Admiral, here's to you!

Book review: The New English Dandy

Dear readers,

this is one of my Christmas presents: The New English Dandy by Alice Cicolini.

As you know that I'm a collector of books about fashion, this one was on my list for quite a long time, even though the cover's not very inviting (of which more later).

The main problem with most coffee table books is that you won't find any pictures of the content on the Internet. Neither on Amazon nor somewhere else.
And that's why I'd like to share my insights about this book with you.

TNED is pretty big of size. Same as "Dressing The Man". If you take a closer look at its cover, you might find it a little aggressive, as it shows Mr. Nordmann in a very arrogant pose I don't like . But, as you know, I'd never judge a book by its cover.

Alice Cicolini asks the question, what it is, that makes the dandy in the 21st century and shows us the beginning of man's fashion referring to well known dandies like Beau Brummel and Oscar Wilde, who both had a more or less big say in man's clothes.
You'll find a lot of interviews with designers, tailors, etc. and a lot of pictures of english men, trying to look as best as they can.

"The New English Dandy" is fairly inspiring to me, with a few exceptions.

The chapters:

-The Gentleman
-Neo-Modernist
-East End Flâneur
-Celebrity Tailor
-Terrace Casual
-New Briton

The last pages of the books feature:

-Notes
-Bibliography
-Tailor's Glossary
-Patterns For Knitted Tie And Plus-Fours
-Guidelines For Bespoke
-Directory
-Picture Credits

261 illustrations, 100 in colour.

Go and buy it!

One bad thing about this book: The quality of the binding is more than questionable.

Alice Cicolini, The New English Dandy

Feel like a sailor: Time for a Pea Coat!

Dear readers,

I never really considered to buy a pea coat. Never. Ok, I liked the shape, its historical background and stuff, but that was all.

Than yesterday, like I don't know what, the desire for possessing one suddenly manifested in my mind.

So I did check out the nextdoor NATO shop (it's really called like this) for the range of items to fulfil my wish.

They had black ones, deep blue ones with golden buttons and than, at the far end of the shelf, deep blue ones with blue buttons. So as I ain't no officer, I went for the blue/blue one.

The funny thing about the sizes I found out yesterday, so I tried on size S first (I wear a UK 40) and it was perfect. Ok, the shoulders are slightly too wide, but that's alright for a jacket that did cost me only 60 Euros.

Material: Heavy wool, very thick. You won't need an extra jacket underneath it.

I'll wear it tomorrow and tell you how it feels like.

Cheers
Mike

Latest sale: Lumberjackin' across the universe.

Dear readers,

today at H+M, while trying on an ill-fitting grey windowpane suit, I ran into our wellknown fella Spoozy. He reminded me of the current sale that was going on. So I rushed back to the shelfs and snatched this pretty cool Lumberjack vest (just like Spoozy did) for only 15 Euros, what is quite a bargain.

Funny coincidence, as I just learned today once more in Germany's most important fashion trade magazine "Textilwirtschaft" that Lumberjack fashion will be THE big thing in Autumn 2011 (like it was in 2010, 2009 and so on...).
Well, I'm less a man of fashion, more a man of style, but this vest is so cool I couldn't resist.

And what about this cap?

Right, I got the beard already. So next things I need is an axe and yellow braces.
And hands that are bigger then my head.