Fresh Accessories

An oldie but goodie, this editorial styled by Nicola Formichetti for the very first issue of Vogue Hommes Japan has always been an inspiration for the way I dress. People underestimate the natural beauty that fresh flowers add to an outfit, and they add a touch of lightness and humor to fall's dark threads. Best of all, flowers are cheap, and when snipped stealthily, they are free.

A yellow rose pinned on to a jacket lapel dresses up a look unlike any tie or pocket square can.

Perhaps it's worth reconsidering (smaller) flowers on men's hats?

I'm not one to post editorial after editorial on this blog, but when one still proves relevant more than three years after coming out, it sure is worth revisiting.

photographs via Nicola Formichetti

Everybody's a F*****g Blogger

Everybody's a blogger nowadays: everyone has their own outpost (or three) in the vast plains of the cybersphere; Internet life is taking over real life and blog musings are taking over in-person conversation.  My editor, Kwannam of I.T Post in Hong Kong had given me free rein on this piece, and I went on and explored the effect of this phenomenon on our fashion-world.  Here's an excerpt of the piece, read the rest of the article after the jump:

Yesterday at Café Select seemed to be a typical lunch date among friends in New York City: catching up on the latest movies seen and the best new free yoga classes in town, who’s dating whom and who isn’t anymore, a rundown of the sample sales happening within the next week---we, after all, all worked in and around the fashion industry in differing capacities.  But there was one more thing we seemed to have in common; interspersed between the chatter were bursts of enthusiasm in a language that would have sounded foreign merely eight years ago.  “I could only imagine how many hits you got from the UK after that feature.” “How come I’m not on your blogroll? We’ve been friends for ages!” “Nicola Formichetti just tweeted at me, sooo dreamy!”  It then dawned on me: everyone at the table was a blogger, or had at least some significant social media presence, be it on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook.

Read "Everybody's a Blogger" and more on I.T Post

French Pressed

The Dandy Project was featured in the latest issue of Elle France and made an appearance on French television.

The Dandy Project in the May 2011 issue of French Elle

The French Elle feature was in the one with perennially chic Catherine Deneuve and daughter Chiara Mastroianni on the cover. Dear Mother, look her up; Mme. Deneuve's style is teeming with inspiration for your countless dinner party outfits!

photo courtesy of Pelayo Diaz

I had my friend Antoine translate the article for me via Facebook, and it says something like "male fashion bloggers are the new wave of fashion bloggers", and that The Dandy Project, alongside Kate Loves Me and Bryanboy.com were great examples of this.

The Dandy Project was also briefly the topic of conversation on a show called La Chronique Tendances de Daphné Bürki on French TV channel Canal Plus. I spent hours last night dissecting HTML, trying to embed the video on this site, but to no avail. I took some screenshots of the show, and you can just click here to view the page with the video.

French television fashion authority Daphné Bürki is quite the comic

and is, of course, very chicly put together. Look at that mountain-print leather-trimmed (?) armor-like over-blouse!

my fist's five seconds of fame

See the full video on Daphné Bürki's blog.

Today is an awesome day to be a blogger; I'm very, very grateful for the recognition received. With this, I'm nudging those who wish to start a blog, and those with blogs but are perhaps too busy or too lazy (or too crazy) to update them---put honest and original content out on the blogosphere, and they'd be nuts not to let your voice be heard.

A million thank you's to the Elle France team and to Daphné Bürki and the Canal Plus team for the mentions, and special thanks to Mikee and Wax for taking the photographs featured.

I.T Post: Promise for Print?

I was privileged to be commissioned by the talented Kwannam Chu to write an article for the Autumn/Winter 2010 issue of I.T Post. My copy arrived in the mail today and I was floored with awe at the aesthetic richness that literally popped out of the pages.

the front and back covers, recursively printed with images of a model forming what looks like vertebrae

I.T Post isn't so much a magazine as it is an art project by high-end Hong Kong retailer I.T. Under the creative direction of Kwannam Chu (also of the popular blog on menswear and male models, We Could Grow Up Together), it takes the traditional fashion-spread editorials to a new level with progressive styling, experimental art direction, and even three-dimensional elements. The magazine feels like a piece of art to behold; I think today's leading fashion publications could take a cue from I.T Post to give their readers a reason to purchase the hard copy.

A peek at the 3-D elements:

Can an online magazine pop up into a psychedelic clear dome filled with miniature standees of select looks from the latest Gareth Pugh collection and sit nicely on your coffee table? I don't think so.

in one of the editorials: a layered pop-up frame that appears to be decoupaged cut-outs lightly floating above each other

close-up of the frame. Note the spiders, the gecko, and the other creatures.

Select pages from the editorials:

a face mask of nuts and washers that would go perfectly with my nuts-and-washers shirt, Margiela money clip that I would totally use if I didn't carry my life in my wallet

The piece I wrote:

By now you'd have noticed my penchant of rhyming and alliterative titles.

I would always be the first to rally for the merits of having anything online, but it's great work like this that remind you of the delight of having such a thing of beauty to flip with your own hands and keep neatly on a stack in the middle of your living room that spell some faint promise for print media.

I just couldn't be more grateful to have been a part of it.

I.T Post is available at I.T boutiques in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.