The Only Ten I See: She’s also singer/drummer for The Like. What is it about lady drummers? [Refinery29]
Flea!: If you hadn’t heard, there’s some fine shopping going on in Manhattan this evening. [Racked]
Pulling the Wool: Ladies and gentlemen, our new favorite pants. [Put This On]
Caveat Emptor: Because it is indeed Friday, here is a coffee cup made out of bacon, and filled entirely with (what else?) melted cheese. Take care of yourselves. [Neatorama]
—R.B.
The lightly structured blazer has been a favorite item of ours for quite a while now, but we’re always glad to see a new one hit the market.
This item, dubbed the Shanahan Blazer, comes from Company of We, a “democratic luxury” brand hitting the wholesale market in January, but available through eCommerce in the meantime. And, in the spirit of Movember, if you order before Dec 1, they’ll donate 20% of your order to charity—provided you put in the right coupon code. Sounds democratic to us…
—R.B.
Mark Your Calendars: The latest Terry Richardson-lensed Pirelli Calendar just went out through the mail—but unless you’re a subscriber, you’ll have to make do with teaser shots like this one. [Fashion Copious]
The Big Thirteen: Esky gets its MacArthur on, naming thirteen renegades currently changing the world. [Esquire]
Bad Lieutenant! Bad!: Werner Herzog talks about coaxing the crazy out of Nicolas Cage for the upcoming Bad Lieutenant. We’re a little excited, if you couldn’t tell. [Movieline]
We’re All Cousins, Aren’t We?: Vampire Weekend’s latest single is actually kind of badass. [BlackBook]
—R.B.
Pharrell can be grating, but he still manages a flash of brilliance from time to time. Like this. Or, more importantly, the item on the left.
To be fair, he had a lot of help from Moncler—who have a bit of experience with this sort of thing—but the basic conceit is unmistakeably his: a “pacifist” bulletproof jacket. Of course, it’s not exactly bulletproof. In fact, it bears a striking resemblance to a style of puffer vests currently making its way onto boutique shelves, but this one’s a little darker, a little stranger, and a whole lot more interesting thanks to the sinister undertones.
—R.B.
Not all German cars are created equal.
To anyone weathering the sea change after the wall fell, the Trabant was the brightest symbol of clunky East German industrialism. It boasted a ridiculously complex refueling process, a ten year waitlist, and a two-stroke engine that did 0-60 in a blistering 21 seconds. In short, quite possibly the worst car ever made. So naturally it’s due for a revival.
The new Trabbi, currently hunting for investors, swaps out the moped engine for a gas-free electric motor that should give the notoriously smoky vehicle a fresh green face, but the basic question remains: Why not give it a new name? The Trabbi’s boxy silhouette’s as reviled as it is beloved, so it might have been worth just starting from scratch. Unless the GDR’s coming back into style…
—R.B.
Ms. Waldorf, We Presume: Maybe it’s time to start watching Gossip Girl. [GQ]
Way Out West: ACL takes a tour of San Francisco’s UNIONMADE. What is it about places with giant flags? [A Continuous Lean]
Heavy Stuff: The well-aged charm of the medicine ball (and where to pick one up). [Valet]
Woah: The 12 trippiest drug scenes in the history of film, in order of batshit audacity. Iguana not included. [Vulture]
—R.B.
The biggest problem with rugged items is that sometimes, they outlast your desire to wear them. That’s why you have more old jeans in your closet than old undershirts and why they’re so hard to part with—after all, they still have some good wear left in them.
Luckily, the grunge-inflected denim-lovers at Volcom have an idea. In the spirit of denim-based charity, they’re teaming with the National Coalition for the Homeless to collect as many wearable pairs of jeans as possible and direct them to less sartorially demanding hips. Drop off a pair at a local retailer and you’ll be entered to win a year’s supply of Volcom stock.
It’s called Give Jeans a Chance and it’s a marketing gig, make no mistake—looking up local retailers yet?—but as long as it’s helping out the less fortunate, we can’t say we mind. We’re even willing to indulge in the animated psychedelic promo video…provided it’s for a good cause.
—R.B.
Ralph Lauren’s take on Americana has had a lightly ironic touch to it, but it’s been getting heavier in recent years.
Case in point: This latest pair of slippers, which tops off a handsome plaid pattern with a pair of playfully kitchy hunting figures. If it were just the gentleman with the long gun, we could take it in stride, but the sight of a Canadian Goose in mid-plummet was almost enough to make us laugh out loud. Which, for a pair of cozy Sunday slippers, is a pretty good quality to have.
—R.B.
Baseball and football movies are thick on the ground, but without crowds to go wild or a big game to close on, skiing movies tend to be a pretty dicey proposition. Luckily, Criterion has dug up what might be the best one, and you can pick it starting tomorrow—just in time for ski season.
Downhill Racer takes Robert Redford through the thrills and doubts of the downhill ski circuit circa 1969. Over the course of 100 minutes, he bristles under authority, makes the acquaintance of an appropriately appealing Swedish woman, and tears through some of the Alps’ better scenery—all a good deal more cinematic than anything you’ll find on a gridiron.
Like The Hustler, it stretches the underdog sports premise into a conflicted meditation on the nature of success. Redford’s great, and so is Gene Hackman as his coach, but for our money the real credit goes to the writer, James Salter, who got the gig by writing some of the era’s best books on machismo. (Further reading here.)
Watch close and you might even pick up a few slalom tricks.
—R.B.
Back to the Garden: Either that, or she’s planning an organic farm. [Fashion Gone Rogue]
Knit Picking: Selectism takes a peek inside the SNS Herning factory. [Selectism]
Ride, Sally, Ride: The Tweed Ride comes to Washington, D.C.. [Washington Post]
Still the Greatest: If you need a palate cleanser from the NME business, here’s a list of the ten worst albums of all time. At the bottom… Muhammad Ali? [Neatorama]
—R.B.
Valet just did a roundup of scarf knots, ranging from the LA hipster look to the presidential style. Unfortunately, they stayed a little too neutral for our tastes, so we thought we’d toss in our two cents: If you’re breaking out the scarf, you can’t go wrong with the slipknot.
The style has been gaining on the usual wraparounds for quite a while now and, for one reason or another, most of the product shots we saw this year found the scarves pulled through in just this way. The slight asymmetry makes just about any outfit more interesting and, more importantly, the front knot protects the throat better than the single loop or formal half-loop. Valet gives the Sartorialist credit, which is certainly due—where do you think we got the picture?—but this one has been building steam in the preppy crowd for quite some time.
—R.B.
If you were waiting for a cockney-inflected counterpoint to Pitchfork’s recent decade-spanning mega-list, wait no more. NME just unveiled their 100 favorite discs (or possibly downloads) from the last ten years—each equipped with a few perfunctory links and a video—kicking off drunken arguments in pubs, schoolyards and hospitals throughout fair Albion.
The Strokes’ Is This It lands in the top spot, which we must admit is a pretty solid call. But to get you started in your own ranting, here’s a few outstanding grievances:
Did they really put Speakerboxx/The Love Below higher than Stankonia? And Bloc Party higher than either one? How many Damon Albarn side projects do they really expect us to listen to? And if they think we’ve forgotten how much they slagged Kid A when it first came out, they’re wrong.
Enjoy yourselves.
—R.B.
Print magazines have been having a pretty rough year, but by our lights, the glossy-pic-and-glossy-ad formula still has some life left in it. Especially if you’ve got an iPhone.
A high-fashion aggregator called Distill just launched their third issue and their first foray into the world of mobile magazining, currently available for a comparatively steep $5 in the iTunes shop. Inside, you’ll find a bundle of editorial wisdom drawn from magazines like Vice, Interview and Acne Paper, along with ads from Swatch, who’s footing the bill. The business side is still a little bit murky, but if it pays off, you may be getting a lot more of your style wisdom on the go.
Of course, we’ll always have a sentimental weakness for blogs…
—R.B.
We Are Entirely in Earnest: A gentleman’s guide to Blake Lively’s cleavage. [DailyIntel]
Cougar Warning: The latest dispatch on the cougar trend is quite possibly the most depressing thing we’ve ever read. But don’t let that stop you… [NYTimes]
The Sky is Falling: Astronomy buffs take heed. Early tomorrow morning, we’ll be enjoying the non-apocalyptic kind of meteor shower. [Lifehacker]
In a Word, Jackets: Esky does what it does best: Tell you how to dress. [Esquire]
—R.B.
The term “heritage brand” gets thrown around quite a bit these days, but it always helps when someone’s got a photo to prove it. This snap comes from the Red Wing cutting room, circa 1909. It may be time for the apron-and-tie look to make a comeback…
—R.B.
We’ve never been much for sale chasing, but Billy Reid’s 30% off sale just led us to this winter jacket, which might be enough to convince us to change our ways.
It’s the same heavy wool that makes pea coats such a staple, but the inspiration here is more Southern than nautical. The jacket’s named Tishomingo Woods after a spot in the northeast corner of Mississippi where you can find similar items on the backs of bird hunters. Of course, the down-country version won’t have quite as trim a cut—but that’s what we have designers for.
—R.B.
Kroesin’: Fashion Gone Rogue has good choice in muses. [Fashion Gone Rogue]
A Cordial Occasion: In the shadowy den of the Corduroy Appreciation Club. [The Moment]
Is There Anything it Can’t Do?: No Mas graces us with an animated retread of Dock Ellis’s acid-assisted no-hitter. [Gawker]
Fantastic: Glenn O’Brien really liked Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is usually a good sign. [GQ Eye]
—R.B.
Call it a case of bad timing.
This Our Legacy shirt is one our favorite items to come out of the recent plaid revival…but we’d wait at least a couple months before you put it on.
It’s not quite in espadrille territory—i.e. you won’t catch pneumonia—but as long as the sun’s touching down before 5pm, anything this colorful is apt to be downright depressing. Of course, if your summer wardrobe needs a refresh, we still heartily endorse picking one up, but you’ll have to delay gratification for quite a while.
On the other hand, we bet it looks great in sunlight.
—R.B.
Polaroid devotees tend to be a pretty crafty lot, and it looks like all that tinkering finally paid off. The Austrian experimentalists at Polar Premium just released a limited edition set of film called Fade to Black that does a whole lot more than the average strip of film. Over the 24 hours after exposure, it, well, fades to black.
There’s an extra chemical cocktail alongside the usual film, so it cycles through a series of increasingly dark exposures after you take it, before eventually blacking out entirely. It’s a pretty smart trick for a camera that’s ephemeral to begin with, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the resulting snaps got a lot more attention than otherwise. The lesson is something like “live in the moment”—or at least 24 hours at a time.
Of course, if you’re particularly attached to the snap, there are a few tricks you can use to stop the march of time…but where’s the fun in that?
—R.B.
Fox on Fox: The New York Times Magazine boldly defies the Megan Fox embargo. [NYTimes]
Protect Your Neck: The scarves of the world, just in time for winter. [CoolHunting]
Bag Man: Checking in with Apolis Activism’s Ugandan cotton briefcase. [Valet]
No Flipping: A countdown of the top 30 television series of the decade. Taken as a whole, they will swallow up an entire year of your life. [AV Club]
—R.B.
He’s put his name on everything from cameras to great coats, but there may be no item better suited to Sir Paul Smith’s sensibilities than the sock. At the very least, they’re a pretty good place for stripes.
This pair just landed at Bureau Belfast, and it’s a fine example of a dandy-ish sock, done well. Conventional wisdom suggests matching them to your pants or, failing that, your shoes, but if you’re going to take the road less traveled, this (or this) is a pretty good place to start.
—R.B.
Via NotCot
In honor of rainy days and semi-waterproofing, this is Wayne Levin’s take on the watery leg of a triathalon, from a fish’s eye view.
—R.B.
No Schvets: Getting back to nature never looked so good. [Fashion Copious]
I’ll Be Out in a Minute: Details ponders the literature of self-pleasure. [Details]
Blimey: Michael Caine returns to the bloodthirsty British revenge picture. We can’t wait. [Movieline]
MacGuyver Lives: In the name of using every part of the produce aisle, it’s time you started polishing your shoes with banana peel. [Lifehacker]
—R.B.
Wes Anderson can usually be counted on for a pretty impeccable sense of filmic style, but dressing melancholic sea captains is one thing, and dressing stop-motion foxes is quite another. Fortunately, he seems to be up to the task.
His latest, Fantastic Mr. Fox, hits theaters tomorrow, and in honor of today’s national holiday, it’s only fitting that we point out the title character’s impeccable corduroy suit. As far as we’re concerned, it’s the real star of the movie. Granted, the fit could be a little bit better—that can happen when the garment in question splits at the back—but it might be the perfect sartorial choice for the movie’s offbeat style.
And since the suit’s only a few inches tall, it means the mini-costume designer tracked down some truly tiny wales. Well played, Wes.
—R.B.
Score one for the vintage crowd. These Florsheim brogues are currently on the block courtesy of Blackbird’s vintage division (10E, anyone?), and while you can see a few decades of wear on them, they still look better than most of the models on the shelves. The lesson: Apparently Florsheim builds them to last.
—R.B.