- Messages
- 2,265
Don't tell him that. He'll beat you with a tire iron.
Sartorial Stories In The News
- Thread starter Chorn
- Start date
- Messages
- 6,461
I'm still not swift enough to figure out the Media feature here so...
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...0001424052702304101504579541783508605954.html
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...0001424052702304101504579541783508605954.html
As usual, the company I keep is not up on this, but I'm a big fan of adding color via socks so I support this...when done right.
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
denim ain't wool wtf
- Messages
- 6,461
http://online.wsj.com/articles/belts-the-next-frontier-in-mens-accessories-1401467207
Belts: The Next Frontier of Men's Accessories?
An upstart direct-to-consumer label aims to capitalize on the nascent trend for colorful belts
LATE LAST SUMMER, Andrew Heffernan and his girlfriend, Anna Lundberg, were looking for a fresh angle on the burgeoning menswear market.
Shown Above
Shirt, $78, bonobos.com ; Pants, $68, dockers.com ; Anderson's Belt, $130, mrporter.com ; Aquaracer 500M Chronograph Watch, $4,100, tagheuer.com ; Beacon Rope Bracelet, $95, miansai.com
Mr. Heffernan, a surgeon and Harvard M.B.A. who'd reinvented himself as a New York-based fashion entrepreneur, had noted that menswear was growing at nearly twice the clip of womenswear. Men's accessories, in particular, looked like the business to get in on, given recent retail success stories like Happy Socks, Havaianas flip flops and neckwear line the Tie Bar. All leaders of the so-called "mono-brand" revolution, these startups had seized tremendous market share in record time by focusing on a single product.
Belts: The Next Striped Socks?
Enlarge Image
F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas
From top: Anderson's Belt, $180, mrporter.com ; Reversible Belt, $125, caputoandco.com ; Unlimited Budget Belt, $60, beltology.com ; Canvas Twill Belt, $130, Alexander Olch, 212-925-2110; Brigade Stripe Ribbon Belt, $75, sirjacks.com
Mr. Heffernan, 40, approached the exercise in a way that befits an M.B.A. who had spent a year working at Bain Consulting. "We looked at the numbers, which were just staggering," he said. "Socks, particularly colored socks, were up, gloves were up, scarves were up, even ties were up." Everything was up, that is, except belts. "We thought, surely this is a sleeping giant," he said.
In January, the couple launched Beltology, an online-only brand devoted to giving the least-noticed, least-talked about and least-fetishized accessory in menswear its proper place of worship. "We want to do for belts what Swatch did for the wristwatch back in [1983]," said Mr. Heffernan.
Mr. Heffernan and Ms. Lundberg, 26, have developed what they believe to be the Platonic ideal of the men's belt, based on a popular Italian style. Woven from strips of elasticized rayon, polyester or waxed cotton, leather-trimmed and with hardware made of the metal alloy Zamak, the 1- to 1¼-inch-wide belts are available in 50 iterations—some solid, some multicolored and patterned. They sell for between $45 and $65, about half the price of pieces by cult woven-belt purveyor Anderson's of Parma, Italy. A similar version in blue cotton by Paul Smith retails for $125 on the men's fashion website Mr Porter.
“ 'We looked at the numbers. Socks were up, gloves were up, scarves were up, even ties were up.' Everything was up, except belts. ”
"We believe that ours is by far the best belt for two reasons," Mr. Heffernan said. "Number one, there are no belt holes, so from a sizing point of view we've basically covered the whole market with just four sizes. Number two, it stretches by up to 25%, so whether you're standing or sitting, whether you've put on a bit of weight or lost some, it adjusts to your body."
Mr. Heffernan and Ms. Lundberg's product is inarguably solid, but whether belts are the next frontier in men's accessories remains to be seen.
Brian Trunzo, co-owner of downtown New York menswear mecca Carson Street Clothiers, thinks modern tailoring might be to blame for flat belt sales. He said that many of his customers have been dispensing with belts entirely, particularly when wearing tailored pants with adjustable side tabs and back buckles. "Belts have been—to use a phrase I hate—not really on-trend," he said.
Enlarge Image
Juliana Sohn for The Wall Street Journal
When he isn't being interviewed for newspaper articles about them, Mr. Trunzo said he rarely thinks about belts and believes that few men do. "Every guy has his good trusty belt he's had for years," Mr. Trunzo said. However, he added, his store does a decent trade in belts, particularly one of his team's own design.
"We joke around that a lot of belts these days look like heavyweight championship boxing belts because they're so thick and rough," he said. "Our belt is only 1-inch [wide] and made of alligator, with a brass buckle. It's sleeker and a little more elegant." (It's also $425, though there's a version in bridle leather for $125.)
Andy Spade, the force behind the boutique branding agency Partners & Spade, is at a loss when asked to explain why belts have remained on the sidelines while extras like pocket squares and striped socks have become style-blog fodder. "I guess no one's really put them in front of men yet," said Mr. Spade, adding of Beltology: "It's a super smart idea, though. Ralph Lauren started with ties, right?"
Ever the early adopter, Mr. Spade, the founder of menswear label Jack Spade, is himself a belt aficionado, and estimates that his collection numbers around 200. "I'm a belt lover. You might even call me a fanatic," he said. Mr. Spade is particularly partial to Indian beaded belts and those with silver plaque buckles that say things like "Loser" or "666." "Like ties," he said, "belts are a way for men to express their personality without being too crazy."
In the ever-expanding menswear universe, the notion that belts could become the accessory du jour makes sense to other insiders, too.
"We don't have as many accessories to work with [as women do], so a belt can be an opportunity to really punctuate an outfit, and to help create a signature style," observed Bruce Pask, men's fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman. "I wouldn't count the belt out," he added. "[It's] held up many a gent's trousers over the course of hundreds of years and outmaneuvered braces and suspenders." Mr. Pask pointed to stronger sales of woven leather belts by Giorgio Armani, Bottega Veneta and Bergdorf Goodman's house label.
GQ fashion director Jim Moore said that the men's fashion magazine is "back in full-throttle belt mode," after several seasons of jettisoning them from his pages. In last year's April issue, he ran a story featuring over 30 styles, including a striped ribbon belt, a tooled leather version, one in woven leather and another with colorful Indian beading. "The belt is your new pocket square," Mr. Moore said. "It's your new accent piece that can really make or break a look."
Robert
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 125
Mr. Spade is particularly partial to Indian beaded belts and those with silver plaque buckles that say things like "Loser" or "666." "Like ties," he said, "belts are a way for men to express their personality without being too crazy."
Oh dear.
Oh dear.
- Messages
- 22,296
Lovely. Nope, 666 on my buckle is not too crazy. The most appropriate place for that is tattooed on the back of my neck. Don't Mr. Spade know anything?
- Messages
- 6,461
Andy Spade, aka Mr. Kate Spade, of Partners & Spade seems to be a more retarded version of Andy Hilfiger.
Presumably related to David Spade.
http://www.papermag.com/2012/03/pey...alia_obama_sasha_obama_celebrity_siblings.php
Robert
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 125
Andy Spade, aka Mr. Kate Spade, of Partners & Spade seems to be a more retarded version of Andy Hilfiger.
Presumably related to David Spade.
http://www.papermag.com/2012/03/pey...alia_obama_sasha_obama_celebrity_siblings.php
"Mr. Spade is particularly partial to Indian beaded belts and those with silver plaque buckles that say things like "Loser" or "666." "Like ties," he said, "belts are a way for men to express their personality without being too crazy.""
I think he is expressing his personality without being too bright.
- Messages
- 6,461
Yeah, my personality is a loser anti-Christ. Wait, what? Although he has expressed this successfully.
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
http://www.splicetoday.com/consume/toward-a-bland-functional-conservatism
Toward a Bland, Functional Conservatism
Ari Samsky
When online clothing “fora” stop being nice and start getting real.
wili_hybrid
A while ago I wrote an article on Ask Andy About Clothes, a stuffy, sleepy Web forum devoted to the arcana of men’s style. Ask Andy members hold forth on suit quality, subtle gradations of formality (down to specific kinds of wool, and the minutiae of shoe shape), and where to get the best prices on luxury clothing. They also heap abuse on “fashion,” which they view as an impermanent, commercial wind that does not so much as ruffle the hair of a “true gentleman.” Reading the discussions I noticed that the general tone was polite and conservative, that their ideal look tended towards a certain overdone fussiness, and that in some cases the promotion of quality clothing verged into classist sneering at the plebeians with their white sneakers and cheap blue jeans.
Ask Andy, despite its occasional forays into foppish excess, tends toward a bland, functional conservatism, both in dress and in politics. Forum members associate the clothing of a supposedly saner and more stable bygone era with an equally faded masculine ideal. Suits and fine dress shoes, in the symbolic order of Andyland, are for gentlemen; to be a gentleman is to be poised, sophisticated, punctilious, and dashing while the rest of humanity slouches deeper into apathy and filth.
Unfortunately for the Andylanders this “gentleman” ideal is not something that you can achieve by ordering custom vests over the Internet. Whatever your definition of gentleman might be it’s unlikely to match the mannered, exaggerated obsession with clothing details found on this web forum. In fact, the more I followed the discussion the more I came to realize that relatively few of these people behaved like “gentlemen” and that many of them, despite their sincere enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge, didn’t even dress that well. Some Ask Andy members post pictures of their outfits, and many of them looked uncomfortable and sort of ridiculous. I began to wonder what I was seeing here—Ask Andy had developed a distinctive verbal and sartorial style that drew on ideas of “classic” and “gentlemanly” attire and behavior, but that was really something new and distinct to the Internet.
I learned more by perusing Styleforum, a site with no formal relation to Ask Andy, but with much of the same clientele. The atmosphere of Styleforum suffers from the acrid reek of Internet nastiness; swearing is permitted, as are unkind remarks and impenetrable in-jokes. Ask Andy, in comparison, has the hysterical decorousness of a formal afternoon tea. Styleforum makes less reference to the “gentleman” ideal, but it certainly has its own unique aesthetic and value system.
Both Ask Andy and Styleforum maintain long “What are you wearing today?” threads, discussions in which posters provide photographs of their daily outfits, often in considerable detail (an especially bizarre relative of this is the What are You Wearing Today blog of “Kitonbrioni”, a member of both Ask Andy and Styleforum, and a man with extremely expensive taste in, unfortunately, shapeless and ugly clothing). These "What Are You Wearing" threads provide a perfect place to see how the forum members think and what they value, and of course to get to know the stereotypical forum looks.
Styleforum at the moment seems to favor complicated double-breasted suits with peak lapels; Ask Andy is more of a mixed bag, though this winter there does seem to be a strong emphasis on lots of wool coats and sturdy, ugly shoes. As I looked through these threads I realized something: these people were, on the whole, no better dressed than the people I see every day on the streets of Iowa City. Certainly they were wearing more clothing, and much more expensive clothing, and many of them had very shiny shoes, but their outfits ranged mostly between various shades of buffoonish excess. With few exceptions their daily outfits looked like a costume—they expressed too many things too forcefully. The “forum looks” diverged increasingly from reality and were no longer necessarily about stylish dress. Instead they served the Internet forums’ particular likes and dislikes. Men were posting photographs of their outfits to please their friends and to show how closely they fit a synthetic ideal of the well-dressed “gentleman.”
Devotees of these clothing sites sometimes refer to themselves as “iGents.” They use the term unselfconsciously to mean, essentially, a gentleman who follows clothing websites, an adherent of the hazy “gentleman” ideal. Others use the term to mean the same thing, but unkindly. When they say iGent they mean precisely the kind of person who follows an Internet forum’s ideal of gentlemanly attire and conduct: a man who types in a affected “My good sir” manner, who buys his clothing to please his virtual friends, and who considers himself an arbiter of taste in the absence of any evidence of said taste. Forum habitués who have fled Ask Andy or Styleforum for various reasons have begun congregating at the Film Noir Buff forums, nicknamed “Devil’s Island,” where they relentlessly mock the iGent affectation.
As I read the jibes and satire of Devil’s Island and thought things over it became clear that the adherents of the clothing forums (what Ask Andy preciously calls “fora,” an affectation that the Devil’s Islanders rigorously and sarcastically imitate) had created a process of involution, in which sartorial distinctions grew finer and finer until members became preoccupied with pointless subtlety and, in many cases, began inventing clothing problems where none really exist. This, perhaps more than the silly obsession with being a “gentleman,” defines the particular habits and values of these groups.
The signal example of the imaginary sartorial problem is shoe creases. Readers who own shoes will notice, should they examine them, that the shoes crease somewhere on the instep because they bend when you walk. Many iGents consider this an error, and therefore contrive complicated leather care regimens in order to keep their shoes looking as if they had never been worn. They present this obsession as if it were a natural and normal part of caring for expensive shoes (and many of these people own truly expensive shoes, at or over the $1000 mark). Conversely, some of the more extreme members embark on bizarre “antiquing” projects or use alcohol and dye to change the color of their shoes: for the iGent, buying a piece of clothing (suits as well as shoes) is the beginning of a process of perfection. You don’t just wear it, you adjust and alter it, maybe perpetually.
This technical silliness has little, if anything, to do with dressing well. What I took away from all this was that clothes, in a reversal of the cliché, do not make the man. The fussy WASPs and WASP-wannabees of Ask Andy, the dandified aesthetes of Styleforum, and the acid-tongued expatriates of Devil’s Island know a great deal about clothing. They’re a great resource if you have a specific question about clothing. They’re also an object lesson in how an interest can become a prop, and can embroil a person in a very weird virtual social life and, perhaps more alarmingly, can lead a person into adopting the opinions and values of a bunch of strangers for his own. New iGents come from somewhere, after all.
- Messages
- 40,417
Moved to sartorial stories in MC.
- Messages
- 22,296
Interesting choice we once had:
Ask Andy if we are old, bland and sloppy? SF if we are mean and better dressed, especially if we like DB suits with peak lapels as opposed to DB without? FNB is we have borderline personality disorders?
But they forgot this here place. paradise island?
Boss, da plane, da plane!
Ask Andy if we are old, bland and sloppy? SF if we are mean and better dressed, especially if we like DB suits with peak lapels as opposed to DB without? FNB is we have borderline personality disorders?
But they forgot this here place. paradise island?
Boss, da plane, da plane!
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
http://phys.org/news/2014-06-year-trousers-chinese-grave-oldest.html
3000 year old trousers discovered in Chinese grave oldest ever found
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers working in the ancient Yanghai graveyard in China's Tarim Basin has uncovered what appears to be the earliest example of trouser wearing. The research team has published a paper in the journal Quaternary International describing the pants and why they were likely developed to assist with riding horses.
The Tarim Basin in western China is host to the famous Yanghai tombs, a large ancient burial ground that dates back thousands of years—thus far over 500 individual gravesites have been excavated. In this latest find, two adult males (believed to be herders and warriors) both approximately 40 years old at the time of death, were wearing trousers. Carbon dating put the age of the material at approximately 3000 years ago, making the find the oldest known instance of trouser wearing.
In the tomb, along with the bodies, were a horse bit made of wood, a whip, a bow and a battle-axe. These artifacts along with the cut of the pants, suggest the trousers were created and worn to allow for easier horse riding over long periods of time. They also suggest that trouser creation had matured to a level that allowed for custom tailoring. Both specimens were created from three pieces of material (sized to fit a particular individual) one for each leg and a crotch piece—both also had an associated belt made of strings. No cutting was required. Each pant leg also had cross stitching that appeared to serve a purely decorative function.
Many historians believe that trousers were invented as a means of riding horses—riding for a long time can cause skin irritation and discomfort. The trousers worn by horse riders likely migrated to other people, the theory goes, who chose to adopt them for unknown reasons. Its likely modifications were made because riding pants are not particularly comfortable for walking or engaging in everyday life. Prior to trousers, people of both genders tended to wear tunics, robes, togas, etc. It is also generally believed that horse riding by humans began approximately 4000 years ago, which suggests trouser wearing began long before the two men in the Yanghai gravesite donned theirs.
Explore further: High-tech EU project strives to ensure riding is safer for all
More information: The invention of trousers and its likely affiliation with horseback riding and mobility: A case study of late 2nd millennium BC finds from Turfan in eastern Central Asia, Quaternary International, Available online 22 May 2014 dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.056
Abstract
Here, we present the first report on the design and manufacturing process of trousers excavated at Yanghai cemetery (42°48′–42°49′N, 89°39′–89°40′E) near the Turfan oasis, western China. In tombs M21 and M157 fragments of woollen trousers were discovered which have been radiocarbon dated to the time interval between the 13th and the 10th century BC. Their age corresponds to the spread of mobile pastoralism in eastern Central Asia and predates the widely known Scythian finds. Using methods of fashion design, the cut of both trousers was studied in detail. The trousers were made of three independently woven pieces of fabric, one nearly rectangular for each side spanning the whole length from waistband to hemline at the ankle and one stepped cross-shaped crotch-piece which bridged the gap between the two side-pieces. The tailoring process did not involve cutting the cloth: instead the parts were shaped on the loom, and they were shaped in the correct size to fit a specific person. The yarns of the three fabrics and threads for final sewing match in color and quality, which implies that the weaver and the tailor was the same person or that both cooperated in a highly coordinated way. The design of the trousers from Yanghai with straight-fitting legs and a wide crotch-piece seems to be a predecessor of modern riding trousers. Together with horse gear and weapons as grave goods in both tombs our results specify former assumptions that the invention of bifurcated lower body garments is related to the new epoch of horseback riding, mounted warfare and greater mobility. Trousers are essential part of the tool kit with which humans improve their physical qualities.
- Messages
- 40,417
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...-slimmer-as-nordstrom-courts-fitter-guys.html
Slim Shirts Get Slimmer as Nordstrom Courts Fitter Guys
By Cotten Timberlake Jun 4, 2014 4:49 PM ET
- Comments Email Print
Save
Source: Ledbury
Three Ledbury shirts in classic, slim and extra slim, top.
American men over the past decade have embraced the slim-fit shirt styles long favored by their counterparts in Europe and Asia.
Now the fashion industry is betting that U.S. guys, spurred on by encouraging partners and the spread of social media, are ready for something more extreme: extra-slim fits, which can be 4 inches smaller around the waist and chest than plain old slim versions.
“We’ve gone from people being afraid of the slim fit to people accepting the slim fit to people wanting something that is even more fitted,” Paul Trible, co-founder of shirt maker Ledbury Inc. in Richmond, Virginia, said in a phone interview. “That has been a style and attitude change over the last four years.”
The dress-shirt industry could use a new trend to revive U.S. sales that researcher NPD Group Inc. says fell 3 percent to $2.8 billion in the 12 months ended in March. Total men’s apparel sales grew 0.9 percent to $59.8 billion in the same period, the firm said.
Until the late 1990s, American men were stuck with their local brick-and-mortar retailer, which took a one-silhouette-fits-all approach to shirts, Trible said. For their part, guys mostly limited themselves to fashion cues from their immediate peers, he said. In the 1980s and 1990s, men’s fashion took a turn toward looser looks. Think of basketball star Michael Jordan’s baggy shirts and Don Johnson’s roomy jackets on “Miami Vice.”
Photographer: Jason LaVeris/Film Magic via Getty Images
George Clooney at the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards on Nov. 9, 2013.
Great Slim-Down
The great slim-down began in 2000 with a push from luxury menswear designers Hedi Slimane and Thom Browne, said Jorge Valls, Nordstrom Inc.’s (JWN) men’s fashion director. They started with the suit, and the dress shirt followed proportionally, he said.
The look, an homage to the skinny styles of the 1960s, was quickly embraced by actors, musicians and athletes, such as George Clooney, Justin Timberlake, Tom Brady and LeBron James. Regular guys slowly followed, Valls said.
The Internet has helped the shift along, as have the women in men’s lives, said Trible, whose company is now developing extra-slim versions of its shirts.
“Now you get online, you see blogs, all sorts of people in pictures, and it is a more tailored and a more European look,” he said. “When guys show it to their wives, their wives really think it is more flattering.”
Among the men who credit their spouses with pushing a slimmer dress style is Robert Burns, a 33-year-old marketer for a European luxury car brand who lives in Montvale, New Jersey.
‘Not 1996’
“She would say, ‘My God, you can fit four of you in this shirt,’” he said. “‘It’s not 1996 anymore!’ Once she level-set me, I developed my own interest in claiming how I present myself.”
After some trial and error, he discovered slim versions from Gap Inc.’s (GPS) Banana Republic, J. Crew Group Inc. and Ledbury two years ago. Now, he easily spends $100 to $150 on a shirt, compared with only $60 before. And, the 6-foot, 180-pounder is ready for extra-slim.
“My taste has changed, and my standards have certainly gotten higher,” he said.
Burns’s generation of 18- to 34-year-olds, an 80 million-strong cohort, is leading the switch to tighter fits, said Tom Julian, men’s fashion director at Doneger Group, a New York-based trend forecaster.
“The men’s apparel market is really being driven by what millennials are purchasing,” he said.
Dress Codes
More casual dress codes at work also have contributed to the trend, Julian said. When men started taking off their jackets, they saw a greater incentive to wear a better-fitting shirt, he said.
Slim shirts are suitable not just for lean and V-shaped men. Stockier gents also can wear such shirts, which don’t have to be tight to fit well, Nordstrom’s Valls said. Seriously overweight men, however, are likely to stay clear.
Other men who could pull off the look remain intimidated and fear the slim shirt’s higher-cut armholes will impinge on their movements, he said. It also can be challenging to find the right shirt because the terminology and actual sizes vary from brand to brand, with a range of almost 3 inches in the chest sizes of the extra slims Nordstrom carries.
Currently, 40 percent of Nordstrom’s dress-shirt sales are regular, 50 percent are trim and 10 percent are extra-trim, Valls said. Five years ago, 60 percent were regular and 40 percent were trim, he said.
More Mainstream
As slim has become more mainstream, even classic-fit shirts have become more streamlined, so that they don’t look blousy, said Mitchell Lechner, president of the dress-furnishings group of PVH Corp. (PVH), the New York-based owner of Van Heusen.
Seattle-based Nordstrom’s shares rose 0.4 percent at $68.29 at the close in New York, while PVH’s were up 0.3 percent at $130.68. San Francisco-based Gap advanced 1.1 percent to $41.15.
Rick Hanson, an information-technology vice president from Portland, Oregon, is among those who have been converted to closer-fitting dress shirts.
“I bought one, and I wore it to the office, and people said, ‘Wow, you look great,’ so I bought some more,” said Hanson, an athletic 44-year-old. “I eventually purged my closet. I’m not kidding, the feedback I got was just so stark.”
- Messages
- 6,461
I'm thinking that we've reached peak slim fit and the trend is reversing. I wore a Uniqlo shirt the other day and there is just enough sleeve fabric to allow arm movement, and I have pretty twiggy arms.
- Messages
- 6,461
Yeah, trousers can be slimmer because the legs move in a fairly limited way. The upper body is much more complex in range of motion and needs some room to move.
- Messages
- 40,417
Not enough invectives to properly describe this horseshit
http://www.businessinsider.com/mens-suits-with-short-2014-6
http://www.businessinsider.com/mens-suits-with-short-2014-6
- Messages
- 22,296
Ok. Bermuda? Has a history of this style. Amurica? This is just sad, mindnumbingly stupid and the purveyors of this should be shot and pissed on.
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
Little boys can wear this. Once the balls drop, time for big boy pants.
- Messages
- 22,296
If people want to wear shorts for work then get a job as a lifeguard or at UPS
- Messages
- 6,461
I assume this is from the same emasculating forces that have been trying to get men into skirts for decades now.
- Messages
- 40,417
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
short pants go with short sleeve jackets!
- Messages
- 22,296
short pants go with short sleeve jackets!
Jesus jumping Christ!
- Messages
- 40,417
+1
- Messages
- 6,461
but fun socks / sockelessness is moar with little Angus Young suitz!
- Messages
- 40,417
Not a story per se, but I found this site in my news feed today. Looks interesting:
https://fitbay.com/
https://fitbay.com/
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
so no break on the suit shorts? do i tailor the length? where?
I don't like "craftsmen"/brand ambassdors with baller watches...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/w...k-timepieces-mehmet-ali-from-hardy-amies.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/w...k-timepieces-mehmet-ali-from-hardy-amies.html
- Messages
- 6,461
It does conflict with the sensibility of hard-working, honest, and modest skilled worker, if that's what you mean. I'm also one that finds big garish watches gauche and tacky, and rather a sign of a disreputable flashy popinjay best avoided.
you read my mind...
- Messages
- 22,296
It is interesting if you look at who the various "tailors" in this series are. Mostly the "new breed", no? Maybe different sensibilities that the old school craftsman. I understand the point but hasn't at least Hardy Amies and Hart always been associated with the bling segment of those wearing bespoke suits?
I have no clue who this Hart guy is? actually, I'm just a simple guy from a rural area...
- Messages
- 40,417
not at all. would wear most of the stuff, except the double monks, of course.
Allen Smithee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,559
Some crap about American Aparrel. They tossed their creeper perv CEO, so I might consider buying their stuff. Any AA customers besides Ivar?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-american-apparel-ouster-20140620-story.html#page=1
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-american-apparel-ouster-20140620-story.html#page=1
- Messages
- 40,417
I have some of their t-shirts. They're crap, but ok for cheap.
- Messages
- 6,461
- Messages
- 40,417
This is....interesting? Honestly, I don't know what to make of this thing:
http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y14/m07/i07/s02
http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y14/m07/i07/s02
eBay Helps the Shoe Fit with New Inflatable-Sock Patent
By Brian Cohen
EcommerceBytes.com
July 07, 2014
On the heels of Nike's announcement on June 19th that eBay's CEO John Donahoe was joining the Nike Board of directors, we learn that eBay has invented a "pneumatically-powered inflatable sock." On June 26th, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published eBay's patent application 20140180866, "Methods And Systems To Re-create An Internal Shape Of A Shoe." eBay filed for the application back on December 21, 2012.
The fluid pressure based technology that can use "gas or liquid" was invented by Sergio Pinzon Gonzales, Director of Innovation Programs at eBay Research Labs (ERL). According to eBay's website, "The (ERL) program remains one of our most prolific engines for intellectual property creation and patents... Inspire. Incite. Innovate."
The background of the patent application explains the need for a pneumatically-powered inflatable sock as part of an ecommerce solution:
"Shoe shopping may involve a person trying on shoes to determine if particular shoes fit that person. Today, many businesses engaging in electronic commerce ("e-commerce sites") allow users to buy shoes online, try on the shoes at home, and return them to the e-commerce site or a brick-and-mortar store if they do not fit. It is not uncommon for the online shoe buyers to return or exchange the shoes online because the shoes did not fit properly. Some shoppers buy the selected shoes in several sizes to have the option to choose between different pairs in order to avoid wasting time returning, re-ordering, or exchanging shoes. Accordingly, the problems of increased expense and expended time may lead to frustrated shoe shoppers who may choose to avoid online shoe shopping altogether."
The technology does not replace existing shoe wear, but rather, it is used by consumer and/or retailer for sizing prior to ordering. As explained by the patent Details:
"(The Sock will) Determine if a selected shoe is likely to fit the user without having the actual shoe in his or her possession. The system may comprise a pneumatically-powered inflatable sock (also "sock") that may be inflated to mimic the internal shape of a selected shoe based on data describing the internal shape of the selected shoe…"
The sock has "fillable chambers" that are engaged by a "filling station" that adjusts the fluid pressure as appropriate.
eBay also leaves open the possibility of integrating augmented reality into this shoe sizing solution: "The marketplace applications may allow a user to virtually view (e.g., using an augmented reality application on a mobile phone) an external look of a selected shoe (e.g., as virtually worn by the user) without having the selected shoe in his or her possession."
This should come to no surprise as eBay acquired PhiSix to build virtual fitting rooms).
eBay's shoe technology immediately brought to mind the Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope (ca. 1930-1940) which employed potentially hazardous x-rays and a cabinet that one would stick their foot into to determine proper shoe sizing.
The Shoe Repairer and Dealer trade zine from Boston published an article (via Google Books) on inventor Dr. Lowe's "Foot-O-Scope" on May15th, 1921. The device was displayed at a convention of shoe retailers in Milwaukee and stated that "75 per cent of the people of the United States are wearing poorly fitted shoes" (and don't miss the photos in the article!). The fluoroscope was used in commerce through the 1970s.
Back in 2011, Nike created a replica of the sneakers dubbed the "Nike MAG" from the movie "Back to The Future Part II" and partnered with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to pursue a Future without Parkinson's Disease, and the original film creators and auctioned off 1,500 pairs of the shoes for 4.7 Million Dollars. "The shoe was an exact replica of the originals he wore as Marty McFly in Back to the Future II, down to the contours of the upper, the glowing LED panel and the electroluminescent "NIKE" in the strap."
A case study from eBay (PDF format) called its partnership with the Foundation a game changer and the "largest auction in eBay history." A commercial for the Nike Mag can be found on YouTube. A clip from the movie can also be found on YouTube.
Back to the Future II was released in 1989 and takes place in the year 2015. Earlier this year it was confirmed by sneakerhead website Sole Collector that Tinker Hatfield, the designer of the self-tying sneakers, will likely resurrect the self-powering laced shoes sometime next year. Might we see eBay's technology launched concurrent to this anniversary event?
Perhaps in the future, sneakerheads and consumers alike will have their very own "pneumatically-powered inflatable sock" and 3D-print their shoes at home.
And eBay thought they could sneak(er) this patent application past me...
- Messages
- 6,461
That seems to go in the eternal "just around the corner" category like all the body scanners that will get you perfect fitting clothes and all.