Bulletin Board 30

Dispatch from the Chicago menswear trade show, a killer car rug collab, and the latest with New & Lingwood

This summer has been an intense one—packing up and out of our house in Park Slope, Brooklyn that we have lived in (and stored all of our crap in) for almost 20 years! Among many things, it’s where Clara grew up, three dogs lived there (Walter, Charlie, and Prune), and my office HQ was there. It was military ops organizing the exit (and two garage sales and a barn sale!) and I am happy to say it is over. Many have asked what is next, and the short answer is, more time in the States at Wm Brown Farm where we are building out the barn into a new office /studio/ kitchen (more on that later!) and more time in the Eurozone- (Médoc and Rome.) We will be closer to Clara as she completes her last year at university in Scotland as well (a Ryanair flight away) which is a plus. Besides that, it is business as usual. Since this was the first summer in a while that we were camped out in NYC, I took advantage of hitting some OG favorites (Indochine, Mr Chow and Barney Greengrass to name a few) and visiting some new (the revamp of the Le Veau d’Or and our exit stay at The 5th Avenue Hotel.) Tonight I fly to France and head south to Bordeaux for the rest of the summer, followed by a reboot at Buchinger, my favorite fasting clinic in Germany, then off to Rome. We’ll be taking a break from posting here for few weeks— but stay tuned we’ll be back in early September!

WRIST CHECK

The Watch: A circa 1900 Eterna pocket watch, converted into a wristwatch with a custom strap.

The Owner: Robert Ettinger, CEO of the British luxury leather goods maker Ettinger. 

The Story: "The watch is an Eterna, and we believe it was made in the early 1900s for my grandfather as a pocket watch, which was how watches were carried mostly in those days. Pocket watches had a chain attached to them: the chain attached to the lapel buttonhole of a jacket, and the watch sat in either the top breast pocket or another pocket. When pocket watches went out of fashion in the early 1900s and wrist watches came into fashion, many of them were converted to have a strap to attach to one’s wrist, and this is exactly what happened to my grandfather’s watch. The casing is 18 carat gold and we designed a special strap to fit the size of the lugs with a backing part to make it more comfortable for the wearer. It also has a 60 second timer on the face."

WORK IN PROGRESS

I find there are very few opportunities to accessorize the interior of your car (besides your favorite air freshener) which is why I was excited to collaborate on a real OG style car rug. They look particularly good in a vintage car (think Landy or a Fiat) but can spruce up an old Camry as well. See them here: Wm Brown driver rugs. 

Made in India from hand-spun New Zealand wool, the rugs are handmade and come in two colors. There’s a rectangular rug for in front of the driver or passenger seat, which features the Wm Brown target logo on a brown or black background. And then there’s a round target-logo rug you might throw in the back between the bench seats of your Land Rover, or more likely, on the floor of your home office. 

This week also sees the debut of Matt’s third robe (or as the English would deem it, a “dressing gown”) made in collaboration with London’s  New & Lingwood. This time it’s a cream cotton seersucker with tan stripes and olive piping inspired by a vintage robe Matt once owned. Like its inspiration, the shawl collar is generously sized, but the addition of olive piping (the vintage was piped in white) makes it that much more interesting. 

Lightweight and unlined, it’s intended to be worn as a summer robe—you know, the sort of thing you might throw on before taking your coffee on the terrace/deck/garden/kitchen table. But for all of its utility on the lazing-around-home front, it’s actually been designed with travel in mind. To that end, the robe is cut slightly shorter, less cloth the better to pack it away in an included travel bag (made from the same seersucker.) It also features a secure, custom-designed pocket intended to hold a cigar or hotel keys. Naturally, Matt has road-tested it extensively. 

“People often don’t think of traveling with their own dressing gown, and we have found this to be the dressing gown to change people’s mind,” says Matthew Coles, who serves as the brand marketing manager for New & Lingwood, “It is a luxury that once you have experienced it, you won’t know how you lived without it.”

While perhaps biased, we’re inclined to agree. - Eric Twardzik

RAG TRADE

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the Chicago Collective, a menswear trade show housed in an absolutely immense Art Deco building in the city’s Downtown. Unlike Pitti, the Collective is strictly business—or almost, as a Bloody Mary bar greeted shopkeepers and brand reps that Monday morning, and the Italian pavilion started dispensing Aperol Spritzes at 3pm.

Still, pretty much everyone in attendance either owns a store or represents a brand, and I was among the very few outliers spending the day as a fly-on-the-wall. Bloody in hand, I strolled its (many, many, many…) aisles in search of coming attractions worth shouting out, some of which I’ve highlighted below. - E.T.

Oxxford Clothes, which manufactures just outside of Chicago, is among the last of the American suit factories—and perhaps the most impressive. While there I had a chance to try on its Archer jacket, a softly canvassed piece that has the airy feel of an unstructured jacket but with a far superior drape.

If critter shorts are a crime, lock me up. I have a soft spot for Castaway Clothing’s uber-preppy garb, and the only thing better than Martini-embroidered seersucker shorts is a Martini-embroidered, bubblegum pink sport jacket. 

Smathers & Branson was similarly bringing the preppy heat, with a few needlepoint accessories I really dug, including a cheekily official-looking Passport holder and a flask that brought the NES game Duck Hunt to mind.

The one booth I was told to visit by other attendees again and again was the pavilion for Sperry and Beams Plus. I was not steered wrong—the bright colors, sporty materials and nautical prints are the stuff of the mythical Cape Cod out of Jaws that I wish I could visit. 

J. Mueser—which is soon to enter the wholesale game—turned its little corner of the show into a simulacra of its Christopher Street atelier, right down to the artwork on the walls (and the presence of Jake and Matt).

Polo, meanwhile, erected what was essentially a miniature version of one of its stores, stuffed with product to come. I was sorely tempted to at least make an offer on an oversized version of its white flag sweater.

Doppia is one of those brands I’ve long admired from afar, but had rarely if ever seen up close. Their assortment, filled with slouchy, cable-knit polos or striped rugbys, felt like a highly original and very Italian take on prep.

And then there was Sid Mashburn, which perhaps more than any other exhibitor succeeded in turning its booth into the brand—right down to the moodboards and giveaway bags of roasted peanuts.  

At its booth, I had the pleasure of finally meeting former Wm Brown cover star Darryl Lesure, who was wearing a Ghost Blazer in this amazing sort of boucle tweed. Speaking of the Ghost Blazer, I also got to check out the yet-to-be-released Ghost Trouser, which means that full-on Ghost Suits will soon be a possibility.  

Original Madras Trading Co. had a set-up on the show’s less populated 4th floor (most of the vendors were spread across the 7th), but OMTC more than made up for it in color. It was particularly cool to see the company introduce its first patchwork offerings in the form of a chore coat and a bucket hat, as well as a short-sleeved sport shirt in its patented, heavyweight “Winter Madras” (which remains the favorite fabrication of its founder Prasan Shah).

On my way back to the hotel, exhausted from 9 hours on my feet and more than one Aperol spritz, I stopped and searched for “Italian beef” on Google Maps. I was directed to a corner location of Mr. Submarine, a local chain, just a few feet away. After my baffled response to questions like “dry or dip?” revealed my outsider status, the clerk took a great personal interest in my enjoyment of their Italian beef—ordered wet, with cheese and hot peppers—and neither he nor I were disappointed. It was the perfect cap to a 30-hour Chicago sojourn, and I didn’t even mind that I dripped au jus on the lapels of my sport jacket (which was fine after a Tide pen treatment on the spot, followed by a sprinkle of baking soda upon returning to Boston at 1:30am that night).