I want Cornel West to follow me around the house and comment on the things I’m doing.

“Petting a CAT? Petting a cat is nothing but stroking the animal you’ve forgotten to be, like slaying the Minotaur in the middle of your mental labyrinth is something you want to FORGET to do.”

“Shining your SHOES? Shining your shoes is the petty creation of a mirror you use to see the reflected space inside yourself that nothing will fill, nothing but a reflection of the emptiness ITSELF. ”

I find myself travelling for work pretty regularly. Short trips in distance, just long enough to be annoying to pack for. I usually need 3 suits, and 5 days of general clothing-type items.

I often carry 2 bags, a Saddleback leather messenger bag for electronics and other small personal requirements, and a Filson weekender (note, an amazing bag, for trips up to 3 days). Between these two, I can usually balance what I need to travel/ stay. But its occasionally difficult to juggle them while I’m running through Reagan International after being delayed because the check-in line was filled with kids on a school trip.

While searching for an alternative bag solution I came across Aviation Luggage- a luggage maker based in Kildare, Ireland. I have a soft spot for things from Ireland, especially when they’re well made and generally useful. They make some really nicely designed travel bags, that simultaneously hold a decent amount  while being easy to strap up and run. The largest of this type of bag they call the Parachuter.

From the founder of Aviation Luggage-

“The Parachuter Bag is the studio’s most innovative bag design. It is a contemporary backpack that features the best of traditional construction techniques with the finest quality leather. Each bag is designed and crafted by Garvan de Bruir at his design studio and workshop in Kildare,Ireland.

I’m really into sturdy shoes. I think thin soles and fine leather on shoes have their place, but nothing beats a crazily built-up cordovan wingtip. These types of bullet-proof foot coverings can be referred to as gunboats. Gunboat as a phrase was popularized in the 1920s to describe both cars and feet that were over-sized or especially ungainly. This carried over to shoes in the 30′s in Dashiell Hammett style prose, and has stuck with aficionados of well built shoes since.

One shoe maker of this classic style that few people know of here in the US is the German based Budapest made organization Heinrich Dinkelacker. From their site-

“At Heinrich Dinkelacker the production of sewn-welted men’s shoes lies in the experienced hands of 40 specialized shoemakers who have learnt their trade from scratch. Every one of these experienced craftsmen has particular expertise in 2-3 working steps. Without an assembly line or constant pressure to increase efficiency, each employee creates one pair of premium shoes per day. And each pair undergoes 300 manufacturing steps – from the cutting down to the finish.”

Dinkelacker has been making classic “Budapester” styled brogue shoes for over 50 years in the classic 100 year-old tradition first made popular in Hungary’s capitol city.

Check out some of their 2013 collection below.

The theme of quality is a dear one on this blog, as you may have noticed. There is a marked difference between expensive and valuable, as as a core principal at Dinkelacker, their work speaks for itself.

These shoes make me wish I was walking along the Danube. Then again, most things make me wish I was walking along the Danube.

The key wallet is perhaps one of the most underrated and rarely seen mens accessory these days. In short, it is a wallet for your keys. Usually made from leather, with a loop or set of hooks that hold keys in place, to then be safely enfolded by the wallet cover. This saves pocket linings like nothing else. I’ve had a lot of holes poked in jacket pockets over the years by pointy key serrations, and they’re a pain to repair.

My first and most beloved key wallet was this antique number from the 1940s. Made from american alligator leather, with a zipper closure. Sadly the age of the thing, combined with my rough treatment has caused it to die a noble death (I’m planning to burn it at sea like a viking king, but first I have to practice making tiny long ships).

My search for a new one is on, and there are several runners up, but none that really fit the bill.

The bill-

-Sturdy
-Attractive
-Quality leather and hardware
-Not exorbitantly expensive 
-Capable of holding standard keys and large ignition key (either enfolded or attached).

Runners-up include-

Pros: Slim profile. Might force a key purge.

Cons: Holds too few keys. No space for ignition key.

Worth it? Nope.

Pros: Sturdy Cordovan leather. Zip closure. Style would allow for larger keys.

Cons: Made from magic talking horses, judging from the price.

Worth it? Maybe.

Pros: Alden brand whoredom. Sturdy cordovan.

Cons: No space/external ring for ignition key.

Worth it? Nope.

The search continues.

This time of year on the East coast is contradictory: no longer cold enough for coats, not yet warm enough for just a shirt. In comes the light spring sweater to solve the problem.

I’ve been really taken by the brand Berg & Berg from Oslo, Norway. They have a variety of offerings that can help you make the seasonal shift in comfort. See the below silk and cashmere Striped Raglan Sweater paired with one of their knit silk ties. Add the right shirt, and one will be kept warm under cool spring conditions so prevalent on the Atlantic side of the country. The silk and cashmere blend is an especially nice touch, as it will balance the insulating properties of the sweater without making it bulky or over-warm.

Take a look at the rest of their Spring collection here-

No one does spring like the Nordic.

• Sweater 1

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• sweater 2

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• tie 1

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• tie 2

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• sweater 3

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Here in the maple state, winter gives way in bitter, grudging starts. We do not have a large melt-off revealing cushions of newly sprouted green, oh no. Vermont sheds its snow to reveal wet dirt where once-green fields existed. Mud season, I hate you. Mud season extends for several weeks, while the snow slacks and the sun comes back in time for maple sugaring ragnarok. The namesake of mud season is not just moistened dirt, but rather a hateful slurry composed of honest soil, and the salty grit that state plows use as they de-ice highways all winter to make them navigable. This brine-mud is actually designed to destroy shoes, working its way into cracks in leather and eating away at them. Solution? Cordovan. As previously mentioned, cordovan with it’s natural resiliency and chemical resistance (as an original working man’s material, it comes as no surprise) stands up to crappy conditions, to rise above them, and still take a good shine.

Once considered a material not fit for dress shoes, modern cordovan shoes are often considerably more expensive than their calf skin siblings. But goddamn, are they worth it.

Time to break out the Aldens for spring.

Because I seem to still be a little obsessed with the brand from the previous post, S.E.H Kelly, I took it upon myself to reach out and start a miniature dialog, to get a little more detail of the inner workings. I spoke with Paul at SEHK, who is simultaneously half of the organization, and a stand-up fellow.

The brand is from London — our workshop is on Boundary Street in Shoreditch — but Sara is originally from Tenby in Wales and I’m from Macclesfield in Cheshire.

S.E.H Kelly began in 2009 because Sara, who worked for a few tailoring houses on Savile Row in London, found herself with nothing to do. So, armed with a black book of contacts of the best mills and factories in the British Isles, she started her own business. I (me, Paul) was also twiddling my thumbs at the time, so came aboard. Together we design, make, and sell the garments, both at our workshop and in a few stores in Japan.

We’re quite self-motivated, and are both perfectionists of a sort, so what pushes us forward is improvement. Almost all of the garments in our workshop today evolved from the first three or four garments we started out with. We’re inspired a lot by function, and daily life; how to position pockets and design garments that on the face of it are quite simple, but have been designed with practical needs very much in mind.

A grey shirt of some description. Preferably one of ours and preferably in a brushed cotton or some other soft cloth.

Fashion trends tend to evolve in that way, don’t they? One trend will grow and then evolve over the course of several months or years, and then change into something else. Usually when the first trend is pushed to breaking point, and people are bored or starting to look a bit silly, that’s when a seemingly diametrically opposing trend flips into being. I don’t favour one trend or the other. Usually if a trend has a name you’re already on dodgy territory.

It’s always quite fascinating to see behind the creative curtain with heritage /artisan brands, and this is no exception. Now to return to drooling over SEHK’s Donegal tweed 3 button blazer.

There is a strange trend in men’s fashion/lifestyle blogging, and this trend is the adherence to the concept of “dressing like a grown up”. This has bothered me subtly since first noticing it. Why do menswear bloggers feel the need to quantify maturity to sartorial expression? Where is it written that you have to be a snappy dresser to be mature? Like many expressions, this one could be born out of some latent insecurity, perhaps some deeply seated fear of being considered a child based on how you dress.

Maturity and dressing are linked, sure. Like any outward expression, your appearance is a reflection to your collective intention to interact with the world. But since when are all outward expressions of subtly understood intentions so controlled and purposeful?

When you’re trying to prove the opposite.

It’s not that dressing well and focusing on dressing well makes you insecure, it’s that touting it as a cure to immaturity makes me wonder if it isn’t something more.

Menswear bloggers as a whole, you should consider that dressing well is an activity born in the pursuit of attractive aesthetics, and feeling good about the way you look for its own sake, not to forcibly imply maturity or to prove yourself a sophisticate beyond your peers. As I grow older, frailer, and inevitably cooler, I fully intend to dress like a crazy person. Tartan cape with silver tassels? Throw that bastard on to go to bingo. Broken down old cordovan brogues? Get some purple shoelaces, grab my giant Dame Edna sunglasses and go to the museum to mumble at paintings. The contrivance of cultural compliance gets weaker as we get older, not the other way around.

If you are confident, poised, and self contained, you will seem confident, poised, and self contained regardless of what you’re wearing. I like dressing well, but it has nothing to do with my age, it rather is entirely due to the fact that when I look at my clothing, it makes me happy when well made things are pleasingly combined. It just so happens that my version of pleasingly combined matches (some) other people’s.

I’ve decided to routinely show off some of the vintage items I pick up in my random travels through the maple state. I find some really amazing stuff in some very odd places. For example, observe this 40s-50′s Pytchley Hacking Jacket I found in the wild for 20 bones on the barrel-head (oddly, the rack it was on was balanced on the top of a barrel).

Vermont has a really strong heritage of gentlemen sheep farmers and horse people (no, not centaurs). I’ve been so close, so close I say, to
picking up some 20s Peal and Co, riding boots in an abandoned barn having a clean-out sale, only to have them snapped up by some New Yorkers on a mission to ruin my day.

Life in Vermont is full of interesting requirements. I find myself picking up all kinds of new skills because of where I live. Included in these are: the ability to drive in heavy snow, the capacity to eat maple syrup on any variety of food, and the ability to split wood. Up to a point, wood is easy to split. This ease is usually achieved by careful pre-seasoning and selection. When you find yourself in possession of a bunch of wood that is still in more or less unseasoned condition, and is in fact in what is referred to as rounds, a normal axe just won’t do it. Not knowing the abilities of my own upper body, the limitations of standard axes, or the tenacity of solid wood rounds that have been frozen solid for the last 4 months, I broke a maple axe handle nearly in half, and also nearly removed a foot. My wife, in an effort to save me from having false limbs, decided to get me the right tool.

This beauty is the Gransfors Bruks splitting maul.

I’ve always been a bit of a tool nut, and this one strikes a deep chord of axe-satisfaction. This is not some “Best Made” fashion axe with a racing stripe and a velvet lined display box. This is a monstrosity of splitting efficiency. Not only am I made happy by the pure functional purpose of this splitting maul, but its also nice to see an old company producing quality items well after its 100th birthday. Its actually quite interesting to hear what Gabriel Branby, CEO of Gransfors Bruks has to say on the re-invigoration of a company/brand with the reintroduction of practicality and old fashioned values.

Reminds me of what Harris Tweed went through in the last decade.