch and slim trousers from our long-time Canadian favorites, Wings + Horns. A lightweight hiking boot that’s equally at home on the street offers enough bulk to stand up to the jacket, and wayfarer-style sunnies, like this pair from Henry Blake, are always appropriate.

1. Heavy Sashiko Jacket from Luxire

2. Chambray Utility Shirt from Taylor Stitch

3. Wings + Horns Tokyo pant from Need Supply Co.

4. Danner x New Balance Hiking Boots from Portland Dry Goods

5. Wanderer Sunglasses from Henry Blake

Styleforum’s Favorite Brands

Styleforum has a lot of “favorite” brands. They wax and wane in popularity over the course of months or years, and because of the diversity of our members these brands range from the rigidly conservative to the breathtakingly avant garde. Although this isn’t a complete list, it does capture a snapshot of some up-and-comers alongside a number of old standbys. Let’s take a look at Styleforum’s favorite brands, and what they say about us – the people who love to wear them.


Alden

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Epaulet

The Dream: You’re a globe-trotting gentleman-explorer, and your footwear reflects that. No matter the occasion, you’re always well put-together – but you never stick out. Several people have referred to you as “dashing.”

The Reality: You spend more time applying leather-care product to your massive collection of Alden shoes than you do wearing them.


Brooks Brothers

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Brooks Brothers

The Dream: Your life is a perfect blend of work and play. You roll up your chinos and play tag football on the lawn. You are happy and content, your collar roll is always immaculate, and you spend your summers vacationing on the Vineyard.  You know it’s gotten crowded but you just can’t imagine going anywhere else – you’ve made such meaningful connections.

The Reality: You have recently discovered that penny loafers don’t go with everything. You constantly talk about how “real men wear pink,” but you’re uncomfortable and fidgety every time you do. Recently, you have begun to fear that people find you boring.

 


Carol Christian Poell

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

The Dream: You curate a minimalist gallery in a European city. Or if not a gallery, you curate a hugely popular photo-slash-contemporary philosophy website with descriptions of each photo posted in all caps. You curate something. People admire your taste.

The Reality: Upwards of five people owned your “collection” before you. You rarely wear any of it, and when you do, you remember why you don’t. You think about selling all of it constantly, but worry that you won’t be able to make back what you paid. You wonder why you don’t just start curating sweatpants instead. You have begun to suspect that no one cares about your moody photography.


 

Christian Kimber

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Christian Kimber

The Dream: You’re a free spirit, the kind of guy who spends weekends at destination flea markets looking for antiques to furnish the quirky studio apartment you keep in a neat, artsy neighborhood. You ride your skateboard to the coffee shop every morning; not to work, but to read several Very Interesting Books every week. Your signature touch is a giant scarf. You eat a lot of noodles.

The Reality: You’re an internet hobbyist who spends his days browsing web-stores.

 


Eidos Napoli

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Eidos

The Dream: You are an Italian bon vivant who has excellent hair and rides a scooter through the hills of Tuscany.

The Reality: You got the suit 40% off  at Bloomingdales. Sometimes, guys at work ask if you have an interview.  Now you mostly wear it for your Instagram. You have 200 followers.


 

Engineered Garments

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Stitched and Stitched

The Dream: You make a living as a travel correspondent, and spend your days fishing, surfing, and hiking with your group of friends and photogenic dogs. All of you carry vintage film cameras – even the dogs. You routinely get your fancy clothing very dirty, but you don’t care. Sometimes candid photos of you appear in Japanese style magazines, with captions like “How to live a care-free life.”

The Reality: Your apartment doesn’t allow dogs, and people wonder why you’re always wearing the same jacket and carrying a camera around.

 


 

Kapital

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Kapital

The Dream: You are a carefree artistic type, a creative director at an independent magazine. You are well-read and your friends are regularly featured in iD magazine.

The Reality: On the street, people wonder if you are homeless.  You tell your friends you got it all on sale so that they won’t ridicule you for the prices you paid. You secretly wish you lived in Japan and owned an Indigo dye-house.


 

Robert Geller

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Barney’s

The Dream: You spend your time drinking ironic beer on urban rooftops around the world with your friends, all of whom are models, photographers, and graphic designers. You just launched a fashion magazine that has disrupted the industry and brought you several publisher’s accolades.

The Reality: You have three bomber jackets in your closet. You never know what to wear with any of them.

 


 

Suit Supply

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Suit Supply

The Dream: You are a successful young entrepreneur. You are stylish and always up-to-date on the latest New Yorker. You have respected opinions on everything from art to the economy to the state of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Reality: People wonder why your pants are so tight, and most women you meet find you just creepy enough to avoid. Your boss thinks you spend too much time looking in the mirror.

 


 

 

Visvim

Styleforum's Favorite Brands

Photo: Antik Boutik

The Dream: You drive a vintage Defender, and all of your most precious belongings can fit into a single well-worn duffle bag. You live authentically. You eat interesting street food all over the world. You laugh constantly. Visvim is the only brand in your closet.

The Reality: You talk about hating John Mayer because he’s not authentic but deep down you burn with unbearable jealousy.

Sunday Styles: Knit ‘n Easy

outfit-grid-9b

Speaking of knit ties, let’s take a look at an easy way to embrace some color and texture for fall. Tweed sport coats pair wonderfully with knit neckwear, and a simple oxford stripe shirt with easy-wearing trousers and shoes is a simple way to look great. In this case, the green of the knit tie is subdued without being boring, and picks up the texture of the jacket.

1. Grey Tweed Sport Coat, Kent Wang

2. Drake’s Knit Tie, Gentlemen’s Footwear

3. Oxford Stripe Shirt, Epaulet

4. Rota Trousers, No Man Walks Alone

5. Warwick Single Monk, Allen Edmonds

6. Robert Jensen Pocket Square, Khaki’s of Carmel

Sunday Styles: Museum Visit

outfit-grid-7

If you’re looking for casual style that’s perfect for a weekend museum visit, still sharp and forward-looking enough for a business meeting, look no further than Styleforum favorite Stephan Schneider. This basketweave jacket pairs beautifully with relaxed trousers and loafers to keep your feet as comfortable as the rest of you.

 

1. Stephan Schneider “Thinner” jacket from Suspension Point

2. Native Youth “Meteor” Trouser from Need Supply Co.

3. Solovier Pantome Slipper from Other-Shop

4. Wings + Horns Henley from Uncle Otis

5. Linjer Portfolio

 

Sunday Styles: Urban Explorer

outfit-grid-8

Functional clothing never felt so good. The combination of a sharp utility jacket, heavy chinos, and fine cashmere means that everywhere you go this fall you’ll be prepared – and comfortable. Comfortable suede derbies round out the walkability of this look, and rugged luggage from Master-Piece will keep your prized positions safe from autumn weather.

1. Engineered Garments “Bedford” from Portland Dry Goods

2. John Laing Cashmere Rollneck from Hang Project

3. Canvas “Rivet” Chino from Epaulet NY

4. Chatham Windsor Derby from A Fine Pair of Shoes

5. Master-Piece Backpack from No Man Walks Alone