Labor Day has come and gone, and it seems that everyone can’t wait to exchange their beach togs for sweaters and tweed. This summer was warmer than usual in San Francisco, and it’ll probably extend into October, but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited about the upcoming season. Perhaps it’s the fact that the additional layers allow one to express oneself in subtle whispers that rival the boldest aloha shirt, but perhaps I’m romanticizing it just a bit. It helps that the coldest it ever gets in San Francisco is a laughable 40℉ (about 5℃), so I can enjoy the clothes without having to suffer too much discomfort. Yes, that’s an admission of guilt.
Author Archives: Peter Zottolo
Labor Wear for Fall
Carhartt recently released a video for Labor Day that good-naturedly highlights the rookie gaffes of apprentices, and you should watch it, because it’s wonderful. I’ve done at least three or four of these, and as embarrassing as it is, everyone stumbles when taking their first steps, and it’s good practice to laugh at yourself, if not then, at least in retrospect.
I like to think it’s in honor of those who suffered for those benefits we sometimes take for granted that workwear has become such an ingrained part of everyday clothing. From denim to duck cloth, one can hardly walk down a street anywhere in the industrialized world without seeing something that references the hard-wearing togs of the common laborer. Many of the upcoming fall/winter collections include a sweeping variety to choose from, so if you don’t feel like going all-out with hickory-striped coveralls and hi-viz, you’ve got plenty of other options. Here are my favorites for the early season.
Continue readingIn Appreciation of Summer Tweed
The difference between a painting and a print are at once subtle and striking. Put a reproduction next to the original, and the former seems flat, dull, and inanimate, whereas the latter is vibrant, engaging, and alive. For some, the simple fact that a particular work of art is the genuine article justifies its superiority, but for me the reason is not provenance, it’s visceral: the texture of brush strokes.
Texture, like many things in life, adds interest and depth to the otherwise mundane and can make something good even better. This is why we take the scenic route instead of the freeway and add chocolate chips to vanilla ice cream, and also why I love Derek’s summer tweed. A 9/10 ounce blend of 60% linen and 40% silk, it offers a visual and tactile uniqueness that is rarely seen in fabric, an intriguing amalgam of irregular consistency and soft hand, dancing between light and shadow.
Forget Pants, Life is Shorts
The Engineer Boot’s Place
Post Pitti Uomo 96 – Afterthoughts
In this photo at Harry’s Bar in Firenze, Jake Grantham is laughing. You don’t know why, or with whom, because the left side of the photo has been cut off. But if you were there, you’d be laughing too, relishing that memorable night of negronis and hysterics, right along with everyone else.
Continue readingPitti Uomo 96 Streetstyle Photos – Part 3
The first and second days of Pitti are insane – meetings, parties, and press. The third day slows down dramatically, and by the fourth day, everyone just wants to go home. Presently on the train to Rome to start my trip home, I’m just now realizing that I mostly trawled the booths to take as much advantage of the air conditioning as I could. I should have taken more pictures, but I did catch a lot of video, so check out the stories on Styleforum’s Instagram on these makers:
- Craftsman Clothing
- Amidé Hadelin
- Freenote Cloth
- Man 1924
- Valstar
- Stefano Cau
- Made With Hart
Pitti Uomo 96 Day 2 – Streetstyle
The days and nights are flying by. Plaza Uomo held an event at the Palazzo Budini Gattai, a 16th century that was built and is still owned by the eponymous family. The next day a few of us got a chance to sneak away from the madness. Andreas Klow (@flannelsandtweed) and Aleks Jovanovich (@aleksjj) and I rented scooters for a jaunt in the Tuscan countryside, and later that evening enjoyed good company with Matt Hranek from W.M. Brown Project and Douglas Cordeaux from Fox Brothers hosted a party where everyone ended up parting ways with a smile on their face.
Check out the StyleForum Instagram feed for stories. These photos are from the evening of day one to the evening of day two. Thanks to Andreas and Aleks for sharing their pics when this third-rate pretend-photographer was slacking off.
Pitti Uomo 96 Streetstyle Photos – Day 1
What a first day. And what a fun show — Pitti has a reputation of being a place of peacocks, but I prefer to think of it as motley trove of various ideas that, while sometimes silly, can often be surprising. Here’s a few streetstyle photos from inside the fair.
Coastal Inspiration: Ischia
