GARMSVILLE: May 2009

Archive for May 2009

Hair Today: short back and sides

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 Comments Off

Pictured below, Kevin BestShopEver is having breakfast in Brighton. He wears a Ralph Lauren BD shirt and a pair of Cutler & Gross glasses. His haircut is an act of cultural subversion...

In years to come we will look back on this as the Age of the Hairdresser, where the city streets were dominated by armies of crimpers and scrappers and colourists all competing not just for our business but for our attention and that of each other - all creating more and more inspired looks for their young and eager clientele, while washing away the years and worries of their more mature patrons through the magic of dye. It's a street culture which is so mainstream and all encompassing only the bald and the rebels among us can escape it.

The rebellious move is to shun the hair salon altogether and seek refuge in the less colourful, less costly comforts of a barber shop - not a faux barber shop where the shelves are full of scents and gels and skin conditioners - but the no-frills barber shop where hair styles are reduced to a combination of numbers - Number one on the back and sides, long on top - graduated, please. Razor finish.

Precision like this takes the creativity out of the process, takes the adventure and the risk out of the whole coiffure experience - it's a hair cut not a hair style, basic subtraction not applied science. You place your trust in the hands of one person not a team of stylists (and their assistants). The barbers job is to cut hair, not add product. You spend a matter of minutes and not hours in the hot seat.

In the face of today's hairdresser hegemony, to opt for a hair cut by traditional barbers is a reactionary act, a conscious response against a tide of conformity and asymmetric spikes. It's perhaps best symbolised but a single haircut, so simple, so conservative, so pure it's possibly the most extreme and at the same time the only truly regret-proof haircut any man can have; the great short back and sides. All he needs is a full head of hair and an independent head on his shoulders.

Kevin BestShopEver gets his haircut at Headroom in Brighton.

Also check out BestPussy - an exhibition of limited edition prints by such names as Shepard Fairey, Matt Sewell, Nick Walker, Kozik, Mike Giant, Pinky, INSA and Aztek - curated by Niki BestShopEver @ Pussy, Bartholomews, Brighton.

ps: mine's a 0.5 top, 0.0, back and sides...no razor...these days.

An unpredictable look

Wednesday, 20 May 2009 Comments Off

Taking a stroll through the Ralphla store in New Bond Street last week, I clocked this guy wearing a pair of duck boots. He was working there. He was one of the interiors team merchandising the shop's basement area.

He reminded me of this image taken by William Claxton of the legendary Bill Blass. An unpredictable look, perfect for those unpredictable London summers.

The Loafersin: mocking tradition

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 Comments Off

They're called loafersins - a combination of loafers and moccasins, as if you couldn't guess. Borne out of laziness and inspiration, I struck on the idea when one of the tassels on these much loved Bass Weejuns broke off.

I toyed with the obvious idea of replacing it with another set black tassels; but then thought about using a different colour...and, once sartorial logic had gone out the window, I ended up with this rather novel solution. Black shoe laces.

It was Dr Mandi Martin who came up with the name, loafersins. It seemed to make perfect sense since the use of laces somehow softened the whole look of the shoe making it much more moccasin-like than I initially imagined.

I think they're great, but I suspect the traditionalists (those gatekeepers of sartorial correctness) among us will mock my customised shoe. At least I hope they do; if they don't, I'll feel like I've failed in some small way.

Exclusive News: Soho House Group Takeover Hoxton Grille

Monday, 18 May 2009 Comments Off

The Hoxton Grille Restaurant located within the Hoxton Hotel on Great Eastern Street has been taken over by The Soho House Group.

Just a stones' throw from Shoreditch House, the Grille - which caters to both the public and the Hotels guests - has been taken over as a going concern with, we understand, very few changes anticipated within the foreseeable future.

The Soho House Group, founded by Nick Jones, adds the Grille to it's ever-expanding portfolio. There are currently three private houses in London - Soho, Shoreditch and the Electric - and one in New York. The group also includes, among others, Babington House, The Electric Cafe, Cecconi's Mayfair and Cafe Boheme.

Plans are well underway for the opening of Soho House LA later this year and the launch of clubs in Miami, Chicago and Berlin in 2010. The group opened Cecconi's LA earlier this year.

The original Soho House, on Greek Street (Soho), was launched in 1995. The Soho House Group boasts the world's leading chain of member's clubs. It has approximately 15,000 members - 75 per cent of whom work in media-related industries. My membership however seems to be lost in the post.

http://www.sohohouse.com/
http://www.hoxtongrille.co.uk/

Geek Gods and other social misfits

Saturday, 16 May 2009 Comments Off

Toque Talk

A lexicon of marginal subcultures have, over time, adopted the toque, touque, beanie or wooly hat - including hip hoppers, skaters, LA lowriders, geek gods and other assorted misfits.

Many people get weird when they see a toque being worn; they do a double-take, wondering WTF is that woollen hat all about? Hygiene? Style? Habit? It's as if no excuse is good enough.

Stylers can talk for days about baker boy caps, trilbys or fedoras - but few would bother celebrating this one-size-fits-all knitted number. In the world of style, it seems the toque is to hats what the comb-over is to haircuts.

Toques are of course, standard geek god attire; think of them as all-weather brain warmers. Functional, they also help boffins fit the profile. Totally inappropriate in virtually all circumstances, they're the badge of the great social misfit, the terminally uncool.

The toque is a hat with a real geek heritage; worn by curve-ball dons like Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the great underwater explorer and by Michael Nesmith, member of proto boy-band, The Monkees and also the man who invented MTV. In fact, Nesmith's mum invented liquid paper; how's that for geek god credentials?

Cousteau wore his hat almost all the time on his boat, Calypso, travelling and researching the oceans depths; he probably only ever took it off under duress or underwater.

Nesmith, as part of the pre-fab four, wore his hat almost all the time in sunny LA, atop a mop of hair which was hippy but not quite.

Other outsiders include Mick, the undercover cop with anger management issues in Hill Street Blues...

Frank Serpico - as portrayed by Al Pacino, ...

...Jay...

Mike Love and The Beach Boys,

...the lead character (another) Michael in the Deer Hunter played by Robert Deniro,

...Marvin Gaye…...

and of course Dexy's Midnight Runners. ...

Symbolically, Radar from MASH - a natural born outsider regardless of situation - wore his standard issue woollen cap like a toque.

What few people understand - apart from the geek gods and social misfits among us - is that the toques’ lack of fashion credibility is what makes it so attractive, what makes it the perfect signifier of marginalised man.

It's a status symbol, a bold anti-fashion statement. Putting minor and irrelevant matters such as style and taste to one side, it says that the wearer's focus is on much more important stuff like the emerging debate over civil rights for robots or the ability of different bacteria to communicate with each other within a shared host.

It announces to the world exactly where your head’s at. As Jacques Yves Cousteau once said, The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it. Toque that.

hatnote: It's traditionally considered Canada's national head wear - The Americas great outsider. Locally, Jude Reset, Acyde and Konrad Johnson are perhaps the best purveyors of the hat- outsiders by virtue of being style leaders not followers.

Shoes Maketh The (Deconstructed) Man

Wednesday, 13 May 2009 Comments Off

Sperry & Band Of Outsiders Collaboration

Maybe it's the Essex soul boy in me, lying deep down in my post modernist psyche like Hyde in Jekyll, but there are times when I just loose it, abandon all that supposedly urbane and sophisticated restraint and adopt the swagger of an East London wide boy...Oftentimes it's when I'm christening a new pair of shoes, a buzz of which there is nothing like.

Right about now, I can only imagine breaking these new shoes in - I'll probably feel like I'm walking on air when I get my plates into these amazing loafs - deconstructed, tasselled and raw; designed by Band Of Outsiders, made by Sperry; top-siders made for top geezers.

I may even break out a pair of white socks for the christening. I kid you not.

www.men.tresbienshop.net/

Sean Rowley - Stylistically Sound

Thursday, 7 May 2009 Comments Off

It's Sean Rowley. He’s worked with Liverpool band the Farm, Wall Of Sound Records and been tour DJ for both Oasis and Paul Weller. He’s also the guy on the cover of Oasis', (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Lp and the man behind the whole Guilty Pleasures phenomenon.

From listening to his various BBC Radio London shows in the past it's obvious that one of Sean Rowley’s strongest motivations is to celebrate music and musicians regardless of current trends, exploring music in a way that goes beyond the mainstream’s fickle tastes. It's music akin to style, not fashion.

When it comes to clothes, Rowley also appears to happily buck the current trends, working a style that is loaded with cool musical references. I tried to imagine what Credence Clearwater Revival would wear if they were heading down to Studio 54 for the night, he says of today’s look. Sounds good to me.

http://www.guiltypleasures.co.uk/

Surf's Up 1: Sailmakers: Wm. J. Mills & Co

Tuesday, 5 May 2009 Comments Off

It's always worth checking out those independent nautical brands; like work wear, the stuff they make not only tends to be anything but fashion-focused, it's usually extremely functional and totally authentic.

Take these bags by Wm. J. Mills. & Co. for example. The Greenport, New York company's been around since 1880 and although demand for their canvas sails may have taken a dip, they still pride themselves of craftsmanship and quality when it comes to their product.

These tote and gear bags are part of a larger collection of accessories made out of their high spec sail canvas and have provided something of a lifeline for the company in recent years.

Made from duck canvas with cotton handles, as Sister Sledge would say, they come fully equipped with a lifetime guarantee and although you'll have to put some work in to make them look faded and worn, like a quality pair of jeans, they'll probably look really good after a bit of a battering too...

Luckily Wm. J. Mills. & Co. have thus far resisted the temptation of giving their bags that washed ashore, pre-worn treatment...which is reassuring.

Despite the fact that these bags are anything but fashion items, they do, like St James and Sperry Top Siders fall right in line with menswears on-going fixation with all things nautical.

http://shop.millscanvas.com

ALIFE/ALFIE anagram/monogram

Monday, 4 May 2009 Comments Off

What's it all about, ALIFE?

This spring ALIFE, the New York based street-wear brand release another series of new t-shirts.

Ever since they launched 10 years ago, I've waiting for ALIFE to do a pastiche of the ALFIE film artwork. Starring Michael Caine, Julia Foster and Shirley Winters, the film is a London classic which boasts an amazing soundtrack by the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins, scored by Oliver Nelson and with a theme song by Bacharach and David.

The soundtrack is epic and features an amazing 9 - plus minute version of the title piece. The sleeve features cut-up images of the film's charactors, mono-chromed into the lettering. It too is epic. It has the kind of internal narrative which would lend itself to all sorts of treatments.

In the case of ALIFE I thought the likes of some of New York's finest old skool Mcs would be cool, for example. I can even imagine KRS One's head where Caines' is on the original. Or a design featuring the Wu Tang Clan, maybe.

Or maybe a collage featuring Will Smith, Johnny Cash, Jack Palance, Gene Vincent and other men in black.

Happy anniversary ALIFE.

http://www.alifenyc.com/

http://www.last.fm/music/Sonny+Rollins/_/Alfie's+Theme

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