Sartorial Sunglasses from Brooks Brothers

How sartorial can a pair of sunglasses get?

These Brooks Brothers sunglasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban Wayfarer certainly hit the spot with their striped club tie designs on the temple arms – available in burgundy or yellow BB1 Repp stripe.

100 UV protection, durable acetate frame and green glass lens.

Available at the London flagship store at 150 Regent Street or online

www.brooksbrothers.com

Shell Cordovan -the most non porous leather for shoes

Shell Cordovan  is named after the Spanish city Cordova where the Spanish Arabs introduced this fine leather. It is the leather that most sartorial men aspire to in their footwear due to its super glossy finish, durability and suppleness. It is also the most non porous leather known so great to keep out the rain.

However cordovan is not the normal calf leather but equine leather.

Brooks Brothers Cordovan Penny Loafers

The first part of the name 'shell' is used because this is where the leather is taken from on the horse. Cordovan is not just horse hide but is taken only from a specific area of the horse called the shell which is the thin layer of fine muscle under the skin at the butt of the horse. The skin is shaved away from the muscle layer, leaving smooth leather with no grain at all. The whole process of tanning of shell cordovan takes about 6 months and the shoes are expensive.

Now I have been assured by Horween in Chicago, one of the 2 tanneries who produce shell cordovan, that all of their hides are by-products of the food industry. Nick Horween emailed:  “All of the hides that we buy and tan are byproducts of the food industry.  Our horsehides come from France and Quebec where they still raise horse as we raise steers here in the US.”   The other tannery is Shinki-Hikaku Co.  But unfortunately their website is only in Japanese.

Crockett & Jones Ashdown Cordovan derby shoes

As this is an expensive and specialised leather Crockett and Jones’s  shell cordovans are only available and sold through their London shops: 25 Royal Exchange in the city; 69 Jermyn St and 20 Burlington Arcade in the West End. Their Ashdown Gibson shoe comes in the rich burgundy colour the shell cordovan is known for. Price £450

And it is this rich burgundy that some cheaper leather shoes are described as Cordovan – they will be referring to the colour only and not the actual leather.

Brooks Brothers shop is on 132-134 Regent Street

Men's Knitwear - The Preppy Look

The Preppy Look keeps coming in and out of fashion, but when it’s not in fashion, it’s still a classic. Here you can have chunky or fine knit, it just has to look smart and neat.

The cardigan is always a good choice. Team with lightweight chinos and deck shoes in the spring/summer and khakis and brogues in the autumn/winter.

Go for the polo shirt underneath.

French Connection Image from PRShots

French Connection’s Sunday Angora with its block colourways gets top marks for the ‘Preppy’ fine knit.

www.musto.com

whilst a shawl collar makes the league on a fitted chunky knit.  Musto’s shawl neck cardigan in white for the chunkier look. Availbale from their website www.musto.com

Brooks Brothers

For the jumper go for the retro tennis style. Traditionally a rugged cable guy in off white but some have smoothed their knitting style in to the preppy look and enriched their lives with bursts of colour.

Brooks Brothers

Brooks Brothers have a show stopping red for their cotton and cashmere blend tennis v neck sweater. Adding to the preppy look they’ve teamed with khaki chinos. Both £89 

Available from the Brooks Brothers Store at

150 Regent St - 0203 238 0030 / www.brooksbrothers.com

 

Nautical Look - French Riviers playboy look for the Spring

It’s usually the fine knits here as the look is fresh, clean and oozes style. Cool cotton knits are a popular choice for those hot yachting days. Mainly navy and white and lots of horizontal stripes.
The authentic nautical stripe is the Breton stripe originating in the French Provence of Brittany . Here the fisherman found the fine double twist cotton protected them against sudden gusts of wind. They were introduced to the French navy in 1858, where the stripes helped spot any sailors who fell overboard . The original also had 21 stripes , one for each of Napoleon’s victories.
Now it’s just a classic but still comforting to know if you do happen to fall overboard.

New Look have a Breton striped knitted jumper in white with navy stripes at a swimmingly good price of £9.99. Ready for work aboard with cream shorts, red/blue boat shoes, orange mac and brown canvas backpack all from New Look. Available from New look stores or via www.newlook.com

Or go to the darker side and choose navy with white striped mariner jumper in pure cotton from Brooks Brothers (£89). Looking good with a pair of white lightweight chinos in the Milan fit (£89). Available from Brooks Brothers, 150 Regent St - 0203 238 0030 / www.brooksbrothers.com

However stripes as we know aren’t very slimming so make sure you don’t have them around your tummy area if this is a concern. Keep to the shoulders. Or go for something like the Musto sail classic cardigan. Plain navy with nautical strip detail going vertically down the neckline – a much more slimming effect- £70. Available on www.musto.com

Chunky knits can still sail their way in to this category with something like Musto’s chunky knit shawl cardigan in navy or white. Just team with a tee shirt underneath - www.musto.com

And there is always the plain sweater with the boat neck – New Look white knitted jumper. Available from New Look stores or via www.newlook.com

Country Tweeds - the colours

Tweed traditionally comes in muted earthy and autumnal colours which suits men with warm and muted colouring. This ranges from the pale freckled face, rosy cheeked and warm olives to warm black complexions.Hair colour softly blends with the complexion from mousey fair, reds and gingers, to deep warm browns. Eye colours range from greens, hazels and browns.

http://www.brooksbrothers.com/

Keep the warm muted colouring with shirts and jumpers to complement the look - demonstrated here by a Brooks Brothers Harris tweed sports jacket teamed with an orange sweater. www.brooksbrothers.com



But don’t worry if your colouring is not warm and muted, there are some tweeds out there in bolder brights and cooler colours – you just have to look harder:

DSDundee Alford jacket from http://www.hubshop.co.uk/

DS Dundee has an Alford peaked lapel jacket in navy herringbone tweed which will work well for the deep but cooler complexions. Match with bolder bright colour shirts or pure white to create a high contrast look.





Ash Vanguard coat from http://www.dsdundee.com/



The DS Dundee Vanguard Tweed double-breasted coat shows how the different colours can produce different effects. Their ash herringbone is light, bright and cool, contrasting with the mid-brown gamekeeper three-piece tweed suit – great for guys with a bright and high-contrast colouring...

Cinder Vanguard coat from http://www.dsdundee.com/

..Their cinder herringbone is deep, warm and muted, blending with the walnut tweed suit – so great for guys with warm and low contrast colouring.

The ash shade (above) suits this model’s Celtic colouring better but he doesn’t look too bad in the cinder shade only because he’s teamed it with a bright white shirt to give more of a contrast.

Viyella tweed jacket

If you already have a tweed jacket in a warm colour, just team it with cooler shades of pinks and blues to add more contrast and brightness.

Viyella has done this for you with their brown tweed jacket made of European wool, by adding a bright purple and pink windowpane check and purple lining. Just pick out these colours for your shirts, ties etc.

http://www.viyella.co.uk/fcp/product/viyella/Jackets-and-Coats/Brown-and-Purple-Check-Jacket/1362

http://www.tkmaxx.com/

And for the guys who have cool complexions but cannot take deep colours, then go for something like this TKMaxx jacket in a soft light grey with pale red windowpane check.

Full article on ww.eclipsemagazine.co.uk under men's fashion

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